CPA Trendlines

15 Proven Ideas for Low-Cost, Local Advertising

A department store mogul once famously said: “Half my advertising is wasted; I just don’t know which half.”

You need to advertise your firm, but that comes with two stipulations: Advertising needs to be both inexpensive and targeted to your local audience. Who wants to spend thousands of dollars reaching prospects in Topeka, Kan., when you’re based in Tacoma, Wash.?

Consider these 15 suggestions for low-cost, local advertising, from the National Federation of Independent Business:

1. Set up online accounts on local business directories, such as Yelp and Yahoo! Local. The online guides help people find local businesses, restaurants, retailers and more. In addition, users post reviews of businesses, so ideally your company will receive great word-of-mouth marketing from happy clients. Setting up a business account with Yelp is free, though you can buy sponsorship ads, too. A basic Yahoo! Local Listing is free, and you can upgrade for a small monthly fee.

2. Submit press releases to local newspapers and business magazines. Be sure the story is newsworthy, not simply an advertisement. Send press releases when you hire new employees, open a branch, win an award, reach a milestone, host an open house, partner with another company, expand your products or services, restructure your business, work with a charity or rebrand your business.

3. Drive home your message — literally. Make your car can an advertising vehicle: Put your company name on your license plate or license plate frame. Place a bumper sticker, decal or magnetic sign on your car.

4. Sign up for a free online phone directory, such as yellowpages.com and yellowpagecity.com. You can also purchase ads in the directories.

5. Post flyers about your business on message boards at libraries, community centers and grocery stores.

6. Donate a prize to local radio stations for giveaways or contests. You’ll get on-air exposure and perhaps a mention on the station's website, too.

7. Place an ad on Craigslist.com in your city’s edition under the appropriate business category.

8. Enter a parade float in your town’s homecoming, Memorial Day or July 4th parades.

9. Try out cross-promotion. Talk to a non-competing company in your community about cross-referrals. You could add links to your websites, share a booth at a local trade show or split the costs for a direct mail piece. You can also help many kinds of clients team up: a hair salon and a clothing boutique, a print shop and a computer repair store, a day care center and a pediatrician, etc.

10. Sponsor your local chamber of commerce’s website.

11. Attach a promotion to your invoice. Offer customers a discount if they refer a business or person who buys your product or service. Extend a discount on the new client’s first purchase, too.

12. Try pay-per-click advertising: You can create an ad for search engines and specify the city or region where you’d like it to run. Two popular options include Google AdWords and Yahoo! Sponsored Search. Both allow you to set the click amount and daily maximum you’re willing to pay, so you remain within your budget. For more information on pay-per-click options and reviews of more than 30 per click search engines, check out payperclickuniverse.com.

13. Create a company Facebook page, join local Facebook groups dedicated to business and post frequent comments to the group's wall. Consider joining other local groups: For instance, businesses in Pittsburgh can become members of the Green Pittsburgh group.

14. Volunteer at a community event wearing company t-shirts. You might hand out water at a 5K race or run a concession stand at a local art fair.

15. Don’t underestimate word-of-mouth marketing. Encourage employees to talk about the company at sporting events, church functions, the grocery store, etc. Reward referrals, too.

What would you add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.

via 15 Proven Ideas for Low-Cost, Local Advertising | NFIB.

Key Tips for Career Success in Accounting and Finance

Veteran CPAs reveal their competitive edge.

by Rick Telberg

The formula for success in a career in accounting and finance begins with a laser-like focus on serving clients and other stakeholders above and beyond normal expectations, according to a roundup of opinion from over 200 professionals and practitioners.

To be sure, career success, as always, requires hard work, diligence, integrity, an ability to get along with people and lifelong learning. But some qualities may be more important than ever in the year of uncertainty and turbulence that many expect of 2010, according to CPA Trendlines research by Bay Street Group LLC.

“By far the most important thing is individual service,” according to Gloria A. Arvanitis, CPA, at Genesis Partners in Bloomingdale, Ill. “I picked up three new clients through referrals this year due to the fact that they did not like how they were treated by their prior accountants. They want to know they are being paid attention to, and that the best tax-planning decisions are being made for them before year-end.”

Peter Jannis, Clerk and Comptroller for Palm Beach County in West Palm Beach, Fla., has just one word of advice: “Focus.” Carlos L. Holt, CPA, CIA, CFE, an internal audit manager in government service in Nashville, Tenn., has two: “knowledge” and “experience.”

Of course, your career isn’t everything. Mike Gibson at Cole & Reed CPAs in Oklahoma City, Okla., recommends, above all, “maintaining a healthy lifestyle.” But then, he adds, you need a healthy lifestyle “so that you have both the physical and mental energy to manage the stresses of the profession and succeed when stress levels are at their highest.”

