Marketing

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.

I like to wear shirts with my firm’s logo. We have an arrangement with Land’s End where we can order what we want from their catalog and have the Withum logo applied. It is a very easy process.

Many accounting firms share a common problem. They need to get staff, especially younger staff, involved in business development. It often feels like an unending uphill battle. The question is, are we on the right hill?

Industry consultant Martin Bissett has tips for getting CPAs more comfortable with sales.

Tax lawyer Kelly Phillips Erb, aka “taxgirl,” has written for The New York Times and is now a staff writer for Forbes.com, but she never set out to be a famous blogger or national thought leader.

With the regulations that once kept financial advisors and other money-management professionals on the social-media sidelines a thing of the past, the floodgate of tweets, Snaps and Instagram posts should be wide open by now. But the response has actually been quite muted.

For those of us in public accounting, there is a continual need to get new clients. Many times we look beyond what we have for the “new” when the growth is there for the taking.

Capital One’s Spark Business unit is offering some advice to accountants to help them and their small business clients get through the summertime lull and attract more customers.

Social media tools are one way to start radicalizing your firm

For growth, you need more than lunch with a friendly lawyer

Getting your tax or accounting firm in front of customers can be hard with so many competitors on the playing field. However, there are some moves you can make to make sure your firm always has enough work to keep everyone busy.

When I engage in planning workshops, the subject of succession and exit strategies is front and center in the long-term vision of the firm: forcing current partners to look at potential future partners and consider their ability to grow the firm and fund an exit.

If you’ve ever listened to or watched “The Dave Ramsey Show” or another financial advice program that features people who have turned around their finances, you’ll frequently hear the host ask what prompted the people to make a change. Often, it was a crisis—a lost job or a major health problem, for example.

Many client relationships start with a consultation of some sort, but that may leave some tax professionals wondering whether they can charge for it.

Congratulations, now that you’ve made it through the end of busy season and managed to put all of those long evenings in the office in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to get back to business. Now is a great time to revisit your firm’s strategic plan for 2016.

Our favorite firm slogans from around the CPA profession.