CPA Trendlines

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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.
READ MORE →

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 →