Monthly Archives: August 2012

Why Selling Your Practice Is Not a Retirement Strategy

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What are the guarantees?

Here at CPA Trendlines, Ed Mendlowitz answers some of the toughest questions practitioners can throw at him. He’s the right one to ask. After more than 40 years in the business – building his own practice, running the firm, and eventually selling it to a major regional firm, WithumSmith+Brown, where he remains a senior partner and consultant to professional services clients – he has the answers. We’re happy to have him at CPA Trendlines. Send your questions for Ed here, or chime in with Comments below.

Meanwhile, browse more from Ed here: When a Partner is Unwilling to Help  | Congratulations! You Bought a Tax Practice. Now What? | How Accountants Can Keep the Business When a Client Wants to Sell Theirs | 10 Reasons Clients Don’t Pay, and What To Do about It | 13 Reasons Timesheets Will Never Die |

— Rick Telberg
President / CEO

QUESTION: I’ve heard you say that you shouldn’t count on anything from your practice when you decide to retire.  Are you serious?

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Six Metrics for Marketing ROI

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What you should expect from an effective marketing campaign.

by Bruce W. Marcus
Professional Services Marketing 3.0

Tactics are the most difficult part of a professional firm marketing program, because so much of what must be done depends upon the scarce, non-billable time of partners and professional staff.

If the firm’s management hasn’t made clear that participation by every professional in the firm is an integral part of recognition and growth within the firm, you can scrap the marketing program. It can be helpful if the non-billable hour was renamed the investment hour, because if those hours are spent on marketing, investment hours are exactly what they are.

Bruce W. Marcus
Bruce W. Marcus

More on Professional Services Marketing 3.0: How to Formulate the Right Marketing Goals for Your Firm  | 15 Questions for Achievable Growth | If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, How Do You Know How to Get There? | Eight Tips for Staying One Step Ahead of the Competition (And Maybe the Client, Too)

The marketing professional can do a great deal. He or she may be able to write an article or a brochure, but needs the input of the practitioner. The marketing professional may be able to design and run a seminar, or arrange for a speech, but the practitioner must supply the content. The marketing professional may be able to place the story in the media, but the practitioner must supply the story.

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3 Money Leaks that May Need Plugging in Your Business

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Why we do it and what to do about it.

By Sandi Smith, CPA
Accountant’s Accelerator

Everyone is looking on the income statement to find places to cut their business expenses. But the best place to look is not on a report.

It’s in the habits, processes, and procedures that you and your team do through your work day. It’s also in the mindsets, the inner game you bring to your work.

Sandi Smith

More from Sandi Smith at CPA Trendlines: Seven Tips to Keep the Clients You Have  • How to Attract Clients Like a Magnet  • Eleven Easy Ways to Deliver More Value to Clients • Five Things Accountants Take for Granted That Costs Them Revenue  • What’s in Your New Client Funnel?  • What’s In Your Welcome Kit for New Prospects?
• Five Fun and Easy Ways to Wow Your Clients  • Six Ways to Give Yourself a Raise  • Strategies to Stop Losing Business to Competitors
• Five Tips to Manage Your ‘Overwhelm’ Level  • Easy Ideas for a Quick Business Boost  • Four New Mega-Trend Marketing Strategies  • How to Stop Leaving Money on the Table

Here are my top three money leak sources for you to look at and see what you can find:

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Another Bad Accountant Joke

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An accountant is having difficulty sleeping and goes to see his doctor. “Doctor, I just can’t get to sleep at night.” “Have you tried counting sheep?” “That’s the problem – I make a mistake and then spend three hours trying … Continued

How to Identify Your Firm’s Core Values

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And some examples to consider.

by Marc Rosenberg, CPA
Author of How to Operate a Compensation Committee

Core values are the attitudes and beliefs that define a firm’s culture and a critical ingredient in a successful compensation plan.

 

More Marc Rosenberg practice management trends and guidance: Three Ways to Break Partner Gridlock in an Accounting Firm | What Partners Are Entitled To, and What They’re NOT Entitled To | How to Make Partner? | Why Accounting Firm Partners Are “Popping Prozac like M&M’s” | The 15-Item Checklist for Your Next Partner Retreat | Five Key Responsibilities for a New Partner| Planning a Partner Retreat for Real Results | 6 Steps to Get Your Business to the Next Level | The 10 Biggest Mistakes in Reading MAP Statistics | Re-Engineering Partner Accountability | Marc Rosenberg: Why CPAs Aren’t Making More Money [VIDEO] | Marc Rosenberg: Slow Learners Need Not Apply | 10 To-Do’s for a Partner Buyout

Partners talk about the firm’s core values all the time, pointing out instances when someone’s behavior has clearly been impacted by them. These values are incorporated in processes throughout the firm, such as in the development and evaluation process, in the way income is allocated to partners, and in what raises are given to staff.

When identifying your firm’s core values, consider: READ MORE →