Reprinted with permission from CPA Practice Management Forum An Internet search for the term “predictable growth” yields millions of links to websites, videos, books, and consultants. There seems to be no doubt about the idea that growth can be planned and charted. But for accounting professionals who are trying to grow their firms, it may…
Learn MoreIn the past, the notion of retaining top clients was one of those motherhood/apple pie kinds of things. Nobody could argue with it, but nobody was doing much about it either. Today we know a lot about the art and science of client retention. The good news is you don’t have to be an artist or a scientist to achieve success.
Learn MoreAdmit it. You’re good at what you do. Your clients trust your proven ability to help improve their businesses. Perhaps it’s time to take the step of enlarging your vision of yourself from accountant to consultant.
Learn MoreWhen working in the high tech sector, before the dot-com bust, we were engaged in sophisticated and powerful growth strategies. After the bust, it became apparent to me that these could be replicated within public accounting firms. I just had to understand how the model applied to the uniqueness of accounting firms in general, and to the needs of individual firms.
Learn MoreFor nearly a half-century, the Iron Curtain was the most mysterious geopolitical symbol in the world. Behind it, American school children were taught, people lived colorless Communist lives, waiting in long lines for shoddy goods, hungry for freedoms Westerners took for granted.
Learn MoreBy 2001, the year the high-tech boom went bust, I had been in the technology field for more than two decades. When the bubble finally burst, the repercussions were many and ugly. I’ve thought more about those times recently than I have in years, and for good reason.
Learn MoreOur yard was inundated with bird food-eating squirrels and we were desperate. So we did what desperate people do. We fell for a shiny advertisement promoting a highly specialized (read “expensive”) squirrel-defying bird feeder.
Learn MoreWhy focus energy and resources on growing your business when it seems to be expanding nicely on its own these days?! The question is much more than rhetorical; it has strong practical implications. Practice growth specialists like me speak at conferences and in private to our clients, making the case for ongoing, strategic planning to…
Learn MoreThe days of building business by doing good work and chatting over lunch, ending with a firm handshake are the historical legacy of our profession. But what about the future? Don’t get me wrong – CPAs like a good meal as much as ever. But these days, lasting growth is a systematic process based on proven methodologies and metrics.
Learn MoreGale Crosley has built a successful consulting business by making it her mission to help accounting professionals increase their firms’ revenues with strategies she has learned from her long career in business.
Learn MoreThe local diner was extremely bright for six in the morning although quiet. The coffee was rather weak, the muffin kind of tasteless, but the conversation was like a stick of Grade A butter. Gale Crosley consults with CPA firms to help them understand the challenges in growing revenue and to develop certain strategies to achieve aggressive revenue growth objectives.
Learn MoreThe Supreme Court’s 1977 decision Bates v. State Bar of Arizona allowed lawyers to advertise their services, opening the gate for CPAs to enter the world of marketing. In Bates, the justices held that advertising was a type of free speech and as such, was protected by the First Amendment. Many CPAs believed that marketing would enhance their firms’ visibility.
Learn MoreListen closely and you’ll hear it ….the sound of pessimism. The pundits are saying the glory days are behind us. They’re predicting that the flood of business we’ve seen in the past five years or so will soon slow to a trickle and manna will no longer fall from the skies.
Learn MoreIn recent weeks, I’ve observed a sometimes subtle, but significant, shift among forward-looking CPA firms, away from filling the pipeline with leads and toward managing the leads coming in the door.
Learn MoreMany firms are so awash in business right now that the idea of growing their firms is, quite honestly, kind of scary. Meanwhile, they’re painfully aware that holding onto low-end work may prevent them from moving up-market to attract larger pieces of business.
Learn MoreI’ve heard far too many CPAs refer to business development – with denigration – as “scheduling appointments” and “walking the halls”. To borrow a phrase, it often seems that business developers are from Saturn and CPAs are from Mars. Despite a shared purpose, their methods often appear dramatically divergent. Behind closed doors, CPAs candidly ask me, “What the heck are these people doing? They walk the halls, flit from meal to meal and attend social events. It doesn’t look like work to me. I wish I could have that much fun. Is this really necessary?!”
Learn MoreI know many partners who are seriously conflicted about whether to include business developers in their firm’s present and future. Yet in corporate America, can you imagine firing an entire sales force? Okay, products and services can’t speak for themselves, so perhaps there isn’t much choice. And maybe that’s the problem. We have a choice. Your professionals can speak for themselves. Unfortunately, the vast majority are not persuasive communicators, or have never had any sales training. Inconsistent practice growth is often the result.
Learn MoreIf the prospect of hiring a business development specialist gives you pause, you’re not alone. Although this practice was historically embraced among the Big Four, mid-size CPA firms have been slower to jump on the bandwagon. Until now, it’s been largely unnecessary. But Sarbanes/Oxley reforms have upended a formerly predictable cosmos. Today, significant conflicted-out opportunities…
Learn MoreIf you’re like most rainmakers, you are happiest when the skies open up and opportunities pour down faster than you can reach out and grab them. And you are most frustrated when you see others seemingly unable to do what’s relatively effortless for you. Understanding why this occurs is the first step to eliminating frustration.…
Learn MoreFor years your firm has done just fine, thank you, without the assistance of a business development executive, or BDE. But is it time to reconsider? The changing professional environment and new demands on CPA firms and partners suggest that it just may be.
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