GROWTH STRATEGIES

Digital Marketing Strategies Level the Playing Field

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Six goals you might have.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

Picking the best clients won’t automatically bring you a steady stream of eager prospects, ready to pay you their hard-earned cash. You have to do some work to help them find you.

MORE: It’s OK to Have Favorite Clients | Narrow Your Prospects by Choosing a Vertical | Build Your Team, Then Choose Your Clients | How Back Office Support Adds Value | AI Is Not Your Enemy
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Most accountants and bookkeepers would rather do anything other than marketing. Most equate marketing with being a pushy and sleazy used-car salesman. A better way to think about marketing is telling the world what you do, who you do it for, and how you can help the people who need your help.
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What Earnings Mean for a Business Valuation

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Why EBITDA falls short.

By Ed Mendlowitz
77 Ways to Wow!

Earnings are not always objective, and valuations apply a multiple to earnings to determine a company’s value. The elements making up a company’s valuation involve determining normalized earnings, a decision whether income taxes would be applied, and the capitalization rate to be used to get the value. There are also other factors, but this post looks at the quality of earnings.

MORE: Use Organization Charts to Rewrite the Future | What Clients Don’t Know about Cost Variances | How to Advise Clients on Allocating Business Resources | Be Wary of Discounting Prices | Where Is Your Firm in Its Lifecycle? | Six Kinds of Loan Covenants | What’s More Profitable, Raising or Lowering Prices? | Insurance You Might Not Know You Need
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It is always about the earnings – except when it isn’t. There are some situations where a company could be acquired based upon strategic, synergistic or ego considerations, but otherwise, valuation all boils down to a dependence on earnings and the quality of such earnings.
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Heather Satterley: You’ve Got to Meet People Where They Are

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Stop saying yes to everything and start saying yes to yourself.

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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Heather Satterley is well-known for being an accounting tech expert. But tech isn’t the only skill accountants need today and for the future. “You can have great technology skills, but if you don’t have people skills and those softer skills, that’s going to be a problem,” she said.   

MORE PODCASTS and VIDEOS: Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | Scott Scarano: First, Grow People. Then Firm Growth Can Follow | Jody Padar: Build a Practice that Works for You, Not Vice-Versa | Ira Rosenbloom: With M&A, Nobody Wants a Fixer-Upper | Peter Margaritis: The Power Skills Every Accountant Needs | Joe Montgomery: Find the Sweet Spot of the Right Clients, Right Services and Right Prices | Marie Green: Your Bad Apples Are Ruining You | Megan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than Compliance | Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for Life | Randy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees Happy | Erik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift | Jennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone Loves | Mike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training Practices | Hector Garcia: Success Strategies of a Quickbooks YouTube Superstar | Blake Oliver: Why Tax Work Yearns To Be Free| Private 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 Wilkinson | When Financial Statements Go Extinct with Corey Schmidt | Can Geraldine Carter Save Accountants from Themselves? | Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson

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One of those softer skills that will be a key skill for the future is problem-solving, which requires keeping an open mind to “look at not just facts and figures, but look at tools, resources, people and pull them all together,” she explained. No one can be an expert at everything, so having “a wide network of really awesome professionals” is vital for filling in any gaps “to get the job done.”  

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Are You Ready to Become a Data Analyst?

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The right dashboards can optimize your data … and your value.

By Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk

Business leaders are constantly called upon to make snap – yet important – decisions. Yet, poring through spreadsheets, reports and financial statements can be a laborious and time-consuming process, especially for those who need to act on urgent matters.

MORE: SURVEY: Zoom, Teams Top Meeting Choices | Are You Using Too Many Monitors? Or Not Enough? | One in Four Firms Replaces Servers by Schedule | You’re Probably Not Reading This on an iPad | 52% of Firms Look Outside for IT Support | Pandemic? What Pandemic? | Today’s Top 3 Problems: Staffing, Workflow and Tech
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This is where data visualization tools can be a tremendous boon to organizations. Automatically pulling from various data sources, these cloud-based, interactive dashboards present business data visually using charts, graphs and other widgets. Once designed, these repositories save precious time for analysts, managers and key decision-makers, allowing them to focus on the information and analysis rather than on the grueling process of gathering it and creating reports.

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Stop Sending the Wrong Message to Audit Teams

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Audit is becoming further commodified. 

By Alan Anderson
Transforming Audit for the Future

Instant download:
“The New Manifesto for Accountants.“

The value of what we provide to clients has declined until it has become a commodity. That, in turn, drives our fees down.

The lack of innovation means that our clients can’t tell the difference between the audit we do and one done by the firm down the street. None of them provide relevant information or any value to our clients.

MORE: Three Fundamental Questions to Ask in Audit | How Auditors Can Beat AI | The Big Issues in Audit: Frustration, Inconsistency and Technology | Five Ways to Increase Audit Efficiency | Early Adopters Gain an Edge in Audit | Talent Retention: Five Tips for an Audit Adjustment | Six Benefits of an Internal Audit | The Ten Financial Controls That’ll Make You a Hero | Five Cash Reports You Can’t Live Without | When an Audit Is a Great Thing
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If our clients don’t see the value, then the audit is only being done to meet a regulatory or banking requirement, and in that case, the cheapest option that meets that basic requirement is the one they choose.

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