We can support you to make partner in your firm

Becoming a partner in a professional services firm can be a challenging business! But picture this: it’s a year from now but you haven’t moved your career forward.


You had good intentions but somehow, twelve months has slipped by whilst you waited for the right moment.
Perhaps you were waiting for the partners in your firm to give you clearer guidance, or for your workload to calm down?


Meanwhile, your colleague, the one who’s arguably less technically brilliant than you, has just been told they’re on the partnership track or are being promoted. Why? Because whilst you were waiting for permission, they just started.
The uncomfortable truth: you’re waiting for permission that’s never going to come. 

If you want structured support to create your career plan and actually implement it, keep reading!

Scroll down this page and you will:
  1. Discover all the resources that will to help you make partner with our Progress to Partner Academy
  2. Take our Partnership readiness Assessment to see how ready you are to make partner
  3. Create personal and business plans for your career development.

Don’t wait another year to get started, the time to take is action is right now! My Progress to Partner Academy is your very own partner development membership. You will be able to build your partner-ready skills and get noticed for partner-track with 14 courses and over 100 videos, guides & recordings.

Work steadily through the courses and become the Hot Topic in your firm. Each course will give you more confidence and the skills you need to be seen as the next “one to watch” in your firm.

More help to progress your career in your law, accountancy or consulting firm? 

  • Sign up to my weekly email tips packed full of advice and knowledge on how to progress your career in your professional service firm  – click here!

Quick links to learn more on how to develop your career in law, accountancy, consultancy, or professional services in general.

Consultancy Firm Careers

Law Firm Careers

Accountancy Firm Careers

Big 4 Firm Careers

Partner – BLM LLP

“Thank you very much indeed for your significant help and support – as a result of your guidance, I felt incredibly confident in submitting my business plan and then giving my presentation and interview. In the days after the presentation and interview, I had some very positive feedback from the partners who interviewed me, saying that my performance was “outstanding” and that my presentation was “very slick and professional” – I doubt it would have been without your advice and guidance. I gained so much confidence from working with you, and I am extremely grateful.”

Testimonial of How to Commit to your Career course

Is Partnership For You?

Progressing your career in professional services is hard. You need to be good at your day job, hit your billable targets, and then learn to manage others. The,n if that wasn’t enough, if you are going to make partner you need to create a business within a business.

That means making the time for business development and gathering together a team of people that you trust. This change doesn’t happen overnight. It’s about those moments. The moments when you need to conquer your fears, challenge the imposter syndrome, take a step forward, and not fall back into old habits. We can help you with those moments.

Building your skills and reputation can take a lifetime, but taking responsibility for your career can start as soon as you like. Are you committed to becoming a partner? Is there anything stopping you?

Will you manage the workload and still have time for family and friends?

  • Are you in control of your time? Particularly if you find yourself on back-to-back calls and meetings most days?
  • Do you choose when you finish for the day? Or do the demands of your partner or clients take precedence?
  • Are you able to do a little bit of work on your career each week? Or are you still waiting for the next quiet time?
  • Do you have powerful advocates in the partnership who are helping your career move forward?
  • Are you systematically delegating work down? So you can focus on the more important stuff?

Have you considered your career routes and paths?

  • Do you feel like you belong and can be yourself at work? Are you in the right firm for you?
  • Would changing firms help you speed up your career?
  • Would a stint in Industry give you a competitive career advantage?
  • How to ask for, and get, a pay rise and promotion?
  • Should you aim to have a Big 4, Magic Circle or prestigious firm on your CV or resume?
  • Should you start your own firm or still go for partnership?

The 12 Skills You Need to Develop to make Partner:

Progress to Partner Academy has hubs for each of the 12 key indicators from my Partnership Readiness Assessment that show you are ready to make partner

14 courses, plus over 150 videos, plans, guides and masterclasses on tap!

