Business Strategy for CPA's

Geraldine Carter
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Nov 25, 2020 • 48min

113 Out of Compliance and into Tax-savvy Stock Option Consulting, with Minnie Lau, CPA

My guest today is Minnie Lau. Minnie provides tech professionals working in late-stage start-up companies that are about to IPO, guidance on stock option vesting and selling strategies.  These tech professionals who work at top levels inside start-ups about to IPO are going to receive stock options worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes more.  Without guidance, not only will they get hit with a giant surprise tax bill, they will lack a strategy  for how to optimize those options based on varying stock prices and other factors. Minnie helps them understand their CHOICES.  I wanted to have Minnie on the podcast to showcase what’s possible in the Advisory space. What she has created in terms of consulting packages is well outside the box, it’s completely different from the more common forms of Advisory services that CPAs often offer business owners.  You will hear what it’s been like for her to transition from a compliance-heavy practice to offering high-margin consulting packages. What stands out to me is that when it comes to transitioning your practice to high-margin work, there is no bible, no single playbook for everyone to follow.  I am working with 9 CPAs and accountants right now on this transition, and yes,  while there are shared fundamentals, no two clients have created the same advisory services. Everyone is creating something different that uniquely suits their talents and interests, overlapped with what their clients need and value.   If you want to do high-value, impactful work that comes easily to you, and for clients you enjoy, it requires writing your own playbook.    If you want to create and offer high-value advisory or consulting services, so you can earn more and get your life back, I offer a variety of ways to help you do just that. Check out shethinksbigcoaching.com/ for solutions that fit inside your time available and what you are comfortable investing.  YOU CAN change the nature of your business and the quality of your life.     Episodes mentioned: 103 Cashflow Forecasting, Niching, and Raising Your Rates with Emily Sandberg  https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/103   053 Adding Advisory Services and the Power of Niching Down with Tracy Jepson https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/053 Connect with Minnie: Website: https://minnielau.com/   Upcoming training:  TRANSLATE YOUR EXPERTISE INTO CASH Thursday, December 17th, 12pm ET  https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/accountants-anonymous-12-17   Download the ebook “6 Simple Steps to Double Your Revenue” https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/download-double-your-revenue   Schedule time with Geraldine: https://calendly.com/geraldinecarter/15min   Work with Geraldine: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/coaching-options/  
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Nov 18, 2020 • 11min

112 Does Your CPA Firm Sell Outcomes or Deliverables?

Today I'm going to dig into what deliverables are and what they sound like in the CPA world, so that you can get better at recognizing them and understand why it's such a problem to sell deliverables. We'll talk about what outcomes you might consider selling so that you know what it sounds like. And finally, when you're stuck in deliverables, how to convert them into outcomes.  CPA deliverables sound like this: P&L, balance sheet, accounting services, financial service, individual, and business tax prep, state and trust tax, print, nonprofit tax prep, tax planning, tax presentation, bookkeeping and write-up, business valuation, cashflow and budget analysis, payroll, accounting software selection and setup, elder care, monthly meetings, spreadsheet of your most important KPIs, plans and projections, tax returns, a secure password-protected portal, and succession planning.  Why is it a problem to sell deliverables?  1. It's not what your clients want.   2. Not only is it not what they want, it's that they might not even know that that's what they need. Who really wants an analysis of their budget? If, on the other hand, we take care of your financial health and wellness, that's a different conversation.    3. Deliverables unto themselves are of limited value. And because value must exceed price for your prospect to buy, deliverables will suppress your prices, because deliverables will always be less valuable than outcomes. So take for example, a P&L. A P&L is valuable, but by comparison to outcomes, like stop having a bank account that's always empty, start filling up your emergency funds and saving for retirement. That's much more valuable.    Deliverables are of limited value. Outcomes and results and transformations are limitless in value. So sell those instead.  Now you're wondering what outcomes do I sell instead? It depends on what your niche or vertical wants.  So here's where the meat is in this burger. When you are stuck in deliverables, how do you get your head into outcomes? Use this little phrase: SO THAT.    It works like this:  Get your P&L every month on time so that you know where your money went.  Get your balance sheet so that you know what your business is worth.  Take care of your estate planning so that your loved ones get your assets, not the government.  Get on top of your cash flow so that you are never late on paying your employees.  Get on top of your cash flow so that you are not up at night wondering if that check will clear.  Get a spreadsheet full of KPIs so that you know what numbers to focus on and can stop guessing about what drives profitability in your business. Use our password-protected portal so that you can send us your documents easily and securely.  Let's do a business valuation so that you know how much you can get for your business when you put it up for sale.    So that. This is the phrase that gets you out of deliverables so that you can get into results, so that you can provide more value to your clients, so that you can increase your prices, so that you can work less and earn more because that's the ultimate outcome, right? Stop selling deliverables and start selling outcomes.  If you want help transitioning your accounting practice from selling lower value deliverables to selling high value outcomes put 15 minutes on my calendar. Just head over to shethinksbigcoaching.com and click on the big fat red schedule time with me button and the interwebs will take it from there.    Episode mentioned: 110 15 Phrases to Scrub from your CPA Firm’s Website https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/110 Upcoming training:  15 PHRASES TO SCRUB FROM YOUR WEBSITE AND WHAT TO SAY INSTEAD Thursday, November 19th, 12pm ET     Download the ebook “6 Simple Steps to Double Your Revenue” https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/download-double-your-revenue   Schedule time with Geraldine: https://calendly.com/geraldinecarter/15min   Work with Geraldine: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/work-with-me/  
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Nov 11, 2020 • 57min