To Jay Jackler, CPA, at Goldstein Lewin & Co. CPAs in Boca Raton, Fla., that means “working hard for clients.” They’ll love it if you can, like Jackler, tell them you’ve “caught government mistakes within the IRS, state Department of Revenue, and the Social Security Administration.”

For sure, client service distinguishes both the successful firms and successful professionals, followed by hard work, ability, skills, knowledge and “people skills.”

“I work hard for the clients,” agrees Samuel Elfe James, CPA, at his self-named firm in Blairsville, Ga.

“Serve your clients, employers, and your personal contacts well, and everything will work out well for you in the end,” says Andrew S. Pfau of Jericho, N.Y. “Give 100 percent effort and treat everyone the way you would treat your best client.”

But you can’t stop at that. Scott T. Rediger, CPA, at Rediger & Co. in Lincoln, Neb., urges aspiring CPAs to “continue to learn, adapt to new laws and new technologies.”

To Melissa M. Wetzel, CPA, a practitioner in Emmitsburg, Md., it’s all about “hard work and learning all the CPA requirements.”

John Kelly at Gurman & Company, PLLC, in Fairfax, Va., urges “Flexibility and keeping up with education. “

Melissa Hawes at Miles Financial Management, Inc., in Malvern, Pa., believes in “relationship-building and accountability.”

The bottom line, of course, is that you can’t ignore “good production and good clients,” advises Chet Ingalls, practicing in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Accountancy is as much a business as a profession. So Jon Neal at The Neal Group LLC, in Milwaukee, Wis., sees career success in the “ability to be a businessman first, CPA second.”

But one piece of advice may be especially apt for a year like 2010. Donald C. Turnbow, a CPA in his own practice in Dallas, sums it up in one word: “Grit.”

I don’t know where that’s covered on the CPA exam. But it’s something every successful CPA already knows.

Copyright 2009 AICPA. Used by permission.

CPA firms are anticipating a happier new year.

IOMA forecasts some margin relief in 2010 for accounting firms.

“Many firms and owners are anticipating higher revenues and have taken steps to adapt to the economic environment so that growth can continue or resume. Some of the steps include identifying new opportunities, adjusting marketing and billing practices, and refocusing strategies and goals,” , according to the  latest edition of the IOMAPartrner’s  Report, a monthly update for CPA firm owners.

The speed with which many CPA firms react, the ability to adapt, and the underlying strength of a firm’s people and ptocesses could determine success or failure in 2010.

IOMA sees firms adopting a number of  tactics:

1. Adapt.
2. Think strategically.
3. Change focus.
4. Empasize efficiency.
5. Develop new niches, expand existing ones.
6. Economic realities.
7. Cost cutting and marketing expansion — simultaneously.
8. Reduce staff.

Meanwhile, IOMA is preducting that 51% of firms will see gains in net income in 2010. About 23% predict an increase of less than 5 percent. Another 17% percent foresee a 5% to 10%  increase, and 11% expect more than a 10 percent.

What will firms be doing to drive topline revenues?

1. marketing to new clients
2. increase billing rates
3. marketing to existing clients

One thing IOMA doesn’t need to say: it won’t be easy.

CPA firms face pricing pinch

Price index declines 1.1% in latest month.

After years of gains since the government started keeping track in December 2003, overall prices for CPA firm services plummeted with the onset of recession in December 2007.  Since then, firms recovered some of their losses, but now appear to be dipping again.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the price index for CPA firms declined to 113.7 in October from 115.0 in September. In the year-ago October, the index stood at 115.6, up from the October 2007 level of 113.1.

So, if you’re feeling a little squeezed on fees, you’re not alone.

Accounting Today: The 2009 Best Accounting Firms to Work For

Small firms (15-24 employees)

Rank Firm Headquarters No. of employees New hires in last year Turnover (%) % of internal promotion Avg. hours of orientation Training hours per emp. Chief executive

1 Mark Bailey & Co. Reno, Nev. 15 3 0.00 40.00 8 80 Mark Bailey

2 Johnson Jacobson Wilcox Las Vegas 24 6 1.00 18.00 70 80 Gary Johnson

3 Swindoll, Janzen, Hawk & Loyd McPherson, Kan. 21 1 5.00 1.00 20 60 Kyle Hawk

READ MORE →

Payroll services: Fasten your seatbelts, it’s a bumpy ride

Latest data shows a payroll industry workforce of 172,900.

The October data, not seasonally adjusted, represents a gain of about 3% from the month before, and barely a change from the year ago 171,600.

But, in between, and over the long haul, you can see the dramatic effects of economic cycles.

