Business Strategy for CPA's

Accountants have a hard time getting their head around assigning a price to squishy stuff like peace of mind, quick response time, and ease of access. While they understand that these things are valuable, it’s not widely understood how they can be converted to dollar prices. Today I speak with Mark Stiving, a pricing educator and advisor. He's the host of the Impact Pricing podcast and is the owner of Impact Pricing, where he teaches clients how to win, keep and grow customers to drive higher revenue. Mark talks about perceived versus real value, and the concept of the value table to come up with quantifiable results that can then be used for pricing. Highlights: — “Understanding how our customers perceive our value is not only how we set our prices or how we should be setting our prices. It also should be how we communicate through our marketing messages or our sales efforts. It also should be how we choose what products to build or services to offer.” — “Nobody cares about your product. What they care about is the problem they have that you're going to solve for them. They care about the result they might get after they buy and use your product or service.” — “Buyers are using perceived value when they make a decision to purchase something.” — “A value metric is how your customers measure the value you deliver to them.” — “The key to a really good pricing metric is understanding our customer’s value metrics.” Connect with Mark: Website: https://impactpricing.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Previous episode with Mark: Value and Segmented Pricing for CPAs https://smartstrategyforcpas.com/125 Free 5-day email course - Better Pricing Strategies for CPAs Get here   Want some help in your CPA firm, but not sure where to start? Schedule a free discovery call with me: https://calendly.com/geraldinecarter/15min   Want to find out what options you might have for working together? More about 1:1 coaching, roadmaps, and DIY courses here: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/coaching-options

Many of you are familiar with the overwhelm that comes with a mountain of tax work. It is so easy to get bogged down with the countless details and its never ending so-called quick questions from clients. But before you know it, you're working 70 hours a week with no end in sight. And the money might be good, but at some point it stops being worth it. The desire is to tighten your workload by doing higher level work for just a fraction of the clients so you can get your weekends back, but that just seems like a pipe dream. Here today to talk with me about this pipe dream is Prithi Daswani who owns Prithi Daswani CPA, a firm based in Orlando, Florida specializing in Medical Practices, and those with Real Estate Portfolios.  She started her own firm 6 years ago after 10 years with the big four.  She has doubled her business year over and learned a lot in the meantime. Her favorite activity is finding money, and her goal is to get more people talking openly about money and stop treating it as taboo. We talk about her journey, about what has changed and what she’s learned along the way, so that you can get a sense of what's possible in your accounting practice. Highlights: “Understanding the client base, the client mix, allowed me to take a step back and get a bigger picture of what I've been doing and what I should not be doing. And who do you say no to and why to say no to it.”   “When a client calls me who does not fit that niche, it makes it a bit easier for me to tell the client, this is not what I'm specializing in. You do not want me to help you. I know how to set up your business, but I would rather you call somebody who knows what they're talking about, so you're set up for success in the future.”    “I started with very basic pricing that included everything, sometimes even for million dollar clients. Because I didn't know how to necessarily price it out or what value I was providing.”    “As we get started through the process of offering different prices to different clients and different services, part of it is just doing it so that you have the experience. We need to test the marketplace to find out how people are going to respond.”    “The only way I sometimes get things done, especially the stuff that I don't want to do is by saying I'm being accountable to someone.”  Connect with Prithi: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prithi-daswani-1a12277b/ Free 5-day email course - Better Pricing Strategies for CPAs Get here   Want some help in your CPA firm, but not sure where to start? Schedule a free discovery call with me: https://calendly.com/geraldinecarter/15min   Want to find out what options you might have for working together? More about 1:1 coaching, roadmaps, and DIY courses here: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/coaching-options

