Today's Features
ACCOUNTING INFLUENCERS

Panel: Radical Changes Coming in Pay and AI | Accounting Influencers

It’s time to abandon outdated models and rethink everything.

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Accounting Influencers
with Rob Brown

The accounting profession is standing at a critical juncture. In a powerhouse panel for the Accounting Influencers Podcast, three industry leaders—David Osborne, CEO of Conga and former Caseware chief; Tom Hood, EVP of Business Engagement and Growth at the AICPA; and Katie Thomas, owner and founder of Leaders Online—called for a radical reimagining of how the profession recruits, retains, and empowers talent.

Hood doesn’t mince words. “Technology has always been the biggest driver of change in our profession,” he says, pointing to generative AI as both a threat and a massive opportunity. Yet, he warns, “We’re hearing parents tell students not to go into accounting because it’s going away. I actually happen to think the exact opposite.”

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GROWTH STRATEGIES

Niche Down to Scale Up

woman holding eyeglasses and looking at laptop screen

How to find your ideal client.

By Jackie Meyer

Trying to be everything to everyone is a recipe for burnout and mediocrity. That’s why one of the fastest ways to scale up your practice is to niche down and find your ideal client profile (ICP). It might feel counterintuitive to narrow your focus, but trust me, specialization is powerful.

MORE: How to Define Your Vision | How I Became an Accidental Entrepreneur | Build a Seven-Figure Firm in Four Hours a Week
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The Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)

Before we dive in, let’s address the elephant in the room: the fear that by niching, you’ll lose opportunities. Many advisors hesitate to niche down because they worry, “What if I turn away someone and regret it? What if I limit my opportunities and my phone stops ringing?” It’s a valid emotional concern, but let’s bust the myth:

  • Serving everyone dilutes your expertise and makes it harder to stand out.

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CLIENT ACCOUNTING SERVICES

How CAS Boosts Profitability

Use pricing strategies to your advantage.

By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide

Pricing your services correctly to ensure reasonable profitability is a major decision you will take in your client accounting services practice.

MORE by Hitendra Patil
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The accounting profession’s largest CAS survey results revealed how CAS firms price their CAS offering:

  • The topmost method of pricing the CAS offering is fixed/flat fee, used by 41 percent of the respondents.
  • The next common method of pricing CAS is “mixed method of pricing” (a mix of hourly, fixed and value pricing), charged by 36 percent of respondents.
  • Hourly billing method is used by 33 percent of respondents.
  • About 28 percent of respondents use value pricing as the method for CAS pricing.

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CLIENT SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

Mitchell Reno: CX as a Growth Driver | Gear Up For Growth

Firms with client experience programs see 19% higher growth rates, according to ClearlyRated study. 
Originally published Nov. 8, 2024.
Sponsored by “Radical Pricing: How to Optimize Profits, Delight Clients, and Build a Top-Value Firm” by Jody Padar, CPA – See Today’s Special Offer

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Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines

Creating a truly differentiated client experience can be the key to standing out in a profession defined by trust, service, and technical excellence. That’s the message from Mitchell Reno, director of client experience at Rehmann, in this episode of Gear Up for Growth, hosted by Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing.
Gear Up for Growth spotlights the best strategies for smart and effficient growth in today’s competitive landscape. More Gear Up for Growth every Friday here.|  More Capstone Conversations with Jean Caragher every Monday | More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More CPA Trendlines videos and podcasts here
Drawing on more than two decades of marketing and advisory experience—including 14 years as Rehmann’s chief marketing and sales officer—Reno discusses how client experience, when strategically engineered, becomes not only a competitive differentiator but a catalyst for firm-wide growth and innovation.

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ABOUT US

Bissett Bullet: Take Charge

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “The reason that accounting professionals don’t close deals in a timely manner is that they leave it to the prospect.”

By Martin Bissett

We know that marketing is all about getting appointments in the diary, but when we get to that all-important first meeting, we find out what service the business is currently receiving from their present accountant, establish that we offer some services that they would benefit from and then leave it up to the prospect. That is why the trail goes cold; that is why we struggle to get a return phone call.

It’s up to you to create enough interest to get the second meeting arranged during the first.

Today’s To-Do:

Look at your last three unsuccessful proposals and reflect on those meetings. Did you ask for the second meeting or did you leave it to them? In hindsight, what would you have done differently? Is there a recurring theme?

See more Bissett Bullets here

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