growth strategies

caleb jenkins: firm growth requires owners to shift roles | the disruptors

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leave the stone age behind. join the new paradigm.

this is a preview. the complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members. 

the disruptors
with liz farr

when caleb jenkins was eight, he started selling cookies to his dad’s firm during tax season. his dad told him, “for me to pay you, i need you to create an invoice for me.” so jenkins set up his own quickbooks file and has been playing with quickbooks ever since, and eventually joined his dad’s firm.

more podcasts and videos: ira rosenbloom: don’t merge for the money | adam lean: get out of the accountant’s trap | geraldine carter: charging more is better for your clients | vimal bava: when working smarter, not harder, is the only option | dawn brolin says grow your firm by shrinking it | jason blumer & julie shipp: move leaders out of client service | james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill more | karen reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusion | bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow |

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like most small firms, rlj financial focuses on the fundamentals of tax, bookkeeping, and payroll, but, as jenkins says, “in the eyes of the beholder, there’s really not a whole lot of value there.” however, shifting into advisory – a big talking point in recent years for the profession – is where accountants can bring “incredible value …beyond the baseline of traditional compliance services,” jenkins says. shifting into advisory also means “there’s way more work that happens all year round.”

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are client services a fourth-rate priority?

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bar chart

there are a few barriers hindering expansion.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

when the thomson reuters 2024 state of tax professionals survey asked 500 professionals in tax and accounting firms what their top priorities were, client services came in fourth, behind efficiency/automation, talent retention/hiring, and pricing/revenue.

more: revenues rising as pricing models evolve | 150 credit hours: helping or hindering? | can’t recruit? retain! | the accountant as a strategic business partner | report: efficiency still the top priority for accounting firms | is tech causing both cpa shortage and low salaries? | audit firms nervous about new tech | what accountants can learn from t-ball | staffing tops list of woes at cpa firms | to replenish the talent pipeline, go back to the classroom | beware the work-life/workload doom spiral | why the dry pipeline? it’s about time
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note how the top three all might be included in a category called “getting your act together.” they basically deal with fine-tuning the accounting firm machine.

putting that machine to work aims at offering more or better client services and, the fifth priority, growing the practice.
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use surveys to generate new revenue

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blue pencil marking survey

download the sample client satisfaction survey.

by ed mendlowitz
202 questions and answers: managing an accounting practice

question: is there any value to sending clients a survey?

more: nine reasons not to specialize | when board service gets tricky | eleven ways new staffers can help bring in business | busy season is over, so it’s time for some resolutions | want to merge? six steps to take | how to start providing family office services | every accounting firm needs quality control | no one listens to you? change how you talk | 47 types of business valuation to provide | thirteen things to consider before you sell your practice | uncooperative partner might not be the problem
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

response: yes. our firm sends a survey with every deliverable to a client. we want to know what they think and how they feel about our service.
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when board service gets tricky

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businesspeople having a meeting over coffee sitting together at a table discussing a document, young man and two middle-aged women present

keep the totality of the relationships in mind.

by ed mendlowitz
202 questions and answers: managing an accounting practice

question: i am on the board of directors and am treasurer of a not-for-profit organization. one of the board members is an officer of a commercial bank where we have our accounts.

more: yes, you have to share work papers | hiring experience vs. training inexperience | a friendly chat or a billable discussion? | when selling a firm to staffers is tricky | courting a client? don’t give too much away for free | nine tips for a healthier tax season | fifteen strategies for first-time supervisors | measure knowledge gaps (then close them) | should you offer financial services? | ready to retire? selling your practice is no strategy | 20 things you need for a business valuation
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

the organization wants to get a one-year cd with some excess funds they have. it turns out that the interest rate is less than half of what we could get from a local savings bank. i suggested that we open the cd in the savings bank and the bank officer got very agitated and threatened to cut off the bank’s support of the organization if we did not keep the funds in his bank.
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jody grunden: subscription pricing is a game changer

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get rid of the noise of hourly billing and create value.

this video is a preview. the complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members. the podcast version becomes available in a few days everywhere you get your podcasts.

subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music and audible, player fm, audacy, gaana (india), and boomplay (africa).

the disruptors
part 1 of a two-part episode.
with liz farr

for over a decade, jody grunden, cpa, has been doing things that many firms are just now discovering. summit virtual cfo (now part of anders) offers weekly subscription-based pricing as a fully remote firm, and their main offering is virtual cfo services or, in today’s parlance, cas 2.0 services. he’s also the one you might spot at accounting conferences in his signature tommy bahama shirts instead of a suit and tie, not quite what you might expect from the leader of a $10 million firm.

jody grunden, coming in part 2, june 27: be different. make more money
goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

grunden, the partner and co-founder of summit virtual cfo, got his start as a thought leader and virtual cfo (as well as his signature wardrobe) when he was invited to speak at a conference in new orleans. at the conference, he used an easel and pad of paper to walk a roomful of successful creative agency owners through the way they made money and how their decisions impacted the bottom line. he is the author of the best-selling building the virtual cfo firm in the cloud.

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disruptors: dawn brolin says grow your firm by shrinking it

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make life at work better for yourself, your team, and your clients.

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the disruptors
with liz farr

dawn brolin, cpa, cfe, intentionally shrank her firm, powerful accounting, from 11 to three team members, the opposite of the way most firms grow. she also drastically cut her client list, while nearly tripling her fees from a select group of just 19 clients.

“i decided i wanted to change my life,” brolin says. “i want to change my staff’s life. and i want to change the way my clients work with me where they weren’t worried about getting a bill because they called me and asked me a question.”  

more podcasts and videos: jason blumer & julie shipp: move leaders out of client service | james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill more | karen reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusion | bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow |

goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

part of that change in dawn’s life was her passion for coaching college softball, where she serves as the team’s designated motivator. because softball season overlaps with tax season, she leaves the office at 2 pm, five days a week. no one in her firm works more than 35 hours a week.  

