Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Content to Listen
Do the three words in today’s title describe you?
Sometimes people climbing the ladder of success (or the ladder to CPA firm partnership), feel like they must continually prove their worth by talking too much about themselves, their business knowledge and their past successes.
When you meet with a prospective client, do you tend to talk about how great the firm is more than you listen to the client’s story? Usually, it is unintentional – - you are proud of your firm and you know that you can do a better job for the client than your competition.
Often the most powerful and successful business leaders and CPAs are the strong, silent types. Sure, they are skilled conversationalists but their listening skills are stronger.
Alan Weiss issues his Monday Morning Memo each week and always has great insight with just a few words. Here’s his message from yesterday.
This week’s focus point: If you want to be regarded as a brilliant conversationalist, ask others questions. If you want to be perceived as a smart business person, ask others about their business philosophy. If you want to be associated with thought leadership, hang out with thought leaders and watch what they do. The worst thing you can do is to try to prove you’re “the second smartest person in the room” by constantly citing your sources, credentials, and experiences. Confident, bright, powerful people appear that way because they are content to listen to others, to prompt them to speak, and to analyze and learn in the process. I may be an exception, but I’ve never been able to learn too much while I’m speaking.
- "Talking isn't doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well and yet words are not deeds."
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Digital Marketing Efforts Are Heating Up for CPA Firms
According to a recent survey by CPA Trendlines, accounting firms are significantly increasing their business-building efforts.
66% of accountants say their firms have been increasing their marketing and business development activities in the last 12 months.
85% say they will be continuing to step up marketing in the coming 12 months.
55% are accelerating their own personal business development efforts.
83% listed adding new clients as their #1 concern, followed by – client retention, lead generation, and niche or specialty service.
Firms also plan to upgrade their websites and e-newsletters and displaying more thought leadership.
Great news! – - I hope you have a plan in place for your firm. If not, you better meet early (late April, early May) and get busy. Make your planning day very focused and come away with an action plan with steps that are owned by a specific person in the firm. Build in accountability.
You can purchase the complete 179-page survey from Bay Street Group.
- "Timid salesmen have skinny kids."
Monday, February 20th, 2012
Should CPAs Utilize Pinterest?
Do you know about Pinterest? It is an online pinboard and one of the fastest growing social media sites of all time.
I believe creative public accounting firms will find a way to utilize this vast audience. I’m probably like you – I was not aware of it until last week-end and I immediately thought “how could this work for accountants?”
Today, I just want you to read this brief article titled, 5 Pinterest Myths Dispelled – by A K Stout.
I also received a link to an interesting article about Pinterest from Rob Nance of iShade. It is titled, Pinterest isn’t for every small business. You might find it interesting, too.
You can explore later – I just want you to be aware.
- "Don't follow trends, start trends."
Friday, February 17th, 2012
Accounting Firms and Flexibility
I still get a lot of questions about flex time and flex schedules and how allowing employees to have flexible schedules works in an accounting firm.
Flex time in public accounting has been around for decades. I worked in a CPA firm for 30 years and we offered “flex time” in the mid-1980s. Later on, about 20% of the firm’s workforce was on some sort of flex schedule.
Firm owners sometimes misunderstand the concept. It is not about people coming in late and leaving early and never knowing who will be “in” and when. It’s about establishing a schedule that works for an individual and for the firm.
Today I read about BDO’s award-winning approach to work and life flexibility in a blog post by Cali Yost. Yost is the CEO and founder of Work+Life Fit, Inc., a research and consulting firm that develops and implements the broad-ranging organizational and personal flexibility strategies that have become a strategic imperative for global business success. I want to share her six lessons every organization can takeaway from the BDO model.
- Lesson 1: Language matters
- Lesson 2: The employee AND the business must succeed for flexibility to work.
- Lesson 3: Take the time and invest the resources to create a shared vision of success that anchors the strategy.
- Lesson 4: Flexibility is not just about formal flexible work arrangements.
- Lesson 5: Men and women want and use work flexibility.
- Lesson 6: Flexibility is not about child care only.
Visit Yost’s blog to read about each lesson. Follow this link to watch the BDO video about “How We Flex.”
- "Be firm on principle but flexible on method."
Thursday, February 16th, 2012
Developing a Winning Culture
There are many good reasons for taking a long, hard look at the culture inside your CPA firm. If, for the last 20 years, you have not focused on creating a healthy, vibrant, winning culture – you have one anyway and it’s probably not vibrant and winning.
I hear practitioners talk about the sweat shop culture, the silo culture, the country club culture as if they have no choice in the matter of culture.
Culture in a CPA firm that engages the team members rather than dis-engaging them makes all of the difference. If the firm’s team members actually feel part of something special, if they feel their opinions matter, if they believe the firm’s “core values” are being demonstrated everyday by the owners, you will soon be able to clearly see which team members are engaged and which ones are not.
