Sales and Marketing

By my reckoning there are about 42,000 accounting firms in the United States, and 41,600 might be considered to be small.

Many dream of the day they can start their own business. For some CPAs, the leap to self-employment means a chance to set their own schedule and balance work and family on their own terms. For others, it’s about leaving a boss behind and taking the reins.

We all use the cliché that we give the clients the best we've got, but what does it really mean?

Last week I wrote about benefits of attending practice management programs and gave a suggestion to try to make eight changes a year from each hour of the program. Today I am recommending some MAP books and repeat the suggestion of implementing one idea a year from each book.

There’s probably no one “right” time for tax preparers to start a newsletter, but the end of summer might be an optimum time. Vacation memories are beginning to fade, and people are gearing up to get back into the real world of work, busy schedules and tax.

The CPA Consultants’ Alliance has appointed Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk of bbr marketing as the group’s new Marketing Chair and Carrie Steffen of the Whetstone Group as the new Deliverables Chair.

In last week’s column, I described various specializations for accountants. In this week’s column, we’ll talk about gaining the necessary expertise.

How can a CPA firm differentiate itself?

I was not a specialist. In some respects, I am the last of the “expert generalists” and generalists are fast becoming extinct.

Your firm could be in a heap of trouble if you tweet about #TeamUSA, post a photo to Facebook of the Olympic rings or even mention the term “Olympics” from your firm’s accounts.