Jack of All Trades

As spring approaches, I have started planning my home remodeling projects. First, I made a list of the improvements I wanted made, including a general timeline and budget for each project. Next, through discussions with friends and family as well as online searches, I compiled a list of potential contractors. The list included general contractors (one-man shops that do it all); experts that specialize in specific areas such as windows, flooring, or gutters; and companies that do it all but are not a one-man shop because they have specialists in each area.

I interviewed a few one-man shops, and although they were very nice people, the adage “Jack of all trades, master of none” kept popping into my head. Given my audit background (and the obsessive attention to detail that goes along with it), this simply wouldn’t do…I wanted experts in their fields. I looked at my list of home improvements and started contacting individuals that specialized in these fields. This sounded great! Now I would have experts in each field; however, I quickly realized the downside. Juggling multiple contracts with multiple contractors would be a scheduling nightmare.

I ended up interviewing a couple of organizations that offered solutions to all of my home improvement needs. Moreover, I learned that they had experts in each area. This peaked my interest because not only would I get experts in each field, I would have to go to only one place to get my questions answered, and scheduling would be easier because they worked together.

This last approach made me think of Wipfli. At first glance, Wipfli looks like it may be a Jack of all trades, because if you can think it up, we likely do it.  However, each group of individuals is highly specialized in what they do. Therefore, you get the Jack of all trades (the firm), but you also get the individual specialization within each service line.

As you look over your company’s list of needed improvements, whether it be secondary market quality control, regulatory compliance, tax, information technology, human resources, profitability, etc., know that Wipfli’s professional team is here to help you succeed! As you can likely guess, I chose the contractor that both could do it all and had experts in each area.