It’s Okay to Say No to Clients (Even the Large Ones)

Working with “smaller” clients can often be more rewarding – and profitable – than “big” clients.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

There’s a reason you aren’t actively training clients to allow you to work efficiently. You’re afraid that you’ll lose clients.

I guarantee that you will.

MORE: Control Your Time: Avoid Ambush Meetings and Calls | Get Clients to Bring Tax Docs Early … Yes, EARLYWhy Time Tracking Still Matters | Make Fewer Mistakes, Increase Revenue and Capacity | Six Ways to Create a Millennial-Friendly Firm | Do You Know Your Turnaround Time?
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Clients have trained you to be inefficient. They’ll resist retraining. Some of them will leave and infect someone else’s practice.

The reason you fear losing clients is that you fear you can’t replace them.

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Valuing a Family-Owned Business: Eight Options

Businesswoman working late at desk

The correct standard depends on the reason for the valuation.

By Ed Mendlowitz
77 Ways to Wow!

Here are eight standards of value that a valuation analyst may need to consider and discuss with a client. Each standard has a different set of rules, and the valuations can vary greatly. Valuing a business is an art – not a science – even though careful calculations are made to arrive at an appraisal of the business. Also provided are some insights regarding how these are used and how the valuation analyst can protect their client.

MORE: Business Valuation Comes Down to Cash Flow | 50 Ways to Create Value for Business Owners and Board Members | What Clients Don’t Know about Cost Variances | How to Advise Clients on Allocating Business Resources | Be Wary of Discounting Prices | Where Is Your Firm in Its Lifecycle? | Six Kinds of Loan Covenants
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Valuations of closely held family businesses are confusing because of the varied reasons, uses and purposes for the valuation. There is no one “right” way, because the value arrived at is contingent on the assumption used. This is confusing to many business owners.
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Ready for a Buy-Sell Agreement?

 

Make sure to consider these 20 points.

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

This service puts the accountant in the role of a mediator attempting to resolve conflicts and to serve as a facilitator to move things along to accomplish stated goals.

MORE ON MARKETING: Seven Keys to a Complete Succession Plan | How to Begin a Business Valuation | How to Offer Conflict Resolution | Get Your Clients Talking About Retirement | How to Assist Investment Clubs | When Clients Remarry | Seven Questions to Suggest Estate Planning
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Who needs this service

Many businesses do not have shareholders’ or buy-sell agreements.
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Business Valuation Comes Down to Cash Flow

This step needs to come before proper financial planning can occur.

By Ed Mendlowitz
77 Ways to Wow!

Business owners contemplating retirement should obtain a business valuation to determine the value of the business and whether the other resources will provide financial security. The conversation and successful engagement also require that the valuation analyst understand the owner’s motivating factors, or the qualitative information.

MORE: 50 Ways to Create Value for Business Owners and Board Members | What Earnings Mean for a Business Valuation | Why and How to Track Payroll Costs | Use Constraints to Make Improvements | The Role of Strategy in Pricing | Wow Clients with Trend Analysis | 26 Ways to Wreck a Financial Projection
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Obtaining the right price is important but holding out for a larger value and deeming all other values lower than that as a “deal breaker” can be self-defeating to the owner seeking financial security. There are other ways to obtain the security. Further, quibbling over a smaller amount can potentially undermine the long-term plan, which is to retire.
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How Does Your Firm Measure Up?

Woman leading meeting, flipchart in background

A new kind of “A” client.

By August J. Aquila
Price It Right: How to Value Accounting Services

There are many ways that a firm can evaluate itself, but there is only one way that really counts. At the end of the year, you must determine how you have made your major clients more profitable.

MORE: Five Questions for Developing Your Marketing Plan | Twelve Fundamentals of Planning | One Question to Guide Your Growth Plans | Four Ways to Prepare for New Business Development | Ten Keys to Marketing Success
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Remember that 80 percent of your profits still comes from 20 percent of your clients. That also means, as I recently heard, that only 20 percent of your efforts go to the clients who produce 80 percent of your revenue.
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The 7 Categories of Cybersecurity Solutions Firms Need

How important are WISP and employee awareness? Just ask the IRS or the FTC. 

By Donny Shimamoto, CPA, CITP, CGMA
On Cybersecurity for Accountants
Center for Accounting Transformation

Historically, finding cybersecurity solutions “right-sized” for the small and mid-sized business space was difficult. Most of the technologies were expensive and difficult to implement, and their price points weren’t reasonable for organizations with under 25 people. It’s only been within the last five years that we’ve seen solutions mature and evolve enough to be delivered via the cloud at a price point that makes sense for smaller organizations.

MORE: How Hacker-Proof is Your Firm?Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift | AI, OCR, NLP & CPAs: Oh My!   |  Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers  | Early Adopters Gain an Edge in Audit | Dustin Wheeler: For Serious CAS Success, Hire Tech Teams | CSR for CPAs: The Missing Ingredient | Donny Shimamoto Explains How ‘Agile’ Applies to CPA FirmsStaff Retention for Remote Workers | Why the Future is in Risk Advisory |  Ready for Non-CPA “CPA” Firms?
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To check if your policy addresses all of the requirements, take our Cybersecurity Compliance Self-Assessment for Tax Practitioners at: improvetheworld.net/CyberSelfAssessForTaxBook

With the COVID-19 pandemic and the adoption of remote work increased cybersecurity threats, the cybersecurity industry has stepped up and made solutions much more affordable and easier to implement. These solutions still require some technical knowledge to install, but there is much less maintenance, and they now make economic sense even for sole practitioners. READ MORE →

Seven Keys to a Complete Succession Plan

Your client probably hasn’t considered them all.

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

Clients who own businesses should have a plan of succession.

One plan should be for when and how they will retire, and another for if they should die while they are in full control of the business. Things happen and will happen and can be devastating to the family – financially and emotionally.

MORE ON MARKETING: How to Begin a Business Valuation | How to Help a Client Start a New Business | Second Opinions: An Old Service Under a New Label | Help Clients with Employment Compensation | Help Clients with Basic Budgeting | Questions for After Tax Season | 28 Data Points for a Financial Planning Discussion
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Helping a client develop a succession plan can be a valuable good deed for the family as well as providing a great feeling of comfort for the business owner. Advising on how to transfer stock to successors or the next generation always represents additional services.
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