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Leveraging Leadership: A New Way of Looking at Growth

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Leader-driven growth. Not just a bunch of rainmakers.

By Gale Crosley
crosleycompany.com

I see it all the time.  Well-intentioned accounting firms do what they believe are the right things.  They sponsor events.  They publish articles.  They meet and greet. But they don’t grow.

More on Growth Strategies for Multi-Partner Firms:  Are You Creating a Sustainable Firm?    |     Don’t Confuse Marketing with a True Growth Strategy     |      Overcoming Four Imaginary Barriers that Limit CPA Firm Growth     |     How Firms Unleash the Power of Diamonds, Cash Cows and Fat Cats     |     How Smart Firms Use Market Research   |

At most firms growth is an individual contributor activity.  Lone ranger partners do their own thing, attracting clients here and there and offering services they believe clients need.  But despite the efforts of individual partners, there’s little solid growth to show for the effort.

That’s when they call.  “Gale, we need your help!  Market conditions aren’t great and we’re getting hammered with competitive pricing.  We have to increase our marketing so we can grow!”

Whoa cowboy, sit back in that saddle and let’s talk a while. READ MORE →

The Five Essential Skills Accountants Need Today

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Above and beyond accounting, you need business know-how.

By Sandi Smith Leyva, CPA
Accountant’s Accelerator

We’ve worked super-hard on gaining our accounting, tax, and auditing skills.  Those skills alone will keep us working as employees for someone else, but what if we want to go out on our own or grow our business beyond what we have now?

More for soloists and small firms: The Seven Essential Components of a Simple Marketing Plan for Accountants  | Take Six Big Steps to Go Beyond Compliance Services     |     When Your Business Needs to Be Rebooted  |   Two Steps to Easy Cross-sells   |   The Hot New Tech Product for Automated Data Entry   |   Five Value-Add Service Areas to Take You Beyond Bookkeeping   |   Six Money-Making Strategies to Take You Beyond QuickBooks   |   Proactive Ways to Get More Referrals   |   The Three Biggest Money Leaks in Your Practice   |   New Client Opportunities with Mobile Apps   |   Six Questions to Launch Your Summer Strategy Sessions   |   What Most Accountants Miss in the Five Simple Steps to Get More Clients   |   Accountants, Do You Know Your Opportunity Number? | Five Ideas to Reduce Client Price-Sensitivity | Rise to the Top with a Fresh Elevator Speech | Four Ways to Practice Entrepreneurial Perseverance | 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Seeking New Clients  | The Top 12 Business Card Blunders Accountants Make | Seven Tips to Keep the Clients You Have | How to Attract Clients Like a Magnet | Eleven Easy Ways to Deliver More Value to Clients

Here are five skills to consider adding to your toolbox so you can get ahead faster. How do you rate in each of these areas?

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What I’ve Learned from My Clients

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By Sandi Smith Leyva
Accountant’s Accelerator

I feel extremely fortunate to have such a wonderful set of clients that I have learned much from the last few years.

More for soloists and small firms: Take Six Big Steps to Go Beyond Compliance Services     |     When Your Business Needs to Be Rebooted  |   Two Steps to Easy Cross-sells   |   The Hot New Tech Product for Automated Data Entry   |   Five Value-Add Service Areas to Take You Beyond Bookkeeping   |   Six Money-Making Strategies to Take You Beyond QuickBooks   |   Proactive Ways to Get More Referrals   |   The Three Biggest Money Leaks in Your Practice   |   New Client Opportunities with Mobile Apps   |   Six Questions to Launch Your Summer Strategy Sessions   |   What Most Accountants Miss in the Five Simple Steps to Get More Clients   |   Accountants, Do You Know Your Opportunity Number? | Five Ideas to Reduce Client Price-Sensitivity | Rise to the Top with a Fresh Elevator Speech | Four Ways to Practice Entrepreneurial Perseverance | 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Seeking New Clients  | The Top 12 Business Card Blunders Accountants Make | Seven Tips to Keep the Clients You Have | How to Attract Clients Like a Magnet | Eleven Easy Ways to Deliver More Value to Clients

Here is a list of lessons learned that I hope will inspire you to work with your clients in new ways.

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11 Questions You Should Be Asking

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A few easy-to-ask, feel-good questions can get a client or prospect comfortable and talking. It’s up to you to know how to listen and how to find ways to help. From Bob Burg, Author, “Endless Referrals.”  1. How did you … Continued

Don’t Confuse Marketing with a True Growth Strategy

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Practice growth is a delicate balance of art, science, intuition and diligence. One thing it isn’t, however, is marketing.

By Gale Crosley
Crosley+Company

Marketing can be a powerful lever to fuel business expansion. But alone, it will not take you where you want to go. Marketing helps till the soil of growth. At the end of the day, however, tilled soil with no seeds taking root is pretty much a useless pile of dirt.

Well-intentioned firms often invest a great deal of money in marketing and wonder why it doesn’t result in growth. One reason is that what they’re really spending on is unrelated marketing activities (or tactics) rather than on growth strategies.

It’s an essential distinction that can make all the difference in your efforts.

In this report:

  • The three elements at the foundation of growth strategies
  • Three steps to create a comprehensive strategy

Recommended reading:

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Five Value-Add Service Areas to Take You Beyond Bookkeeping

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By Sandi Smith, CPA
Accountant’s Accelerator

Every business needs to do some level of bookkeeping for a couple of reasons:

1) Various government agencies require reporting and payments based on the company’s results.

2) The owner needs a certain amount of information to manage their business and keep it profitable.

Many business owners hire us grudgingly for compliance work because they have to. And they consider what they pay us as an overhead expense that is a required cost.

But what if we could turn that perception around?

More at CPA Trendlines for soloists and small firms:  Six Money-Making Strategies to Take You Beyond QuickBooks   | Proactive Ways to Get More Referrals   |  The Three Biggest Money Leaks in Your Practice   |  New Client Opportunities with Mobile Apps   |  Six Questions to Launch Your Summer Strategy Sessions   |  What Most Accountants Miss in the Five Simple Steps to Get More Clients   |  10 Ways to Add a “Money Maker” Hour to Your Day   |  11 Sources of Wealth We Can Celebrate   |  Nine Value-Adds to Command a Higher Fee   |  How to Design Your Business Around Your Strengths

Here are five areas to consider offering beyond bookkeeping that will help your clients see you as a good investment rather than as an expense. READ MORE →

Proactive Ways to Get More Referrals

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By Sandi Smith Leyva, CPA
Accountant’s Accelerator

There are many great things about getting referrals.  First, referrals have a built-in trust that helps you move through the sales process faster.  Second, there’s almost no marketing cost involved.  Third, they tend to make a better long-term client.

Unfortunately, many business owners take a reactive approach to referrals, waiting until they come to them, rather than a more profitable approach, which is to proactively maximize referrals. Here are five proactive ways to boost referrals: READ MORE →