CPA Trendlines

From an entrepreneurial CPA who’s been through a few.

Barry Schimel, a co-founder of the BizActions mail marketing system for accounting firms, has seen a lot of ups and downs in his career, starting as a CPA working with distressed companies a couple recessions ago. Now on his fifth book, “100 Ways to Profit in a Volatile Economy,” Schimel talks in this video about what he has learned about how accountants and accounting firms can help foundering companies:

Co-authored with BizActions colleague Gary Kravitz, Schimel offers a slew of proven and tested strategies that have been successfully implemented in numerous organizations, as well as new tactics from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“Today’s volatile economy is putting stress on millions of businesses. They don’t know how to solve their financial problems, and are just frozen, waiting to see what happens next,” said Barry Schimel, CPA. “But now is the time to take action. There is much that can be done to save businesses.”

The 100 strategies work for several types of organizations-from large corporations to small businesses. Strategies focus on such topics as how to straighten out organization and management, manage human resources more effectively, and improve operations processes and systems-all the while generating more profitable sales.

“Profits drive business,” said Schimel, “but when the economy does a nose dive, profits aren’t easy to come by. The 100 ‘ways’ are sound strategies for any economy, and in a volatile one like today’s they are vital for survival.”

Here are ten of the top strategies for profiting in a volatile economy:

1.     Keep the cash flowing in a tight economy

2.     Take every tax break you can-seven smart ones

3.     Compare increased sales with decreased costs

4.     Make everyone in your business responsible for profit

5.     Reshuffle staff duties and cross-train employees to control costs

6.     Eliminate work, not people

7.     Form an internal cost-control committee to trim waste

8.     Establish effective collection practices

9.     Challenge your technology security IQ

10.  Scale back orders, but pounce on deals

The book includes a mini-action plan for each strategy, complete with action date, person in charge, projected savings or profits, and priority. At the end of book, a Master Action Plan allows readers to prioritize strategies and create a sound plan of action that can be used immediately.

Posted August 23, 2009
Related Topics: management, practice management, profits, Recession