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four ways to handle federal tax liens

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there’s more than one route to satisfying the irs collection division.

by eric l. green

irs tax liens can have a profound impact on an individual’s situation, affecting their ability to get loans, sell property or engage in business activities. as such, it is crucial for individuals to understand how irs tax liens work and the options available for getting rid of them.

more: the irs is coming! get your clients into compliance | tax chat: eric green reveals the tax rep guide to tax season
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in this article we discuss approaches and factors to consider when dealing with irs tax liens, offering insights and advice to help taxpayers navigate this process.

understanding irs tax liens

before discussing ways to remove tax liens, it is important to get a basic understanding of what they entail. a tax lien represents a right against a taxpayer’s assets, and is used by the irs to secure its interest in the taxpayer’s assets – both those owned at the time and those later acquired.
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why exceptional service matters

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server holding carafe of water points at menu item; two women seated at restaurant table

and why it has to come from everyone.

by ed mendlowitz
202 questions and answers: managing an accounting practice

this time, i have a question for you. but i’ll start with a story.

last sunday evening my wife and i went into a reasonably upscale restaurant and we had terrible service from everyone we interacted with.

more: courting a client? don’t give too much away for free | how to start providing family office services | every accounting firm needs quality control | no one listens to you? change how you talk | 47 types of business valuation to provide | thirteen things to consider before you sell your practice | uncooperative partner might not be the problem
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

when we were seated, the table wobbled and we asked if they could do something or move us to another table. ten minutes later someone showed up with a wad of napkins that made it worse. five minutes later they asked if we were okay, and put us at another table. ten minutes after that they took our order, but we asked for some drinks right away, which we only got after we complained to the manager.
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the irs is coming! get your clients into compliance

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10 million high-income taxpayers targeted.

by eric green

those of us in the know have been saying for a while now that the irs is sending a “wave” of tax notices, and you need to prepare your clients for compliance and, ultimately, remittance and resolution. well, that day has finally come.

the irs is launching its long-awaited effort to crack down on high-income taxpayers who have failed to file tax returns.

more in tax: eight steps to getting started with ai: a guide for tax professionals | what’s your value to your tax clients? | are you excited about tax season? | what the corporate transparency act means for accountants | train now before it costs you down the road | surge pricing: what works for uber could work for cpa firms | uncooperative partner might not be the problem | it’s time to fix the problem of qtips and llcs

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

for practitioners, many taxpayers will be scrambling for help from tax professionals.  understanding how to handle these taxpayers when they come in will have a real impact on how painful the re-entry into the tax system is going to be.

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ten tax prep questions that people forget to ask

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drawing of unhappy face and arrow pointing from it to happy face

your clients will appreciate the attention to detail.

by ed mendlowitz
tax season opportunity guide

many professionals fail to systematically ask clients some basic and important questions. here’s my top 10 list of key questions to ask this year. what would you add?

more on tax season: try this clean slate exercise | offer your tax clients other services | can your tax reviewers answer these 10 questions? | the top 12 mistakes in tax return preparation | six types of person: which are you? | answer these two questions first | help your tax clients, help yourself | what’s your value to your tax clients? | are you excited about tax season?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

1. foreign bank accounts: make certain you ask every client if they have a foreign account and if they do, report the income and file the proper forms. the penalties are too great if it is wrong.

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brandon hall: firms try to make too much on tax prep

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try for a 10-15% margin.

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the disruptors
with liz farr

brandon hall says that the reason accountants have such long and grueling busy seasons is that “firms try to make way too much money at tax prep.” firms don’t have enough capacity to deliver on services, so everyone – including the partners – ends up working a ton of hours.

more podcasts and videos: james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill more | karen reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusion | bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow | jody padar: build a practice that works for you, not vice-versa |

goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

because partner pay isn’t included in payroll, the margin on tax prep is likely much worse than the 30-35% that shows up on the income statement. hall’s target for the 2024 filing season is just 10-15% margin on tax prep.

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keep business development going during busy season

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man writing on a calendar

consistency is key.

by martin bissett
 business development on a budget

you may be asking yourself how you will know when you are successful in your selling efforts. many people have asked me that, but it’s the wrong question because firms have different goals.

more: health, wealth, stealth: challenges on the path to partnership | it’s time to prepare the next generation | who are you more committed to, your firm or your clients? | nine checkpoints before every prospect meeting | three questions about conversion | six keys to turning prospects into clients | don’t overlook internal communication | four reasons people struggle with communication | why firm culture matters for partners | competence is step one of seven | three things that rich accountants do
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

some want to simply tick over and replace the clients they lose, some want to grow exponentially, some want steady and consistent growth they can measure and monitor. so there is no one definition of success. but no matter what yours is, you will never attain it if you are inconsistent in your process of winning new business.
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tax chat: eric green reveals the tax rep guide to tax season

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seth fineberg
with eric green

renowned tax attorney eric l. green delivers a roadmap for seizing tax resolution opportunities this tax season in the new video from last week’s first tax chat of the year, hosted by seth fineberg.

more tax season: ftc nails turbotax for ‘free filing’ scam | | offer your tax clients other services |  higher fees to start: ten ways to make your tax season better | tax pros handle 37.7% of e-filings | if only the irs’s tax pro were useful | can your tax reviewers answer these 10 questions? | tax pros file 33% of early returns | can’t irs online accounts be more useful?

in this live webinar, attendees – and now you – get the fundamentals for catching lucrative tax rep engagements without adding to busy season workloads. with live, real-time q&a, everyone’s questions got answered.
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