…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…
when jason blumer and julie shipp joined forces to build blumer cpas more than a decade ago, they eschewed the traditional partnership structure, where decision-making power depends on ownership percentage. instead, blumer says, “we figured out the ownership is a legal reflection of the companies, but they do not reflect anything we do together in our roles.”
together, they also formed thriveal, a support community for accounting firm owners. blumer is the ceo and visionary for the firm and shipp is the coo and integrator. this separation of ownership from roles allows them both to be, as shipp says, “100% in my role and have 100% the authority of my role.”
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.
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.
amber setter, the chief enlightenment officer for conscious public accountants, started out as a type a overachiever cpa, but after a few busy seasons, she realized that she “didn’t want to be an accountant anymore.”
james graham’s firm, richtr financial studio, gave up the billable hour 10 or 15 years ago, and graham points to that choice as making the biggest difference in his firm.
he said it’s because “it really changes the nature of your relationship with the client” when the client is no longer looking at the clock with “that dollar per hour in the moment, always hanging over any interaction.” by removing the focus on time, “it allows everyone to move forward better because the focus is on running the business.”
karen reyburn wants accountants to stop thinking “about marketing as this one-off thing where you tick little boxes,” but instead about the ways you can use your marketing to connect to the human experience. her company, the profitable firm, or pf for short, has been helping accountants with their marketing since 2012.
in reyburn’s view, marketing is closely connected to the business. “if you have a marketing problem, you have a business problem. if you have a business problem, there’s often a marketing solution that can help with it.”
this book springs out of a pf coaching group called the accelerator, where participants were guided through a process of creating a structured approach to content marketing that made their marketing better. reyburn and pf take a collaborative approach to marketing. “we don’t do marketing for people,” she explained. “we do marketing with them.”
new zealand doesn’t have a tax season. this is largely because all tax returns are due one year after the standard march 31 year-end for businesses and individuals. but also: fewer than 20% of individuals actually need to file a return.
“the returns that accounting firms are filing are for business owners and people with more complex investment structures,” says giles pearson, ceo and co-founder of accountests, an online knowledge-testing company that focuses on recruitment, selection and development assessments for chartered accountants, accounting graduates and candidates.
pearson adds that while a few do wait until the last minute, “the reality is for a lot of smaller firms here, by january, they’re literally twiddling their thumbs.”
this is something that pearson suggests the aicpa and the profession could be lobbying congress to adopt in america. alas, the profession has been trying for years, to no avail.
jina etienne wants accountants to stop hiding behind our green eyeshades and all the stereotypes we share as cpas. she practices “fearless inclusion,” which is the freedom to be yourself and to create the space for others to do the same.
“inclusion happens because of how i show up and the space i make for others,” etienne said. she added that the fearless part means we need to be brave and bold while also interacting with others thoughtfully. when we show our personalities and our humanity, “that fixes a lot of things, actually,” she explained.
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