111 Better Pricing Methodologies For CPA Firms, with Jonathan Stark

We're back today with Jonathan Stark. In case you missed it we did a recording with Jonathan a couple of weeks ago. It’s episode 106 - Better Pricing Strategies for Accountants. There was so much more to talk about that I invited him to come back on to continue the conversation about pricing.  One of the problems that CPAs run into in their practices is that they tend to fall back on two methodologies for pricing: billing by the hour, and flat rate, which tends to be a cost-plus version of billing by the hour.  These two methodologies limit them in terms of how they price in their firm. Coupled with the problem that hourly billing is problematic in that the client doesn't have a price until after the work is done. And if the bill exceeds the value to the client, that's a big problem. So what we want to talk about today are different pricing methodologies for CPAs.  Before we started recording, I laid out a couple of options, namely retainer, value-based, contingency and subscription. Jonathan walks us through what those different pricing methodologies look like, what's good to use and what kind of circumstances and why you don't want to use them in certain circumstances and what the risks are. Download the PDF below for the notes on the different pricing strategies. Download the PDF: Different Pricing Methodologies for CPAs https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/111-pdf-download/   Connect with Jonathan: Website: https://jonathanstark.com/ Episodes mentioned: 081 Time to Rethink Your Pricing Strategy? with Ron Baker, Founder of VeraSage Institute https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/081 104 How Much Would a CPA Pay for a Kid’s Bike? https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/104 106 Better Pricing Strategies for Accountants: Stop Billing by the Hour https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/106 Geraldine Carter on the Ditching Hourly Podcast - The Forensic Bounty Hunter https://podcast.ditchinghourly.com/episodes/coaching-call-with-geraldine-carter Book recommendations: How To Measure Anything: Finding The Value of Intangibles in Business, by Douglas Hubbard https://hubbardresearch.com/publications/how-to-measure-anything-book/ Implementing Value Pricing: A Radical Business Model for Professional Firms, by Ron Baker https://www.amazon.com/Implementing-Value-Pricing-Business-Professional/dp/0470584610 Hourly Billing Is Nuts by Jonathan Stark https://jonathanstark.com/hbin Upcoming training:  15 PHRASES TO SCRUB FROM YOUR WEBSITE AND WHAT TO SAY INSTEAD Thursday, November 19th, 12pm ET     Download the ebook “6 Simple Steps to Double Your Revenue” https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/download-double-your-revenue   Schedule time with Geraldine: https://calendly.com/geraldinecarter/15min   Work with Geraldine: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/work-with-me/  
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Nov 4, 2020 • 16min

