Daily Archives: September 3, 2012

Don’t Ask a CPA What Profitability Means

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You’d think they could agree on a common definition for their firms. They can’t.

by Marc Rosenberg, CPA
Author of What Really Makes CPA Firms Profitable

If you asked the president of a Fortune 500 company or the owner of a restaurant to define profitability, they would be able to give a quick, definitive answer. Not so with CPAs. Surely, you’ve heard the story, perhaps apocryphal, of the company that was interviewing for a new CPA firm. Only one question was asked of each candidate: “How much is two plus two?” The firm that won the bid gave the answer, “How much would you like it to be?”

Related: Compensation Issues for the New Managing Partner | 20 Decisions for Your Firm’s New Partner Compensation Committee | 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” | More…

The same can be true of CPA firm profitability. How do we measure it? You would think that the uncontested champions of measuring financial data, CPAs, would have this down to a science. But such is not the case. READ MORE →

Preparing to Sell Your Practice in a Few Years? 13 Things You Need to Know Today

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What to do before you put your practice on the market.

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:  What’s a Tax Practice Worth Today?  /  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 am getting older and want to continue working at least five more years.  Should I merge now to anticipate and facilitate a buyout?

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‘There Is No Such Thing as a Time Problem’

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It’s a management problem and here are three solutions.

By Sandi Smith, CPA
Accountant’s Accelerator

I know it’s a bold statement and a lot of you will disagree. But please have an open mind and hear me out.

Time is the great equalizer. We all have the same number of hours in a day, yet some entrepreneurs, many of them self-made, become wildly successful, while others languish. Only one in twenty business owners in the U.S. (2002 numbers) make it past $1 million in annual revenues. I believe the way they use their time is a big factor in their success or failure.

More from Sandi Smith at CPA Trendlines:  • 15 Off-the-Hook Ideas for Accountants to Dream Big  • 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 three better explanations of your time problem:

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