Spring is a time of optimism, so it's a great time for accounting firms to look for fresh opportunities to grow the business. Here are five ways accounting firms can "fertilize" their existing efforts in order to jumpstart their business and grow deeper, stronger roots with clients.

It's important to try new approaches to building your business

Developments in financial planning from the previous month

Gauging how much risk a client is willing to take is not an easy task. instead, it is a moving target that some professionals compare to diagnosing an illness of a baby or a pet that cannot tell you how they are feeling.

When you work in a professional services firm with different locations, different practice areas and different industries (not counting different deadlines and "busy seasons"), it is quite challenging to pull everyone together and focus on one vision for your firm.

Gale Crosley divides accounting firm partners into drivers and passengers

News and developments in the profession from the previous month

For professional services firms, competitive differentiation isn't necessarily in the products and services they offer. it's in the talent -- the high-potential and high-performing individuals -- that they're able to attract, recruit and retain, which starts with building a world-class workforce that is motivated, engaged and delivering the high-quality services clients demand.

Sales & use tax regimes are only growing more complex at all levels, requiring more of the systems that help with compliance

Developments in tax from the previous month

The pros and cons of working with a tax franchise

Developments in accounting technology from the previous month

In the time it took iPhones, tablets and cloud computing to threaten pc use at many CPA firms, their it departments evolved from virtually faceless repair shops to essential components of a firm's growth.

VAR and reseller news from the previous month

Public Company Accounting Oversight Board member Lewis Ferguson has been elected chair of the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a proposal to defer indefinitely the effective date for certain disclosures about investments held by a nonpublic employee benefit plan in the plan sponsor’s own equity securities.

International Federation of Accountants CEO Fayezul Choudhury discusses how IFAC includes accounting organizations covering firms of all sizes, allowing even sole practitioners to stay connected with what's happening with the largest firm networks around the world, in an interview with AccountingToday.com editor-in-chief Michael Cohn.

The announcement of civil and criminal insider trading charges earlier this month against Scott London, a former senior audit partner at KPMG, grabbed business headlines and took the public accounting profession by surprise.

International Federation of Accountants CEO Fayezul Choudhury discusses how former CEO Ian Ball will still be acting as an advisor with IFAC, in an interview with AccountingToday.com editor-in-chief Michael Cohn.

The Public Accounts Committee in the British Parliament has issued a critical report blaming large accounting firms, particularly the Big Four, for contributing to tax avoidance.