success requires intention, focus, and community.
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gear up for growth
with jean caragher
for 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
“small firm practitioners need to remember that they are in the driver’s seat,” says stephanie otero, vice president, small firm advocate at the aicpa, in this episode of gear up for growth with jean caragher.
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“they have the power to intentionally design a practice they enjoy, and that truly works for them,” otero says in a wide-ranging conversation about the most pressing challenges facing small accounting firms and the strategies that can help them thrive in an increasingly complex environment.
intentional practice design emerged as a central theme. otero emphasized that burnout often stems from trying to serve too many clients and offer too many services. by clearly defining their ideal clients and focusing on work they enjoy, small firm owners can create more sustainable and rewarding practices.
otero also addresses the overwhelming pace of technology adoption, encouraging firms to focus on solving one problem at a time rather than chasing every new tool.
“rather than trying to find a tool and fit it into your practice, figure out what you want to fix first,” otero says. “once you know where you want better efficiency or capacity, then you can look for a tool that actually meets that need.”
she encouraged firms to take small, focused steps in adopting technology and to involve staff in piloting and evaluating tools to increase engagement and ownership.
finally, otero underscored the importance of community and peer connection. “nine times out of ten, the resources small firms are looking for already exist; they just don’t know where to find them,” she says. “and beyond tools, community is critical. no one should feel like they’re running their firm on an island.”
through resources such as the aicpa small firm hub, pcps, and engage365, practitioners can access tools, share ideas, and avoid the isolation that often comes with running a small firm. these communities, she noted, are where innovation and creativity often thrive.
other highlights include:
- ai can help firms analyze client data and uncover hidden strengths or niches.
- specialization doesn’t require a narrow niche, it can mean being strategic about services and clients.
- cpas should be proud of the designation and tell better career stories.
- small firm owners should proactively define what they want their practice to look like.
- client expectations are rising, making advisory services essential.
- the profession is evolving, not disappearing – and it’s an exciting time to be a cpa.
about stephanie otero
stephanie otero is vice president, small firm advocate at the aicpa, where she represents and champions the needs of small cpa firms across the profession.
prior to being promoted to this new role, she served as the associate director, not-for-profit, at the aicpa.
contact: linkedin
transcript
jean: hello, thank you for joining “gear up for growth,” powered by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间. i’m jean caragher, president of capstone marketing, and your host. today’s guest is stephanie otero, vice president, small firm advocate at the aicpa. prior to being promoted to this new role, she served as the associate director, not-for-profit, at the aicpa. stephanie, welcome to “gear up for growth.”
stephanie: thanks for having me. i’m excited to be here.
jean: yes, i know you’ve got lots of great information to share for members out there and practitioners, firms of primarily smaller scale, of which there are a lot, right?
stephanie: yes.
jean: so, tell us, what do you do as the small firm advocate?
stephanie: so in my role, i primarily serve to be the voice for small firms at the aicpa. so i serve a bridge between practitioners and the aicpa to make sure they’re best supported. so, i mean, when i speak to small firms, i tell them, basically, “i am your eyes, your ears, and your voice,” right? so my main role is to listen to them, to learn from them, to hear what challenges they may be experiencing, what pain points, also their successes. and i bring those insights back to the leadership team here at the aicpa and other internal stakeholders so that we can determine how to better support them so that their jobs are a little bit easier.
jean: so what are you hearing most from the members? like, what are the big challenges that they’re dealing with?
stephanie: yes, so many. so i think right now, technology seems to be the main topic. and in the areas of just being overwhelmed, there is so much available right now. so i think small firm practitioners are really struggling with, what tools do i select? where do i invest? what do i choose when there’s so much available?
so, usually, what i say to them is, rather than trying to find a tool and trying to fit that into your practice, look at it the reverse way. figure out what you’d like to fix in your practice, where you’d like to build capacity, or maybe have better efficiency, and then look for a tool that meets those needs. and also just checking with their network and their peers to see what their peers are using, what they like. that’s just a really great way to start. and then, continuous themes continue to be capacity issues with small firms. no surprise there. and also staffing. staffing is another big one. just finding that senior level seems to be a hard area for small firms, those with at least three to four years experience in that range.
