Business Strategy for CPA's

Hey CPA Firm owner, glad you found the podcast. If you feel like you’ve become trapped by your own accounting firm, you’re fed up PiTB clients who get you their stuff late, don’t appreciate the value you provide, and complain to you when you don’t turn it around on a dime, I can help you stop the chaos and end the long hours, without losing revenue. If you like the podcast, join 1000+ other CPAs who get Vitamin G, my daily dose of single-tip business strategy delivered straight to their inbox: Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribeBe sure to listen to this episode if you’re interested in getting paid for your expertise, without having to do so much hard work. You’ll hear about how, when, and why to use Digital Products in your accounting firm while understanding the pros and cons of them. You’ll also learn how to think about when your accounting practice is ready to introduce these, and when it might be too soon to be worthwhile. If you want to check out other episodes on this topic, you might like:Digital Products, Courses, and 90% Margins with The Real Estate CPA, Brandon Hall #179Get More from Technology with Joe Woodard #24415 Hour Weeks, $200K, 70%+ Margins, with Erica Goode, CPA #243……A few ways to work with me:GET LOTS OF ANSWERS FAST (or)KNOW EXACTLY WHAT TO DO NEXTFor the solo CPA with a bunch of rapid-fire questions they want answers to, like:How high can I go on prices without sending my clients running?What do you think of my niche?How do I upsell my legacy clients?What’s the script for talking to prospects about higher-level and Advisory services?What do I put in my tiered packages?Book a single strategy call with me, to get answers to questions like these and more. It’s covered by my 100% satisfaction guarantee. If at the end of the call, you don’t feel like it was worth it, just say the word and I‘ll refund your purchase in full. geraldinecarter.com/call$495DOWN TO 40 HOURS CPA MASTERMINDFor the overworked CPA at six figures of revenue who wants to stop working weekends and wants to implement overdue changes, but has trouble doing it alone:Get guidance on prices, packages, and becoming more specializedHow to fire clients without blowing a hole in your firmA community of like-minded CPAs on a similar journey to share what you’re working on, bounce ideas off, and get accountabilityMake more progress faster and with more ease. Guaranteed to get you down to 40 hours. geraldinecarter.com/$75001:1 PRIVATE COACHINGFor the firm owner with $1M+ in revenue who is caught in the weeds of tax work and fielding never-ending staff questions, I offer a high-touch 5-month experience. The aim is to get you down to working only 5 days a week, while 5-10x-ing your investment. geraldinecarter.com/custom-vip-coaching$24,500  

Learn about the concept of productized services and their benefits for CPAs. Discover the importance of packaging expertise and selling the desired outcome. Explore offering fixed-price consultation sessions for business owners. Understand the process of creating and pricing a productized service. Discuss the pros and cons of providing productized services.

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?*Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribeTransitioning from a one-on-one business model to a one-to-many business model is a strategic move that some business owners consider as their practices expand and evolve. While one-on-one work offers personalized attention and guidance to individual clients, the one-to-many model enables business owners to reach a larger audience, scale their impact, and increase their revenue potential. Laura Dixon helps women who are obsessive about food and dieting become naturally thin for life. Laura shares how she started her coaching business using a one-to-one model and then shifted it to a monthly membership model. Highlights:— “I always knew what I wanted long-term is recurring consistent revenue in a way that I sell to clients that I love to serve. — “I set up my business where I'm able to have the flexibility that I want with my family, but also do what I love, help the people that I love to help, and make the money that I want.— “Long term, I want a massive business. And that means getting really good at delivering something extraordinary, being really good at selling it. And so I'm willing to charge less now because I know what I want 10, 20, 30 years down the road.” — “I don't want people that kind of want to try stuff in my program. I want people that want to come in, they want to do the work, they want to get the result and they want to get out, and then just live the rest of their life.” — “I'm able to produce probably five times as much as I was able to when I was working more hours because I'm so clear on who I help.”Connect with Laura:Website: https://lauradixoncoaching.com/

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?*Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribeTake the survey!https://link.improvetheworld.net/BusinessStrategyforCPAsBy analyzing relevant data, business owners can identify patterns, trends, and insights that enable them to make well-informed decisions, mitigate risks, and capitalize on opportunities.In this episode, Donny Shimamoto of the Center for Accounting Transformation talks about the two different surveys that his firm is doing right now. The surveys aim to understand what works and what doesn't work for accounting firms, specifically in the areas of advisory services and staffing strategies. ​​Conducting surveys to identify the successful practices of accounting firms in terms of advisory services and staffing is crucial for understanding the key factors that contribute to client success. Donny believes that accountants are here to help improve the world, and the more accountants who contribute to their research, the more the results of that research can help improve the world.Highlights:— “Really good business-driven innovation is driven off of data.”— “Accounting is the foundation of a business. And it is absolutely necessary.” — “Accounting has the power to help small business owners be much more successful.”— “Many of us are scared of the word “failure,” but learning from errors or mistakes creates the opportunity to help others learn from what we did.”Connect with Donny:Website: https://improvetheworld.net/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnyitk/Episode mentions:Take the survey!URL: https://link.improvetheworld.net/BusinessStrategyforCPAs

