Today's Features

Bissett Bullet: Cash Reserves Kill Anxiety

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “The best thing you can do for your business is to build a six-month reserve for your personal and business finances.”

By Martin Bissett

Building a three- or six-month cash reserve removes anxiety. It creates calm and confidence and avoids lowballing just to win work. It frees creativity and allows you to think clearly about new ways to help your clients or to communicate your message to potential future clients.

Today’s To-Do:

Calculate your monthly expenses. Not income but what it costs you to keep the lights on for a month. Budget to save a small percentage of that each month until you have built enough of a reserve to keep going for six months without income.

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Ellison-Taylor: Small Firms’ Fix for Talent Crisis | Gear Up For Growth

They’re not leaving the firm. They’re leaving you.

Originally published Jan. 10, 2025.
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Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines

What’s driving talent out of accounting firms? According to Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, CPA, CGMA, CITP, CISA, everything from outdated leadership to untold success stories is pushing promising professionals away. In this episode of Gear Up for Growth, powered by CPA Trendlines, host Jean Caragher sits down with the powerhouse behind KET Solutions to explore how the profession can—and must—change to attract and retain the next generation.

Gear Up for Growth spotlights the best strategies for smart and efficient growth in today’s competitive landscape. More Gear Up for Growth More Capstone Conversations with Jean Caragher | 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

Ellison-Taylor, former chair of both the AICPA and the Maryland Association of CPAs, started her journey into accounting as a third grader inspired by a career-day presentation. That spark led to decades of leadership—and now, a mission to transform the narrative around what it means to be a CPA.

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How Accounting Leaders Build Influence Without a Big Four Resume | Accounting Influencers

…And the 8 emerging leadership paths that can help you rise to the top…


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Accounting Influencers
With Rob Brown

In the world of accounting, influence is no longer the exclusive domain of Big Four alumni or Ivy League pedigrees. Each December, Accounting Today releases its Top 100 Most Influential People list, highlighting leaders who shape the profession. The surprising truth behind many of these selections? Over 70% started from modest beginnings, without elite credentials, but with a clear strategy for building career capital.

In a recent episode of the Accounting Influencers Podcast, host Rob Brown delves into the evolving landscape of leadership in accounting. “This isn’t about popularity or vanity metrics,” Brown says. “It’s about curating influence—the kind that drives innovation, fosters relevance, and moves the profession forward.”

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77 No-Brainer Opportunities in Small Business Advisory

The Checklist of Checklists Quick-Start Guide

man in glasses looking at document held by woman

You can take action starting today.

By Ed Mendlowitz
77 Ways to Wow!

This list is a guide to jog additional thought about a client’s business. I have done all of these, and, at some point, I started making a list to help me remember. I also used it to help staff choose a few items each time they performed services for a client as a value-added benefit to the client.

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The listing can also be used a guide for a separate engagement. Either way, the emphasis should be to provide information to the client about their business that the client does not already consider, focus in on or know about.
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How Automation Boosts Staffing

And four ways it pushes the paradigm shift.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

When you have three people in your firm, each doing things their own way, you won’t be able to standardize until you get them all on the same page. Technology makes it easy to do that.

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Technology is spurring innovation and driving automation – and that’s reshaping the future of accounting. Automation is simply using technology to complete tasks that are typically done by humans, and it will help you standardize by providing:
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