Ed Mendlowitz

Is this a fantasy situation, a made-up story or the reality in your firm?

Due diligence and caution are important when evaluating investment opportunities and business plans that are being pitched.

Tax season usually is the most stressful period of the year for accountants. Staying calm will help you, your clients and staff.

Take the long view with your practice and don't miss any opportunity to train a staff person properly, as shown in these three anecdotes.

Part of growing is for your staff to also grow. That growth comes when they are empowered to take charge, supervise, and make decisions.

What happens when a client has a misconception about the value of their business and hopes to sell it?

The pricing of accounting services is a big concern and it should be.

When staff use this SmartProof worksheet, they have a method to self-check and self-review their own work and fix any errors before it goes to the reviewer.

Accountants should stop focusing on past data and the current situations their clients are in, and migrate to a future-oriented spotlight.

Whether you are the lowest-level employee or highest-level CPA firm owner or partner, your job is to provide services for the person hiring or engaging you.

Delivering an invoice for any service, including a tax audit, is a marketing activity, and it cannot be assumed that the client understands the value.

You need to offer more services to your current clients and then to new clients.

Evaluate your accomplishments this year and see how to build on them.

Firms that hire experienced people do not usually get what they expect or are paying for.

Ed is offering to email a bundle of articles that provide helpful tax, valuation, financial planning and practice management advice.

The AICPA chief suggests that small practices would be better positioned for the future if they concentrated on developing a specialization in a niche.

Stanley Goldstein recalls the choice of Melancon as the youngest-ever head of the American Institute of CPAs.

What would happen if CPAs offered clients a list of suggested services for a fixed fee?

Accountants and advisors do not live in a vacuum or are not cordoned off in a silo but are subjected to everything going on in the real world and in business and serving the needs of our clients.

The more innovative insights you provide, the sooner you will become recognized as a thought leader and have your ideas sought out.