CPA Trendlines Podcasts

Intentionality can bring freedom and joy.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrWhen Jason Blumer and Julie Shipp joined forces to build Blumer CPAs more than a decade ago, they eschewed the traditional partnership structure, where decision-making power depends on ownership percentage. Instead, Blumer said, “We figured out the ownership is a legal reflection of the companies, but they do not reflect anything we do together in our roles.”  10 MORE TAKEAWAYS: Blumer CPAs show notes here MORE: Disruptors MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS:  James Graham: Drop the Billable Hour and You'll Bill More | Karen Reyburn: Fix Your Marketing and Fix Your Business | Giles Pearson: Fix the Staffing Crisis by Swapping Experience for Education | Jina Etienne: Practice Fearless Inclusion | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Jason Deshayes: What We're Doing Isn't Working | Heather Satterley: You've Got To Meet People Where They Are | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work Together, they also formed Thriveal, a support community for accounting firm owners. Blumer is the CEO and visionary for the firm and Shipp is the COO and integrator. This separation of ownership from roles allows them to both to be, as Shipp said, “100% in my role and have 100% the authority of my role.”  In their first year of working together, Shipp said, “We were crossing in and out of each other's lanes,” as visionary and integrator, which, she explained, “diluted the work we could do together.” They found that becoming clear on their roles allows them both to leverage their best gifts and abilities. 

Transformation TalksWith Donny ShimamotoCenter for Accounting TransformationIn the latest episode of Transformation Talks, renowned international speaker, leadership coach, and business consultant Scharrell Jackson emphasizes the pivotal role of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in ensuring the sustainability of businesses across diverse industries. Jackson delves into the profound benefits of DEI, extending beyond business culture to impact recruiting and the overall bottom line. MORE: Scharrell Jackson show notes here MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS: Harper & Company CPAs: The Perspective of a Non-Accountant is Imperative | Jason Deshayes: What We're Doing Isn't Working | Heather Satterley: You've Got To Meet People Where They Are | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | Scott Scarano: First, Grow People. Then Firm Growth Can Follow | Jody Padar: Build a Practice that Works for You, Not Vice-Versa | Ira Rosenbloom: With M&A, Nobody Wants a Fixer-Upper | Peter Margaritis: The Power Skills Every Accountant Needs | Joe Montgomery: Find the Sweet Spot of the Right Clients, Right Services and Right Prices | Marie Green: Your Bad Apples Are Ruining You | Megan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than Compliance | Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for Life | Randy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees Happy | Erik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift  "It's the living experience of what works and what doesn't, and also understanding the broad positive impact that it can have on businesses that choose to get comfortable being uncomfortable," Jackson explains.

Try for a 10-15% margin.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrBrandon Hall says that the reason accountants have such long and grueling busy seasons is that “firms try to make way too much money at tax prep.” Firms don’t have enough capacity to deliver on services, so everyone – including the partners – ends up working a ton of hours.  14 MORE TAKEAWAYS: Brandon Hall show notes here MORE: Disruptors MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS: James Graham: Drop the Billable Hour and You'll Bill More | Karen Reyburn: Fix Your Marketing and Fix Your Business | Giles Pearson: Fix the Staffing Crisis by Swapping Experience for Education | Jina Etienne: Practice Fearless Inclusion | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Jason Deshayes: What We're Doing Isn't Working | Heather Satterley: You've Got To Meet People Where They Are | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture |  Because partner pay isn’t included in payroll, the margin on tax prep is likely much worse than the 30-35% that shows up on the income statement. Hall’s target for the 2024 filing season is just 10-15% margin on tax prep. To eliminate tax season, firms should overhire, “set a lower margin target for tax prep,” and “create a flywheel of services and businesses that our tax preparation clients can utilize. And we’ll make our money there.”

