Blogs: The Next Step in CPA Marketing?

An emerging number of professionals are adding blogs to their capital spending plans.

WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL WITH BLOGGING? Are you thinking about it? Let us know what you’re doing, what you think, what questions you may have, by contacting us here.

by Rick Telberg
At Large
[ADD A COMMENT HERE]

With tax season entering its final, frantic stretch, some accountants may already be assembling a mental shopping list.

From our vantage point, it appears that professionals will most likely be spending their technology budgets on mobile devices this year, while also improving their core business software applications.

And, remarkably, they’re slowly starting to spend money to blog and otherwise use the Internet to reach clients and prospects. Read more

Posted on March 31, 2006
Filed Under BSG BUSINESS BUILDER | 4 Comments

You Are What You Charge: Revisited

A response to You Are What You Charge, which reported on the value-billing strategies advocated by Ron Baker, author of “Pricing on Purpose.”

by Ed Mendlowitz, CPA
WithumSmith+Brown
CPAs and consultants
New Brunswick, NJ
emendlowitz@withum.com
[Comments?]

I have read most of Ron Baker?s books and recommend them to colleagues, have heard him speak, and spent many hours with my partners discussing his methods and rationale for them.

Additionally, I have been using the value pricing model as described by Ron Baker in some form at least since the mid 1970s (before I ever heard of Ron Baker).

At one point, in my practice history we had most (over 80%) of our clients on fixed and value determined fees. For many years we have found that the fixed fees were more comfortable for us, and our clients.

However, experience and practice have had us reevaluate this method and we have found that in most situations time based fees and billings are better reflective of the appropriate charges. We have also found that a billing method is not an all or nothing approach ? in some cases different and novel methods are more useful and better reflective of the fees we should charge and what we should earn. Read more

Posted on March 28, 2006
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | 1 Comment

TAX SEASON SURVIVAL: Prep for Mental Marathon

‘90% of tax season preparation is mental.’

By Dave Kreycik
In response to “Tax Season’s Toughest Lessons“

[ADD A COMMENT: How do YOU get through tax season?]

I attribute my success during tax season to my personal beliefs and discipline.

Attitude is critical. Wayne Dyer said “Like what you do, and do what you like. If you can’t change what you do, then change your attitude”. I decided I like what I do a few years back after some miserable tax seasons.

I tell my clients this when the opportunity arises, it helps remind me. It is amazing how much better each day goes when you have a positive attitude.

I condition myself for the long hours by exercising for a couple of months before tax season so my body is in shape. I view tax season as a marathon and I prepare accordingly.

I stay on a strict schedule of work hours and do not deviate from my routine, even on weekends. Working the same hours each day keeps me in a routine, and a routine is critical for keeping my mind sharp.

I stay healthy. I take vitamins and minerals, eat healthy, and sleep eight hours each night. I try to make time for a weekly massage, it is amazing how much that helps.

I do this because I choose to practice in a rural area where help is hard to come by. Therefore, I condition myself physically and mentally to work 75 back-to-back 13 hour days. I admit there is always a day or two I feel sorry for myself, but they pass quickly. I walk out on the last day feeling much the same as I did on day one.

To summarize the one thing to do right is to prepare mentally. 90% of tax season preparation is mental. If you are mentally prepared you can handle anything that comes your way. Read more

Posted on March 27, 2006
Filed Under BSG BUSINESS BUILDER | Leave a Comment

Tax Season’s Toughest Lessons

Practitioners learn the hard way how to operate more efficiently. What will YOU do differently next year?

by Rick Telberg
At Large

Tax practitioners running behind schedule this tax season probably now realize things, that if done a little differently, could have kept them on pace. Here’s a sampling of some effort and time-saving ideas learned the hard way that CPAs are employing this season. Read more

Posted on March 27, 2006
Filed Under BSG BUSINESS BUILDER | Leave a Comment

Free Speech in Marketing: BSG’s Marcus Quoted

‘Free speech’ argument changed rules for advertising 30 years ago

By NOREEN O’DONNELL
See original at THE JOURNAL NEWS

Looking for a lawyer to get you bundles of cash? You might want to hire the firm that shows stacks of $100s across its ad.

“Millions of dollars recovered for accident victims,” it reads.

Or the one with photographs of the back of an ambulance, wrecked cars and a hospital bed.

“We get the compensation you deserve,” trumpets this one, in the Verizon yellow pages for Westchester and Putnam counties.

