{"id":72329,"date":"2020-03-05t12:00:31","date_gmt":"2020-03-05t17:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/48e130086c.nxcli.net\/?p=72329"},"modified":"2021-04-19t22:50:35","modified_gmt":"2021-04-20t02:50:35","slug":"be-an-accountant-not-a-salesperson-for-other-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2020\/03\/05\/be-an-accountant-not-a-salesperson-for-other-things\/","title":{"rendered":"be an accountant, not a salesperson for other things"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>“a piece of the action” didn’t pan out. by ed mendlowitz<\/i> there are accountants who only do accounting and accountants who also do other things such as selling financial products and doing deals with the client. there is nothing wrong with this, but with some very minor exceptions, i never did the other things.<\/p>\n more:<\/b> 10 reasons for my success<\/a> | social security is an asset class<\/a> | how to waste lunch hour<\/a> | what\u2019s your negotiating style?<\/a> | how to make your own opportunities<\/a> | how i became a published author<\/a> | large clients we landed from quickbooks consulting<\/a> accountants have many openings and opportunities to<\/p>\n early on i had a partner who tried to \u201cdo deals\u201d with clients and nothing seemed to work out. not only that, but it caused problems for our other partner and me. a simple analysis showed we would have made more if we just did our accounting work and charged the right fees.<\/p>\n another time i was doing a tremendous amount of projections for new businesses. instead of getting paid the normally high fees for the work, we were supposed to get a piece of the action. well, many of the deals did not close \u2013 not because they were bad, but because the client somehow lost interest and went in another direction \u2013 sometimes just taking a job he had been looking for while we were doing the work on the business plan.<\/p>\n this ended abruptly when we decided to not get pieces of the business but to ask for retainers up front. do you know what happened? the workload dropped 90 percent, but we got paid for the work we did. some deals did close, and of those, we picked up about half of them as clients. we found ourselves building an accounting business.<\/p>\n in the late 1970s through the mid-1980s we had over 100 clients investing in at least one \u201ctax shelter.\u201d we never took a commission, and when the promoter sent us a check, we credited it to the client. some years we turned down over $250,000 (in 1982 dollars). but we got paid for every deal we reviewed, every tax return we did and every tax audit we handled. and we were never sued for any of the shelters that backfired or went south.<\/p>\n you can do very well getting paid for what you do. you won\u2019t become wealthy, but you can do very well and sleep soundly because you won\u2019t have to worry about anything rebounding in your face.<\/p>\n i did digress a few times \u2013 very few. but on balance, i am glad my partners and i refrained from jumping on the bandwagon, which was really a rickety stepstool.<\/p>\n we did what we did well and better than most and never looked back. we did very well for ourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n
\ncall me before you do anything: the art of accounting<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n
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\nat some point i recognized that public accounting was a business and needed attention, dedication and complete focus. trying to sell products diffuses your energies and waters down your efforts.<\/p>\n