Today's Features
MARKETING & SALES

Eleven Pitfalls of Mergers

two men standing and shaking hands

And three steps for success.

By August Aquila
MAX: Maximize Productivity, Profitability and Client Retention

The trend for small and midsized CPA firms to merge is accelerating as the competitive environment becomes even more demanding. While hundreds of firms merge every year, history continually shows that at some point in the future, things don’t always work out. Like marriage, some mergers are successful while a great majority fail. Many of the reasons for failure can be avoided if firms do their homework at the front end before entering the merger.

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The merger and acquisition drivers are constantly changing. Some of the drivers we see today are a constantly changing marketplace, the creation of megafirms beyond the Big 4, the sophistication of clients, the high demand for qualified people, technology, the cost of acquiring new clients, and finally, the accounting industry being in a mature market.
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MANAGEMENT

Seven Reasons People Quit Public Accounting

man in suit exiting office building

Better leadership could change this.

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

I have written about CPAs who leave public accounting and go to work in private industry. Based upon the comments and emails I’ve received, this is an involved topic and I would like to delve into it further.

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I was writing about my observations, particularly of many people in their mid-50s I have known who cannot get jobs in private industry after spending a major part of their careers there. Obviously, there are many people with extremely successful careers in private industry and I was not addressing them, but I do consider them to be in the minority. Also, we are all individuals, and we each decide on how we want to work and what we are comfortable with. No one, including me, has any right to criticize them or tell them they should have done it differently.
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PRO Member Exclusive

Who Will Do What by When?

six people around work table

How to implement your firm’s strategic plan.

By Matt Rampe

After laying out major strategic priorities for how the firm can move toward its vision, the natural next step is to refine and define those plans. This is the beginning of the Implement stage, perhaps the most important stage of all.

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FORTUNA ACCOUNTING CHECK-IN

Sal had been at Fortuna Accounting since the beginning, and Bill knew he wasn’t great at accountability. It wasn’t that Sal didn’t want things to be better; it just seemed like he would do a lot of talking without a lot of acting on the things expected of him. With all the work and hopes that had been invested into their strategic planning so far, Bill wanted to make sure it didn’t all go to waste in the execution phase.

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PRICING, FEES & BILLING RATES

Don’t Lose Your Shirt Over Process

Standardize and tell your clients what you need.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

Why is McDonald’s easy to price and why is their product so consistent no matter where in the world you are? You know that if you get a Big Mac in Chicago or one in New York, it will taste and cost the same. This is because of standardization, and you shouldn’t underestimate the role digitized data plays in maintaining this consistency.

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Your firm can standardize and price just like McDonald’s does, if you have the right tech infrastructure, in addition to standards related to both clients and workflow.
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PRO Member Exclusive

Four Questions about Your Partnership Readiness

confident businesswoman seated at desk

Plus a five-point checklist.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

The Passport to Partnership study collated a number of responses in a conversational style.

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But two brief but succinct examples on the realities of how a firm assesses an individual’s “competence” for leadership are showcased really stood out:

  1. They need to explain technical data to me in a way that I know they understand.

  2. What kind of lifestyle does this person have outside of work? We’ll be looking at Facebook, X and Google to find out.

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