What's in Store for Small Firms?

Source: Current Accounts

Consultant Hugh Duffy offers several predictions for small accounting firms for the latter part of 2010, including:

• Small businesses will continue to struggle with liquidity, which will have a negative impact on small accounting firms.
• The number of “micro-businesses” – sole proprietorships with no employees – will continue to grow.
• The top-100 accounting firms will continue reducing staff.
• Small accounting firms will see a dramatic shift from traditional desktop computing to cloud-based computing, laptops, and smart phones.
• Widespread unemployment will lead to a sharp increase in accounting firm startups.
• Evolution toward the paperless office will continue.
• The number of home-based businesses will continue to rise.
• Local networking groups will see membership decline as enrollment in online networking groups such as LinkedIn and Facebook continues to grow.

For the complete article, read “Top Trends for Small Accounting Firms” on page 29 of the September/October issue.

From Current Accounts, Georgia Society of CPAs.