jean: hasn’t finding people in that experience range existed forever?
stephanie: forever. i had my own small firm over a decade ago, and that was a challenge for me back then as well, right? so i think we tend to, small firms, i think it’s a little bit easier to find staff who don’t have experience, but then you have to put the time to train them and the time to invest in them and hope that they stay, hope that they stay with you long-term. so finding that sweet spot, staff that has a couple of years under their belt, is a little bit more difficult for small firm practitioners.
jean: right. and there is so much on the plates of these leaders of the small firm. and a few you’ve already mentioned, you know, with talent and technology and retaining people. at what point do you feel that a small firm should stop trying to do everything and to specialize in whatever area it might be, of where they have their experience?
stephanie: yeah, that’s a great question, and something i wish that was asked to me when i started my own practice many years ago. i think every small firm owner is going to eventually feel the burnout. they’re going to feel overwhelmed. and i think before you get to that point, because then you might want to just step away from your practice. so before you get to that point, i think just really being intentional about your practice and what you want your practice to look like. what does your ideal client look like? and asking those questions will really help small firm owners to really strategize about how they want to set up their practice.
i think when you just start your firm, and this is me, i’m speaking about my experience, you want to say yes to every client that walks into your door because you’re so afraid you’re not going to have enough business, right? so you say yes to every client. before you know it, you are trying to be everything to everybody because you haven’t really specialized. and i don’t think specializing necessarily means you have to be in a certain niche. i think it just means being very strategic about what you would like to do. maybe that’s services that you would like to offer. so i think, yes, just being very intentional about what they would like to do and really strategizing.
and i think small firm practitioners, when i speak to them, they often forget that they are in control. they are in the driver’s seat to really set the practice the way they want it to be. so if their practice isn’t set up the way they would like it to be, it’s really a time to step back and say, “okay, what am i doing right now that i don’t really enjoy?” right? maybe that’s audits. maybe they just were saying yes to audits because they thought they had to at one point, but it’s not an area of service they really enjoy. they have the power to say no and to change that practice and really make it so they can enjoy what they’re doing and really enjoy being an entrepreneur.
jean: so what’s the difference between the practitioners that actually take the time to envision the type of practice they’d like to build versus those that don’t?
stephanie: i think it comes back to…i’ve used the word intention, i do think it comes back to that. i think they’re just very intentional about their strategies, about the choices and the decisions they make, and having those intentions and having that idea set up in place first. it then leads to those decisions they’re going to make to set up their practice the ideal way they would like it to be set up.
so, for example, if they really know they love real estate and real estate clients, they can specialize in that area and really market themselves as an expert in real estate. i say that because i met with a small firm practitioner. we were talking about ai and how he was using ai in his practice. he said, “well, you know, it was really unique to me as i kind of set up a database with different data about my clients. i set them up in a spreadsheet, and i used ai and said, ‘summarize my clients.'”
he was trying to step into an advisory role. so he told ai, “summarize my clients and tell me, what am i missing?” and so ai came back and gave him a summary and said, “you’re an expert in real estate. sixty percent of your clients are in real estate.” and it wasn’t something he had really realized. he knew he had a lot of real estate clients because he had a referral system happening. well, then he decided, “i really enjoy my real estate clients. i am an expert in that area.”
so now he markets himself as a real estate expert, and those are the only types of clients he takes. he speaks all over the nation. he now has time to be able to do so. but it’s something so small like that, with just kind of analyzing what are the clients i have? where can i better support them? what am i not seeing? where ai was a tool to actually allow him to see that. and then now his practice is set up, and he loves it. he set it up in a way that he has free time. he’s able to spend time with his family and then also devote time to his clients.
jean: right. you know, i’ve been a marketing consultant in the accounting profession for a really long time, decades. and this conversation about niching and specialization has been going on again for decades. and i believe that many firms are doing a much better job about that. you know, they’ve seen the light to really focus in a few areas. you could be more efficient. that’s where you go speak. those are the publications you read. you know, that’s where you get your cpe, you know, on and on.
