February 13, 2012
There’s one question that continues to linger in the profession: does life-work balance really exist? Or is it a myth? As I look back over my thirty-year career, I recall enjoying periods of life-work balance, while other times seemed like utter chaos. Like the popular 70’s song says, “To everything, turn, turn, turn, there is...…
February 8, 2012
Traveling can be challenging, and even just planning your travels can be time-consuming and frustrating.
November 22, 2011
Tax and accounting professionals who start their own firms from scratch face benefits and significant challenges. On the pro side, they have the opportunity to build the firm as they wish, from internal practices to staffing and management styles. Of course, there can be significant startup costs, and the firm starts with a client roster…
November 18, 2011
While we all cherish the most trusted advisor status that accountants have earned, this status must be continually re-earned with clients. Ask yourself whether your clients want you to serve them or lead them to better success. I believe your clients desperately want you to lead them — and if you don’t, they may turn...…
November 4, 2011
How a Tech-Savvy Accountant Waited for Technology to Catch Up to Her Vision. Some of the greatest ideas are imagined years before they can be accomplished. In 2002, a young professional accountant had the idea of providing virtual accounting services to clients.
October 10, 2011
How optimism and remote technologies paved the way to one firm's success. The accounting profession has often been stereotyped as curmudgeonly, grumpy, stodgy, and fiscally dour, and, well … there were probably good reasons for those descriptions at one time.
September 1, 2011
Accountants and accounting firms have long suffered from the false stereotype of being stodgy, even predictable and boring. Even more so, the auditor: that truly numbers-focused researcher of data whose sole purpose is to determine the propriety of an organization’s financial reporting and their internal controls over financial reporting. Perhaps only actuaries are more maligned…
August 4, 2011
A Productivity in Practice Feature. A small business is most productive when its owners are doing what they love. Whether a mechanic, baker, landscaper, restaurateur, childcare provider or a merchant, small business owners usually like what they do.
August 2, 2011
A standard consulting practice rule is that switching software is expensive. Disruptions to procedures occur, retraining is required, and without careful analysis you may force your organization into a product that has less capability or is more difficult to use. We expect clients to switch software as frequently as they switch physicians or religions. The...…
June 24, 2011
Sometimes, things need mixing up. Chris Farmand, who grew up in a Florida family centered around the accounting practice led by his father and two uncles, was destined for a career in accounting. His parents knew it, the rest of his family knew it, and his teachers knew it. But even though he’d been in...…
June 6, 2011
Imagine an accounting practice where you rarely met your clients, didn’t market to the local business community or belong to chambers of commerce … and don’t even have a sign on the office. You worked pretty much when you wanted to and tried to focus on anything but tax returns. This is probably nearly impossible...…
May 23, 2011
The literal definition of a well-oiled machine is … well, a machine that is well-oiled. It’s a term I use figuratively quite often to describe a business that is producing strong revenues and operating at peak efficiency … without an excess amount of effort. When I think back 10 years to what I thought was...…