110 15 Phrases to Scrub from your CPA Firm’s Website

Today we’re talking about the copy on your website. Because you might be either alienating prospects who visit your website, or not attracting them to begin with. And because of that, you could be missing out on really good revenue.   What am I talking about? All kinds of words and phrases that are meaningless at best - and are potentially harmful - and are taking up valuable real estate on your website, and doing nothing to rank in search results when your ideal clients are googling around for someone like you. And when prospects DO make it to your website, they go, mmmm, not THIS CPA. and they bounce. And you might be thinking to yourself, well, I don’t get most of my business from my website. I get it from word of mouth and referral. So, why bother with my website? You might be right that website traffic is not a source of leads for you, so why bother… but the other way to think about it is… a lackluster website that doesn’t speak to your prospects is exactly why you get few to no leads from it.    So let’s take a spin through a bunch of words and phrases I see in use, see what is problematic about these words, and what to say instead: Affordable Experienced, Accurate, Integrity, Trustworthy, Honesty Talking about things that are expected, the bare minimum Full-service, broad range of services, wide range of expertise Small Firm Personality, BIG FIRM CAPABILITY Bizarro Aspirational phrases that mean nothing:  THE SKY'S THE LIMIT, Achieve Your Goals committed to your success, ensuring success We dream big with you achieve more than you thought possible Serving our community since the stone age We have established a reputation for excellence, teamwork, community involvement, and a certain alternative character.   Here is what prospects want to see on your website: You know who they are - specifically - martial art studio owners. Landscapers. Creative agencies. Architects. Etsy shop owners. Women in the stages of divorce, who need to get a handle on their finances.   And an indication you know what those people want: Martial art studio owners: what do the numbers need to look like for them to buy the building, or open a second location? Landscapers - stop getting paid 60 days after they’ve mowed the lawn, and instead get paid up front, so they can stop chasing cash and instead have enough reserve to make it through the winter months.  Contractors - want to stay on top of project costs and know week to week how estimate to actuals are doing.  Women in the stages of divorce who need to get a handle on their finances after years of not being in charge of the money.   You need to be able to identify the pain points that are specific to the type of business owner you want to attract, so that they know you understand them. Doing this will not only separate you from the CPA around the corner, but it will get you much farther along the value curve.  Scrub your website of accurate and honest and we reply to your questions, and instead give your prospects an indication you know who they are, what their struggles are, and what they want. If you want my eyeballs on your website to see what kind of verbiage needs to be scrubbed and what you can replace it with, sign up for Accountants Anonymous - it’s Nov 19th at 12 ET - and walk away knowing exactly what to say to attract your ideal clients.  Register at https://shethinksbigcoaching.com Episode mentioned: 106 Better Pricing Strategies for Accountants: Stop Billing by the Hour https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/106   Upcoming training:  15 PHRASES TO SCRUB FROM YOUR WEBSITE AND WHAT TO SAY INSTEAD Thursday, November 19th, 12pm ET     Download the ebook “6 Simple Steps to Double Your Revenue” https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/download-double-your-revenue   Schedule time with Geraldine: https://calendly.com/geraldinecarter/15min   Work with Geraldine: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/work-with-me/
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Oct 28, 2020 • 13min

109 The CPA Who Innovates, Wins

Are you stuck thinking about Advisory Services in the commonly accepted tiers of transactional, controller, vCFO? These 3 tiers are great way to begin to think about Advisory Services for CPAs. But why these 3, and only these 3?  Here are some other questions I ask, when it comes to CPAs transitioning to advisory:  Why stop at vCFO?  Why do the tiers stop at being strategic? (Helping business owners adopt smarter strategies is where it's just starting to get good.)  What is being missed when service stops at strategic?  What is beyond vCFO? It seems to me like two tiers are missing. Why not add beyond vCFO, a service column for anticipatory? Anticipating, and not just taxes, but also in your client's businesses. And you help your clients think through how changes, be they economic or seasonal or technological, or even social changes, how these changes that are coming down the pipeline are going to impact your client's businesses.  What else could be beyond vCFO?  What about being innovative? Innovation creates significant new value that didn't exist before. And when you innovate, for a while, you will be the only one offering that new value to your clients. Now, you might be thinking, “I am a CPA. CPA's don't innovate.” I beg to differ. I work with CPAs just like you.  I watch them innovating. It's just that they don't frame it like that to themselves. They think of it as “solving an obvious problem.”  There are services beyond vCFO. All you have to do is listen to what your clients are, to date, unable to accomplish when it comes to money, numbers, math, and data. And I guarantee you, you can find innovative, powerful ways to help them.    I give you permission to anticipate and innovate. Because when you do these things, you can maximize your prices. And when you maximize your prices, you will be able to work with fewer clients. And when you can work with fewer clients, your business gets simpler. And when your business gets simpler, you don't have to work as many hours. And when you don't have to work as many hours, you can get your life and your health back. And you get to read Dr. Seuss books to your grandkids. And when you read Dr. Seuss books to your grandkids, you get more joy back. And goodness knows we could all use a bit more joy in 2020.  Remember, anticipate and innovate new additions to the tiers of CPA services.  If you have innovative ideas that you want help flushing out and piloting to your clients, I can help you do just that. The best place to start is by putting 15 minutes on my calendar at http://shethinksbigcoaching.com.   Upcoming training:  10 PHRASES TO SCRUB FROM YOUR WEBSITE AND WHAT TO REPLACE IT WITH Thursday, November 19th, 12pm ET     Download the ebook “6 Simple Steps to Double Your Revenue” https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/download-double-your-revenue   Schedule time with Geraldine: https://calendly.com/geraldinecarter/15min   Work with Geraldine: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/work-with-me/  
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Oct 21, 2020 • 12min

