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Gale’s book, At the Crossroads: The Remarkable CPA Firm That Nearly Crashed, Then Soared is a delightful parable about a sleepy, uninspired CPA firm that transforms into an accounting powerhouse.
Meet managing partner Joe Abriola who has just learned that his partners are on the verge of mutiny. How does the firm recover and thrive? Spoiler alert—Gale’s growth model swoops in to save the day! The book is an instructive tale that’s filled with valuable insight on achieving growth despite the odds.
Gale discusses the practice areas and international opportunities that firms often overlook in trying to grow, in an interview with Accounting Today editor-in-chief Daniel Hood. Click the image below to view the video at Accounting Today.
I recently had the opportunity to talk about the latest directions in the accounting industry with Danetha Doe at Libra Tax, a cutting edge firm providing accounting and reporting for digital currency services.
The words “innovation” and “accounting” are rarely uttered in the same breath. Our profession is by nature conservative and slow to change. But over the past several years a movement of CPAs who see and do things differently has slowly been gaining steam.
After getting to know some of its pioneers I’ve concluded that we just may be on the cusp of a significant shift in our traditional accounting business model – the way we create, deliver and capture value.
Reprinted with permission from Accounting Today. When we think of innovation we typically think of a new product or service—something that didn’t exist yesterday that will make tomorrow better. Innovative offerings are essential to the portfolio of any growth-minded CPA firm. However, long term sustainable growth requires a far more comprehensive innovation in your growth…
Reprinted with permission from CPA Practice Management Forum. Teamwork is trending in business these days. From auto repair shops to Fortune 100 boardrooms—everybody is part of a team. I have long championed the idea of collaboration as a growth strategy for CPA firms. Frankly, it’s a hard concept to oppose. But, how do you take…
Reprinted with permission from Accounting Today. Ever run a race and immediately sense that you got off to an exceptionally fast start? It’s a good feeling but if your goal is to beat out the competition there’s really only one way to know for sure how you’re doing. And that’s by marking your progress toward…
Reprinted with permission from International Accounting Bulletin. One of the hottest firm topics these days is succession planning. In a nutshell the issue is this: As your key leaders retire, who’s in line to take their place? Firms are keenly aware they need to identify the next generation of leaders and ensure that they will…
Reprinted with permission from International Accounting Bulletin Part one of this article focused on strategic growth as a critical imperative for accounting firms around the world. I noted the profession’s historic hesitation to jump on the growth bandwagon and the impact of that decision. The article also noted factors that are changing the profession. In…
Reprinted with permission from Accounting Today. Admit 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. Most good CPAs intuitively move beyond tax returns and financial statements, offering insight…
Reprinted with permission from Accounting Today. I see it all the time. Well-intentioned accounting firms do what they believe are the right things. They sponsor events. They publish articles. They meet and greet. But they don’t grow. At most firms growth is an individual contributor activity. Lone ranger partners do their own thing, attracting…
If your goal is to grow your firm and you haven’t considered a qualified business developer, you’ve tied one hand firmly behind your back. A business developer (BD) is a professional salesperson hired to sell your firm’s services.
Reprinted with permission from Accounting Today Sometimes it’s not what we’re thinking, but how we’re thinking that keeps us from the success we deserve. In this case I’m referring to the limits we impose on ourselves, which I call thought borders. While not necessarily geographical, they constrain our forward movement much as the absence of…
By 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.
Admit 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.
In 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.
When 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.
For 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.
Gale 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.
Why 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…
Listen 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.