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?*Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribeFor a lot of accountants, marketing can either be this thing they know they ought to be doing, but aren’t, or they're doing it and not seeing the response they want. Sometimes it feels like they're pouring money down a hole.Like any other business, accounting firms are not immune to making marketing mistakes. In this episode, Matt Banker, founder of Benchmark Growth Marketing, shares some common marketing mistakes that accounting firms make and offers insights on how they can effectively promote their services and stand out in a competitive market.Highlights:— “The most common marketing mistake I see is accountants undervalue their website, or spending money sending good traffic to a bad website.”— “Whatever you're communicating on your website is really influencing a lot of prospects’ first impression of who and what you are.”— “The words on your website need to be right: the messaging, positioning, making sure that you're communicating what you do and for whom. You want your website to qualify people either in, or out..” — “A lot of the marketing materials that are targeted for accounting firms are written for everybody. It's generalist content, and no one cares about it. What I really want is someone who has specific expertise that applies to me. The more specific, the more valuable.” — “The main reason marketing feels expensive is that you haven't budgeted for it. You haven't thought about it as something that is built into your business model.” Connect with Matt:Website: https://marketingforaccountingfirms.com/Free Email Templates:https://marketingforaccountingfirms.com/free-email-templates-for-accounting-firms/

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?*Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribeHow can CPA businesses make themselves more attractive to potential buyers and command a higher sale price?Brannon Poe offers tips for improving sale multiples for CPA businesses.Brannon is a CPA and is the founder of Poe Group Advisors, a brokerage business focused solely on accounting and CPA firms. Highlights:— ”In the landscape of buying and selling of accounting firms, the biggest change is the increase in the focus on the quality of staff in acquisitions. Because quality staff are scarce.”— ”There's increasing comfort and demand with virtual firms. We are seeing multiples increase as banks are getting more comfortable with those firms.”— ”If you want to sell in three to five years, it's smart to get an understanding of how much the practice is worth.” — ”If I had to give one piece of advice to a firm owner who was thinking of selling in three to five years, it would be to focus on pricing.”Connect with Brannon:Website: https://poegroupadvisors.com/Brannon’s new book: Prepare Your CPA Firm for A Salehttps://poegroupadvisors.com/prepare/Previous episodes with Brannon:162 How to Sell a CPA Firm for Optimal Price with Brannon Poehttps://www.businessstrategyforcpas.com/162199 Selling Cloud-based vs Traditional CPA Firms with Brannon Poehttps://www.businessstrategyforcpas.com/199

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?*Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribeMany CPAs are hesitant to niche because they are afraid of limiting their potential client base and revenue.But niching can actually help CPA firms attract more qualified clients and grow their business faster.Julie Powell is a CPA from Tennessee who is currently in Down to 25 Hours CPA Mastermind. She shares her journey of niching and the benefits that it has created for her CPA firm.Highlights:— “Niching is not irreversible.  If I focus on this niche for a couple of years and then find out it's not the best fit, I can always pivot and select a different niche.”— “One obvious benefit has been the efficiencies in our internal workflows. By doing more work for clients that are similar, we can really dial in our processes.” — “The more we're focused on this niche, and the more we really understand them, the better we are able to communicate that to potential clients in a way that really resonates with them and attracts them to our firm.”— “Having that deeper understanding of a client makes the discovery process so much better. Not just for me in delivering it, but also for the client in understanding what we do and how we can help them.”— “Niching hasn’t been limiting at all. Because now that we're beginning to really understand this type of client better, we can do more things for them.” Connect with Julie:Website: https://www.jpsolutions-llc.com/Email: jpowell@jpsolutions-llc.com/

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe For many accountants, depending on the day, technology can be a powerful tool or a frustrating time sink.  Here today to talk with me about effectively leveraging technology is my guest, Joe Woodard.  Joe has trained over 125,000 accounting and business professionals in areas of practice development, changing technology trends, strategic consulting, and how to maximize the use of accounting software in their practices. He's the host of Scaling New Heights, one of the world's leading training conferences for accountants and bookkeepers, which is coming up in St. Louis, June 25th to 28th. Highlights: — “What I would encourage you not to do is directly engage one-to-one with a business that can't afford to pay you.” — “There is an endless vacuum of human need. It is not your job to fill it.” — “Common classic mistakes that accountants are making when it comes to software are disparate technology and under-adoption.” — “Be the accountant or bookkeeper in the pocket of your client, not in the inbox of your client.”  — “You got to build a niche. If I did what I did for other professionals, it wouldn't work and would fall apart. I know my audience. I know what I'm passionate about and that's what makes it work.” Connect with Joe: Website: www.woodard.com  Upcoming Event: Scaling New Heights 2023: www.ScalingNewHeights.com Book mention: Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life by Henry Cloud and John Townsend  https://www.amazon.com/Boundaries-Updated-Expanded-When-Control-dp-0310351804/dp/0310351804/  

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe Niching is not a one-time task but an ongoing discovery process and refining and developing your expertise. It can be a powerful tool for CPAs who want to build a thriving practice while enjoying the freedom to work with the clients they love and set prices in a way that reflects the value they create. Erica Goode shares the challenges she faced when she started her business and how niching helped her build a more profitable accounting practice. Based in Idaho, Erica is a seasoned financial expert and CPA who provides CFO services to coaches and consultants. HIGHLIGHTS: — “The best thing about running your own practice is you decide who you get to work with and who you don't get to work with. It's so liberating.”  — “I had been resisting what felt easy and obvious to me. I was trying to find something fancy.”  — “Niching is a process, not a task.”  — “The more you can narrow down to what you actually need to know, then it just makes your job so much easier. And you don't feel like you're behind because you're choosing not to stay up to speed on certain things, because it doesn't seem relevant to your client base.” — “As accountants, we underestimate how much relationship people are looking at from us. Clients want their tax person to sit next to them and explain stuff.”  Connect with Erica: Podcast: Coaches, Consultants + Money: https://www.ericagoode.com/podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-goode-cpa-00205616/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erica.goode.cpa/ Episode mentions: 116 From Hourly Billing to Flat Rate for Cares Act Documentation https://businessstrategyforcpas.com/116 175 Paid Strategy Sessions and Half-Day Workshops with Erica Goode, CPA https://businessstrategyforcpas.com/175