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the disruptors
with liz farr
geraldine carter is on a mission to make accounting more attractive as a profession, and to make accountants more profitable, particularly soloists and small firms.
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in this episode of the disruptors with liz farr, carter explains the trouble with “orphan 1040s,” how to “level up” your firm, the priceless value of emotional intelligence, and why giving your all is too much (80 percent is enough.)
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key action items:
- make accounting more attractive as a profession. from the outside, accountants work insane hours for good – but not amazing – money, and never see their families. we need to make accounting more appealing as a professional career that is well compensated and that supports other parts of life.
- reduce client load by moving away from “orphan 1040s” that don’t have an associated business return and provide business advisory, fractional controllership or fractional cfo services. each level up in services means you work with fewer clients but on a more intense level.
- another way to reduce client load is to specialize in a tiny area such as helping employees of tech startups understand stock options
- increasing your headcount doesn’t grow revenue. providing value grows revenue. ask your clients what they value and find ways to provide that quickly. a simple business model like subscription or membership allows you to focus on providing value and becoming more efficient in providing that value.
- the main differentiator is not how good you are at tax or accounting, but your emotional intelligence, which is the ability to listen and really hear what’s on your clients’ minds, then think about how you can solve their problems; the ability to explain complex concepts at the appropriate level so your clients can act on it; and the ability to read body language.
- accountants should stop overworking. it’s not the path to success. stop at 80% capacity to give yourself the headspace to think about your business. gracefully let go of the excess work. the only way to get off the hamster wheel is to decide to get off the hamster wheel.
- moving to a subscription model with expertise in a narrow niche will become the model for the future. as more firms demonstrate success, this will become more popular.
about geraldine carter
geraldine carter is the founder of she thinks big coaching, where she helps cpas get out of the accounting rut. her clients routinely double their margins in six months or less while working fewer hours. geraldine holds a bs in engineering from cornell university, is the co-founder and cfo of a company where her cashflow forecasting models resulted in millions of dollars for climate change efforts. in her free time, she can be found mountain biking forested trails or running after her two small children in her hometown of ketchum, id.