Tracy Crevar Warren’s article in the AICPA Insider this week talks about developing a marketing and sales culture. Here’s a tag-line and call to action for your entire team to use inside the firm. Say it enthusiastically and often: We are a marketing firm that does accounting work.
On developing a sales and marketing culture, Warren notes:
- It takes time: Changing your firm culture does not happen overnight.
- It’s NOT something you “get around to.” – It can’t wait until after busy season.
- You need to break down silos.
- For Better or Worse – You can’t stop spending money on marketing when economic times are tough.
- Make it fun.
- Create a movement that unites people.
Read the entire article via CPA Insider.
- "No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive."
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012
Cloud Computing Means Change & Opportunity For CPAs
For some CPAs in public accounting, cloud computing is still somewhat of a mystery. But for many other progressive CPA firms, they are already living in the cloud and loving it.
I hear it over and over again at management conferences – “We have these small firms in town, and even some larger ones, who are under-cutting our fees. We simply can’t do it for what they are quoting.”
Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are looking to cut expenses any way they can and accountants can offer more value-for-money services to these SMEs by being prepared to offer interactive services rather than the traditional yearly engagement and related discussions. Cloud computing is slowly transforming the accounting industry by offering to streamline accounting processes in order to cut costs and adopt services which add value in a subscription-based scheme.
The big hurdle is that accountants must be able to view cloud computing as a big opportunity rather than a threat. They must be willing to take the lead in this new phase of business.
With this new technology, an accountant can provide timely reports and advice to SMEs so they can stay in business during these tough economic times.
Read more about How the Accounting Industry Is Being Changed By Cloud Computing in this informative article from CloudTweaks.com.
Don’t be like Mark Twain…..
- "I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one."
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
Happy Valentine’s Day To CPAs & Their Teams!
A picture is worth a thousand words…
- "A pair of powerful spectacles has sometimes sufficed to cure a person in love."
Monday, February 13th, 2012
Accountants, Please Think Positive!
In my local Sunday newspaper, The Dayton Daily News, I read an article titled, Old person gets hope from young woman. Of course, this caught my attention, after all I am a young woman (trapped in an old person’s body!).
The young woman featured by Daryn Kagan, the writer, is Adylia-Rhenee Gutierrez, a 20-year old college student who has launched a website dedicated to hard work, shared values and young people reaching for a higher standard. In light of all the young people protesting this and that these days and expecting things to be handed to them, Adylia-Rhenee believes there are other young people out there just like her.
Here’s the punch line for me – a quote from the young woman: “You can get anywhere in life if you are willing to work hard and align yourself with like-minded people.”
CPAs, right now it’s busy season for you and your team. You just might catch yourself or others whining, complaining, and focusing on the negative. Once it begins, it catches on and soon many people in the firm are whining and complaining – you know, being Eeyores!
Culture is everything for a growing CPA firm. It beats strategy with a stick!
Be positive and surround yourself with positive people. Don’t walk away from negative people……RUN! And, get them out of your firm.
It’s Monday – rather than saying/asking:
Do you have that job done yet? I have 37 review comments for you. Why is there so much time in this job? How many chargeable hours did you get last week?
Try saying:
I’m proud of you. You are making great progress, can I help you in any way? I appreciate all your are doing during this busy time. Or, as I always recommend, use two words: ”Thank You.”
- "Strategic planning is worthless... unless there is first a strategic vision."
Saturday, February 11th, 2012
Lighten-up, It’s The Weekend – A Time for Something Off-Topic, Fun or Even Weird
I saw a picture with a caption that made me smile. I think there are days inside a CPA firm where this might apply. (You can buy a notepad with this picture from Amazon.)
I think this is the typewriter we used at the firm when I first started! (Just kidding, of course, actually my firm had a computer (a very large device) when I walked in the door in 1978. It was a Burroughs B800.
- "Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one. "
Friday, February 10th, 2012
Inside Public Accounting Annual Benchmarking Survey
Can you believe it? I mean how fast a year flies by? It’s time again to join the more than 400 firms who respond to the IPA Annual Benchmarking Survey.
The 2012 IPA survey is underway and here is where you can get more information.
Participation benefits include:
- A complimentary copy of the IPA Top 100 firm rankings, along with the detailed financial and operational analysis of the rankings.
- A complimentary electronic “Executive Summary” of the 2011 IPA National Benchmarking Report
- Special discount pricing of the 130+ page IPA National Benchmarking Report.
- Special discount pricing on a customized IPA Financial and Operational Performance Report Card.
- Preference for selection in articles written by IPA throughout the year.
- Consideration for being named to the IPA Top 100, IPA Top 200, IPA Best of the Best, IPA All-Stars and the Fastest Growing lists.
- "It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up."
"Tomorrow morning read something positive before you get to work.""Before you go home this evening, write a thank-you note to someone in your firm who helped you today & leave it on their desk."