Thirty years ago, advertising like this would have been scandalous, a professional breach of good taste, even ethics. Today, it’s commonplace. Lawyers, accountants, doctors and hospitals all market themselves — some decorously, some with exclamation points.

“Advertising works for any field,” said Philip L. Franckel, a lawyer in Roslyn, Long Island, who now licenses a toll-free telephone number, 1-800-HURT-911, to other lawyers. “I don’t care what you’re selling, advertising always works.”

Some marketing consultants urge caution. Bruce W. Marcus, who tailors his advice to lawyers and accountants, argues that a hard sell works poorly for them.

“Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, ‘Gee, what a great day, a wonderful day to get an audit.’ ‘Gee, what I really need to do is sue somebody today.’ Doesn’t happen that way,” said Marcus, a senior adviser to the Bay Street Group in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. Read more

Posted on March 26, 2006
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | Leave a Comment

Sen. Sarbanes Defends SOX Law

In a speach to the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), where he was awarded the Lifetime Consumer Hero Award, Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.) defends the Sarbanes-Oxley law he co-authored and lashes out at critics. It’s interesting reading, whether you agree with him or not.
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Posted on March 24, 2006
Filed Under BSG FINANCE PROFESSIONAL | Leave a Comment

You Don’t Have to Be Crazy to Work Here …

… But it may help to be ‘hypomanic.’ Are you? Do you work with one?
Join the survey, get the answers.

by Rick Telberg
On Careers

You probably know a hypomanic or two. You know the type: They’re flaming with energy, gushing with ideas, flashing with creativity, charging ahead while others are still getting their ducks in a row.

They get a lot done. But they also get into trouble. Is it worth it ? a thousand ideas, half of which are bombs, many of which evaporate in the heat of others, but one of which is worth the hypomanic’s weight in gilded platinum with sugar on top?

To the good manager, yes, a hypomanic is a valuable member of the team. But to manage the hypomanic, you need to understand what you’re dealing with and how he or she can be harnessed for the general good. Read more

Posted on March 23, 2006
Filed Under BSG FINANCE PROFESSIONAL | 1 Comment

Are CPAs on Track With Their Retirement Plans?

New survey findings may surprise you.

by CPA Wealth Management Insider staff
Based on research findings from Bay Street Group LLC

Study after study shows that CPAs are the most trusted advisors to small businesses and to many high net worth individuals. But when it comes to keeping their own savings and retirement plans on track, more and more CPAs are admitting they have some work to do to get ready for their golden years. Read more

Posted on March 22, 2006
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | 2 Comments

1 in 4 Workers Job Hunt On Employers’ Time

Hudson Survey Finds Manager Supervision Effective at Curbing Personal Internet Use

NEW YORK /PRNewswire/ — One-quarter (23 percent) of U.S. workers who use a computer at work admit to having searched for a new job on their companies’ time and resources, according to a new survey by Hudson. On top of that, three in ten send and receive personal e-mails at work at least most days, if not every day. Another 28 percent say they do so occasionally.

Most workers who use computers say their employers know they use the Internet for personal business. In fact, three-quarters of them believe their bosses are aware of how much they use the Internet for non-work related activities, and half (48 percent) say their companies monitor their computer use. Of those who believe their Internet use is screened, 74 percent report that their companies have formal policies regarding e-mail and Web usage.


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Posted on March 21, 2006
Filed Under BSG FINANCE PROFESSIONAL | Leave a Comment

Bruce Marcus: ADVANCING ON THE RETREAT

Go to Download page.

Does Your Retreat Advance Your Firm?

By Bruce W. Marcus

We’re at the beginning of the retreat season. This Spring, accountants, lawyers, and consultants will assemble, dressed informally, at fine resorts throughout the nation, to explore the futures of their firms and what can be done to sustain their firms? present status or to alter their futures.

A retreat can be a good time to relax, rest, and become reacquainted with your partners, even as it addresses the firm?s mundane housecleaning efforts. It can be a better time, and a great opportunity, particularly in this era of economic turmoil and technological change, for real accomplishment by recognizing new realities of the marketplace and professional environment, and calculating what must be done now to make the firm viable in the future.

INCLUDING: The Top 10 Issues You Can’t Afford to Ignore. Go to the Download page now.

