Growing Your Firm | Strategies for Accountants, CPA's, Bookkeepers , and Tax Professionals

Tim ShortsleeveCPA.CITPLess "Focus, environment, results." Tim Shortsleeve creates high performing organizations with these three words. Having worked with a diverse range of clients, Tim knows that audit, tax, and planning issues are the easy parts. Tim digs deep to understand his clients and guide them through the process of building a more efficient, healthy organization. It's a collaborative process that yields results, trust, and positive momentum. Tim graduated from the State University of New York at Oswego in 1984, and spent the first decade of his career in the Rochester, NY offices of Price Waterhouse and a Rochester regional accounting firm. In 1994 he became a partner with the firm Bonn, Shortsleeve & Co., and over the course of 15 years provided tax, audit, accounting and process improvement services to closely held businesses in the areas of manufacturing, construction, not-for-profit, retailing, health care, and high-tech service industries. Tim left the firm in 2010 and joined TYS as a partner in the Rochester office . Today he uses his in-depth accounting and business process knowledge to help clients focus and achieve alignment in order to reach their goals. Tim speaks frequently across the country on various tax, sales and business efficiency topics, and he's written articles for numerous publications. Tim was selected to the Rochester Business Journal class of 2000 "40 Under 40" up and coming business professionals. Tim is also the past-president of the Rochester Chapter of the Epilepsy Foundation and was a former hockey coach at the Rochester Institute of Technology and also Monroe Community College.

Sandra is a visionary leader who is gifted with the ability to tackle emerging as well as future challenges. She works with a sense of adventure, preferring to focus upon the most essential facts in order to grasp a "big picture" view of any situation. Sandra relies upon her creativity and inspiration to cut through complexity and devise timely solutions while following her instincts to "keep the ship moving" at all times (and improvising with precision when necessary to make sure that happens.) Sandra is a naturally gifted public speaker who is noted for the energy and excitement she brings to an audience. At the same time, she adds a personal touch that leaves individuals in the crowd with a sense that she is your friend. This ability to build relationships and project warmth makes Sandra especially effective at building great teams. She is a team player in her own right, offering her multi-tasking skills and a realistic viewpoint that can keep an agenda on track and people focused on the tasks at hand. Sandra directs Boomer Consulting, Inc.'s annual Human Capital and Learning Symposium™ and offers her services as co-director of the Performance3™ Management Program. She has been in the Strategic Coach Entrepreneurial Team Program™ for 10 years and is responsible for communicating its concepts to clients and the Boomer staff. Sandra is regularly invited to speak at national conferences where she empowers audiences with new ideas and a sense of humor. She is a popular author who is frequently published by many trade journals including CPA Practice Management Report, Accounting Today, Accounting Web, The CPA Practice Management Forum, The CPA Report of South Carolina, Lagniappe of Louisiana and The Asset of Missouri Societies. She also contributes a regular column covering human resources to the Boomer Bulletin™ and penned an award winning marketing plan, Rebuilding the Community Bank, published by the Bank Marketing Association.

On Dustin: "The pioneer and industry expert in applying Lean Six Sigma, Project Management and Constraint Management principles within public accounting firms. Providing expert Master Black Belt consultation to professional service and transactional processes as well as to small and mid-size manufacturers. I focus on applying practical concepts with a plan that is uniquely customized to each organization. Real process change happens when you have a combination of the right tools, with the right faciliation and team leadership, utilizing practical improvement ideas. This helps to ensure more complete and timely buy in within the business to process changes. Specialties:Uniquely applying the concepts of Lean Six Sigma, Project Management and Constraint Management within professional service organizations. I help public accounting firms and other professional service organizations go beyond traditional productivity initiatives to drive real and lasting process changes to the organization. The innovative approach of Flowtivity helps free you from sub-optimal process changes in the past."

Director of Technology & Marketing HPC Accounting & Tax July 2015 – Present (3 months)Greater Los Angeles Area Design and implementation of accounting technology solutions internally and for clients. Putting that knowledge to good use marketing HPC's wide range of cloud solutions. Co-Founder & CEO Cloudsourced Accounting LLC January 2013 – June 2015 (2 years 6 months)Greater Los Angeles Area Grew an online bookkeeping and cloud integration firm from scratch to serve hundreds of customers all over the country in under three years. Went from zero to a dozen team members spread over four states. Cloudsourced Accounting was acquired by Harshman Phillips & Company (HPC) in July of 2015

From Mike's Linkedin::: A CPA and CVA (Certified Valuation Analyst) who specializes in the area of dental and other healthcare entities.I work primarily with privately owned practices and individuals and strive to become their most trusted financial advisor. We take a long-term approach to dealing with clients by billing them a flat monthly rate and often investing time over and above our agreements when clients need big things accomplished. We have the flexibility that many of our larger competitors don't have.

