Bissett Bullet: Make It a ‘No Brainer’
Today’s Bissett Bullet: “The best way to talk about price is in terms of what they’re paying already.”
By Martin Bissett
Today's Features
Twelve Ways Your Business Card Can Hurt You
Does your card tell your prospect what to do next?
By Sandi Leyva
The Complete Guide to Marketing for Tax & Accounting Firms
The lowly business card: We don’t give it a second thought before we get the thing printed up, and we just do what everyone else does.
MORE: How to Use ChatGPT to Create Images | How to Leverage ChatGPT During This Crazy Tax Season | Eight Steps to Getting Started with AI: A Guide for Tax Professionals | You Don’t Have a Time Problem | Three Money Leaks and How to Plug Them | Eleven Ways to Serve Clients Even Better | Make Your Prospect Kit Stand Out | Six Ways to Beat the Competition | Grow Your Revenue with Three Marketing Strategies
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Many people, new in business, get the business cards printed before they’re really ready to, which causes many of the mistakes I list below. Experienced or new, you’re missing huge opportunities to let your business card take some of the work off your shoulders. We may take it for granted, but I feel that your business card is one of your most important pieces of marketing collateral – and the most underutilized.
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CPA Profession Facing More Battles Across the Country
Disputes revolve around required hours, definitions and “substantial equivalency.”
By Steven Sacks
The NEW Fundamentals: Thriving in Disruption
Of all the states whose legislature has run amok this past year, the Florida legislature passed House Bill 813 – Certified Public Accountants – by both the Florida House and Senate. This bill creates a new “retired status” license category for CPAs. The legislation will now be sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis for consideration for being signed into law.
MORE: 150 Hours Revisted: The Profession Needs a Makeover | How Do You Value Your Most Important Asset? | Which is Better: A Year of Education or A Year of Experience? | Sell Service, Not Hours | Private Equity vs. the CPA Firm Partnership | CAS or CAAS? Getting Clarity | Fine-Tuning the Subscription Fee Model | When Cyber-Crime Hits Close to Home | How to Build a Winning Proposal | Six Ways to Fix Your Firm Agreement
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According to the Florida Institute of CPAs CEO, the thinking behind this is to “… uphold retired CPAs’ profound sense of pride and accomplishment and preserve their professional identity.” However, they cannot reflect to the public that they have an active license because many believe the public thinks that if you have “CPA” after your name, you have an active license. If an individual wants to return to public practice, they can complete 80 hours of CPE every two years as part of renewing their license.
Tax Refund Numbers Down, Amounts Up
Tax pros handled 54% of e-filings.
By Beth Bellor
CPA Trendlines Research
More than 100,000 individual income tax returns have flowed in and out of the Internal Revenue Service, and for the most part, we’re slightly ahead of the 2023 season.
MORE: Tax Pros Own 53% of E-filings | Tax Stats Still Playing Catchup | Tax Pros Take the Edge in E-Filings | Tax Pros Gain Ground, and DIYers Maintain Lead | Tax Pros Handle 46.4% of E-filing | Tax Refunds, Tax Pro Market Share Trending Up | Refunds Up as Tax Pros Tackle 41.5% of E-filings | Tax Pros Handle 37.7% of E-filings | Tax Pros File 33% of Early Returns
With 10 days before deadline – as of April 5, the latest data available – the IRS received 101.9 million returns, up 0.5 percent from the same period the previous tax season. It processed 100.1 million returns, down 0.3 percent.
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New Phase-Change Concrete Melts Snow and Ice Without Salt or Shovels
New self-heating concrete mixes could eliminate the need for snowplows, salt trucks and shovels.
By Rick Richardson
Technology This Week
Researchers have devised a self-heating substance that can melt snow and ice for up to 10 hours without the need for shovels or salt by incorporating a phase-change compound into concrete. The new substance may lessen the requirement for salting and plowing while helping maintain road surface integrity.