108 The Dangers of Listening to CPAs for Wisdom

Guidance and wisdom in the accounting industry tend to be provided by accountants and CPAs. There's a notable absence of expertise and wisdom from thought leaders outside the accounting industry. In order for any profession to advance, it needs to have conventional thinking be challenged. And the best people to challenge conventional thinking are those who have never been taught to believe conventional thinking in the first place. Why do we cling to our views so tenaciously after they're formed? Psychologists attribute this to at least two phenomena: self-affirmation and cultural cognition. Both of these concepts suggest that we cling to our views because the walls of our opinions are like battlements that keep the good guys on the inside safe from the enemy on the outside - all those dopes with different opinions. The problem is that when you have these walls set up, you don't allow in new information that would actually be good for you. Knowing this makes it extra important to be in about listening to people outside the profession, and to welcome them as observers and commentators so that you on the inside the profession can benefit from fresh thinking. The danger in listening only to accountants for wisdom is that regardless of what they're thinking about, they're still thinking about it in accountant type ways. So whether they're thinking about numbers or thinking about concepts, their way of thinking reverts to reporting on what has happened in the past, rather than what can be created in the future. Instead, think beyond the perspectives that the industry typically shares with you.  I want you listening to voices outside the accounting space so that you can rise above the din of the same-same, and expose yourself to completely different viewpoints and ways of thinking. And if you're looking for inspiration for some other fresh thinking and voices, here are some of my favorites:  Seth Godin https://seths.blog/ Jonathan Stark https://jonathanstark.com/ Elizabeth Gilbert https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/   When you listen to leading voices outside the accounting profession, you're exposed to fresh perspectives. And when you apply fresh perspectives to your work, you advance your business. And when you advance your business, your clients get more value. And when the value you provide to your clients increases, your rates increase. And when your rates increase, you don't have to work as much. And that is how you get your time back.  Now, I want to hear from you. What fresh perspectives have recently shifted your business?    Episode mentioned: 106 Better Pricing Strategies for Accountants: Stop Billing by the Hour, with Jonathan Stark https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/106   Upcoming training:  GIVE UP CALCULATING $ PER HOUR Break free of this arbitrary metric: there is a better way Thursday, October 22, 12pm ET   10 PHRASES TO SCRUB FROM YOUR WEBSITE AND WHAT TO REPLACE IT WITH Thursday, November 19th, 12pm ET     Download the ebook “6 Simple Steps to Double Your Revenue” https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/download-double-your-revenue   Schedule time with Geraldine: https://calendly.com/geraldinecarter/15min   Work with Geraldine: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/work-with-me/  
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Oct 14, 2020 • 10min

107 Are You Building the CPA Firm You Want to Own?

Have you ever heard of a tool called the wheel of life? It's a really simple but powerful tool to help you take stock of the most important areas of your life and visualize which ones are going best and which areas you want to devote more of your attention to, to improve. The wheel of life gives you a bird's eye view of the different aspects of your life.  I want to share this tool with you because I want you to have it not just for your life, but also for your business, so that you can get your life where you want it and your business where you want it. With everything that’s been going on this year it can be really hard to focus. And when you do focus, what do you focus on? With all of the problems that you could address, how do you know where to allocate your attention? After all your attention is limited. And just like you allocate cash for certain priorities in your business, you allocate your attention. The problem is that sometimes we allocate our attention indiscriminately. And when your attention gets allocated indiscriminately day after day, year after year, you might inadvertently end up with a business you no longer like owning.  The problem with that is that life is too short to own a business you don't like owning.  So back to the life wheel, back to the business wheel. How can these two things help you? This really simple tool will help you move in the direction of building the business you love to own that fits right inside a life you love.  It's a really simple tool to help you see what is actually happening in your life that often otherwise just gets lost in the day to day.  This simple exercise can really help you understand where you need to focus in your business and where to allocate your attention. And when you know where to focus your attention, you improve the right things. And when you improve the right things, you make progress in the right direction in your business. And that is how over time you build a business that you love to own.  Now, it would be really easy to do with the life wheel and to do the business wheel and then tuck it away in some file folder. But I want you to pin it on the wall so that you can check in with it and remind yourself where your focus most needs to be. DOWNLOAD PDF: Life Wheel and Business Wheel https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/107-pdf-download/   Upcoming training:    GIVE UP CALCULATING $ PER HOUR Break free of this arbitrary metric: there is a better way Thursday, October 22, 12pm ET   10 Phrases To Scrub From Your Website And What To Replace It With Thursday, November 19th, 12pm ET     Download the ebook “6 Simple Steps to Double Your Revenue” https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/download-double-your-revenue   Schedule time with Geraldine: https://calendly.com/geraldinecarter/15min   Work with Geraldine: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/work-with-me/
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Oct 7, 2020 • 45min

