this year so far has been a hot time for cpa firm mergers and acquisitions. firms in the m&a mindset and process may be in turbulent times as they confront many hurdles.
unfortunately, some of these hurdles are self-created, especially for those seeking to merge into another firm or establish an exit. rather than waste mental and emotional energy overthinking – and risk walking away from a good deal for the wrong reasons – this is the time to turn that energy into smart thinking. read more →
cpa firms that seek to position themselves for the future must be brutally honest and self-aware. they might normally start with a top-down or bottom-up analysis of their operations. one tool that has been around forever is the swot analysis.
swot stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. there are benefits to this tool because it serves as a motivator to examine a situation (e.g., operational, cultural, financial), assess core competencies and capabilities, identify the need to (and key drivers of) change and enable – if conducted correctly – an organizational cross-section of input and insight. read more →
and the single biggest initial challenge for the cas champ is how to communicate the value of cas to the firm’s future fortune to every stakeholder – be it partners, staff, clients or prospects. for this post, i will assume that your cas champ absolutely “gets it.” read more →
busy season barometer: 53% report a “worse” year, compared with 31% reporting “better.”
ironically, the chaos translates into expanded business.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
it was a pretty bad busy season for most of the nation’s tax preparers. covid-19 was on the wane, but congress was on the job, jiggering tax rules even as the season was underway.
and, now, with the prospects of a federal government shutdown and a multi-trillion-dollar spending bill, 2022 is shaping up to be deja vu all over again.
to be sure, a good number of accountants are assuaged by more clients and more revenue. but the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 business barometer finds preparers experiencing a long, tough slog.
on the frontlines (from left): hochberger, wright, speed, frazier, widmann.
in all, 53 percent say they had a busy season somewhat worse (27 percent) or much worse (26 percent) than last year.
for some, it seems like a good time to call it quits. “thank you for all the love and support,” says one firm’s auto-responder to incoming emails.
“as some of you may know, this past few tax seasons have been nothing short of chaotic, to say the least,” the three-office, north carolina tax shop tells callers. “but i have enjoyed being able to assist each and every one of my clients.”
as i have written about cpas who leave public accounting, there has been widespread interest. there is a lot more to say so i’ll address many of those questions.
generally speaking, many bosses do not listen to staff concerns. at many firms, there is a lack of serious mentoring and little help for staff people in managing their careers. in many practices, there is an appearance of a lack of growth, or if there is growth, then staff people are often left behind. in most instances, these problems are exacerbated by staff people not being clear about what they want. they are hesitant to speak up, share their concerns with their bosses or venture beyond their comfort zone. both are culpable, but i place greater blame on the bosses, who should know better. read more →
“a rabbi whose community does not disagree with him is really not a rabbi, and a rabbi who fears his community is not really a man.” – rabbi israel salanter, museum of the diaspora, tel aviv
everyone needs feedback. unfortunately, many people in all walks of life, in both personal and business settings, avoid feedback because they don’t want to deal with the reality of the messages. read more →
most professionals, including accountants, get most of their client referrals from satisfied clients. the complication is that if you want to work with wealthier clients, the likely best way to source them is from other professionals they are currently engaging.
if you aim to work with the ultrawealthy and even the super-rich, be aware that as you move up the wealth hierarchy, they are less and less inclined to refer you to other people. it is something of a catch-22. in general, the better you are, the more the very wealthy are disinclined to share. that is, they are less likely to refer you to their financial peers. also, if you are maximizing your wealthy client relationships, there is hesitancy by these clients to make referrals because of a strong preference for extreme confidentiality (if not secrecy). read more →
in the desktop days, write-up, bookkeeping and accounting processes were perceived more as data entry work. the price clients were willing to pay for data entry put so much pressure on fees that many firms found it was not worth the hassle.
other services such as tax preparation, financial statements preparation, etc. brought in higher per-hour dollars than write-up, bookkeeping and accounting work could. such work got more and more “outsourced” by accounting firms to bookkeeping firms, freelancer bookkeepers and “processing” firms operated by non-cpas/non-accountants. read more →
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