Safety's knowing you can pay the bills. Purpose is knowing there's something more.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrAmber Setter, the chief enlightenment officer for Conscious Public Accountants, started out as a Type A overachiever CPA, but after a few busy seasons, she realized that she "didn’t want to be an accountant anymore.”Today she’s an executive leadership coach for accountants, helping them transform their lives and careers. 11 MORE TAKEAWAYS: Amber Setter show notes here MORE: Disruptors MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS:  Blumer CPAs: Move Leaders Out of Client Service | James Graham: Drop the Billable Hour and You'll Bill More | Karen Reyburn: Fix Your Marketing and Fix Your Business | Giles Pearson: Fix the Staffing Crisis by Swapping Experience for Education | Jina Etienne: Practice Fearless Inclusion | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Jason Deshayes: What We're Doing Isn't Working | Heather Satterley: You've Got To Meet People Where They Are |  The premise behind Setter's coaching is that the coachee, whether it’s an individual, a team or an organization, is the expert in their domain.“The work of the coach is to pull that wisdom outside of them” Setter said, adding that next steps include reflection and talking about goals and challenges. Setter explained that coaches don’t tell people what to do, but instead ask open-ended questions to create a space for personal exploration of issues many are not giving thought to.

Where there are unmet needs, there are opportunities.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrJames Graham’s firm, Richtr Financial Studio, gave up the billable hour 10 or 15 years ago, and points to that choice as something that made the biggest difference in his firm.  10 MORE TAKEAWAYS: James Graham show notes here MORE: Disruptors MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS:  Karen Reyburn: Fix Your Marketing and Fix Your Business | Giles Pearson: Fix the Staffing Crisis by Swapping Experience for Education | Jina Etienne: Practice Fearless Inclusion | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Jason Deshayes: What We're Doing Isn't Working | Heather Satterley: You've Got To Meet People Where They Are | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture |  He said it's because “it really changes the nature of your relationship with the client” when the client is no longer looking at the clock with “that dollar per hour at the moment, always hanging over any interaction.” By removing the focus on time, “it allows everyone to move forward better because the focus is on running the business.”His firm, which specializes in outsourced accounting and fractional CFO services for innovation companies, is in the process of growing from 26 to 50 team members. “One of the things that I really like about growth is it creates opportunity for our team,” Graham explained. These opportunities include moving to a higher position or becoming a specialist. He also notes that firms that don’t offer growth opportunities risk losing people.

Fix Your Marketing and Fix Your Business.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrKaren Reyburn wants accountants to stop thinking “about marketing as this one-off thing where you tick little boxes,” but instead about how to use your marketing to connect to the human experience. 17 MORE TAKEAWAYS: Karen Reyburn show notes here MORE: Disruptors MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS:  Giles Pearson: Fix the Staffing Crisis by Swapping Experience for Education | Jina Etienne: Practice Fearless Inclusion | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Jason Deshayes: What We're Doing Isn't Working | Heather Satterley: You've Got To Meet People Where They Are | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture |  In her new book, The Accountant Marketer: The Structured Approach Any Accountant Can Follow to Attract Clients They Love, Reyburn provides a step-by-step process for understanding the unique characteristics of their firm and how to connect that uniqueness with their best clients. “If you have a marketing problem, you have a business problem" she says, "If you have a business problem, there’s often a marketing solution that can help with it.”

The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrGetting the word out about client accounting services could help solve the staffing shortage, says Giles Pearson, CEO and co-founder of Accountests, an online knowledge-testing company that focuses on recruitment, selection and development assessments for chartered accountants, accounting graduates and candidates. EIGHT MORE TAKEAWAYS: Giles Pearson show notes here MORE: Disruptors MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS:  Jina Etienne: Practice Fearless Inclusion | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Jason Deshayes: What We're Doing Isn't Working | Heather Satterley: You've Got To Meet People Where They Are | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | CAS, Pearson says, appeals to those with an entrepreneurial bent, which could make the accounting profession more interesting and appealing to the next generation.