106 Better Pricing Strategies for Accountants: Stop Billing by the Hour, with Jonathan Stark

My guest today is Jonathan Stark. Jonathan is a former software developer who is on a mission to rid the world of hourly billing. He is the author of Hourly Billing Is Nuts, the host of TWO podcasts: Ditching Hourly and The Business of Authority, and writes a daily newsletter on pricing for independent professionals. We’re talking today about better ways for CPAs to price their services so that they can get out of the accounting rut.  We will get into different pricing strategies, the differences between value, price, and cost, selling outcomes instead of deliverables, and more.    “If you can find clients that will get more and more value out of the services that you provide, the prices that you can put in your project proposals just magically go up... In other words, without much more work, you can charge a client a hundred thousand dollars for basically the same thing if the value to them is a million. So your growth comes from finding clients who value the stuff that you do more.”  - Jonathan Stark   Value is not just about increasing prices. It's a way for you to provide a range of possible solutions for your clients so that they can choose what makes sense to them given the context they're in and which solution they want, in a way that is always profitable for both parties. What I see as most immediately implementable when it comes to moving out of hourly billing is to take one thing that you already do all the time anyways, and turn that into a flat-fee service, and give yourself the experience of getting faster and better at it, so you know what it feels like to divorce your profit margins from your time. Once you get a taste for that feeling, you’ll be thirsty for more.    Episodes mentioned: 105 Mathematical Proof Different is Better  https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/105 104 How Much Would a CPA Pay for a Kid’s Bike?  https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/104 Upcoming training:  GIVE UP CALCULATING $ PER HOUR Break free of this arbitrary metric: there is a better way Thursday, October 22, 12pm ET   10 Phrases To Scrub From Your Website And What To Replace It With Thursday, November 19th, 12pm ET     Download the ebook “6 Simple Steps to Double Your Revenue” https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/download-double-your-revenue   Schedule time with Geraldine: https://calendly.com/geraldinecarter/15min   Work with Geraldine: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/work-with-me/  
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Sep 30, 2020 • 10min

