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

Chad is a partner at LiveCA LIVECA LLP is a 13 person firm committed to providing a progressive approach to accounting with a focus on entrepreneurs and technology professionals. Our concept is to allow greater accessibility to information and advice by connecting clients online directly to a chartered accountant from the comfort of your home or office. With the wide range of online tools available in today's marketplace, our goal is to help clients shift their accounting towards an online platform - reducing the need to search through piles of paper documents and spending more time on value-added work. Our team designs customized digital workflows and are familiar with a large number of applications that can help solve many issues experienced by entrepreneurs (timely financial advice, cash flow forecasting, systems integrations, etc). We work completely online with no desktop systems in a paperless environment. Practicing what we preach is really important to us. Whether you are setting out with a new idea or are already an established entrepreneur, we would love to speak to you about bringing your business online and taking care of your accounting and tax needs.

Randy Johnston is a nationally recognized educator, consultant, and writer with over 30 years experience in Strategic Technology Planning, Accounting Software Selection, Paperless, Systems and Network Integration, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning, Business Development and Management, Process Engineering and outsourced managed services. In this interview, we help CPA Firm owners, accounting professioanls, and bookkeepers navigate the technological jungle of finding the right software for your firm or practice.

LIVECA is committed to providing a progressive approach to accounting with a focus on forward thinking entrepreneurs. The concept is to allow greater accessibility to information and advice by connecting clients online directly to a chartered accountant from the comfort of your home or office. With the wide range of online tools available in today's marketplace, our goal is to help clients shift their accounting towards a digital platform - reducing the need to search through piles of paper documents and spending more time on value-added work. Whether you are setting out with a new idea or an already established entrepreneur, we would love to speak to you about your business. Check us out at www.liveca.ca. Or, just email me at josh@liveca.ca to schedule a free online consultation at your convenience. LiveCA provides a comprehensive range of accounting services from a qualified chartered accountant for small and medium sized businesses. Specialties: Corporate Taxation, Self-Employed Individuals, Accounting software setup, Trusts, Joint Ventures.

Ed Kless joined Sage in July of 2003 and is currently the senior director of partner development and strategy. He develops and delivers curriculum for Sage business partners on the art and practice of small business consulting including the Sage Consulting Academy, Business Strategy and Customer Experience Workshops. He also serves as the liaison to the Sage Leadership Association. Prior to joining Sage, Ed worked with Tipping Point Advisors, an organization dedicated to the growth and development of software implementation partners. In 1996, he co-founded Third Wave Business Systems, a Microsoft Dynamics GP partner that grew to 20 team members and $5 million in revenue. At Third Wave, Ed developed the implementation methodology and led the CRM and ERP consulting teams. Ed is a frequent contributor to industry publications, including the Journal of Accountancy, Harvard Business Review and HR.com, and has spoken at many conferences worldwide on project management, pricing, and knowledge workers. He is also active in the Information Technology Alliance (ITA). He lives north of Dallas with his wife and two children and ran for Texas State Senate in 2010 and 2012 as a Libertarian.

If you really want to talk shop, Kirk brings over 15 years of experience developing FileMaker databases and web applications as well as systems integration. As the principal of MightyData, Kirk heads an elite team of FileMaker Certified Developers and Authorized Trainers. He is a renowned speaker at the FileMaker Developer Conference and PauseOnError un-conference. Anyone who knows Kirk realizes that to become the Visionary of Value means walking the walk and talking the talk. To that end, Kirk is a Practicing Fellow at the VeraSage Institute and a proud graduate of EntreLeadership. He is also the Founder and Host of The Art of Value Podcast

Adrian G. Simmons is a CPA innovating ways to put money in its place. His first debit was made in the classrooms of Loyola University Maryland, where he completed his studies in 2000, and then launched out as an auditor with KPMG Baltimore. He was relieved to have passed the CPA exam in one sitting so he could avoid more studying, but was surprised to learn that it came with an Elijah Watts Sells Silver medal. In 2002, he left KPMG to join his father in public practice, and began the work of serving small businesses, individuals, and non-profits. Since that time, the practice has grown to now four individuals, and the team works together to help customers become financially strong, so that they can focus on what truly matters in life. Adrian likes tech, uses a fountain pen, prefers dark over milk chocolate, and is happy to say he recently survived a half-marathon. His faith is very important to him, and he teaches Sunday school at his local parish. He also likes the out-of-doors, always keeping an eye out for ways to walk, hike, bike, ski, scuba, camp, swim, and others — one he'd really like to do soon is whitewater rafting. In the world of accounting, his interests lie in finding ways to make business more human, in keeping numbers secondary as a support to life aspirations, and in molding technology to enable creative expression. He is excited to be a part of the network of Thrivealists who share this passion, and are pioneering a new future for the profession.