Twyla Verhelst explains 'collaborative accounting.'With Seth FinebergAt Large for CPA TrendlinesFreshBooks is taking another step to evolve from being a cloud-based invoicing solution for gig workers to being more strongly considered a true accounting solution that accountants could use to collaborate with clients as their business needs evolve. MORE FINEBERG: Your Classic Business Model Won’t Allow Growth |  Accounting Tech Decisions You Need to Make Today | You’re Doing Email Wrong | When Live Events Fail | Who’s in Control? You? Or Your Clients? | Time Management Rule #1 for Accountants MORE TECH: Major Websites Blocking Content from AI Crawlers | AI and the Future of Advisory | How Much a Data Breach Will Cost You – Directly and Indirectly | Strengthen Client Ties with Workflow Tools | The Art of Prompt Engineering for A.I. Accountants MORE VERHELST: Twyla Verhelst on How Firms Are Getting Creative to Compete  “We are definitely in this flow of evolving the platform to support accountants better," Twyla Verhelst, head of FreshBooks’ accountant channel, tells CPA Trendlines' Seth Fineberg. "We now have an accountant hub, which we will continue to add to and a robust roadmap, one in which we’re building from a place of [asking] accounting partners what do you need?” More show notes here: https://cpatrendlines.com/2023/10/18/twyla-verhelst-freshbooks-collaborative-accounting-will-freshbooks-finally-be-embraced-by-more-accountants/

Transformation TalksWith Donny ShimamotoCenter for Accounting Transformation Glen Harper, CPA, says businesses should be willing to reinvent themselves and that diverse perspectives can be a valuable asset. The owner of Harper & Company CPAs should know: He's had to embrace both philosophies to become successful. MORE: Harper & Company CPAs show notes here MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS:  Jason Deshayes: What We're Doing Isn't Working | Heather Satterley: You've Got To Meet People Where They Are | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | Scott Scarano: First, Grow People. Then Firm Growth Can Follow | Jody Padar: Build a Practice that Works for You, Not Vice-Versa | Ira Rosenbloom: With M&A, Nobody Wants a Fixer-Upper | Peter Margaritis: The Power Skills Every Accountant Needs | Joe Montgomery: Find the Sweet Spot of the Right Clients, Right Services and Right Prices | Marie Green: Your Bad Apples Are Ruining You | Megan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than Compliance | Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for Life | Randy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees Happy | Erik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift  In a recent episode of Transformation Talks, Harper tells host Donny Shimamoto, CPA, CITP, CGMA, who is also the founder and managing director of Intraprise TechKnowlogies LLC, that a good advisor can help you see your business from a different perspective and identify opportunities that you may have missed. He said after some self-reflection, he needed what his successful clients already had--a CEO.Enter Julie Smith. 

The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrJina Etienne wants accountants to stop hiding behind our green eyeshades and all the stereotypes we share as CPAs. She practices “fearless inclusion,” which is the freedom to be yourself and to create the space for others to do the same.     MORE: Jina Etienne show notes here MORE: Disruptors MORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS:  Heather Satterley: You've Got To Meet People Where They Are | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | Scott Scarano: First, Grow People. Then Firm Growth Can Follow | Jody Padar: Build a Practice that Works for You, Not Vice-Versa | Ira Rosenbloom: With M&A, Nobody Wants a Fixer-Upper | Peter Margaritis: The Power Skills Every Accountant Needs | Joe Montgomery: Find the Sweet Spot of the Right Clients, Right Services and Right Prices | Marie Green: Your Bad Apples Are Ruining You | Megan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than Compliance | Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for Life | Randy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees Happy | Erik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift | Jennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone Loves | Mike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training Practices  “Inclusion happens because of how I show up and the space I make for others,” Etienne said. She added that the fearless part means we must be brave and bold while interacting with others thoughtfully. When we show our personalities and our humanity, “That fixes a lot of things, actually,” she explained.