and at the same time, it does amaze me still how there are a pretty large percentage of practitioners who are not willing to do that. and one of the reasons is because they feel like, well, if we specialize and we’re just known for these few things, what sort of business are we going to miss out on? because they’re not going to believe that i have knowledge in that area, too, if i don’t have it listed on my website or promotional materials. what’s your thought about that?
stephanie: and i think it’s just changing the mindset. there is so much business. there’s actually so many small firm practitioners who are turning business away because they just don’t have capacity for it. so i think it’s a matter of you actually do get to choose the clients that you would like to serve and the work that you would like to perform. so i think it’s just a mindset shift of changing to abundance rather than scarcity, right, and believing that there is plenty of business. if you want to choose a niche, if you want to specialize, there is plenty of business in that particular area, should you choose to do so.
jean: right. now, one of the other challenges you mentioned earlier is talent, you know, it’s capacity. and specialization, i believe, goes hand in hand. like, that’s one of the ways that leaders can retain talent in their firms is to have a specialized firm. what, or how could small firms build a culture that also attracts and retains that talent that they need, especially in this market these days?
stephanie: right. so i’m biased because my experience came from working at a small firm, and that experience was so beneficial to my career. it’s what made me have the confidence to believe i could have my own firm eventually because of the vast experience i gained at a small firm.
so when i talk to small firm practitioners and they tell me they don’t have the time to go to colleges and recruit interns, they don’t have the capacity that larger firms have to be able to invest, right, in headhunters and so forth to find the right talent, i tell them, “i think you just have to tell a better story to those college graduates if that’s what you’re looking for. you have to tell a better story about all the wonderful benefits there are to working at a small firm.”
the close relationships they are able to have, that’s the thing i loved about having my own firm. i think that would go leaps and bounds with today’s generation. also, explaining the vast amount of experience they could gain. i often share that i did everything from preparing 1099s and preparing payroll, to doing audits, to preparing financial statements, to preparing tax returns. i mean, i just felt like i got experience in a realm of areas, right? i just felt very confident when i left, and i feel like that can speak volumes. i’ve never worked at a large firm, but from what i’ve heard from peers, is you don’t get that vast knowledge, right? you come away with a specialty, but you don’t necessarily come away with experience in all those areas.
so i think small firm practitioners just really need to lean into what makes them different, how they’re set apart from large firms, and just tell a better story. i also think technology is a huge way to give them an advantage right now. they can be more agile and change and adapt quickly. i think that would be a huge plus to future generations as well to why they should want to work at a small firm.
jean: right. because you had mentioned technology right at the top, and perhaps part of the challenge is that there are so many technology vendors, and products, and apps. how do you keep in control of all of that? how do you even deal with the information coming at it? and then i believe that practitioners may start with some process or whatever the software is or the app is, but then they’re changing it to something else. and if you’re changing it a lot, you’re just constantly relearning all this stuff all over again, which could be pretty frustrating.
stephanie: it can be, and overwhelming. as you said, there are so many tools available. and that’s why i really recommend with what’s the one thing you want to fix? as we’re heading into busy season, i would challenge practitioners to say, “what’s the one thing i want to fix that wasn’t efficient last year?” and then from there, choose a tool that would help to solve that particular inefficiency. and that way, you’re not being so overwhelmed, and you have a plethora of tools at your disposal. you’re kind of zoned in to what you would like to fix within your practice.
i think tiny, small steps is the way to go. but also, what a great way to encourage new employees. have them piloting tools, right? have them testing them out, seeing what they like, don’t like, telling you what the cons and the benefits are. i mean, that’s, i think, a way to utilize their time and really get them engaged within the practice.
jean: right. then they feel like they have some ownership in how the firm is running, right?
stephanie: yes.
jean: right. so the aicpa has these small firm hubs and different toolkits, and this is part of your role. how do these toolkits and resources help practitioners in the real world?
