CPA Trendlines Podcasts

Featuring Ira Rosenbloom, CPA (LR), "The Merger Master," with Rick Telberg, CPA Trendlines.More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=97102Take-aways: Five Steps for Maximizing Your Sale Price. The ten signs your firm is headed for the exits. The ten factors for getting the best price when you sell. Calculate your firm's valuation strategy by considering: – Your strongest niches. – The metrics for the current and potential profits. – Recurring compliance fees. – High-margin consulting billings. – New and valuable synergies with a new firm. – Inherent potential in your staffing. – Demographics of clients, partners and referral sources. – Untapped potential in loyal contacts. –  Reputation and brand recognition. –  Flexibility in timing, titles and responsibilities. CPA Trendlines PRO Members can download the slide deck, including the bonus "12-Point Checklist for Seller Readiness," and read the transcript here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=97102(Login required.)Not yet a PRO Member? Go PRO with one of today's best offers here: GoProCPA.com.

The accounting firm's business model isn’t broken yet, but the pyramid is crumbling.With Liz Farr for CPA TrendlinesMore here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=96758 Podcaster and enfant terrible Blake Oliver says the accounting firm is a pyramid scheme destined for collapse.The system is simple and simply devious: Bring in staff, work them a ton of hours, and the profits flow to the top, Blake says.But today, the model is being challenged by venture capital-backed tech startups delivering automated tax prep and bookkeeping, by CPA firms following the lead of Eisner Amper into non-CPA businesses, and by the booming growth of non-CPA startups like Acuity.Blake Oliver, CPA, is an accountant, entrepreneur, and podcaster specializing in technology. He is one of Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People and has been named a 40 Under 40 in the accounting profession by CPA Practice Advisor. Blake is the creator of Earmark CPE, an app that offers NASBA-approved CPE for listening to your favorite accounting and tax podcasts. He also co-hosts the Cloud Accounting Podcast, a Top 50 Business News show on the Apple charts and the most popular podcast for accountants and bookkeepers globally. He lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he likes to hike in the winter and swim in the summer.

With Liz Farr for CPA TrendlinesMore here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=96260 To win the staffing wars, accountants must develop a talent pipeline, practice advisor Martin Bissett tells Liz Farr in this exclusive interview. The firms winning in recruiting and retention are using a portfolio approach to nurture prospects who might be ready to join the firm at some point in the future, a world-renowned sales and marketing consultant, a long-time contributor at CPA Trendlines, and, most recently the co-host of the UK-based Accounting Influencers podcast. More Take-Aways from Martin Bissett: A growing trend in the UK is the “commercialization” of the profession, where private equity firms invest in accounting firms, especially at the mid-tier level. With a change in governance to boards and a CEO/COO/CFO/CMO structure, firms are changing from accounting practices into accounting businesses. A desired result of commercialization is that clients will be better served: more financially literate, fewer insolvencies, and more economic prosperity for all, developing young professionals into commercially minded people who create value rather than provide services. What’s never been in place at most firms is discipline around business development, marketing, and selling, which we have labeled as ‘soft skills.’ If accountants don’t have skills in selling and marketing, how can we expect our clients to regard us as trusted advisors who will help them generate more sales? If you want to win clients of a higher caliber, you need to communicate why they are better off with you than where they are now because they will have to break a loyalty barrier to leave their current accountant. Most accountants have never been taught, coached, or trained to run a commercial enterprise. Likewise, most clients have no experience with firms that offer any kind of value proposition. Then the deciding factors are how close they are, how much they are, and do you get on with them.  When you are providing a commoditized service, price is your enemy. Providing the additional value that justifies higher prices has not been part of the training or the education for accountants and is therefore not known. When you chase deadlines for a living and hire people to chase deadlines, that doesn’t allow for innovation or value creation. Instead, be willing to think about whether what you are doing is what you want to do. At what level of pain is it better to tolerate the discomfort of change so you can create something better?Martin Bissett is the author of Winning Your First Client, Passport to Partnership, Meet Your New Best Client and Business Development on a Budget Shop the Martin Bissett Practice Growth CollectionHe is the founder of The Upward Spiral Partnership Ltd., the UK-based consulting firm that specializes in the implementation of professional selling and leadership skills in the next generation of accounting professionals.And he is co-founder of AddviserPlus, a training and consulting hub for accountants and bookkeepers who are ready to go beyond commoditized compliance and technology-based services and embrace the prosperity and rewards from providing high-value advisory services, one client at a time. 

