Coronavirus

Your Marketing Sucks: Six Reasons Why

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Want new business? Avoid these errors.

By Bill Penczak

It’s an understatement to characterize CPAs as process-oriented, with prescribed steps for financial statement audits and tax return preparation that follow a specific regimen. Among the many jokes about accountants, the one that resonates here is:

Why did the auditor cross the road?

Because he looked in the file and that’s what they did last year.

MORE: Re-Thinking Today’s Firm with Five Global Leaders | 5 Things Your Firm Should Do Differently This Summer | Do You Have the Guts to Beat the Covid Crisis? | How to Inoculate Your Firm against Covid Competition | ‘Found Money’ Delights Clients | The Three R’s for Beating the Corona Crisis

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But the “funny” thing is that while CPAs are typically pedantic about the processes for client work, it’s often a case of the cobbler’s shoes when it comes to running their firms in general, and practice development in particular. READ MORE →

Tech: Accountants Are Losing the Race

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infographic
All images: Zapier Data

What do other businesses know that we’re ignoring?

By CPA Trendlines

Among the many wonderful things COVID-19 bestowed on American business, new business models probably rank first. Those who figured out how to adapt found themselves competitive. Those who didn’t now drive for Uber.

MORE: Automation without Accountants
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The accounting industry was among the quick adapters.

Though quick to adapt to a modified office structure, CPA shops have been slow to adopt automation. Other small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have proven far quicker.

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How COVID Changes Succession Planning

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Overhead view of people solving a large jigsaw puzzleLarger firms want to drive scale; smaller firms want more distribution and leverage.

By Ira Rosenbloom

Even as the pandemic rips through the world with horrific tragedy, it is also spawning some new ideas, some critical imperatives, and some unforeseen opportunities, especially in the area of CPA firm succession.

MORE: Top 10 Steps to Maximizing Profitability
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We are witnessing a heightened interest in firms committing sincerely to mergers and other practice combinations, and there is now a shifting business culture that aligns better with internal practice succession than we have seen in a long while.

These shifts in succession potential are largely a function of technology, quality of life, client needs (and demands), and resources.

Let’s break it down:

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Five Global CPA Leaders: Four Survival Strategies

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Sometimes it takes a catastrophe to spur fundamental change, and that’s what we’re seeing today.

https://cpatrendlines.com/2020/08/05/5-firm-leaders-on-how-covid-19-is-changing-their-thinking/
New imperatives, from the U.S. to Spain, Australia, and back: McConnell, Fay, Tomasi, and Majchrzak.

By Bill Penczak

The combination of the summer doldrums and the COVID shutdown has provided some firm leaders pause to get in touch with their right-brainedness.

MORE MARKETING in the COVID ERA: 5 Things Your Firm Should Do Differently This Summer | Do You Have the Guts to Beat the Covid Crisis? | How to Inoculate Your Firm against Covid Competition | ‘Found Money’ Delights Clients | Don’t Buy a Rolodex, Buy a Process | The Three R’s for Beating the Corona Crisis | 6 Reasons Why Your Marketing Sucks |

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These are difficult times for the economy and the industry, and while some firms hope to return to the good old days, COVID and other societal changes may cause a long-overdue sea change in the accounting industry, which has been doing the same thing the same way for more than 100 years.

Sometimes it takes a catastrophe to spur fundamental change, and that’s what we’re seeing today.

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The 14 Trends Crushing Today’s Accountants

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Business hand holding hot chart in crystal ballPlus: Nine fatal flaws in the accounting firm business model.

By Marc Rosenberg
The Role of the Managing Partner

One purpose of strategic planning is to address trends taking place in the profession to ensure that the firm isn’t caught flat-footed when major changes or opportunities present themselves.

MORE: 13 Traits of the Best Managing Partners | Top Issues for Millennial Managing Partners | The Managing Partner’s Secret Weapon | How a Good Managing Partner Impacts Profitability | How a Great Managing Partner Impacts Firm Growth | Compensation Is No Way to Manage Partners
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Believe it or not, most of these trends have not changed much over the past decade or so. And the global pandemic only served to disrupt the status quo and accelerate long-standing trends.
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16 Questions to Set Your Practice Goals

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Businessman pole vaulting toward his goalPlus three guidelines for setting financial targets.

By Anthony Glomski and Russ Alan Prince
Your $5-Million High-Net-Worth Practice

The accounting business was changing even before the onset of the COVID-19 crisis.

MORE: 6 Steps to Maximize Referrals | It’s All About Your Wealthy Clients | Conviction + Process + Expertise = Your Next $5 Million | A High-Net-Worth Practice in Four Steps | Don’t Ignore Life Insurance | Adultery and Other Messy Situations | How to Attract the Super-Rich
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Three of the factors that are possibly impinging on your ability to be as successful as you want include:

    • Significantly increased competition: From more accountants to other professionals encroaching on some of the expertise accountants provide, there is greater competition for the better clients.

READ MORE →