do you want your firm to last after you’re gone?
by jody padar
from success to significance: the radical cpa guide
cpas are busy people – often to the detriment of their customers. when cpas don’t have time to understand their customers, they fail to give them real value and creative solutions.
more on radicalism: how ‘agile’ applies to cpa firms | introducing the fifth radical tenet: the business model | dear midsized firms: yes, you can change | the four tenets of radical firms: a brief review
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this is really concerning to me. it concerns me that many cpas are unwilling to do the work to keep their firms relevant. although they know that the world no longer works the way it did 20 years ago, they simply shrug their shoulders or look the other way because confronting change seems like too much work.
the reason? they just don’t know where to start. when something becomes overwhelming it’s easier to ignore it or look the other way than to try and figure it out.
but here’s what i think is really creating the problem: succession, older partners and their desire to retire.
it will take time, effort, and money to invest in your firm in order to remain relevant – not just today, but for generations to come. that is, if you want your firm to stick around. however, what i’m finding is that these retiring cpas are not willing to give up their compensation or their status within a firm in order to make the changes.
i’ve got news: it’s highly unlikely that the next generation of cpas will purchase an old-school firm. it’s way easier to open a new online firm, embrace the cloud and steal clients ready to jump. this is the biggest problem. many cpas are just flat out getting outpaced.
midsized firms, begin here.
if you are a midsized firm, you’ve built your business to where it is today, and you can pivot your business into being more future-ready. here are 10 steps you can take now to begin the process.
- identify the first critical change your firm needs to make and align it with your current business goals. for example, let’s use the goal of starting to price up front a certain service offering. answer these questions:
- what do we need to change? is it a sales process? a culture? a delivery model? an expectation?
- why is this change required? perhaps it’s because others in the marketplace are changing, technology is improving or there’s a better customer service model out there you’re not using.
- pick a small team to work on this change. when i say small, i mean fewer than five people. apply the term “agile” to the team. include a young person, a partner who can establish change (aka a decision-maker), a subject matter expert and someone who is anti-change.
- charge the team to create initiatives to support change.
- get super-specific here. one bigger goal, made up of lots of little goals.
- create a product based in current services.
- understand the customer.
- understand then choose the technology.
- apply service offering to change-friendly customer.
- learn from any mistakes.
- conduct an after-action review.
- alter the solution.
- create pricing.
- train a bigger team on the offering.
- market the solution.
- tie into the sales process.
- embed into the payment process.
- set a timeline and define the scope of the change project. each action step needs a deadline. the team should develop this and facilitate accountability.
- define budget for the spend and internal time for each of the action steps.
- develop a transparent communication strategy so all your employees know what’s happening.
- define and provide a support structure for your small team initially and for later to enhance further firmwide involvement.
- iterate, measure and report back. make sure to establish data points – these points should be subjective and non-subjective to measure what success looks like.
- don’t give up!
- celebrate the result – acknowledge the effort involved and whatever positive outcome appears.
irrelevance is dangerous to your practice. for many radical cpas this is an opportunity because we are staying in front of the changes. but for the old-school types, this stagnancy is death. agile firms will use whatever technology they have to their advantage and watch their growth double organically with ease.
i hate to say this, but firms that don’t keep up and provide their customers with the best possible solutions could subject themselves to malpractice.
when cpas believe that the world works the same as it did 20 years ago, they don’t ask the right questions. by not asking the correct questions, they miss regulatory compliance issues by their own self-limiting thoughts. nexus applies to exponentially more companies today because of the world of remote work. just because your firm doesn’t allow remote work, doesn’t mean the rest of the world is not working remotely with multistate issues and questions aren’t being asked.
i’m not trying to scare you into going radical – though i clearly think you should. i’m just telling you what you can expect if you don’t keep up with technology and innovation and their direct impact on regulatory issues.