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Posted on March 21, 2006
Filed Under BSG BUSINESS BUILDER | 3 Comments

Bye-Bye Big Office: CPAs Tell How to Do It

Whether working remotely or remotely working: 1,600 surveyed CPAs say mind your P’s & Q’s.

by Rick Telberg
At Large

With finance and accounting professionals increasingly working outside a normal office ? and outside normal office hours ? a new discipline and set of professional working standards appear to be taking shape.

In the networked, always-on, always-available world of work these days, time and space have been conquered. CPAs are working anywhere and everywhere. Unfortunately, many are also working too much.

But some tips from those who have done it may smooth the trail for those who follow. Whether you are working remotely (or remotely working) or supervising those who are (you think), the new world of work has a set of new rules. Successfully working from home or in small offices can require the same work rules and decorum that’s expected of the regular Rat Race CPAs working in big offices. By one measure, there are 80,000 tax and accounting practices in small or at-home offices, and another several hundred thousand employees working at home for firms and companies. Read more

Posted on March 19, 2006
Filed Under BSG FINANCE PROFESSIONAL | 2 Comments

PREVIEW: Staff Management Do’s and Don’t’s

DOWNLOAD HERE

Staffers Speak Out, Share Some Tips. But Are Managers Listening?

The finance and accounting profession, already facing a crisis in recruitment, is failing to utilize proper retention strategies, such as an enlightened system of mentoring, coaching, goal-setting and performance review and remediation.

45% percent of finance and accounting professionals surveyed would consider changing jobs because of the managerial atmosphere of their office.

The participants:
– 46% of participants represent public accounting firms, 32% business and industry.
– 42% work in offices of 11 to 50 persons.
– 45% are senior executives, owners or chief executives.

What Managers Are Doing Wrong:
1. Managers wait until problem is out of hand to confront it. And by then it?s too late to handle it productively or with sensitivity.
2. The feedback is not confined to the facts, but ranges further afield.
3. It feels like a verbal attack on the employee.
4. The feedback gets personal, instead of remaining business-like and professional.
5. There are comments on issues beyond the control of the employee.
6. Feedback is delivered without privacy.

INCLUDING: Verbatim comments from dozens of staffers.

Download the FREE Executive Preview.

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Posted on March 18, 2006
Filed Under BSG FINANCE PROFESSIONAL | Leave a Comment

NEW STUDY: You Are What You Charge

GET THE FREE EXECUTIVE PREVIEW HERE.

GO TO THE DOWNLOAD PAGE.

TOP-LINE SURVEY DATA

Tax and accounting firms use a mix of strategies to price their services. But the billable hour still reigns supreme and most practitioners are getting increasingly frustrated with the method.

READ THE ARTICLE THAT INSPIRED THE STUDY.

KEY FINDINGS
– 35% of firms set pricing based on costs, usually as a multiple of the cost of labor.
– 27% set prices based on the client?s perceived value of the service.
– 26% set prices based on competitive market conditions.
– But most also say they consider all factors in setting prices
– 60% of firms set prices to retain clients, 36% to maximize revenue; and 27% to maximize profit.
– 75% of firms say their pricing strategy could be improved.
– The firms most dissatisfied with their pricing strategy tend to rely on a cost-based strategy.
– 60% of firms vary pricing by service line.
– In first 100 responses, the overwhelming majority bill by the hour.
– Based on verbatim answers, actual realized collections fall far short of wished-for billing rates

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TOP-LINE SURVEY DATA, KEY FINDINGS
METHODOLOGY, HOW TO USE THIS REPORT
BACKGROUND
TOP-LINE SURVEY DATA ? DETAIL
– Which pricing strategy is mainly used in your firm?
– What is the rationale behind your pricing strategy?
– How did your firm arrive at this pricing strategy? Would you change it in any way? Verbatim Responses
– How well do you think your pricing strategy is working?
– Does your firm use different pricing strategies for different products or services? (With verbatim Responses)
– What’s the average fee-per-billable-hour you earn or your firm charges?
DEMOGRAPHICS
– In what type of business do you work?
– How many people work in your office or location?
– Which best describes your position?
BONUS CROSSTAB
– How well do you think your current pricing strategy is working? vs. Type of Pricing Strategy in Use
APPENDIX
– About the AICPA, Bay Street Group LLC
– Information Request

GET THE FREE EXECUTIVE PREVIEW HERE.

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Posted on March 18, 2006
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | Leave a Comment

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