Mindset Is Key to Marketing

Smiling businesswomanEven after years of experience, confidence may not come easy.

By Sandi Smith Leyva
The Accountant’s Accelerator

In school, during both my undergraduate courses and my MBA classes, I took Marketing 101, or something close to that. I learned the four P’s: product, price, place and promotion. I aced the class.

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Radical Tenet #1: Embrace the Cloud

Your customers’ expectations have now changed.

By Jody Padar
The Radical CPA

Let me clear this up now. The cloud is not an actual cloud.

It’s your software in a computer room, miles away from your physical location. I’ve been to the cloud and it’s a funny and interesting place to visit.

MORE ON RADICALISM: Radical Customers Are On Their Way | The Market Is Moving Toward the Radicals | 5 Radical Transparencies; Are You Ready? | 4 Questions Radical Firms Must Face | Being Radical Is All About Your Customer | Being Radical Starts with Being the Change | Why Start Being Radical Now? | Going Radical: The 4 Tenets of a ‘New Firm’ | Why Should CPAs Be Radical? | The Roots of ‘Radical’ CPAs | The First 3 Questions I Should Have Asked Before Starting My Practice

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It’s just a warehouse; they take your driver’s license, they scan you in, inspect your eyeballs and make sure that you’re not some bad person. There’s a large area full of servers and wires and it’s unbelievably hot. But what was especially endearing about my experience was that my cloud provider, Byron Patrick from Simplified Innovations, couldn’t contain his excitement about taking me. He was like a kid in a candy shop. It must be a techie thing.

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Can Partners Compete After They Leave? Maybe.

Businessman with fingers crossed behind backBONUS: Sample non-solicitation agreement.

By Marc Rosenberg
Retirements & Buyouts

A non-compete covenant prohibits departed partners from joining another CPA firm or creating their own firm within a radius of a specified number of miles from the firm, within a specified period of time after their departure.

Increasingly, firms are writing and enforcing tougher and tighter non-compete clauses.

One of the key tests that courts have used in ruling on the enforceability of non-compete agreements (different from non-solicitation) is the extent to which such agreements prevent the departing partner from earning a living.

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The vast majority of U.S firms are local practices located in areas with many competing firms. If a partner leaves to join another firm and does not attempt to take clients, it is very difficult to claim that the departing partner will substantially and irreparably damage the interests and the value of the firm.

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3 Ways to Derail Sponsorships

Woman yelling at tiny man she is holding in fingertipsWomen and men can work together well, but sometimes it takes work.

By Ida O. Abbott
Sponsoring Women: What Men Need to Know

We know that even when a relationship between a woman and a man is strictly business-focused, others may not see it that way. Here are three thorny issues to watch for and quell.

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MORE ON SPONSORING WOMEN FOR LEADERSHIP: Keep Close Relationships From Getting Too Close | 4 Reasons Women Hold Themselves Back | 4 Ways Sponsors Can Help Women Seek Power | Bias About Women with Families Lingers | Judged on Performance, Not Potential? Must Be a Woman | Gender Bias Still a Problem | Why Women Are Overlooked (And How to Fix It) | 3 Ways Men Are Favored in the Workplace | Women Need Promotions, Not Just Advice | Mentor or Sponsor? How to Distinguish Roles | 4 Ways Women Leaders Improve Firms | CPA Firms Must ‘Man Up’ and Get Women On Board

1. Gossip and rumors

Relationships in the workplace are frequently the subject of rumors, and close relationships between senior men and junior women are tasty fodder for the gossip mill. Because sponsorship between a man and woman is not as common as sponsorship between two men, it is more noticeable and subjects the man and woman to greater scrutiny. READ MORE →

Cloud Computing Can Cost Less

Cloud computer networkScheduled server replacement not always the most cost-effective option.

By Roman H. Kepczyk
Quantum of Paperless

In almost every firm, the core computers used for operating all applications are internal file servers. Down time for a day or two is a disaster.

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If an “out of service” stoppage stretches to a week or more, your partner income will suffer measurably.

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Are You Managing Knowledge or Wasting It?

Ed Mendlowitz CPA The Practice Doctor Q and A15 points to consider.

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

QUESTION: How can we share our firm’s collective knowledge with everyone who works here?

ANSWER: Not easy, but can be done. It just needs recognition that there is knowledge that can be shared, and you evidently have that.

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Knowledge is what we are dealing with and transferring to benefit and create value for our clients. Knowledge is currency. The ability to apply it to the right situation, at the right time in the right way creates value for the firm. Each firm should develop a knowledge management program. Here are 15 things to consider:
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Become a Millionaire in 3 Steps

Woman's hand pointing to three numbers for success stepsDump “nonprofit” tasks and focus on the high-value ones.

By Sandi Smith Leyva
The Accountant’s Accelerator

Let’s do the math. To earn a million dollars in a year, you have to bring in $83,333 per month. Assuming you bill hourly and work for the standard 1,000 billable hours per year, you need to charge $1,000 per hour. If you want to make $5 million in one year, you will need to charge $5,000 per hour.

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Radical Customers Are On Their Way

Do you create content? You’ll need to learn.

By Jody Padar
The Radical CPA

New customers want CPAs to use the latest technology and the next generation of business owners demands it. But what about the legacy customers who you think don’t care? The original owners may not care, true. But your legacy customers are going to have the same succession issues as your firm. Those customers are going to have to create a succession plan and if that plan is going to the next generation, that generation doesn’t have any experience with you as a CPA firm. And you better believe tech­nology is important to them; it’s in their DNA.

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For example, if the dad passes the torch to the kid, and the kid says “well I don’t know John CPA all that well. They don’t use cloud tech­nology and I’m going find a firm that does use the cloud.” They choose technology because they have no current relationship with the firm. We receive many leads from business owners in this situation.

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