Look below to see what courses videos and guides are in Progress to Partner to help with each of the 12 Key Indicators that show you’re ready to make partner – all of this for just £290 (+VAT)!

Click here to find out how Progress to Partner can help you to build your partner-ready skills.

Mindset

Acquire the mindset to transition from employee to business owner

  • Courses:
  • How to be on your A Game every Day
  • How to Truly Commit to Moving your Career Forward
  • Videos packed with advice including:
  • How to create the space, time & energy to make partner
  • 10 critical lessons to learn if you want to  make partner
  • How to start thinking commercially
  • 5 mistakes to avoid to get promoted ahead of your peers

Direction

Do you know what really makes you tick and what you stand for?

  • Courses:
  • How to Create a Business Plan to Accelerate Your Career Progression
  • Videos packed with advice including:
  • How to be More Resilient
  • How to transition from peer to manager
  • How to Get Unstuck if you are at a Career Crossroads
  • How to Decide whether to Change Firms to Get Promoted

Career Plan

Do you have a career plan guiding you to do the right things at the right time?

  • Courses:
  • How to put together a Development Plan to achieve your Career Goals
  • Videos packed with advice including:
  • Why goals don’t often work to progress your career
  • How to Commit to what really matters
  • How to create your career plan AND the time to work on it 
  • How to put together a career development plan that will really accelerate your career

Support Team

Do you have the right support team in place to help you go all the way?

  • Videos packed with advice including:
  • How a Mentor can Accelerate Your Career
  • How to Say No
    (to Partners, Clients and Friends)
  • A Deep Dive into Giving Feedback

Delegation

Do you have the right people to delegate to so you can free yourself up to focus your career, business development and your business case?

  • Videos packed with advice including:
  • How to get a delegation mindset
  • How to Delegate Effectively so you Have Time to Work on Your Career
  • Courageous Conversations – How to become an Expert at Difficult Conversations
  • Courses:
  • How to Manage a Hybrid Team
  • How to Excel as a Line Manager
  • How to Delegate like a Pro
  • How to set performance objectives for your direct reports
  • What would you score for Delegation? Click to take the Partnership Readiness Assessment here.

Go-to Expert

Are you widely known and seen as an expert in what you do?

  • Courses:
  • How to Choose your Niche
  • How to become known as the Go-To Expert
  • Videos packed with advice including:
  • How to find and monetise your niche
  • How to Generate a Lead and get Prospects over the Line
  • How to Win Work in 30 Minutes
    (without leaving the house)
  • Why you should stick to your niche
  • How to win work as a litigator or arbitrator
  • How to win more bids and tenders
  • How to choose your your niche
  • What would you score for Go-to Expert? Click to take the Partnership Readiness Assessment here.

Referral Network

Build referral networks to supply you with enough of the right type of work

  • Courses:
  • How to go from Coffees to Instructions
  • How to start winning work (when you don’t know where to start)
  • Videos packed with advice including:
  • How to Structure your Business Development Activity

Business Development Habit

Do you routinely do a bit of business development each day? 

  • Courses:
  • How to make time for Business Development
  • How to create your Business Development Plan
  • Getting Confident on LinkedIN
  • When you’re a Good Technician but need a Client Portfolio
  • Videos packed with advice including:
  • Getting serious about Business Development
  • Making Time for Business Development
  • Winning Work from LinkedIN
  • How to always make time for Business Development
  • What would you score for Business Development Habit? Click to take the Partnership Readiness Assessment here.

Personal Case

Do you match up against the criteria required for partners in your firm?

  • Videos packed with advice including:
  • How to be seen as sharp, commercial and future partner material
  • How to Deal with Professional Jealousy Directed Against You
  • How to Change your Firm’s Perception of you when you are seen just as a Safe Pair of Hands
  • What Can I do if I Seem to be Irreplaceable and my Career Progression has Halted?

Member of the Club

Do your partners trust you to deliver and have you as your business partner?

