Ron Baker: Monetize the Relationship, Not the Transaction

Ron Baker: The subscription model optimizes lifetime customer value.

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music and Audible, Player FM, Audacy, Gaana (India), and Boomplay (Africa).

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines

Ron Baker has been on a crusade to transform accounting firms for decades, first by pushing us to kill the billable hour and to implement value pricing. Today, he’s advising accountants to switch to a radically different business model. His new book, co-authored with Paul Dunn, “Time’s Up! The Subscription Business Model for Professional Firms,” explains the subscription model and why moving to this model aligns the values of firm owners with those of their customers.

MORE: Erik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a MindshiftJennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone LovesMike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training PracticesHector Garcia: Success Strategies of a Quickbooks YouTube Superstar | Blake Oliver: Why Tax Work Yearns To Be FreePrivate Equity Explodes in U.K. | Brannon Poe: The Status Quo Must Go  | Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers  | Disruptor: Jason Statts Shakes Up the Status Quo | Think Small to Think Big with Matt WilkinsonWhen Financial Statements Go Extinct with Corey SchmidtCan Geraldine Carter Save Accountants from Themselves?Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson

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

This book began from Ron’s obsession with the question “What would happen if Disney started CPA firms?” Accounting wouldn’t be a grudge purchase with low prices, but Disney “would enhance the experience and you would pay a fortune and you would be delighted to do so.” In today’s world, your customers are no longer comparing your firm to the other CPA firms, but to “any organization that has the capacity of raising our customer’s expectations,” such as Nordstrom or Amazon. Baker said, “We need to up our game as a profession.”