Carrie is a founding shareholder and President of The Whetstone Group, Inc. Since 2000 Whetstone has provided growth consulting services to hundreds of CPA firms, professional service firms, and companies in business-to-business markets nationwide. She has nearly 20 years of professional services marketing experience. Carrie helps clients: Determine how to best organize for growth and build a sustainable growth culture. Develop comprehensive growth plans, providing ongoing support and consultation. Establish accountability for business development and meet their revenue goals. Implement follow-up strategies to help manage the sales process with prospective clients and maximize their ROI on marketing. She is also a skilled trainer and provides group sales training as well as one-on-one coaching that enables attendees to better understand the sales cycle and develop the personal skills necessary to close sales. Firm leaders, practitioners, marketing professionals benefit from her knowledge and dynamic approach. Before joining Whetstone, Carrie was an in-house marketing director in the national marketing office of RSM McGladrey, Inc. Speaking/Writing Carrie has presented for the AICPA, the Association for Accounting Marketing's (AAM) Annual Summit, the Indiana CPA Society, DFK USA's Annual Growth Summit, Moore Stephens North America, MSI Global Alliance's International Managing Partner Conference, BKR's Annual Marketing Meeting, PKF North America and The International Group of Accounting Firms (IGAF). She has been published in the AAM's MarkeTrends, The Journal of Accounting Marketing and the CPA Practice Management Forum. Leadership Carrie is also a member of the CPA Consultants' Alliance (CPACA), a working group of thought leaders united in their efforts to further leadership within the CPA profession. Through collaboration, the CPACA offers deliverables and solutions CPA firms can use to advance leadership in their firm. She has also served on the AAM's Board of Directors as well as Chair of AAM's Education Committee.

Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk has been a member of the creative and marketing services community for over 20 years and does not appear to be leaving it anytime soon. As president of bbr marketing, she has relished the challenges of entrepreneurship as she worked to grow and nurture a new business. Since the firm's inception in 2009, Bonnie has led the young company to become widely recognized and respected within the professional services marketing niche, with award-winning client websites and an outstanding history of business success. Bonnie quite literally wrote the book on online marketing for accounting firms, Take Your Marketing Online: Proven Ways to Grow Your Firm in the Digital Age, at the request of the AICPA. Prior to this feat, she was recognized for two years in a row as one ofAccounting Today's Top 100 Most Influential People and is in great demand as a consultant, speaker and leader at various industry events. She is a founding member of the Atlanta Independent Women's Network and is the Atlanta chapter president of the Association for Accounting Marketing. She is also a regular contributor to a variety of websites, including Social Media Today, Accounting Today and other industry-related publications and has been quoted in Entrepreneur, U.S. News & World Report, CPA Practice Advisor, and others.

Darren successfully created a highly efficient and effective CPA firm in Bloomington, Indiana. As a result of his successes in building and managing his CPA firm he has become a sought after speaker at many national conferences. Darren created an organization called RootWorks LLC to help other accounting firms around the country move their firms into what he calls the "Next Generation Accounting Firm". As a technology enthusiast, he likes all things that relate to technology. Darren recently authored The Intentional Accountant: Your Guide to Building A Next Generation Accounting Firm. Darren is the co-author of The E-Myth Accountant with famed author of The E-Myth Michael E Gerber and Youtility for Accountants with New York Times best-selling author Jay Baer. Over the next few years Darren plans on continuing to manage and grow his CPA Firm while working to grow and expand RootWorks to serve other accounting firms around the country.

Sarah Johnson Dobek's Profile Thank you for wanting to learn more about me! I am passionate about helping accounting firms, state CPA societies and vendors to the accounting profession grow. Through my experience as a former accounting firm marketing and hr director as well as through my role as an advisor to CPA firm leaders, I have learned that for firms to grow they have to do two things well- bring in new business while retaining current business AND they must retain the right talent. I am lucky enough to be in a position to help accounting firms do just this. I help our clients achieve their growth goals through a few key areas: Marketing that drives growth I work with local and regional firms around the country to help them develop and implement their roadmap to growth- a plan that aligns their growth goals with practical strategies to spur and maintain their growth. Social Media I help accounting firm use social media effectively and help them understand the value social media can bring to their organization. I also provide training and coaching on social media use and implementation, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogs and more. We also help firm's determine how social media will be integrated into their marketing efforts or elevate their current efforts to drive more results. Content Marketing We work closely with firms to help them develop content marketing strategies or better leverage their existing content for improved results. Author & Speaker I am a speaker and author on marketing topics, social media-including LinkedIn and Facebook, client service and retention, recruitment marketing and more.