  • Exercises & guides including:
  • Guide to being Politically Savvy
  • How to Structure your Business Development Activity
  • Create a Networking Plan to Raise your Profile
  • Start your Internal PR Campaign

Business Case for Partner

Are you implementing a robust business plan to help you grow the profits of your firm?

  • Course How to build a cast-iron business case for partner
  • Videos packed with advice including:
  • Identifying the Right Business Case for You and Your Partners
  • How to Successfully
    Pitch your Business Case
  • Putting Pen to Paper to start your business case
  • What needs to go in your Business Case if you are inheriting a partner’s client portfolio
  • PLUS Downloads:
    Guide to creating a cast-iron business case
  • Deck to Pitch your Business Case for Partner
  • What would you score for Business Case? Click to take the Partnership Readiness Assessment here.

Partner Admissions

Have you prepared for each element of the process? Can you succinctly pitch your business case?

  • Videos packed with advice including:
  • 9 Differences of a Lateral Hire
    Partner Business Case
  • The Importance of
    Your Business Case Narrative
  • Acing the Partner Admissions Process
  • 6 ways to be seen as a Member of the Club
  • What needs to go in your Business Case if you are inheriting a partner’s client portfolio
  • PLUS Downloads:
      Partner Panel Interview Timeline
  • How to Elegantly Handle Challenging Questions or Open Conflict
  • Guide to undertaking your own Due Diligence
  • What would you score for Partner Admissions? Click to take the Partnership Readiness Assessment here.

Why Choose Us as Your Career Partner?

Grab our videos and courses at the right moment

Becoming a partner is a mighty undertaking, don’t try to do it all at once. Tackle problems in your role as they come up, with our help. Timely advice, broken into management chunks and selectable by topic.

Use our game plans

Know you want to get somewhere, but are overwhelmed with where to start and what to do? We’ve done that thinking with our game plans. Use our game plans to find out how to develop your skills or move your career forward.

Assess your Business Development Plans

Business development is a core part of becoming a partner. Having the skills you want to develop in your eye line will lead to many micro-decisions and progress.

Develop at your own pace

Whether you are still preparing, actively working towards partnership or are getting ready for the presentation, we offer a level of service.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Partnership requires a variety of personal and technical skills. Play to your strengths and cover your weaknesses, track progress with our assessments.

Coach Led Programs

Our team is vastly experienced and can often unlock progress to partner with a switch of mindset. The insights and aha moments are what we look for.

Entry Level Program

Preparing early for Partner is by far the easiest way to get there in the end. In small and subtle ways at first, your skills and reputation inside the business emerges. Give yourself time.

Premium Monthly

This is often for the sprint, cramming and final preparation. If you only need to work on a specific area for a short period then this is the level of membership that lets you do that.

Premium Annual

If you have decided on the path to partnership and are actively taking steps, this program gets you access to everything, and us. Work through the areas of your assessment with us to guide you.

Partner – BLM LLP

“Thank you very much indeed for your significant help and support – as a result of your guidance, I felt incredibly confident in submitting my business plan and then giving my presentation and interview. In the days after the presentation and interview, I had some very positive feedback from the partners who interviewed me, saying that my performance was “outstanding” and that my presentation was “very slick and professional” – I doubt it would have been without your advice and guidance. I gained so much confidence from working with you, and I am extremely grateful.”

Partner – BLM LLP

“Thank you very much indeed for your significant help and support – as a result of your guidance, I felt incredibly confident in submitting my business plan and then giving my presentation and interview. In the days after the presentation and interview, I had some very positive feedback from the partners who interviewed me, saying that my performance was “outstanding” and that my presentation was “very slick and professional” – I doubt it would have been without your advice and guidance. I gained so much confidence from working with you, and I am extremely grateful.”

Partner Readiness Assessment

The Partnership Readiness Assessment is an ideal tool to help future partners like you to identify exactly where to focus your personal development plans.