105 Mathematical Proof Specializing Will Make You a More Profitable CPA

I am here to offer you mathematical proof that different is more profitable.  The best possible strategy to becoming more profitable without having to work so hard includes specializing.  A few weeks back, a well-known software developer turned consultant named Jonathan Stark invited me to be on his podcast, Ditching Hourly, so we could discuss other ways to bill forensic accounting. And it was in our conversation that he dropped this equation that I want to share with you.    Here is the max price formula that proves that specializing will make you more profitable. Desire x Buying Power / Availability of Options = Max Price   Let me give you some good news and some bad news.  The bad news is that making yourself different is among the hardest and most necessary gates to pass through on your path to becoming a highly compensated CPA. Now, the good news. Because this gate is one of the hardest ones to get through, very few people actually get through it. Many people try, but they either get lost or they run out of steam, or they don't see it through.  If you are willing to come in and see it through to the other side, you will find that you are in small, great company.  So if you have the courage to commit to the process of specializing, which really only takes about six months, you will cut the number of options your prospects have down to such a small number that you will be able to bump up your max price by a factor of three or five or even eight or more.  If you want to work on upping your max price, here are some initial steps you can take:   Run through your client roster, and note which clients are in a lot of pain. Then look at their buying power. Which of your clients are best positioned to invest with you more deeply? Conversely, which ones do you know will never have the buying power to work with you in a way that lines up with what you want your business to be doing? Finally, look at how many CPAs around you look just like you in a white press button-down shirt who do all things for all people.    Look inside your client roster and leverage the types of businesses you already have as clients to begin the process of specializing. So that you can look different from the white shirt CPA next to you, who specializes in serving everyone and no one at the same time. Remember, specializing is a process. It takes three months just to see if you're getting traction. It takes six months to know for sure if your specialty is working. But if you commit to an industry that is specialized enough, and you give it time, you will get there and you will reap the rewards of being able to maximize your price. And when you maximize your price, you will be able to work with fewer clients. And when you can work with fewer clients, your business gets simpler. And when your business gets simpler, you don't have to work as many hours. There you have it - mathematical proof that different is more profitable.   Podcast mentioned: Ditching Hourly Episode 193: The Forensic Bounty Hunter with guest Geraldine Carter https://podcast.ditchinghourly.com/episodes/coaching-call-with-geraldine-carter   Upcoming training:  GIVE UP CALCULATING $ PER HOUR Break free of this arbitrary metric: there is a better way Thursday, October 22, 12pm ET   Download the ebook “6 Simple Steps to Double Your Revenue” https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/download-double-your-revenue   Schedule time with Geraldine: https://calendly.com/geraldinecarter/15min   Work with Geraldine: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/work-with-me/
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Sep 23, 2020 • 16min

104 How Much Would a CPA Pay for a Kid's Bike?

Today I want to talk to you today about how to price a bicycle. Now you might be wondering, what has this got to do with being a CPA? What does the price of a bike have to do with payroll, cashflow, or tax strategy?  I'll tell you what the connection is.  And I'm going to tell you through a recent experience I had buying a bike for my five-year-old daughter, Hazel.  It was an expensive, but worth it bike. Here are five ways I never thought to justify the price: Component parts: rubber, aluminum, plastic.  Time for the machine to stamp out the bike.  Margins of the bike company.  Goal earnings of the bike company owner. Comparing to prices of other bikes.  Instead, I made the purchase based on the value to me. And that value is being able to watch my daughter have a blast in the pump track with her friends, to feel more confident riding, and to be able to keep up with the boys.   Check her out, getting the hang of the pump track! Here’s the YouTube link:  https://youtu.be/6reW8zJivmM The price of the bike had nothing to do with the cost.    How this connects back to CPAs: they price their services all wrong, all the time.  Here are five examples of how CPAs price their services incorrectly: Hourly. Not so much a price, but more an expression of your confidence. Breaking it down into its component parts like their time, staff time, court time, bookkeeping is this much, payroll is that much.  Destination margins. Shooting for the industry average of 14.9% or above.  Goal earnings. “I need to make $400K so I can cover my desired expenses.” Comparing. They say they are not the most expensive, nor the least expensive CPA in town.  Each of these is something that I've heard a CPA say, and sometimes it's how my own clients can think about pricing when we're starting out. And I get the value of these ways of thinking about pricing. You have to start somewhere.  The problem is the amount of money that CPAs are leaving on the table when they use incorrect pricing strategies.  In none of these examples did we talk about value. Nowhere did we talk about the value to me, the buyer. Value and price are not one and the same.  And the fundamental problem with pricing any other way than on value is the amount of money left on the table.  So how do you get from pricing your time to assessing the value of the outcomes you help create and putting a price on that instead? You start by listening more to your clients. You listen to what they really care about.  When you spend more time with your clients and listen to why it is they want what they want, you will be able to uncover untold value. And then you can start value pricing. And when you start value pricing, your income increases while your workload decreases. And that is how you work less and make more. When your service is amazing and the value is priceless, there will be clients who are happy to pay you for it.  If seeing the five ways not to price listed out would be helpful to you, zip on over to my website, shethinksbigcoaching.com where you can download the free PDF I made that lists the examples that I mentioned.  DOWNLOAD PDF:  https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/104-pdf-download/ Upcoming training:  PLAYING SUPERHERO Stop being all things to all people: How to narrow your niche the easy way Thursday, September 24, 12pm ET   GIVE UP CALCULATING $ PER HOUR Break free of this arbitrary metric: there is a better way Thursday, October 22, 12pm ET   Download the ebook “6 Simple Steps to Double Your Revenue” https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/download-double-your-revenue   Schedule time with Geraldine: https://calendly.com/geraldinecarter/15min   Work with Geraldine: https://shethinksbigcoaching.com/work-with-me/  

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