Business Strategy for CPA's

Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7*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 Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7

Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7*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/ Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7

Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7*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 Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7

Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7*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/ Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7

Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7*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/   Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7

Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7*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 Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7

Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe The hustle can be tempting: all that activity seems to have a positive effect.  Hustle too much, and risk becoming stretched too thin across too many areas of your accounting practice.  Hustle for too many years, and risk burning out. If you don't solve your hustle problems now, you run the risk of carrying your hustle problems with you as your accounting practice grows.  And as your accounting practice grows, the problems that caused hustle in the first place continue to grow, leading to more and more hustle. Consider solving problems that cause hustle now, so you don’t carry them with you. In this episode, I give you eight hustle-related thought patterns to consider shifting:   From: “The way to solve this is by working more.” To: “Working less is better for me, my clients, and my business.”  From: “I am always behind.” To: “I am on top of my work.” To: I am getting ahead of my work.”  From: “There’s always more to do.” To: “My responsibilities are finite.”  From: One-time, this-time solutions to the solution that also works when your accounting practice is twice the size. From: “This is how we’ve done it.” To: Bigger, better, faster results for your clients.  From: Speed and intensity. To: Slowing both mind and actions down. To: All the ways that when you work less your clients have a better experience.  To: All the ways that extra time is good for you and extra time is good for your staff.   Going from 40 down to 25 hours requires a new set of skills, and a new way of thinking.  When you work less, it’s better for your accounting practice, it’s better for your clients, and it’s better for you.  Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7

Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe Acquiring and retaining clients is crucial for maintaining a successful accounting practice.  But not all potential clients are the right fit for an accounting firm, and working with the wrong clients can drain resources and decrease overall profitability.  One solution to this problem is offering paid intensives to pre-filter potential monthly accounting clients.  This approach allows firms to work closely with clients over a short period to assess their needs, expectations, and overall fit before committing to a longer-term relationship.  In this episode, Sheila Hansen shares her insights on offering her one-time services, particularly the benefits of paid intensives. Sheila is a CPA from Omaha who focuses on creatives striving for $250K and above in revenue. Highlights: —  “Clients know they need an accountant, but they may not know exactly why having a good one is important.” — “Whether clients have a bookkeeper or are keeping books themselves, often they don’t know what their financials are telling them.” — “While it might be tempting to “teach clients everything,” often clients find value in just one or two steps that make an impact.” — “When it came to offering this type of intensive, I finally just put it out there – tried it, tested it – to see what worked.” Connect with Sheila: Website: https://www.hansenllc.net/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheila.hansen.cpa/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheila-hansen-cpa/ Episode mentions: 235 Advanced Decisions https://businessstrategyforcpas.com/235 Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7

Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe Starting an accounting practice from scratch can be a challenging journey for any entrepreneur.  One of the biggest challenges for a new CPA firm owner is finding a niche that aligns with one’s values and expertise. Today I speak with Matt Chiappetta, a CFO turned CPA firm owner working with digital solopreneurs.  Starting as a solopreneur just last year, Matt talks about how he found his niche and shares the steps he’s taking to build an audience. Highlights: — “You're a soloist and business operator, but that doesn't mean that you need to do everything by yourself all the time.” — “I don't worry about getting bored in my niche because I feel like there's just so many different ways to serve my target market.” — “If you don't like your niche, there's nothing preventing you from changing it.”  — “You get an immense amount of clarity when you pick your niche in terms of the problems you're trying to solve, which makes you more valuable for your client.”  — “If you're making genuine connections with the content you’re creating, it almost seems like there is going to be a time when you unexpectedly  gain a lot of traction.” Connect with Matt: Website: https://www.mattchia.cpa/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattchiacpa Get your FREE 7 Pricing Essentials for CPAs and EAs here:https://geraldinecarter.com/7