stephanie: yes. so what most people don’t realize is that the majority of the aicpa resources are actually geared for small firms. and so when i say small firms, i’m speaking about firms that have generally less than 30 practitioners or 30 professionals within their firm. i get that question a lot, so i probably should define that. and most of the tools are actually made for them.
so the small firm hub we created was basically to give a central location for them. we have been told that our website is a little bit overwhelming. there’s a lot of information, a lot of resources. it can be difficult to go on there and find exactly what you need. so the hub was sort of created to be a central location where small firms could go and then navigate to where they need.
pcps, which is our private companies practice section, is primarily made for small firm practitioners as well. but i get the question of what is pcps? i’ve never heard of that. so the hub is another way to navigate them, so they learn more about pcps. i always encourage them to join pcps because, again, the resources there, we have podcasts, articles, toolkits, all types of resources. and they’re really geared for small firm practitioners.
so when i get a question of, like, “do you have this?” ninety-nine percent of the time, the answer is, “yes, we do. and here’s where you can find it.” and i think it’s just a matter of not knowing what’s available to them because, again, there’s so much on our website.
jean: right. so how should a firm decide what resources and communities that the aicpa is putting together for the small firms that are going to be worth their time and worth the investment they’re making in it?
stephanie: so i think it goes to looking at their practice and where do they primarily engage, right? so if they’re looking for firm practice management resources, i would say pcps is a great resource for that. if tax, if they’re primarily a tax service, if that’s mainly what they do, the tax section is another great alternative. we have a not-for-profit section as well. so i usually try to figure out where do they need the most assistance and resources so that they can invest their money and their time wisely?
you mentioned communities, and we do have a new engage365 community platform. and i mentioned that to them as well because pcps has a community within there. and when you set up your profile, you can set up if you’re a sole practitioner, if you have maybe a firm with a size of five or whatever your firm size is, and you can connect with your peers of similar sizes. and to me, i think that’s great. it just offers you a way to really collaborate and network with your peers.
there are conversations and discussion threads. i’ve seen discussions on how do you use ai? how did you use ai during busy season? how do you use it to create efficiencies within your practice? and i have learned so much from reading those threads, and they’re really not navigate. i mean, we’re on the threads, but they’re really about the members who are communicating with one another. so to me, that’s another great benefit and a really resource. so you don’t feel like you’re on an island of your own, because you can feel like you work in a silo when you’re a small firm practitioner. and i think having community is a way to not feel that way.
jean: right. you know, that doesn’t surprise me because even with larger firms that are members of the different networks and associations, you know, in addition to the aicpa or pcps… and whenever you survey them about the biggest benefit they get from their membership, it usually boils down to the ability to talk to other practitioners about their firms and what they’re doing and what’s worked and what’s happened, and really using each other as a sounding board to make better decisions.
stephanie: and i wish when i had my practice that i had that community. i didn’t, and oftentimes i felt alone. and, you know, i was like i had no one to run ideas off of or, you know, talk to them about how they were running their practice and what they were doing differently for me. and so having community, i think, is so important.
and i mentioned pcps and what they offer that i think is one of their greatest benefits, is they offer small firm networking groups that meet in person twice a year. in my role, i have the opportunity to go to their meetings, and i learn so much from these practitioners. what i often tell them is, like, in small firms, is where innovation and creativity thrives, because they have to be creative and they have to be innovative because they don’t have the large teams, right? and so i love being in the room with them because i feel like i walk away so much smarter and with so many ideas and so much insight. so, yes, community is so important.
jean: right. so what is your response when a practitioner tells you that they don’t think the aicpa offers the resources for them because they are small firms?
stephanie: so often, i will usually say, “what kind of support are you looking for?” and as i mentioned before, 9 times out of 10, we usually have a resource for what they are looking for. they just don’t know that it’s available to them. so i usually, yeah, will pose the question of what is…? because what i have learned is we did a recent survey at the aicpa, and the results came back that small firms didn’t feel supported, right? they didn’t feel supported.
