Thanks for the vote of confidence, Michael. You are doing those innovative things too!

#GeeksUnite

A very good article about a very important change taking place in many industries.

There are a lot of CPAs out there who still believe in time sheets, hourly billing, etc but I think that we’re slowly beginning to see a shift in basic thinking.

I can tell you from personal experience that I have seen a shift in thinking just on our TaxQueries.com website alone in just the past few months.

We used to have CPAs making statements such as, “Why would I share knowledge in public? Why would I share knowledge with my competition? This is what *I* am PAID to do. Am I missing something here?”

…only to have a younger partner (or even competitor) join in, participate, and establish a reputation for themselves.

The next thing we see is the old timers signing up… even if it just to “watch” for a while…

As technology evolves and access to knowledge becomes easier and faster, CPA firms will be forced to evolve.

It won’t happen over night… but it will happen… slowly but surely.

I feel that those who stick to the “old way” will eventually find themselves in the very same position that newspaper companies are in today. Sitting around and wondering, “What the heck happened?”

Andrew Smith
andrew@taxqueries.com
http://www.taxqueries.com
Twitter @taxqueries

To expand on these suggestions, the successful firms will be astute at one to one relational marketing. They will take advantage of the technology available to collaborate, not only within the firm, but externally with the clients.

We’ve done an extensive survey of firms nationwide. The need for these changes is present in many. Several are moving in that direction. I believe that the next few years will prove Jason correct.

Great post.

Congratulations to Jason for acknowledging that CPAs are knowledge workers, not factory or union workers who are paid for time put in.

I hope he’s stopped billing by the hour and trashed his timesheets, as that is going to be a big part of the new business model for the Firm of the Future.

If you continue to do things the old way, you’ll never get the benefit of the new way!

Regards,
Ron Baker, Founder
VeraSage Institute
http://www.verasage.com
Twitter @ronaldbaker

CPA firms have, and continue to, evolve – especially in the use of technology. However, it has been a fairly slow and methodical change. The progressive partners often have to drag the old timers along and that’s hard work. The least the slow-adapters could do would be to pick up their feet (not drag them in the dust to slow things down).

It will take better, smarter, more proactive management from all owners, not just the managing partner. While CPA leaders are indeed very smart and caring human beings and great advisors to business owners, most of them have never received advanced education or even CPE in advanced people skills (soft skills, like listening, coaching, motivating and mentoring). A big factor, just my opinion, is that they absolutely LOVE the numbers, the tax work and auditing. They do not LOVE dealing with “green” new hires.

As the Boomers retire, the next generation of leaders will create organizations that are more nimble and open to continual change and new ideas. They will not get new clients at a Chamber networking event, they’ll get them from Facebook and from blogging. They will keep in touch with referral sources on-line, not at lunch.

To play upon your comment about Blumer’s father, the evolution will occur naturally and rather slowly and the current model will become extinct when some current owners take a hike (no disrespect intended).

As you can tell, I feel strongly about this. I’m going to blog about it today.

This was a great article. My small firm focuses solely on building those relationships with small to midsized business, especially focusing on those who are just starting out or looking to go into business for themselves. We try to help from the beginning and hold their hand the entire time. It has had a tremendous impact and helped me to double my business in 2009 and 2010 is looking to be even better.