Most CPAs struggle with pricing - some have moved to flat-rate or subscription pricing, and some still bill by the hour. What they often struggle to understand is the full depth of the value they offer to their clients, and because they don’t fully understand value, they are leaving Everest Sized Mountains of Money on the table, which means they have to work a lot harder to compensate for the missed opportunity.  Here today to talk with me about this problem is My guest, Jose Mirabal .Jose is the Author of the Value-Based pricing framework and the founder and Director of the Pricing Institute, where he has advised more than 1,500 companies in 42 industries on their pricing strategies.   HIGHLIGHTS: PART 2: - “What is need based segmentation? It's actually uncovering your market and figuring out and brainstorming the possible needs behind a client possibly buying your products.“ - “When you start seeing the problem from a value standpoint, not from a price standpoint, then things start making sense. That's why need-based segmentation is so helpful. Every single time you uncover needs, it gives you a lot of information.” - “Needs-based segmentation figures out the who and the transactional analysis tells you exactly how they are consuming.” - “Sometimes the need has nothing to do with your service, but it has to do with all the other items or attributes that are orbiting around your services.” - “The secret to pricing is options. It's like a menu at a restaurant.” - “Uncover your value, but figure your value based on two things. One, what are the needs that the clients have? And two, what are the current options out there that best satisfy those needs?”   PART 1:  https://www.smartstrategyforcpas.com/150 - “Everybody's concerned about their costs.  Nobody really worries about the price ceiling. The idea is to figure out and uncover value perception to see which specific services that you offer actually might have a higher willingness to pay from clients.” - “Everybody worries about value but they go down into figuring out costs. And there's no relationship between cost and value.” - “To monetize value, the first thing you need to do is uncover value. How do you quantify value? You monetize based on differences. When people buy, they buy based on differences. People compare items.” - “When clients are telling you that your prices are similar or too expensive in comparison to other companies, that's a sign that you probably need to work more on your differences. And that's a sign that you need to better assess how your product and services differ from the next best alternatives.” - “If you want to do value based pricing, all value based prices are supported by the price of the next best alternative. Every price based on value should be in reference to the next best alternative.”  - “If you want to start with the pricing, don't look for what others are charging as much as what others are offering.”      Podcast Mentioned: [in Part 2] Impact Pricing Ep125: Can We Really Price Value? with Jose Mirabal https://impactpricing.com/podcast/ep125-can-we-really-price-value-with-jose-mirabal/ Connect with Jose Mirabal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrmirabal/ Website: https://pricing.institute  

Most CPAs struggle with pricing - some have moved to flat-rate or subscription pricing, and some still bill by the hour. What they often struggle to understand is the full depth of the value they offer to their clients, and because they don’t fully understand value, they are leaving Everest Sized Mountains of Money on the table, which means they have to work a lot harder to compensate for the missed opportunity.  Here today to talk with me about this problem is My guest, Jose Mirabal .Jose is the Author of the Value-Based pricing framework and the founder and Director of the Pricing Institute, where he has advised more than 1,500 companies in 42 industries on their pricing strategies. HIGHLIGHTS: PART 1: - “Everybody's concerned about their costs.  Nobody really worries about the price ceiling. The idea is to figure out and uncover value perception to see which specific services that you offer actually might have a higher willingness to pay from clients.” - “Everybody worries about value but they go down into figuring out costs. And there's no relationship between cost and value.” - “To monetize value, the first thing you need to do is uncover value. How do you quantify value? You monetize based on differences. When people buy, they buy based on differences. People compare items.” - “When clients are telling you that your prices are similar or too expensive in comparison to other companies, that's a sign that you probably need to work more on your differences. And that's a sign that you need to better assess how your product and services differ from the next best alternatives.” - “If you want to do value based pricing, all value based prices are supported by the price of the next best alternative. Every price based on value should be in reference to the next best alternative.”  - “If you want to start with the pricing, don't look for what others are charging as much as what others are offering.”    Connect with Jose Mirabal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrmirabal/ Website: https://pricing.institute   Want to find out what options you might have for working together? More about 1:1 coaching, roadmaps, and DIY courses here: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/coaching-options  

