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Michelle River: The Hidden Data Behind CPA Firm Burnout and Profit Pressure | Gear Up for Growth

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How savvy CPAs are unlocking powerful insights buried in their practice management systems. Plus: Download the slide deck.

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Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines

“What surprised me most isn’t what the data says,” says Michelle Golden River, CEO of Fore LLC, in a new episode of Gear Up for Growth, powered by CPA Trendlines. “It’s that almost every CPA already has it, and it rarely makes it into leadership conversations.” 

Download Michelle River’s slide deck here

MORE Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here MORE Gear Up for Growth | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network here

River tells host Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing, that firms are overlooking powerful insights buried in their own practice management data. 

River challenges CPA firm leaders to rethink long-held assumptions about growth and sustainability. “There is no reason we should be taking a high volume of low spenders when it’s killing us. It’s ruining our sustainability chances,” she says

River leaves three top takeaways for CPA firms:

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Inside Tax Season’s Hidden Shift: Same Work, Fewer People, Higher Cost

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And that’s the good news.

Your mileage may vary: The tax and accounting workforce is churning out almost as many returns. But with rising labor costs. Is that a margin squeeze or the firm of the future? (Index = pro-filed tax returns, annualized payrolls, and headcounts)

By CPA Trendlines

New CPA Trendlines Research suggests that the much vaunted promises of AI-enabled efficiencies are still just that – promises.

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So far this year, firms are producing even fewer tax returns than at the same time last year, while salaries are increasing.

The problem gets worrisome when you notice that headcounts are flat to down. Or, are these the signs of a new paradigm?

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Matt Tait: Why Franchising Is the Next Big Thing for CAS | Big 4 Transparency

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Why private equity may accelerate – not kill – entrepreneurship in accounting.

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Big 4 Transparency
With Dominic Piscopo, CPA

Decimal CEO Matt Tait joins Dominic Piscopo to explain why his CAS firm is franchising its playbook, how it drives 50%-plus margins with queue-based delivery and daily book maintenance, and why private equity may accelerate – not kill – entrepreneurship in accounting.

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Tait says the biggest accounting story right now isn’t just AI, it’s the industry’s next operating model.

On the Big 4 Transparency, Tait says Decimal started as a “different” CAS and bookkeeping firm while simultaneously building an internal operating system for running a modern accounting shop. In under six years, Decimal has served 1,000+ businesses and grown to 100+ employees – and now it’s taking its playbook to market through franchising. READ MORE →

Rebecca Driscoll: A Millennial and a Boomer Walk into a Bar… | The Disruptors

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The Collaboration Room turns online peer networks into practical tools for pricing strategy, tax planning, succession, and psychological safety.

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Build a 7-figure firm in just 4 hours a week!

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Before they co-founded The Collaboration Room, Rebecca Driscoll and Mike Sylvester, CEO of SBS CPA Group, had both been helping accountants with challenges on an informal basis.

“It felt kind of like disorganized, and we just needed one place,” Driscoll explains.

IN THIS EPISODE: The Collaboration Room | Brenda Cannon | Mike Sylvester | SchedulEase | Take Your Life Back Tax Pro Community | Tax Retreat | 

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 |

After Brenda Cannon, co-founder of Cannon & Associates and founder of SchedulEase and the Take Your Life Back Tax Pro Community, connected them, they spent months testing ideas, questioning assumptions, and allowing the concept to grow organically before launching in the fall of 2024. “It doesn’t have to be perfect, and we’ll let it evolve and see what it becomes,” Driscoll says.   READ MORE →