Golden Practices Blog

Accounting Association is Blogging

A new blog has emerged by the Exec Director/President of IGAF Worldwide, Kevin Mead, and it's called the Connected Accountant.

Kevin's an interesting fellow. In addition to beign a Certified Association Exec (CAE), he is a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) and Certifed Information Systems Auditor (CISA). He has a bachelor's degree in economics and master's in audit. He previously worked for the Institute of Internal Auditors.

Even more interestingly, Kevin now lives and works out of Atlanta but from Ireland and England, he also lived in South Africa and Maine. Quite the interesting accent! And (little known fun fact) he also does stand-up comedy (he's going to kill me for writing that).

Anyway, Kevin's awesome and his blog is sure to be, too. Hope you'll join me in welcoming Kevin to the blogosphere and encourage him in his new role as a blogger.

Turning a Liability Website into an Asset - Graf Repetti Launches New Site Today

Congratulations to my friend, CPA marketer Rob Orr, on a terrific-looking website for his new firm, Graf Repetti.

When Rob arrived at the firm, as their first marketing director, the website was a fairly typical first generation website: no pictures of real people, ordinary text, and design scaled for 800x600. The biggest problem with it, though, was that all the text on every page was embedded in pictures so search engines couldn’t index a darn thing.

With plenty of potential "first projects" to choose from, Rob knew the old website was a liability hindering recruiting and marketing efforts because search engines couldn’t pick up much of anything about the firm. It simply couldn't wait.

He made it a priority to focus on a rebuild and a fine job he did. I love the messaging and the partnering/pairing “2” concept, I love the curves, and I love to be able to see the real people in the firm. A huge leap forward for Graf Repetti. Well done, Rob!

NY CPA, PFS Michael Goodman Comments on Economy

My friend Michael Goodman, CPA, PFS, president of Wealthstream Advisors in Manhattan, has created a fantastic set of short video clips discussing the current economic crisis.

Approximately a minute each, the videos cover:

• Stock Portfolio
• Small Businesses
• Why Care?
• Loans, and
• Retirement Savings.

Michael IS a client, however I had nothing to do with producing these clips...I just think they are really helpful...hope you agree.

Top 100 Firm (and Others) Prove Value Pricing Skeptics Wrong

For all the professionals who say that firms will never trash timesheets and move to value pricing, guess what? You can no longer say that. Four anomaly CPA firms who have proven you wrong are featured in Journal of Accountancy. (look for the print version soon!)

Still not excited? What if I told you one is a TOP 100 CPA FIRM!? Yeah, thought that might get your attention...

Okay, truth is, there are actually hundreds of firms that have been operating without timesheets (not just four), and many, many more using various methods of value pricing, yet still clinging to their beloved timesheets.

But the fact that a Top 100 firm is "tipping" is major news. And that Journal of Accountancy is now acknowledging the successful adoption of new operating models is also pretty huge. Though the article is organized and officially authored by Ron Baker, it mostly comprises case studies and quotes directly from the featured firms.

The Value Pricing movement is growing. Watch the talent flock to these "No Timesheet" firms!

The four featured firms are:

• Harrex Group

• Kennedy and Coe LLC

• Mark Bailey Co. Ltd.

• Snyder & Company

Changed 10/23: JofA changed the link to the article so I've changed the link above accordingly.

Your CPE is Your R&D, Don’t Underinvest

CPAs have become a lot less enthusiastic about CPE in the last 5-10 years. It’s almost viewed as a necessary evil. This is amazing to me because CPE for CPAs is essentially your R&D, or your product development.

Lawyer friends, now sure how the legal profession compares, but perhaps this is relevant for you, too? See if subbing CLE for CPE makes the point applicable...I'd be interested in your comments accordingly.

Since 99% of your product is in your brains, investing in the expansion of the knowledge necessary to do the job would seem a, pardon the pun, no-brainer. But this is what I’ve found…

First problem is money.

I did a little survey a few years back and found that the average annual “per professional” cost of CPE was $1,137 for firms that allow out-of-town CPE and $588 for those who only support local CPE. This was across firms of all sizes and all US geographies. The survey exposed that several firms don’t even allow out of town CPE for non-partners and some give major grief even to partners for leaving home to acquire new skills. This seems enormously counter-productive to me.

Underfunding CPE budgets is simply not smart. You have to have great CPE to continuously hone your product. Most of the time, you’ll have to “go to it” rather than wait for it to come to you. Do these CPE expenditures sound ridiculously low to you? They do to me.

Second problem is perception of time and value.

True story. I sat in a firm’s management meeting about a year ago. Going around the room, department managers were reporting their hours for July (lovely exercise…) and, especially the audit people, were hugely apologetic for the dip in “productive” hours compared to the prior July, defending that they had that huge time investment to get up to speed on all those new risk assessment standards. Honestly, I was mortified.

Why on earth are people apologizing for gaining new skills and investing in the future!

I absolutely spoke this point at my earliest opportunity and reminded this team that they should be CONGRATULATING themselves on this investment in education, and celebrating it. You should have seen the shift in mindset as the group realized this truth around the room—you could almost touch the change. Sometimes this obsession with hours really makes the profession operate backwards!

Third problem is lack of planning and being strategic about your CPE.

For firms that want to compete, continuing education is imperative. For firms that want to curb risk, it is essential. For firms who claim they “specialize” and fail to invest in significant specialty-related CPE, it is hypocrisy. We have to put our eduction time and money where our mouth is.