Angie serves as President of The Rainmaker Companies and previously served as the Director of Consulting for The Rainmaker Companies for several years. Consistently named by Accounting Today Magazine as "one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting" and listed as a 40 Under 40 in the Accounting Industry by CPA Practice Advisor, Grissom is a frequent presenter at national conferences, Angie is renowned for her influence in and passion for the industry. She brings all this to her role at The Rainmaker Companies, striving to share her proven knowledge and know-how to transform the lives of clients through consulting, coaching, training and developing accountability within accounting firms. Prior to joining Rainmaker, Angie worked in organizational management, sales and human resources. She has served as the Vice President of the American Society of Women Accountants Music City chapter, and an active member of the CPACA Alliance for accounting industry consultants, the National Speaker's Association and the Association for Accounting Marketing. She contributes to and authors practice management articles for trade journals including Accounting Today, CCH Practice Management Report and the CPA Leadership Report, as well as state society newsletters and other publications. Angie is the "She" in the regular published column in Accounting Today known as "He Said, She Said" which highlights and debates topics and issues in the accounting industry.

Mission: "To, once and for all, bury the billable hour and timesheet in the professions" Ronald J. Baker started his CPA career in 1984 with KPMG's Private Business Advisory Services in San Francisco. Today, he is the founder of VeraSage Institute—the leading think tank dedicated to educating professionals internationally—and a radio talk-show host on the www.VoiceAmerica.com show: The Soul of Enterprise: Business in the Knowledge Economy. As a frequent speaker, writer, and educator, his work takes him around the world. He has been an instructor with the California CPA Education Foundation since 1995 and has authored fifteen courses for them, including: You Are What You Charge For: Success in Today's Emerging Experience Economy (with Daniel Morris); Alternatives to the Federal Income Tax; Trashing the Timesheet: A Declaration of Independence; Everyday Economics; Everyday Ethics: Doing Well by Doing Good; The Best Business Books You Should Read; Pricing on Purpose: Creating and Capturing Value; Measure What Matters to Customers; and Innovating Your Business Model. He is the author of six best-selling books, including: Professional's Guide to Value Pricing; The Firm of the Future: A Guide for Accountants, Lawyers, and Other Professional Services, co-authored with Paul Dunn; Pricing on Purpose: Creating and Capturing Value; Measure What Matters to Customers: Using Key Predictive Indicators; and Mind Over Matter: Why Intellectual Capital is the Chief Source of Wealth; and his latest book, Implementing Value Pricing: A Radical Business Model for Professional Firms. Ron has toured the world, spreading his value-pricing message to over 120,000 professionals. He has been appointed to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant's Group of One Hundred, a think tank of leaders to address the future of the profession; named on Accounting Today's 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012, and 2013 Top 100 Most Influential People in the profession; voted number six and nine of the Top ten Most Influential People in the profession in 2012 and 2013; selected as one of LinkedIn's Influencer Bloggers; and received the 2003 Award for Instructor Excellence from the California CPA Education Foundation. He graduated in 1984, from San Francisco State University, with a Bachelor of Science in accounting and a minor in economics. He is a graduate of Disney University and Cato University, and is a faculty member of the Professional Pricing Society. He resides in Petaluma, California.

This week we're excited to have Mark Wickersham Why the 70% capacity milestone was destroying Mark's profitability Why working on your practice is (more) important than working in it (systems, strategy, and the team) Why the billable hour was trapping Mark's growth His approach to creating systems inside of his accounting firm His #1 mistake (he was too cheap!) How to create a new client pipeline His model for creating and implementing value based pricing And much more…

Just because our jobs are boring doesn't mean our CPE has to be. Greg Kyte - who was included in Accounting Today's list of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the Accounting Profession - combines his expertise as a CPA with his 12 years of experience as a stand up comedian to turn CPE on its head. He's created a unique and entertaining CPE experience that does not compromise on content. It's NASBA certified, it feels like a comedy club, and the information sticks to your brain.