Related: Accounting loses 4,400 jobs in November

The Top Recession Lesson for 2010

Lesson #1: Reading situations clearly and quickly, without rose-colored glasses. Next question: What to expect for 2010? Join the survey; see the results.

by Rick Telberg
At Large

While some accountants and CPA firms have been reacting to the business downturn by hunkering down, a few notable firms and their enterprising leaders are finding new opportunities for growth. Their strategies provide clues to success in the new economic environment of 2010.

Local firms like Fitts, Roberts & Co. P.C. in Houston; Meyners & Co. in Albuquerque, N.M.; and Barfield, Murphy, Shank & Smith in Birmingham, Ala., are seizing opportunities to improve operations, upgrade staff, win new business and gain market share. Their stories emerged from a panel discussion I moderated at the annual CCH user conference.

Malott

To be sure, none of the firms has been immune to layoffs. But partners at each firm believe their firms are stronger now than before.

Bruce Malott, managing partner at Meyners & Co., acknowledged “people are afraid.” Clients are skittish. Even a Fortune 1000 prospect that he thought he had locked up for state and local tax planning work put the deal on hold as part of a general corporate freeze on new spending. “And we’d have saved them millions,” an incredulous Malott said.

Still, at the end of this business cycle, Malott expects to have a bigger, better client list than before.

Malott is offering prospects a free “Tax Optimizer” engagement, in which his staffers may spend two days probing the company’s state, local and federal tax issues. “There’s always something to find,” he says. “And sometimes you get the business.” In one case, his team found a way to save a prospect $1 million; they were hired on the spot.

Roberts

At Fitts, Roberts & Co., tax partner and IT chief Kay Parker said recovery begins with “overcoming partner fear and inertia.” That done, the firm is adding new talent in strategically important areas. At the same time, costs are coming down. For example, her firm is taking advantage of lowered prices on rent and their broadband connection.

Roberts

At Barfield, Murphy, Shank & Smith, Managing Partner Don Murphy is working with staffers to help them understand the effects of the business downturn on the community, their clients and the firm. It’s essential, he said, for staffers at every level to understand as much as possible about the economics of a CPA firm. It makes them better businesspeople and gives them a deeper bond with the firm.

Each of these firms moved fast to adjust spending and refocus growth strategies.

Barfield, Murphy, Shank & Smith, for instance, quickly assembled a special team of firm experts to deal with clients facing particularly severe difficulty. They call it the TurnAround Services Committee, or TASC Force. Headed by each of the firm’s three founding shareholders, the TASC Force provides services such as business health checkups, financial benchmarking, human resource management, credit underwriting data assistance, cash flow projections and cost control.

Fitts, Roberts & Co. P.C. has snapped up talent in business valuation and state and local tax and maintains quarterly marketing meetings guided by a consultant to stay on top of new opportunities.

You can glean a few good lessons from these firms in being adaptive, agile and aggressive. The first lesson: Read the situation without rose-colored glasses and react quickly. Next week, we’ll gather a few more lessons from these savvy CPAs.

BUSY SEASON FORECAST: What to expect? How to gear up? Join the survey; get the results.

COMMENTS: Rants, raves, questions, ideas? E-mail Rick Telberg.

Copyright 2009 AICPA. Used with permission.

Accounting Loses 4,400 Jobs in November

Continuing choppy up-and-down pattern, says BLS today.

Click to enlarge

In the strongest jobs report since the recession began, the government reported today that the nation had practically staunched its jobs hemorrhaging, months ahead of anticipation.

The Labor Department reported 11,000 jobs jobs lost in November, driving the unemployment rate down to 10%,  from 10.2% in October.

In the Accounting and Bookkeeping Services Sector, the job loss was 4,400, declining from a workforce of 935,000 in October, to 931,000 in November, on a seasonally adjusted basis.

November’s seasonally-adjusted five-tenths of one percent retreat followed a READ MORE →

How to Keep Your Firm Out of Trouble in this Holiday Party Season

Nine tips for safe office parties.

It doesn’t mean you should ban alcohol. After all, what would a holiday party be without a little bit of grog or champagne? But it makes good sense to take precautions to help prevent employees or guests from getting too tipsy and getting behind the wheel.

1. Be honest with workers. Make sure workers know their employer’s drug-free workplace policy and how it addresses alcohol use in work-related situations and social functions.
2. Post the policy. Use different communication vehicles to ensure employees understand the policy. Prior to a party, use company bulletin boards, e-mail, and/or paycheck envelopes to publicize the policy and any rules specific to alcohol use.
3. Reinvent the party concept. Why have a “traditional” party? Consider trying something new like an indoor carnival, amusement park outing or volunteer activity. READ MORE →

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