The Disruptors: Brannon PoeA Special Series with Liz Farr for CPA TrendlinesBrannon Poe is the founder of Poe Group Advisors and the creator of Accounting Practice Academy. He began facilitating successful accounting practice transitions in 2003. Today he is pioneering a consulting-based approach to transitioning accounting firms, culminating in Poe Group Advisors’ proprietary process for a “seamless “succession.”In this episode, Poe tells CPA Trendlines: Firm culture is not just a lofty concept but also a key to attracting fantastic talent.  Delegation is the cornerstone of firm culture.  Value pricing requires a mindset shift before it can be implemented. Switch off the mindset that equates time with money and shift to a focus on what’s valuable to the client. Value pricing is not just a model for better profitability but a model for better client service. Before growth can happen, several things must happen first. Focus on delivering value to the client, be intentional about the clients you serve and the kind of work you’re doing, have good relationships with clients, and you need capacity. Accountants need a more entrepreneurial mindset. Try setting up a sandbox where you can experiment. Try rolling out changes to a subset of your clients before doing it for everyone. Accountants should stop accepting the status quo. Test your assumptions. For example, does tax season have to be brutal? Some firms have proven otherwise. Firms need a better foundation of the fundamentals of business. What in accounting is never going to change? Businesspeople will always want insights, tax planning advice, and good service. Those fundamentals won’t change, but they get forgotten and don’t get practiced.  

 Geni Whitehouse shows how to shift from a focus on mere data to priceless wisdom.With Liz Farrfor CPA TrendlinesCOVID showed us that we can do more than traditional services and that we can respond to change even when we don’t have all the information, CPA Geni Whitehouse tells Liz Farr in an exclusive interview for CPA Trendlines.COVID has given the profession the opportunity to impact clients in a very real way, and clients now see accountants in a very different light, says Whitehouse long an evangelist in the profession for progressive practices and innovation.More for CPA Trendlines PRO Members here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=95962

Changing the way firms are structured, operated, and financially managedWith Steven SacksFor CPA TrendlinesThe CPA profession is entering another period of shifts in how firms will attain growth levels – the main force being the influx of private capital entering the accounting profession, according to David Bergstein, CPA, CITP, CGMA.See more hereNew, external investments will change the way firms are structured, operated, and financially managed, as well as granting them increased capabilities to make more strategic decisions, Bergstein tells Sacks for CPA Trendlines.Bergstein is a veteran technology executive at a number of tax and accounting software companies, including Intuit, Walters Kluwer, and Thomson, and is now an independent author, educator, and advisor.David Bergstein’s Takeaways:Disruption is what smart business people see in a profession that is ripe for change because the traditional CPA series of audit and tax will move to the back burner. The real value of services will be in consulting services.CPA firms will split in two – separating the traditional services from consulting to ensure that there will be avoidance of client/service conflicts, and to make the investment more attractive.Baby Boomer partners who are a few years from retirement see the infusion of private equity as a way to reformulate partner agreement that were overdo for such a review.Technology will continue to be a driver of how firms will change the way they operate and the greater efficiencies accrued will go for additional services that can be outsourced.CPAs who break off and begin their own non-CPA-advertised consulting firms will be more apt to hire non-CPAs because of their broader educational experience.

Venture capital and private equity are pouring billions into financial technology start-ups. And this business will never be the same. Here CPA Trendlines founder, publisher, and editor Rick Telberg tells an audience of conference-goers what it means for the future of the profession, including:The real meaning of the "pandemic pivot" for accountants and small businesses.Why the accounting industry is more than just ripe for revolution.The new rules driving investment capital into new financial technologies. And,The three essential strategies for surviving and thriving in the new age of fintech-driven accounting.Download the slide deck here.See more here.

