Freeman, Dixon: What to Do When AI Steals Your Clients | Gear Up for Growth

Every client relationship is now up for renewal—and every partner has to learn how to compete.

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Gear Up for Growth
with Jean Caragher
for CPA Trendlines

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“The relationship gets you in the door, but it doesn’t get you the work,” says Karen Freeman, chief product officer, DCM Insights, and co-author of Activator Advantage: What Today’s Rainmakers Do Differently, in this episode of Gear Up for Growth, powered by CPA Trendlines and hosted by Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing. “Once it’s competitive, it’s a lot harder to differentiate based on your past relationship.”

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Gear Up for Growth is tailored specifically for public accounting firms with up to 100 team members looking to expand their practices intelligently and efficiently.

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Freeman and co-author Matt Dixon, founding partner of DCM Insights, reflect on what they have learned one year after the release of their bestselling book. They discuss how AI, changing buyer behavior and increasing competition are reshaping growth strategies for accounting and advisory firms. Firms that rely on traditional relationship-based growth models risk falling behind.

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How Siblings Can Derail a Family Business

hands holding rope in tug of war

Succession plans can be tricky …  for the advisor.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Call Me Before You Do Anything: The Art of Accounting

Someone has to be the boss. When the founder is active, he or she is usually the boss. But what about parents who step aside to have their children run the business? Particularly where there is more than one child working in the business?

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I’ve seen some situations where two siblings can run the business as equals. And then, there are other situations where they can’t. What do you do?

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Art Werner: Just Don’t Call it a Trump Account | Quick Tax Tip

Trump accounts can be “one of the best” long-term planning options, despite their name, says Werner.

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Quick Tax Tip
With Art Werner
CPE Today

More Werner on Trump accounts.

Trump accounts are “one of the best provisions that we have seen,” tax expert Art Werner says in this Quick Tax Tip.

Acknowledging that the name itself may create resistance among some taxpayers, he says that for people who are not fond of President Trump, “when they hear the name Trump account, it turns them off.” But if they dismiss the account because of its name, he adds, “they are walking away from a tremendous opportunity.”

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Werner explains that funds in a Trump Account are effectively locked away until the child reaches age 18. Once the beneficiary reaches adulthood, the money can be used for specific purposes that he describes as major life milestones, including higher education, purchasing a first home, starting a business, and ultimately retirement planning.

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Nancy McClelland: Bookkeepers Need a Safe Space to Collaborate | The Disruptors

Bookkeepers often feel less empowered than tax professionals.

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Nancy McClelland wants to do more than just run her firm, The Dancing Accountant. She has two big passion projects that are creating the conversations and collaborations this profession desperately needs. Her community, Ask a CPA, aims to bridge the gap between bookkeepers and tax professionals. She also co-hosts a podcast with Questian Telka, She Counts, which provides a safe space for women in accounting to discuss real issues.

MORE STREAMING: Cannon: Busy Season is Self-InflictedCarroll: When One Person Can Break the FirmRampe: Build a Roadmap Even When the Road’s Not ThereChang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time | Vanover: 5-Star Firms Don’t Bill by the HourKless: Profit Is a Result. Flourishing Is the Purpose | Whitman: Build Culture on ‘Progress,’ Not Change | Shein: No PE? No M&A? No Problem | Hood and Weber: Time to RISEProctor: Turn Dumb Ideas into Brilliant SolutionsCarter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm | Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 Years |

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McClelland started the Ask a CPA Community when she noticed “this big gap that wasn’t about technical knowledge. It was about permission, about permission to collaborate.” While “bookkeepers are often the closest person to the financial truth of a business,” historically, “they’ve been positioned as subordinate to tax preparers, just sort of expected to hand off things and hope that they did it right,” McClelland explains.

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Unlock Accelerated Growth with 21 Questions

Business hand holding hot chart in crystal ball

Don’t stay attached to traditional models that no longer suit you.

By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great

When it comes to growth, two of my core beliefs are:

  • size matters, and
  • service line diversification (the professional services model) is better than the traditional accounting firm model.

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The proof is in the pudding.

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