It will also complement and add real value to your firm’s emerging leaders/potential partner programme.

Unlike many psychometric tools commonly used (and rightly so) in development programmes, this tool can be used multiple times without incurring additional cost. This means you can use this tool to not only help your potential partner candidates understand the areas they need to work on but also to measure their progress and improvement during and after your programme.

How can we help you?

Please complete the form below to provide us with your information, and we will contact you as soon as possible to offer our assistance.

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Frequently Asked Questions – Joining our Progress to Partner

Is there a minimum membership length?

When you join, you have access for 12 months. That’s right, a whole year to work through all the courses and videos listed above. Imagine how you will grow in skills and confidence when you spend time each week in Progress to Partner Academy.

We will send a reminder email to you before your membership expires in case you want to stay for another year!

Do you guarantee I will get a promotion if I join?

We can’t guarantee that! The Progress to Partner Academy will give you the knowledge and skills you need to get noticed but you do need to put the work in to build your skills; reading our guides, watching our videos and working through the self-study courses. This isn’t a quick fix! 

I would like to sign up more than one person in my firm for membership – can you offer a discount?

Let us know if you would like to sign up more than 5 people in your firm and we will be able to offer you a discount. Email us at hello@howtomakepartner.com

Will I be able to ask questions if I get stuck?

Of course! I send a weekly email to Progress to Partner members and open up to “Office Hours” when you can email directly for help!

I am already respected at my firm. Why would I need to join Progress to Partner

Even if you are already respected at your firm, it is still very easy to get stuck in your career and be relegated to “a safe-pair of hands”.  If you think it’s your firm’s responsibility to develop you, then you’re wrong.

If you’re relying on your firm for your own development, you’re putting yourself at risk by giving the firm control of whether you progress or not.

I know many people who have progressed their career on their own, why do I need to join?

Are you 100% sure they didn’t receive external help? You may have seen people that you felt were not as technically strong as you progressing their career.  This is because they learned what skills they needed to show and they have quite simply taken control of their own development and their own career progression.

Wouldn’t it be amazing to do it with the support of experts that have been training and supporting people you like you to progress in their careers for over 15 years?

Heather Townsend’s Books

Paperback & Kindle

The Financial Times Guide to Business Networking

Know More >>

Paperback & Kindle

How to Make Partner and Still Have a Life

Know More >>

Paperback & Kindle

Poised for
Partnership

Know More >>

Paperback & Kindle

The Go-To
Expert

Know More >>

heather townsend smiling with her books on the table in front of her

Heather Townsend

Heather Townsend is the leading global expert in what it takes to move from senior fee earner to partner – and when you get there, stay there. She regularly runs programmes to help fee earners take the step up to partner, and establish themselves as a new partner, for mid-tier law, accountancy and consultancy firms. It just so happens that she is rather good (and not really that modest either!) in helping individuals successfully market and sell themselves. Just the skills you need when you are aiming to grow your client portfolio AND make it to partner.

In fact, her clients have added over £1 million in fees to their client portfolio in the last year. Heather often works with private clients who want to drive their own career (regardless of the development options offered by their firm) via her Progress To Partner membership site. The membership site helps lawyers, accountants and consultants to:

  • Find the time to work ON their career development and business development
  • Grow their client portfolio
  • Develop a strong personal case so that they are seen as the next partner
  • Get onto partner track rather than been seen as only a “safe pair of hands”
  • Build, write and pitch their business case
  • Prepare for the partnership panel interviews

Heather Townsend is the author of 6 books including ‘How to make partner and still have a life‘ (co-authored with Jo Larbie), ‘Poised for partnership‘, ‘The Financial Times guide to business networking‘ and ‘The Go-To Expert‘. Her books have sold over 20,000 copies globally and been translated into over 6 different languages and attracted over 200 five star reviews on Amazon.Her coaching style has been described as challenging, friendly but very supportive. 5 Ways to work with Heather