CPA Trendlines Podcasts

The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrFor CPA TrendlinesIra Rosenbloom has been working in the M&A space for accounting firms for over a decade and says it’s a complicated and exciting time in the M&A space today. “We’re seeing a lot of things that make sense, and a lot of things that are frustrating because they make sense, and a lot of things that make no sense,” he said.Staffing problems on both sides are forcing buyers to be far more selective about the firms they consider buying.More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=112436 Today’s buyers are different in many ways than the sellers. First, Rosenbloom explained, baby boomer sellers tend to like to talk to people, while the younger generations looking to buy firms are “more selective in their communication.” Younger buyers tend to be more entrepreneurial, and “the more that the seller comes across as an entrepreneur, the more interested the buyer is going to be in what's going on,” he added. Buyers are also interested in firms making a break with old methodologies and sellers who “want to invest in the long game," Rosenbloom said. 

The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrCPA Trendlines Jody Padar, the author of The Radical CPA, has been shaking things up in the accounting world for years. But today, firms are at a boiling point, limited by supply and demand. “You only have so many people doing the work. And what are you going to do? You can’t make the work up. It’s got to get done," Padar said. More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=113007 The old business model was taking whoever walked in and billing by the hour. But today, we don’t have the capacity. “There’s so much work out there," she explained.  "I have not heard any accountants say that they are looking for work. They’re all saying, ‘Stop, go away. I don’t have the resources to serve you.’”She encourages firm leaders to prioritize time to think about what kind of firm they want. “It's really about having a practice that works for you instead of you working for it, right? It's about making sure that you spend time focused on your business and not in your business,” she explained.

The Disruptors With Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines Peter Margaritis, who also calls himself The Accidental Accountant, grew up in the gregarious environment of restaurants, “where everybody communicated, not well, sometimes, but they communicated.” So it was a shock when he went to work at Price Waterhouse, and he “felt that all the air got sucked out of the office, and nobody was communicating at all, and they looked at me like I was crazy.” More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=112394 His crusade for the last decade or so has been to help accountants improve what we often call soft skills, but which he calls power skills: the ability to communicate clearly and effectively with others. “There’s nothing that will slow you down more in your career than a poorly written memo or email or a presentation that you were poorly prepared for,” Margaritis said. 

Robert Fligel, CEO and founder of RF Resources, discusses the impact of private equity on CPA firms, including changes to ownership structures and staffing. The podcast explores improving valuation for accounting firms and factors affecting firm attractiveness. It also covers the shrinking number of buyers for smaller firms and the rise of private equity in the profession. Additionally, it discusses starting and growing an accounting practice, including capital requirements and the role of facilitators.

The Disruptors With Liz Farr for CPA TrendlinesBefore Joe Montgomery started his firm, he had an epiphany. He asked himself, “Why would I ever want to own a firm, if that’s what it looks like?” He saw firm leaders chained to their desks, working long hours and dealing with waves of turnover. “There’s got to be a different way to do it,” he thought. More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=111981 After too many 100-hour weeks with a wife and three kids he never saw, he reached his breaking point and exited his family firm to start his own firm and his coaching business, GroupUp.  His focus in his accounting firm and in GroupUp is finding that sweet spot of the right clients, right services and right prices. The first step is “making sure we have the right people in the right structure with the right motivators behind it. Those three components can build an unstoppable team," Montgomery explained. Next, he said, “on the client side, we do the right service that's in our wheelhouse, that we can consistently deliver to the right client…and for the right price, so we have enough money coming in the door.”With that structure in place, Montgomery said, firm owners “can get out of production and lead the firm,” changes that can lead to “you running a firm that gives you more freedom.”

The Disruptors With Liz Farr for CPA TrendlinesRyan Lazanis started his previous firm, Xen Accounting, a 100% online accounting firm because he thought he could have a better life if he started his own business. Now, he teaches firm owners from around the world how to build firms that support their lifestyles.More here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=111660 “Your business is there to serve your lifestyle. We often lose sight of that,” Lazanis says. Instead, firm owners should think about what makes them happy, and how their business will help them get there."Growing your firm should start with that concrete end in mind. Work backward to see what you should be doing next and how big you want your firm to be. “A lot of firms are able to grow, but to the detriment of someone's work-life balance,” he said. Adding to the top line can also mean “we're driving ourselves into the ground.”Instead, Lazanis wants  “to help firm owners create a business model that can scale, where we can add to the top line, but in a more reasonable fashion where we're not adding to our existing workload.”

The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrMarie Greene founded Connected Accounting in 2019 out of a desire to create a new kind of accounting firm where firm culture and “reliable, reliable, reliable” customer service were the highest priorities.MORE HERE: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=111335“What is your culture? Who do you want to have on your team?” are questions leaders need to consider when seeking out new team members or deciding who to fire, says Greene. She advises firm owners to remember the message it sends when poor performers are retained because “the good people also leave because you keep the bad apples.”

Staff and employee annual reviews help assess where teams need additional help, guidance and development. If only they weren't so painful...Enter Menlo Innovations, an IT consulting firm and custom software development firm that appears to have found a better way to analyze team performance and deliver constructive feedback.

The Disruptors With Liz Farrfor CPA TrendlinesMegan Genest Tarnow is well-known in accounting circles as the go-to expert in using QuickBooks for the fund accounting required by nonprofit entities. Full episode notes here: https://cpatrendlines.com/?p=108914 See all CPA Trendlines multimedia productions here: https://cpatrendlines.com/category/video,podcast/ Many of the best accountants she knows have come from non-traditional backgrounds like dance or philosophy. Megan worked in theater for several years before being thrust into a finance role. Like her, these non-traditional accountants apply their native curiosity to understand how the pieces fit together. By leaning into the work and asking questions, they uncover an unknown aptitude for accounting, suggesting that perhaps we should hire for curiosity rather than compliance knowledge.  

With Liz FarrCreating the firm you want means you have to be intentional about it, said Twyla Verhelst, CPA. The head of Accountant Channel at FreshBooks and creator of Women in Accounting Mentorship said the first step is getting clear on your why, your firm’s why and your team’s why so you can approach growth more intentionally. More from CPA Trendlines here: https://cpatrendlines.com/category/podcast/She said CPAs should be asking, "Why is it that a particular goal appeals to you?" "Is that the right thing to be working toward now?" "What will you do to get there?"