but what i’m trying to get my finger on is what does support look like? because i think support looks different for every small firm practitioner. for one practitioner, it may be a particular resource they’re looking for. for another practitioner, it may be that they just want to be heard. they want to feel that they’ve been listened to. they want their voice to matter. and for another…it could be all those things. it could be that, yes, they want community. they want to hear from their peers. they want a technology toolkit.
it’s just that i’ve learned that support looks differently to every practitioner. so my role is really important because i have to make sure i’m meeting all those needs. if they’re needing the support, if they just want to give me their feedback, if they want community, i’ve got to make sure that i’m supporting them in all those different avenues.
jean: right. and i don’t think you can over-communicate the resources available to them because obviously you know they’re there and you’ve got tremendous knowledge about all those resources. but clearly, there’s a lot of practitioners out there who don’t realize how broad those resources are.
stephanie: absolutely. and the feedback with the resources helps us as well. for instance, quality management was a huge burden, i’ll say, for small firm practitioners. and we have a small firm, a solo practitioner practice aid. and the feedback we got, i think it was originally 120 pages. so the feedback we received was, “this is way too long. i don’t have the time to read 120 pages to learn about qm.” and so that has been condensed, and now that practice aid is 45 pages.
so i want them to know when they give us feedback, we take that feedback back, and we say, “where can we make things better? where can we improve?” so hearing from them and really listening to them really does matter.
jean: so let me ask you about the cpa credential. so, as a small firm advocate, why is it important for cpas to promote their cpa credential, and what’s holding some of them back from doing so?
stephanie: first off, we work so hard to be able to call ourselves a cpa. and again, i think we have to all do better at telling a better story of who we are. we have all heard about the pipeline challenges, right, and how there are… i mean, i failed in my own household. i have two children, and neither of them are going into accounting. and i truly think it’s because they saw that i worked so much. i worked long hours. i missed events sometimes when it was during busy season. i think they remember all that. so it just never felt appealing or enticing to them.
however, being a cpa for me, i could go on for hours, but it has led to so many amazing things in my career. i mean, i’ll have to tell you one day about how being a cpa led me to learn how to drive a forklift in a warehouse, how i learned about food safety. i did tedx, a tedx talk, so many amazing things. but people don’t know that unless we speak about it.
so i think sharing the story of being a cpa and what it has led us to be able to do in our careers is just so beneficial. and we need that to order, entice future cpas. we need future cpas. we need people in college to see how beneficial going into accounting is. i think that comes down to portraying a better image, telling a better story when we talk about it, and being proud that we earned that designation.
jean: right. absolutely. because i’ve seen on linkedin occasionally, especially since there’s talk now about removing the credential. now, i’m not speaking intelligently right now about this, but i know mark koziel is right on it about, you know, accounting is a profession. and i know that there’s some advocacy going on about including it as a stem curriculum and all. and i see some posts that, “well, i don’t work in public anymore,” or whatever their situation has changed. “so i don’t think i need to refer to myself as a cpa anymore.” what do you think of that?
stephanie: yeah. and i think what you’re referring to is, i think, there’s some potential deregulation in some states. and yes, aicpa is on top of that. we have an advocacy team who is working, you know, around the clock on advocacy for things such as those matters that you mentioned. so i think we just need to be proud about being a cpa. and i will always use the designation as long as i’m allowed to, because i worked really hard to be able to have that.
jean: right. i don’t blame you. there’s a reason i’m not a cpa. so looking ahead, what’s your vision for the small firm segments in the accounting profession? you know, what does it look like? do you see it changing in the future?
stephanie: i think we’re going to see, and i think what we’re going to see is more, not just the small firm, but just in our profession in general, stepping more into that advisory role. i think with the ability of technology to be able to do some of the skills that we needed beforehand, i think a human’s always going to have to be involved. so i don’t think it’s going to take over our profession. i think it’s just changing how we do things.
and i think the way it’s changing is we have to step into that advisory role. and a lot of us are already doing that and don’t even realize we’re already advising our clients. but just fully stepping into that and seeing where we can add higher value services within our firms to our clients. and just reminding the clients why our relationship with them is so valuable and so beneficial. i think that’s going to be important.