MORE: AI Generates Revolutionary New Battery Design | ChatGPT Is Getting Humanlike Memory | One State Is Now America’s Clean Energy Paradise | Did Ancient Romans Find a Solution for Climate Change? | Telehealth Advances with AI-Powered Clinics | FCC Approves Superfast Wi-Fi Tethering | Major Websites Blocking Content from AI Crawlers | Printer Ink: Not Just Expensive, but a Blatant Scam? | Generative AI Coming to Microsoft 365 | Electronic Skin That Can Sense Touch Will Transform Robotics
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) reports that over 70 percent of roadways are in areas with snowfall. Accumulation of snow and ice decreases vehicle mobility and road friction, slowing down traffic and raising the possibility of collisions.
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Hold Staff Accountable If You Want Them to Listen to You
Concrete steps for effective staff management.
By Ed Mendlowitz
202 Questions and Answers: Managing an Accounting Practice
Question: My staff doesn’t listen to me. To be able to manage and control my business, I need them to prepare a monthly schedule of what they plan on doing that month. I further need to know each morning if they did what they were supposed to do the previous day, and whether there was anything not done, or anything extra that wasn’t planned on.
MORE: When Selling a Firm to Staffers Is Tricky | Want to Merge? Six Steps to Take | How to Start Providing Family Office Services | Every Accounting Firm Needs Quality Control | No One Listens to You? Change How You Talk | 47 Types of Business Valuation to Provide | Thirteen Things to Consider Before You Sell Your Practice
My problem is that they don’t give me the schedule and then don’t call or email me to tell me what they did. I really need to know this stuff and can’t figure out how to get them to do it. What can you suggest?
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Clients Buy Solutions, Not Features
Four elements to consider in every selling situation.
By August J. Aquila
Price It Right: How to Value Accounting Services
Selling professional services is not as difficult as some accountants and consultants believe. I like to define sales as solving a client’s problem. If you think in these terms, you’ll realize that this is what we do every day.
Sales is the lifeblood of every business out there. If we did not sell our services and products, we would not have a firm or business. So, don’t think of sales as something unprofessional. It’s an integral part of growing your practice.
MORE: Six Ways to Expand Your Client Services Checklist | Client Acquisition Never Stops | ‘Sales’ Is Not a Four-Letter Word | Maybe What You Need Is a Marketing Audit | Three Types of Marketing Message, and Which Is Best | Why You Need Progress Billing | Five Tips for Cross-Selling and Upselling | Five Keys to Successful Marketing | Twelve Fundamentals of Planning | One Question to Guide Your Growth Plans
My goal is to make you feel more comfortable with the sales process. Here goes! Remember, you are selling solutions to problems – or, as I like to say, selling the sizzle and not the bacon. It’s not the service or product that you are selling, it’s the benefits to the clients. Clients and prospects aren’t buying the features of the system as much as what those features can do for them.
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How to Write Media Releases That Capture an Editor’s Attention
Forget the five W’s and other clichés.
By Bruce Marcus
Professional Services Marketing 3.0
EDITOR’S NOTE: CPA Trendlines was privileged to have a long relationship with Bruce W. Marcus, who was ahead of his time in his thinking and practice in marketing for accounting. We are publishing some of the late expert’s evergreen work, which retains wisdom for the present.
A recent business communication book says that in writing press releases, the lead paragraph should include the five W’s – who, why, what, when and where.
A textbook on journalism written in the 1920s says the same thing – the five W’s.
MORE: Nine Ways to Choose Your PR Person | When Bad News Happens to Good Firms | Creating the Perfect Ad | How Hard Do You Work to Keep Your Clients? | When Clients Think They Know Marketing | How to Put Target Marketing into Context | Everyone in Your Firm Is Marketing | Accountants vs. Lawyers: Who Wins the Marketing Battle? | Professional Services Marketing Requires Flexibility | How to Set Marketing Objectives
Nothing has changed in more than 70 years? Don’t believe it. Just read any good newspaper in the U.S., Canada or Great Britain. And what newspapers do is what press releases must do. Why?
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