If someone wants to be their own MD, go ahead at your own peril. But yet the entire country wants medical services provided. I see no research that shows a slow down in the demand for medical services.

Quickbooks, yes lots of my clients use it. It has replaced the need for routine bookkeeping. But lets be honest, the quickbooks results we all see are poor at best.

Yeah just type something in google and be instantly educated. Yet the average person on the street cannot identify where Iran is on a map. All research says that more than 70% of Americans are not prepared for retirement, yet there are millions of on line tools.

People confuse information for knowledge.

There will be a demand to truly educate and advise people but it is how that will be delivered is what will change.

If some, as noted above, wants to cut her own hair so be it. But not I and not most people. Just as more and more flock to have their nails done than anytime in history (the explosion in nail salons). Some people pride themselves in saving pennies as the sacrifice of time and freedom. Truth is you will never make a “great” living serving people who are happy just living a “good” life.

We need to be creative about delivery of value and knowledge. Many of the commentators on here frankly are not core client to build a business around as they would rather mow their own lawn than build a business. Hence the responses we are filtering through are not coming from the entrepreneur. I can unequivocally state that the young entrepreneurs I work with have not time or desire to google anything related to the tax code or debits and credits but they are always calling for insightful and thorough answers to which they are seeking a response and from which they want action. Google may provide information but what CPA on here can state that there is one answer for all clients. And when after clicking offline did has google then implemented a solution. Sure for those climbing up on their rook when it is leaking, they surely are not out there adding revenues to their top line while replacing roofing shingles.

One other comment, the Iphone app for a W-2: Who on here makes a living preparing tax returns for those who just have a W-2? What market segment are we talking about in our analysis?

Right now the technology is mostly fun to use and entertaining; but, isn’t that true of a lot of technology that has eventually found its way into the mainstream of business and replaced the human being at the other end. Robots come to mind immediately for me having replaced thousands of manufacturing workers in about a decade; example; the new Ford plant in Brazil.

Q: The question is begged then; Why can’t knowledge based workers (professionals) be replaced by technology?

A: You can argue that tax, accounting, business valuation, and other services require judgment; but, I say to you that Turbo Tax figured that one out and successfully poached hundreds of thousands of tax returns right under our noses.

Watch for Avatar professionals on demand through video with a learning knowledge base to eventually replace, or at minimum augment professionals. The future is at your door step and knocking so loud it is deafening. Many call centers are implementing this technology as I am writing this comment – I have seen it work and it is amazing. Movie star looking, video based Avatars are on the way and they don’t require benefits, a human resource department, employee taxes like FICA, and they will not sue an employer for wrongful termination.

I’m of the opinion that the first thing a person does when they know they need a service is go to Google. If you can’t be found there in the moment of need, you don’t exist. LinkedIn and Twitter work well for the marketing departments but they have to center around new ideas about how you work and exist to create an awareness of your market. And to be frank, this is going to be very hard for CPAs.

We think our clients can measure us in a clear multiples of ROI and make sure they understand what that is both in terms of revenue generation and cost savings. If they can’t, we will easily be Geico’d – or TurboTaxed.