so i think we’re going to see a lot more ai adoption and automation. it’s already happening. when i speak into a room full of small firm practitioners, and i ask who’s using ai in some way, shape, or form, there’s not a hand that does not raise up. everyone is using it today. and i think we’re just going to see it more embedded in workflows than it is currently now in the future. so i think it’s an exciting time to be a cpa. i really do.
jean: right. see, now you sound like jan lewis. her episode went live recently, and that was her whole thing. it’s a great time to be a cpa because there were so many positive things going on. yeah, and that advisory component, stephanie, we’ve been talking about that for a long time, too, about cpas really being the trusted advisor. do you see that conversation, or are you hearing it differently now? because we’ve talked about a lot of issues in the last 30 minutes. but i think being that true advisor, spending the time and getting to know those clients also helps with retention because it gives your staff more challenging things to work on. it helps you carve out your practice based upon the types of clients you want to work with and the type of advisory services you want to offer.
and then on the other hand, as they’re getting more efficient in doing their work, i hear that a lot of firms, they’re not spending that saved time with their clients to get to know more about them. they’re just adding more on. what is your perspective on that?
stephanie: i think it’s shifting. i think we’re not 100% there, i wouldn’t say with all firms, but i think it’s definitely on the top of everyone’s mind stepping into that advisory role, about… and when i say advisory, that doesn’t necessarily mean… i’ll say advisory could mean different things. i look at it as how can you provide deeper insight to what you’re already doing for that client? right? so, if you only prepare a tax return, and, of course, we all do our annual tax planning for them, but how can you be an advisor to them year-round? how can you provide deeper insight than just preparing a tax return and just doing the annual tax planning?
i guess i should say that. when i look at advisory, that’s what i’m thinking of, is how can you provide deeper insight into the clients on top of what you’re already providing for them? and i think that a lot of small firm practitioners are doing that. they’re just not intentional when they’re doing it, and it’s maybe not built into their pricing. so i think it’s just about being intentional about how can i do this, so i’m doing this year-round for this client?
and maybe it’s not just taxes anymore. maybe it’s retirement planning, financial planning. there are so many different areas that you can get into deeper with your clients. maybe it’s getting deeper just with their businesses, helping them make business decisions year-round and not just at tax time or how to save on taxes. so i think advisory will look different and can be a variety of different things. and i think it’s just about if you’re not already thinking about it, i think they should be thinking about it because i think that’s the next wave. it’s the next wave for us.
and client expectations are shifting. they’re increasing, and they’re getting more and more. they also have ai accessible and technology accessible to them as well. so their expectations are shifting, and i think they’re expecting more and more, and we have to be able to deliver on that. and i think advisory is the way that we’re able to do that.
jean: yep, it definitely is. so my last question is a bonus question.
stephanie: okay.
jean: if you weren’t working in the accounting profession, what do you think you would be doing instead?
stephanie: oh, probably a teacher. i would probably be a teacher. yeah, i mean, accounting found me, and i’m so happy it found me, but i love teaching. i love learning. so i think, yeah, being a teacher. i remember helping out my daughter’s kindergarten classes, and those were the highlight of my days. i loved it. so i think, yes, being a teacher would probably be what i would be doing.
jean: okay, so would you be teaching math?
stephanie: i think so.
jean: or accounting? yeah.
stephanie: maybe, yeah.
jean: that sounds logical.
stephanie: i often wish i had spare time now to teach accounting. when i had my own small firm practice, i would do business classes once every quarter, to teach small firm, yeah, owners how to run their business on quickbooks and so forth, and i loved those types of things. so teaching has always been kind of, i guess, embedded in what i do.
jean: oh, gosh, that’s wonderful. i’ve been speaking with stephanie otero, vice president, small firm advocate at the aicpa. stephanie, thank you for sharing your insights with us today.
stephanie: thank you, jean. thank you for having me. i appreciate it.
jean: you’re welcome. and thank you for tuning in to “gear up for growth.” be sure to check us out next time when we focus on another topic crucial for accounting firms aiming for smart growth in today’s competitive marketplace. i’ll see you then.