There is endless conversation about technology, software, and automation disrupting the accounting space.  Do you feel like your systems are pretty much automated, where you can just show up and mouse click one button, and it spits out all the reports and dashboards you need for your hundreds of clients? If that sounds like the dream, but you’re a ways off, stay with us, because today I am talking with Ryan Lazanis, founder of FUTURE FIRM, and we are talking about what to do right when it comes to tech and automation. Ryan founded Zen Accounting that he grew to the point of being acquired in just 5 short years, thanks to the tech-oriented, scalable model he put in place.  HIGHLIGHTS: – “The overemphasis on using technology and automation is not what's really going to move the needle the most.”  – “The big reason why people want to use more technology and more automation is because they just want to make their life easier.” – “Once we can have standard processes for everything that we do in the firm, that's when we can really reap the rewards of technology and automation.” – “I would recommend a person in your firm when you're ready to really leverage automation. Especially those modern firms that probably know about all those latest tools, they need a person to help put it all together.” – “Why not have all the routine tasks automated so that you can get freed up to do more of what's valuable to your clients?” Connect with  Ryan Lazanis: Website: https://futurefirm.co/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlazanis/ Podcast mentions: Future Firm Accounting Podcast: My 6 Favorite Accounting Communities to Learn From Software mentions: Zapier - https://zapier.com/ Karbon - https://karbonhq.com/ Teamwork - https://www.teamwork.com/ Want to find out what options you might have for working together? More about 1:1 coaching, roadmaps, and DIY courses here: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/coaching-options  

Here are 5 apps, extensions, and plugins that can make your life easier.    Text Expander - Available on Android and Mac - I use it on my iPhone but for short things I just use the built in keyboard shortcuts, especially for all the forms that need filling in. Other options: aText and Gorgias, which is a Chrome extension Video Speed Controller - Speed up, slowdown, skip ahead, and rewind, all with keyboard shortcuts. Screen Resizer - stop being a masterful mouser, and use a Screen Resizer to make your screens snap to specific guidelines. Try MaxSnap, Divvy, SizeUp Email Tracker - Streak or Hunter Screen Recorder  -  Loom - For screen recording or any window, tab, or screen. Send the URL of your video with a URL.   Want some help in your CPA firm, but not sure where to start? Schedule a free discovery call with me: https://calendly.com/geraldinecarter/15min   Want to find out what options you might have for working together? More about 1:1 coaching, roadmaps, and DIY courses here: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/coaching-options

Subscription pricing is all the rage right now.  Most CPAs are stuck when it comes to pricing - some have moved to flat-rate or subscription pricing, but many - if not most - still bill by the hour. What they often struggle to understand is the full depth of the value they offer to their clients, and because they don’t fully understand value, they are leaving Everest Sized Mountains of Money on the table, which means they have to work a lot harder to compensate for the missed opportunity.  Here today to talk with me about this problem is my guest, Ron Baker. Ron Baker is the author of numerous books including Implementing value pricing, and Mind over Matter, why intellectual capital is the chief source of wealth, he has received countless awards for his contributions to the accounting profession, and he is the founder of the VeraSage Institute, a think tank dedicated to teaching value pricing.    HIGHLIGHTS: The subscription business model puts the client relationship at the center of the business and Customer Lifetime Value at the center of the dashboard.  Innovation is baked into the model.  You’re taking responsibility for creating a result, not delivering tasks. The subscription model forces you to articulate and communicate and market and position and have a strategy built around that end purpose. if you're interested in building wealth beyond the transactional math of the moment, then you've got to consider subscription. Connect with Ron: Website: https://www.verasage.com/   Episode mentions: https://www.smartstrategyforcpas.com/081   Other pricing episodes: Jonathan Stark: https://www.smartstrategyforcpas.com/111 https://www.smartstrategyforcpas.com/106   Mark Stiving: https://www.smartstrategyforcpas.com/125 Want to find out what options you might have for working together? More about 1:1 coaching, roadmaps, and DIY courses here: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/coaching-options

