{"id":94073,"date":"2022-02-11t18:00:45","date_gmt":"2022-02-11t23:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/?p=94073"},"modified":"2023-05-04t10:24:35","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04t14:24:35","slug":"why-map-programs-are-essential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2022\/02\/11\/why-map-programs-are-essential\/","title":{"rendered":"why map programs are essential"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n cpe isn\u2019t the only reason to attend a program.<\/strong><\/p>\n by ed mendlowitz<\/i> i attend management of accounting practice (map) cpe programs. in many instances these do not qualify toward the mandatory cpe requirements. who cares?<\/p>\n more:<\/b> how to become a specialist<\/a> | secrets in specialties<\/a> | making sure the son got proper credit<\/a> | yes, shirt logos can matter<\/a> | 10 more reasons cpas quit public accounting<\/a> | family trees of clients<\/a> i go because i want to make more money, work more effectively, service clients better, excite and retain staff, and have more fun doing what i love to do and have to do anyway. 1. actually the first two ideas i want to write about were from peter weitsen. he attended a program by david cottle while i was on a vacation and he took two ideas that we immediately implemented. the first one was to have staff prepare daily timesheets. at that time we were getting monthly timesheets and were a little lax in reviewing and analyzing them. david\u2019s suggestion of having them prepared daily captured much of the type of time that usually would have fallen through the cracks and not be recorded. this included many 15- and 20-minute interruptions that weren\u2019t remembered at the end of the month so they weren\u2019t recorded. sometimes there were three or four such interruptions a day for some of the staff. also, the daily entries were easier for peter and me to review so we had a better handle on what the staff was working on and we became better aware of where value was being transferred to clients. even though most of our clients were on a fixed-fee basis (today it is called value pricing), we used the timesheets more as a management tool than for billing. also, for effectiveness they were a lagging indicator and weren\u2019t much help in billing clients for added work, but did help somewhat. the daily timesheets enabled us to generate fees for services we were not aware were being done and weren\u2019t getting paid for. if peter got nothing else from that day\u2019s program, it was well worth the cost and his time.<\/p>\n 2. the second idea peter had us adopt was to raise every client\u2019s fee every year. at that time we hadn\u2019t increased fees for a few years \u2013 in some cases five or six years. we increased every fixed fee 10 percent and had no complaints. we repeated this two more years when we started getting some complaints and then increased the fees at a minimum 5 percent every year. there were some exceptions based on circumstances, but these increases eventually added more than $100,000 a year to our bottom line. again, a very profitable day spent by peter.<\/p>\n 3. we kept in touch with dave, read all his books and listened to every audio program he marketed. one of the best books on pricing and billing is bill what you\u2019re worth, third edition, published and sold by the aicpa. i highly recommend it.<\/p>\n 4. we heard chris frederiksen, probably around 1990, who told us to \u201cget the general ledger!\u201d he said when you go on a lead you really do not have the client unless you walk out with the general ledger. today it is the quickbooks backup, and that is why i always carry an extra memory stick. he also sold us a wordperfect file of his new business kit that we used to publish a nj new business kit for about a dozen years. at some point almost every library in new jersey had the book. most bought them, but for those that did not, we donated it to them. it was a great marketing tool.<\/p>\n 5. one of the most imaginative thinkers for new services we heard was kc truby, and we never missed an opportunity to hear him speak. we even took our entire staff to his programs. his ideas led us to think outside the box and be bold enough to present a plethora of value-added services to our clients. he was the first person who i learned about crm from. while i never bought the software he was hawking, the principles he taught were quickly adopted.<\/p>\n 6. i could go on and on through memory lane. at some point peter, frank boutillette and i heard almost every accounting firm practice management consultant and many business advisors, adopted multiple ideas from all of them, and idea by idea used them to grow our practice. today i still attend map programs and make it a point to meet the speakers and exchange ideas with them. some have even become friends. when i speak and there are opportunities to sit in and hear the map speakers, i always do.<\/p>\n a simple recommendation is to attend at least eight hours of map programs or webinars a year and to try to adopt one idea from each hour \u2013 so you will make eight changes a year. not too onerous and i could assure you very profitable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\ni speak to hundreds of accountants a year who call me primarily with practice management problems, and i am pleased to assist them. however, when i ask them if they have taken at least one map program in the last five years, they reply that they don\u2019t because they usually get enough cpe with the technical programs. boy, are they stupid! anyway i wrote about this previously so will not belabor this. however, i want to share some of the specifics of what i learned and how i benefited from attending these programs.<\/p>\n