When COVID ‘Got Real’

Tax season turns into ‘advisory season,’ and a whole new niche is born.

^ Click to play

By CPA Trendlines Research

Gabrielle Luoma, long one of the profession’s leading innovators, says the future under COVID-19 belongs to the quick and the smart, in this exclusive video interview with CPA Trendlines. Firms will need to deploy new services to attract new clients who may have not realized that they needed a firm like yours but now do.

MORE COVID CONVERSATIONS: The COVID Outlook with Darren Root and Joel Hughes: A Long, Slow Climb back to Recovery | Steven Sacks: COVID Crisis Management | Jean Caragher: How to Fight ‘Fear’ and ‘Insecurity’ | Sarah Dobek: Learning How to Operate in the New Normal | August Aquila: What Comes Next? | Jody Grunden: COVID and Client Communications | Andrew Argue: On a Mission | Martin Bissett: COVID Slams U.K. Accountants, Too | Bill Reeb: Separating the Winners and Losers |

GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

^ Play or download the podcast version

In this conversation, Luoma talks about what’s going on in the business, what’s going on with tax season, and what the future holds for CPA firms and the clients of CPA firms.

Speaking from her base in Tucson, Ariz., the CEO of MOD Ventures is bringing some of her DNA to regional powerhouse Beach Fleischman through a joint venture.

We started by asking about “when it got real?”

She responds, “We truly are affected by the whole world. We have clients in New York. Things changed for them rather quickly. And when they started changing, we started realizing, ‘Oh, my goodness, we’re going to have to really buckle down.’ In Arizona, we started seeing shutdowns mid-March. That’s when things really got real for us because then we started seeing that the businesses that we work with on a regular basis – we’re outsourced accounting, so we work with clients weekly, – we knew that we could be in trouble. We started working really hard on transitioning, and seeing what we needed to do to help our clients quickly.”

For PRO Members-Only: Get the transcript:

[PRO Member Bonus]