Daily Archives: March 8, 2015

12 Must-Knows for Niche Markets

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Ed Mendlowitz CPA The Practice Doctor Q and AMake sure you fully understand their needs.

QUESTION: I have a couple of clients in a number of industries and when I ask for referrals they tell me they do not want me to handle competitors of theirs, yet I know of many CPA firms that have large amounts of clients in concentrated industries. What am I doing wrong?

MORE PRACTICE DOCTOR Q&A: How Much Should You Pay To Buy, Sell or Merge an Accounting Practice? | Is Joint Representation a Conflict? | When Large (or Any) Clients Need Backup Assurances | When Is It Time to Merge? | What Goes in a Client’s Permanent File? | 6 Ways to Take a Client Beyond Tax Prep | 18 Ways to Blow a Partnership Opportunity | 6 Ways to Know What You Don’t Know | 6 Simple Steps to Impress a Prospect | 10 (Nearly) Painless Ways to Keep Up to Date with Technology | 10 Ways to Get New 1040 Clients | Tax Return Reviewer Ticking and Tying | 23 Reasons Clients Really Need YOU for Taxes

ANSWER: I’ve had clients tell me that, but I think back to my early jobs and each firm I worked for had industry specializations, so I think the current trend is just a continuation of what has always been done.  I attribute your lack of getting client referrals to an inability to recognize, sell and communicate the advantages of your firm to your clients.

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E-filing by Tax Pros Slows

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Refunds also are down. Tax professionals e-filed over 28.7 million returns through Feb. 27, 2015, down 4.4 percent from the nearly 30 million-plus returns e-filed by the same time in 2014. RELATED: Have Fun This Tax Season! | Tax Preparation … Continued

Tax and Accounting Firms Lengthen Hiring Spree

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Growth in most segments continues.

Bureau of Labor Statistics for February 2015

The U.S. tax, accounting and bookkeeping industries are among the economy’s bright spots, according to CPA Trendlines sources.

Here CPA Trendlines reports on:

  • Current hiring trends in each of the bookkeeping, tax, payroll and CPA segments of the industry.
  • Average hourly wages for key segments.
  • Typical hours worked per week.
  • And trends concerning women in the accounting workforce.

Overall, the U.S. economy added 295,000 jobs in January, with 51,000 of those in professional and business services. The unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage point to 5.5 percent. READ MORE →

The Roots of ‘Radical’ CPAs

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Young businessman thinking, software icons in thought cloudHow the ‘new firm’ was born.

By Jody Padar
The Radical CPA

I started to use this newfangled payroll software that worked through the Internet. Back then they didn’t call it the cloud. It was just payroll software that used an Internet browser. It solved my business problems of preparing paychecks, paying taxes and filing tax returns for my customers. The technology was PayCycle, a cloud-based payroll software.

MORE RADICAL CPA: The First 3 Questions I Should Have Asked Before Starting My Own Practice

PayCycle (which has since been acquired by Intuit) fundamentally changed my firm and my life. All of a sudden payroll became one of the most profitable areas of our firm. It also became a catalyst to selling and packaging our other core services.

It was the beginning of something bigger.

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In Sales, Perception Is Reality

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You have to believe in yourself.

By Martin Bissett

“No man has the ability to step outside of the shadow of his own character.”
— Robespierre

As far as our potential clients are concerned, how they perceive us is how we really are to them, regardless of the truth of the matter.

MORE ON SELLING: Selling vs. Attracting to Build Relationships | When Selling, Don’t Chase New Fees, Attract Them | Selling Accounting Services Doesn’t Have to Be Hard! | ‘Selling’ Isn’t a Dirty Word | 8 Factors in Practice Development Success | In Sales, Perception Is Reality | Success Begins With Accountability | Do You Realize You’re Failing? | Winning Your First Client

Because of this, it’s important to realize that when we are meeting a new potential client who has not been referred to us, it does not matter what the reality of our value proposition is; it matters how that potential client perceives our value proposition. Therefore, to be effective
in winning work, we must understand how we can positively influence their perception of us at each stage of the relationship-building process.

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Avoid the Top 5 Lawsuit Magnets

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Gavel resting on $100 billsDocument, document, document.

Camico, the California-based malpractice insurer, describes five ways CPA firms can increase their exposure to lawsuits and what preventive measures to take.

Highlights:

1. Accounting rules: While accounting rules don’t require certain procedures, e.g., confirmation of information in a compilation engagement, juries may not take that rule into consideration. So if something doesn’t seem right to you, it is best to do some probing and make sure it is right. Then be sure to document it and communicate it. READ MORE →