CPA Leadership Journal
The foundation of any accounting firm is built on our clients. And the glue or the “stickiness” that binds them to our firms is the personal relationships that we build with them. We should covet them, nurture them and protect them. Nothing new here…
The CPA profession is changing rapidly: ongoing consolidation, a shortage of quality CPAs, baby boomer founding and rainmaker partners retiring, keeping pace with and the cost of technology, intensified competition for new clients and staff, private…
For a CPA firm to operate at its best we need to do well on each of these nine rules: 1. Focus What is our firm legitimately number one at? Who is our ideal customer/target market? 2. Values What are our core values? Are we hiring and firing for…
No matter what the size of your firm, I’m sure you have a CPE (Continuing Professional Education) budget. How you spend these dollars is not something that should be taken lightly. Of course, you need to focus on developing the technical skills of…
Are you a proactive CPA firm leader on the lookout for additional offerings to provide your clients and expand your bottom line? If so, you might consider offering Virtual CFO services. Recently, Summit CPA Group shared their years of VCFO experience…
Your clients are not buying tax, accounting, and financial services from you; they are buying peace of mind. They probably don’t realize it and maybe you don’t even recognize it. That is why you should be conveying to them, in subtle ways, that peace…
Expand your luck surface area. Success requires smarts, hard work (not the old way of just putting in more hours), patience (commitment to your vision) and a bit of luck…. So the question is, how do you expand your luck surface area? There are a few…
One of the most challenging problems of leading a CPA firm in this very competitive environment is the ability to implement succession strategies and initiatives with a “sense of urgency.” To establish a sense of urgency, firm leaders must recognize…
We worked with a 10-partner CPA firm a few years ago to change their income allocation method from an incredibly complicated formula that was deeply flawed to a compensation committee (CC). We talked to the partner group recently to get their…
As accountants, we use a lot of technical terms; however, it’s important to relate to your audience and current and potential clients in a way that builds goodwill and trust—and not get hung up on technical language. Doing so in these three…
Over the years, we have found that many firms confuse terms for internal partner buyout plans with those commonly seen in external firm sales. Both transactions are vehicles for transferring CPA firm ownership, but there the similarity ends. The…
You are finally a partner. You have worked for the firm for several years and have proven your worth as a senior manager. All of a sudden things are different. You are no longer focused on pleasing the partners. You are a partner and now you have to…
When I became managing partner, it was an exciting time but I took on the position with little or no training or coaching. Who teaches you to be an effective MP? How do you know if you’re performing well? Your partners won’t tell you. If you’re new…
Question From a $12M Firm: We are setting out our strategy for the next several years and discussing the pros and cons of having a full-time managing partner and a full-time COO versus what we do today, which is to have these positions handled…
What does it take to succeed? That’s the question all motivated business owners ask themselves. There are basically six key aspects of business advice that will guide business owners to success, and which will equip you — the accountant/business…