There’s an industry-wide gravitational force toward regular hour-long meetings.  Somewhere along the way it was decided that hourly meetings held weekly, monthly or quarterly are the way to deliver services. It may be true that regular meetings are the best way to deliver services, but what’s the best way to deliver RESULTS? Here today to talk with me about this question is Ben Manly, owner of Knapsack Creative.  Knapsack creative is known for delivering gorgeous, effective websites, in ONE DAY.  I wanted to have Ben on to talk about how to make the shift from the old-school way of doing things, to a new way of designing something to provide an outstanding product, and excellent service, so that you might look at your own services through a different lens, and perhaps find ways to deliver more value more easily.  HIGHLIGHTS: – When I realized just how fast it was to design something live, that’s when the lightbulb went off that I could try to build websites this same way.  – It turned out that the smaller projects were more valuable than the larger ones, so at some point it became clear it was time to just go all in on the small ones. And that made all the difference.  – Initially I thought there was no way you could build a great website in just a day, and no one would pay for that. But then I realized just how much value you can add in a short amount of time, if you systematize things.  Connect with Ben: Website: https://www.knapsackcreative.com/   Episode mentions: Mike Michalowicz on Get Different: https://www.smartstrategyforcpas.com/156 Want to find out what options you might have for working together? More about 1:1 coaching, roadmaps, and DIY courses here: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/coaching-options

Want to find out how to get CPE for this episode? Get on my Daily Email List for up-to-date information on all the courses I offer that qualify for CPE.  Subscribe at SheThinksBigCoaching.com   VALUE-PRICING Value pricing is best for discreet projects with a beginning, middle and end, whose value is greater than $100K to the client, and therefore priced starting at $10K.  If less than the above, consider simply flat-rating the service.    MENU PRICING Menu pricing is well-suited for shifting to Advisory Services. You can offer bronze, silver, and gold level options, with varying price-spreads. See Pricing Curves, below.    FLAT RATE AND FIXED FEE Perfect for services and deliverables to do all the time, so you have a handle on approximate scope. Assess how long a certain service takes on average, then double that amount of time and place your fee there. Get used to the feel of divorcing time and money, and you will most certainly get faster at what you do.    SEGMENTED If there is wide variation in services you offer and the types of clients you offer them for, then group your clients and those services into segments. Then price each different segment as needed.    ADVISORY RETAINER Not your old-school lawyer-style retainer, advisory retainer is well-suited once a value-priced project is complete. Unforeseen challenges and questions are likely to pop up, and having access to your smarts can be immensely valuable. Good for a predetermined but finite amount of time.    CONTINGENCY Proceed with caution, as the risk with contingency is perverse incentives. However, when done properly, both parties can benefit from the low risk on the buyer's side at the time of purchase, with the reward for the seller at the time of success.    PRICING CURVES: Might as Well pricing drives the buyer to the most expensive option, because with the curve at 1x, 1.5x, and 1.75x, the buyer “Might as Well” buy the most expensive option.  Goldilocks pricing drives the buyer to the middle option, because the curve of 1x, 2.2x, and 5x drives the buyer to the middle option, because just like Goldilocks, it’s “just right, in the middle.” Want to find out what options you might have for working together? More about 1:1 coaching, roadmaps, and DIY courses here: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/coaching-options

These questions often comes up: “How to I raise my rates?” and “How much should I charge?” and “How do I price this service?” The answer appears to be quite simple: Apply logic. Logic says raise your rates. Therefore, raise your rates.  The problem is, that’s not how it works. And we know that’s not how it works, because we see countless logical CPAs continue to underprice their services.  If in fact it were as simple as Apply Logic > Logic says Raise Your Rates if it’s true that CPAs are logical people, (they are), then we would see CPAs having no problem raising their rates.  The reason we see so many CPAs underpriced is because…. Only applying logic isn’t how it works.  Today I outline how it actually works to raise your raise in real reality, having helped dozens of CPAs actually raise their rates. Want to find out what options you might have for working together? More about 1:1 coaching, roadmaps, and DIY courses here: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/coaching-options