Learning highly specialized skills necessary to compete in focused practice areas should be a highest priority, and seldom do we see a CPE plan that supports firms' claims of specialization. See how it is my NUMBER ONE tip on my previous post “10 Ways to Specialize.” It’s funny, but in proposals, I often see language along the lines of, “we are required to have 40 hours of CPE, but we go the extra mile and everyone gets 45!” Sometimes even “60 hours”! Pardon me if I’m underwhelmed.

Do you know that the Container Store invests 241 hours of training for a first year associate? And 160 hours per year after that? (see my prior post “Profitability of the Firm” because there is definitely a correlation between investment and return!

Are they in the knowledge business to the degree you are?

According to the AICPA, the average investment in CPE is about .8% of a firm’s revenues. This is about equal to what the firm spends on its dang internet connection.

I’d seriously rethink your CPE strategy!

(originally posted on my blog at AccountingWEB as part of a Blogger's Crew feature on CPE (from 10/6-10/8). Check it out!)

Jones & Roth (CPAs) Launch Healthcare Sector Blog

The EIGHTH industry-oriented accounting firm blog launched last week. The Best Practices Blog, by Oregon CPA firm Jones & Roth, focuses on medical practice management and is authored by partner Jeremy Prickel and senior accountant Brian Newton.

This blog is also the 60th "practice blog" that we have identified (worldwide) by qualified/chartered/certified accountants who are currently in the practice of accounting and are blogging as part of their marketing communications effort. Our full (and ever-changing) list is always available at www.accountingbloglist.com.

Most of the mere 60 firms who are now blogging are venturing down the "general practice" blog path and are not taking advantage of the WIDE OPEN playing field in the sector specific accounting blog space. A few are service specific, which is helpful to them.

60 practice blogs by CPAs/CAs - here's the breakdown:

• 8 verticals (construction-2, healthcare-3, lenders, religious, transportation)
• 7 other market segment (SME-3, public-3, international)
• 24 service (tax-12, tech-5, finance-3, fraud-2, BV, bankruptcy)
• 22 general practice

I know of at least 5 more blogs currently in development. Hard to believe that's almost a 10% increase!Though we have seen a lot of blog growth by accountants in the last 12 months, I remain astounded at how few there are.

If you don't believe blogs are effective in developing new business, Jones & Roth is a case-in-point.

Marketer Phil Sutton has been a loyal reader of Golden Practices for quite some time and comments now and again so we struck up some email conversations. Last July, he called me to assist when he was ready to pitch blogging to his firm. I didn't build the blog (his capable team handled that), but did spend a couple hours with him and his blog team on the phone to prime them for what to expect and what pitfalls to try to prevent. A real, live, paying engagement, and proof that blogging can help you build business, too.

Again, Jones & Roth's blog marks only the eighth blog that is industry specific. I find it almost unbelievable that there are only eight! This is truly an untapped marketing approach that only a select few accountants are benefitting from. More power to ya, you brave trailblazers!

TIP OF THE DAY:
Starting a blog? Think VERTICAL, not general/product!

Accounting Today's Top 100 Most Influential People List!

No, Michelle Golden is not one of the Top 100 people. (Not yet, anyway. Yeah, still working on that).

However, this blog got a kind mention on page 8 of Accounting Today's Sep 22-Oct 5 issue's "Top 100 Most Influential People" (in the accounting industry) supplement. A sidebar entitled "Surfing with the T100" says that Top 100 honorees were asked who they read on the web:

Among the more popular blogs mentioned were those of T100 members Rita Keller and Paul Caron and T100 alum David Maister, as well as the Golden Practices marketing blog the CPA Trendlines blog of former Accounting Today editor Rick Telberg, and Michael Ramos' The Eyeshade.

Wow, I'm in great company. Thanks much to the Top 100 people who mentioned Golden Practices! I really appreciate it--and considering the amazing amount of material out there competing for your attention, I'm very honored that you read me, too.

Shout out to Shane Eloe, kind reader and fellow blogger (Number Insights) for calling my attention to the mention (I musta skipped past the text on page 8 in my wishful haste to see if "Golden" miraculously fell into it's alphabetical position between J. Russell George and Sen. Charles Grassley...on page 9).

And congrats to my friends and colleagues who made the list!

Back from Unannounced Blog Hiatus

Not that I expect anyone noticed, but I've been awol for a bit owing primarily to a heavy travel month and lots of cool stuff going on!

Here's some of it...

* My son lands in Nashville in about an hour(!) after a 4-day commute home from Afghanistan for his mid-tour leave. Welcome home, Jared!   (that's him holding his little sis)

* Having a blast teaching CPAs how to blog and, separately, several new blog set-ups are in the works right now!

* Just wrapped a whirlwind identity, website, brochure, user manual, exhibit booth, tradeshow (and all that accompanies it) strategy for the debut of an amazing rebalancing/allocation software product developed by CPA/PFS Sheryl Rowling, CPA/PFS Debi Dold and programmer extraordinairre, Cheryll Lurtz. The product is Total Rebalance Expert (TRX) and it was a nice diversion to work on something different from CPA or law firms, yet still related to our CPA/financial service sector clientele.

A real treat was flying to Atlanta last week to personally witness TRX's official debut at the Schwab IMPACT conference. They made quite a splash. (And imagine my thrill when a neighboring exhibitor said, "Wow, your booth really POPS.")

Pictured (l to r) are Debi Dold, Sheryl Rowling, Cheryll Lurtz, and Lisa Haupt. Congrats, ladies, on a superb launch!