The Disruptors with Liz FarrMore here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=94950Matt Wilkinson’s Take-AwaysPart of your marketing is attracting new talent. Make yourself look good talent as they do their due diligence. Update your website and make sure your social media is engaging.Business owners like Matt have been asking accountants for predictable monthly billing and help with KPIs for their businesses since the early 2000’s. It’s only recently that accountants are beginning to provide that. Exclusively for PRO Members. Accounting firm owners tend to have limiting beliefs about how to run their firms – billing by the hour, working in the office, and the partnership structure. The partnership structure itself can be problematic for growing a coherent firm, where each partner acts almost like a freelancer with their own clients, and decisions require agreement between groups that oppose each other’s ideas.Accounting firms don’t have scale issues that can be solved with technology and automation. Instead, they have quality issues or people issues. A better way to grow is to focus on doing a better job. Make small 1% improvements in areas like client communication or selling additional services to existing clients. Focus on being local or boutique – all the things that the biggest firms can’t do.Times change, people don’t. People skills will always be essential.Instead of trying to “make a dent in the universe” as Steve Jobs did, try to model being a good person and what a good company looks like. Those changes will ripple out and impact more than your clients and your team. Thinking smaller can be thinking bigger.About Matt WilkinsonMatt Wilkinson has been a marketer for over 20 years. He’s run campaigns promoting everything from a Paul McCartney concert to a skincare brand used by Madonna. Since 2010, he’s worked exclusively with accountants and bookkeepers. His goal is to help them become small business heroes.Matt is co-founder and CEO of New Zealand-based Bizink, which specializes in websites and online marketing for accountants throughout the English-speaking world. Bizink helps busy accountants and bookkeepers grow by improving their marketing. They do that with high-performance websites, engaging content and modern marketing tools. Everything Bizink does is built for accountants and bookkeepers and streamlined so they can run their practices in the knowledge their online marketing is in safe hands.

With Rick TelbergFor CPA TrendlinesThe changes wrought by COVID are still rolling through the business world, pushing many of them into online commerce and cross-border sales, according to Liz Armbruester, senior VP of global compliance at Avalara.In the U.S. states are gearing up to crack down on the new sources of revenues, leaving many businesses and their accountants still ill-equipped to handle the new rules, Armbruester tells Rick Telberg for CPA Trendlines.As SVP Global Compliance, Armbruester oversees global compliance operations at Avalara. With more than 20 years of leadership experience from a variety of technology sectors including software, media, and services.From her perch, see tracks how governments at all levels and across the globe are capitalizing on the rapidly digitizing business world to automatically collect taxes due.See more here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=95008

The Disruptors with Liz FarrSee more here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=94934Corey Schmidt's Take-AwaysOffer your staff different paths to being successful.Pinpoint the talents you have on your staff, and nurture those special skills.Carve out time for people to work on those skills, not just the backlog.Challenge your people earlier in their careers so they have three years of experience rather than one year repeated three times.Create roles for the kinds of skills your people have.A forgotten metric is client happiness. If we provide a service that makes them feel good about what they’re getting, they’re going to be willing to pay more and will stick around much longer.Firms should own who they are. A firm with a hard-driving culture that values working long hours should seek out team members who like that kind of work culture.Think about where you want to be in five years, and start hiring people who fit that kind of work culture. Build in the people, processes and systems around that end goal.Stop doing what you did last year. Start with a blank slate. Following SALY is easier than figuring out how to do things differently. This requires carving out the time for meaningful planning.Challenge everyone on the audit team to come to the planning meeting with ideas for doing things differently, whether that’s using data or being efficient.Start rewarding the behaviors that are in line with the vision of the firm you want five or ten years in the future.Partners with high billable hours send the message to younger people that the way to get ahead in a firm is to do that, even if those same partners also talk about building a flexible data-driven culture.Let people pick their own career paths that make sense for them and for the firm.The need for a historical financial statement will be gone sooner rather than later.Firms need to adapt to the needs of the stakeholders.Banks only care about a few key metrics on the financials, so providing those on a real-time basis rather than an entire set of financials three or four months after year-end may be more useful.About Corey SchmidtCorey Schmidt, CPA, Manager of Audit Innovation, joined ACCOUNTability Plus, LLC with a decade of diverse public accounting experience, focused on providing audit and assurance services to clients in a variety of industries. He is dedicated to finding provocative and inventive ways to help move accounting firms and A&A practices into the future. Corey relies on his analytical abilities to assist his clients in gaining a thorough understanding of their financial situation and how certain decisions will impact their organization. He is passionate about working with all levels of the organization to provide accurate financial data and improve future results. Outside work, Corey likes to golf, fish, travel, and spend time with his family..