Today's Features
SPECIAL

Time to Initiate Planning: What Do We Want to Accomplish?

four businesspeople seated around table with whiteboard behind them

Why psychological safety is so important.

By Matt Rampe

You’re at the starting line! You know what strategic planning is and why it matters, and you’re ready to begin. This article will tell you all about how to start strategic planning. It’s called Stage 1: Initiate.

MORE: Why Strategic Planning Matters More Than Ever
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While we eventually will cover the whole 5i process, it’s worth noting that this process can be tailored to your firm, so feel free to take pieces of it that may apply and leave behind any that don’t, based on your situation. You’ll find many useful tools and ideas even if you don’t use the whole framework.
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PRICING, FEES & BILLING RATES

Value Pricing Impacts Your Employees: Here’s How

Put the focus where it belongs.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

Do you think any of your staff studied accounting in college so that they could punch a time clock for the rest of their life? They value being professionals as much as you do. More than likely, they enjoy being valued for their knowledge and experience.

MORE by Jody Padar
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Given the choice between being valued for their time or valued for their professional accomplishments, which do you think they’d prefer? Valued employees are happy employees!

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MARKETING & SALES

Attracting Clients vs. Selling to Them

Are you genuinely interested in your prospects?

By Martin Bissett
Winning Your First Client

It’s about time to realize that value is not about time.

When I look back on the research that has been conducted by various groups as to the biggest obstacles accounting firms cite to growing their practice,

  • 50 percent said creating opportunities,
  • 25 percent said knowing how to close deals
  • and the remainder said having self-confidence in presenting and then being able to positively differentiate from their competition.

Let’s not sell, let’s attract.

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AUDIT & ASSURANCE

The Post-Audit Debrief Most Teams Get Wrong

Why most debriefs fail to change the next audit—and how to turn them into real design inputs

By William Englehaupt

As one audit cycle closes and the next begins, most teams go through some form of debrief. In theory, this is where learning happens, where teams step back, reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and carry those insights forward.

In practice, it rarely works that way.

MORE Audit & Assurance

Debriefs are often rushed or treated as closure rather than input. The questions are familiar—what went well, what didn’t—but the discussion stays at the surface. Late nights, difficult clients, tight deadlines. The symptoms are easy to identify. The underlying causes are not. READ MORE →

PODCAST

Sharrin Fuller: Build It Better, Then Let It Run Without You | The Disruptors

Freedom comes from systems.

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The Disrupters
With Liz Farr
For CPA Trendlines

Sharrin Fuller isn’t your typical accountant. For one, she’s not a CPA. She doesn’t have an accounting degree. She didn’t even go to college. But despite lacking what most consider the usual credentials and following “the most unconventional and broken path possible,” she managed to build and sell two successful accounting firms. Fuller recounts this story in her new book, Unfollow the Rules: The Messy Truth About Burnout, Bad Decisions, and Building Until It Works. 

MORE DISRUPTORS: Candy Bellau: The $350 Pricing Mistake that Nearly Broke this Boutique Firm | The Disruptors | Poe: What P.E. Really Wants from Firms | The Disruptors  | Blake Oliver: Build a Biz that Runs Without You | Daiber: Use Succession as a Growth Strategy | Cannon: Busy Season is Self-Inflicted | Carroll: When One Person Can Break the Firm | Rampe: Build a Roadmap Even When the Road’s Not There | Chang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time |

MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network

Fuller wrote this book to help entrepreneurs see behind the social media images of success. “All you see are their wins and their glorified wins, but you don’t know what it took to get them there,” she explains. Her book was originally intended to be a how-to guide, but halfway through the process, she changed her mind. “I don’t want to write this book telling people this is how you should do it,” she explains. “I needed to be vulnerable so people could understand how I got to the point that I got to.” 

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