Today's Features
CPA SHOW

The Role of Finance in Adaptive and Interactive Learning


Are you using everyone to their full potential?

By Jennifer Templeman
Jumpstart

Templeman will be appearing at the Accounting & Finance Show. Click here to learn more
Portrait of Jennifer Templeman
Templeman

I believe in the power of creativity, in innovative thinking, and of play as a conduit to bring forth new ideas. And yes, and I’m a CFO who leads a team of finance professionals who focus on compliance, adherence to regulations, and perfecting the process of predicting and ensuring an outcome based on historic performance and data.

Despite how at odds these two confessions may seem, they work together in a way that supports my belief that finance is a department designed to lead the culture in an organization.

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GROWTH STRATEGIES

Building a CPA Marketer’s Tech Stack

The right tools for the job.

Goricki

By Bob Goricki
Skoda Minotti

Being a CPA firm marketer means that you are often faced with two major limitations: time and budget. Unfortunately, I’m unable to create more of either, but I can point you in the direction of tools that can help maximize both.

10 More Great Tools at AAM Summit: For more tools, join Bob at the AAM Summit in Portland, Ore., May 15, at 3:50 p.m. for “10 Powerful Marketing Tools CPA Marketers Can Leverage Today.” To get more information or register for 2018 AAM Summit: Think Fresh! click here.

More at CPA Trendlines on: Marketing, Practice Development, Sales, Growth Strategies, and the AAM Summit.

Click to learn more

At this year’s AAM Summit, I’ll be sharing 10 of my favorite tools that help CPA marketers work smarter, not harder. While the full list will have to wait until May, I want to share a few “bonus” tools in this blog to jumpstart your post busy season marketing efforts before the conference. All of the tools below are free to try, so get started today!

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BUSY SEASON MANAGEMENT

IRS in Retreat from Communities

Disappearing brick-and-mortar offices undermine voluntary compliance, raising IRS costs.

By Rick Telberg
CPA Trendlines

In case you haven’t noticed, the Internal Revenue Service has been retreating from local communities.

SPECIAL REPORT – Fixing the IRS: IRS #FAILs at Online Services Spell Problems for Professionals | Tax Accountants Fill the Breach of a Failing IRS | Beware the EZ Way Out | Can the IRS Improve Its Phone Service? | When Clients Face ‘Unreal’ IRS Audits | IRS Warns about Private Debt Collectors for Tax Season 2018  | Underfunded IRS Swamped with Problems | IRS in Retreat from Communities | Military Personnel Face New Battles at Home: The IRS | As New Economy Surges, IRS Falls Further Behind | Is the IRS Winning the Battle Against Identity Theft? | IRS Mulls Raising Fees to Cover Budget Shortfalls  |

More at taxtrendlines.com

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Today it has outreach offices in only 33 states and the District of Columbia. Private sector tax preparers are about as close to the IRS as most taxpayers can get.

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GROWTH STRATEGIES

Selling vs. Attracting to Build Relationships

Break down unspoken barriers. Are you just about compliance?

By Martin Bissett
Winning Your First Client

It’s about time to realize that value is not about time.

MORE BISSETT: 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

When I look back on the research that has been conducted by various groups as to the biggest obstacles accounting firms cite to growing their practice,

  • 50 percent said creating opportunities,
  • 25 percent said knowing how to close deals
  • and the remainder said having self-confidence in presenting and then being able to positively differentiate from their competition.

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CLIENT SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

Marc Rosen on Relationship Capital [VIDEO]

The true currency of abundance.

Join Marc Rosen and other CPA Trendlines experts at the 2018 Association for Accounting Marketing Summit in Portland, Ore., May 14-17. Click to learn more

In this TEDx Talk, Marc Rosen, co-founder of the Client Experience Institute, addresses the $8 trillion of wealth about to be transitioned by baby boomers and how that impacts professionals like CPAs, financial advisors, and accountants.

More at CPA Trendlines on: Marketing, Practice Development, Sales, Growth Strategies, and the AAM Summit.

Client Experience Institute™ is an advisory firm specializing in serving organizations who are all about delivering more value, more knowledge, and more results to their respective stakeholders. They work with like-minded professionals who are willing to think differently about how value is created, delivered, and sustained.

CANNABIS

Five Secrets to Launching Your Own Cannabis Accounting Firm

Start with "shock-and-awe" service and tie billing rates to clients' topline revenues.

By Andrew Hunzicker
cannabizcpa.pro

To succeed in an accounting business in the booming cannabis niche, firms must be able to deliver real value to clients.

More at CPA Trendlines' cannabizcpa.pro: Five Reasons Accountants Should Serve Cannabis Clients  |   Derek Davis Keeps California Cannabis Clients Informed  |  Corporate to Cannabis: Laura Durham of Kind Accounting  |  Corporate to Cannabis: Laura Durham of Kind Accounting  |  The Fire Starter: Groundbreaking Cannabis CPA Luigi Zamarra  |  Commercial Medical Marijuana Use Comes to Michigan

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It's the first of five essential ingredients you'll need in order to prosper because many CEOs think of accounting and bookkeeping as a "cost” and a headache.

So your offering needs to be world-class, delivering “shock and awe” service to each of your clients.

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MARKETING & SALES

Go Viral: Making Your Content Marketing Worth the Time and Trouble

Four tips for creating content that generates leads and wins new business.

Nelson
Join Christine Nelson and other CPA Trendlines experts at the 2018 Association for Accounting Marketing Summit in Portland, Ore., May 14-17. Click to learn more

By Christine Nelson
Ingenuity Marketing

Content is king, except when no one reads it.

If you want people to read your website, blog, brochure or articles, use these hints from our business ghostwriters.

More at CPA Trendlines on: Marketing, Practice Development, Sales, Growth Strategies, and the AAM Summit.

These principles come from studies of sticky ideas, ways to attract attention and persuade readers. Use a few in your next writing project to create engagement with your audience. READ MORE →

CHECKLIST

Today’s Top 20 Tips for Building a Growth-Driven Accounting Firm

Checklist: The best ideas from the top rainmakers.

Join CPA Trendlines experts at the 2018 Association for Accounting Marketing Summit in Portland, Ore., May 14-17. Click to learn more.

By Rick Telberg
CPA Trendlines

While most accounting firms do a good job of sustaining revenues through a strong referral system, the best-performing practices put robust systems in place to attract new prospects, cultivate leads, and close new business.

More at CPA Trendlines on: Marketing, Practice Development, Sales, and Growth Strategies

In a new survey of top accounting firm marketers and rainmakers, CPA Trendlines finds at least 20 strategies worth sharing: READ MORE →