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How can CPAs grow their accounting practice when they’re over capacity, underutilizing their talents and not providing optimal client support? 

Many CPA firms still rely on the hourly billing business model, where the firm has to log more work hours providing services to increase revenue. It focuses on hours and deliverables, not on results and value.

A compelling alternative is the subscription business model, where the provider enables serial transformations to the buyer, and continually adds value to the experience. The subscription model creates an opening for predictable, recurring, higher margin revenue. 

In this week’s episode, I talk about the subscription model with my guest, Ron Baker. 

Ron is the founder of VeraSage Institute—the leading think tank dedicated to educating professionals internationally, and is a radio talk-show host on the www.VoiceAmerica.com

show: The Soul of Enterprise: Business in the Knowledge Economy.

Ron has authored seven best-selling books, including: The Firm of the Future; Pricing on Purpose; Measure What Matters to Customers; and Implementing Value Pricing. His latest book, co-authored with Paul Dunn, Time’s Up!: The Subscription Business Model for Professional Firms, was published in November 2022.

 

In this two-part conversation (episodes 233 and 234), we talk about:

• Sale prices and multiples
• How AI can help scale businesses
• Disney and other big businesses using the subscription model
• Ways to “plus” your offer
• How CPA firms can shift to subscription model

Highlights:

— “We need to stop charging for the means and pricing the end.” 

— “Strategy is about what you don't do. It's about the customers you don't have, the services you don't provide. It's all about trade offs. You simply can't be all things to all people.” 

— “It's very difficult for a business to disrupt itself.” 

— “CPAs have the ability to enable transformations. It's a privilege and a duty to help our customers, to make that impact on their life.”

Connect with Ron:

Website: https://www.thesoulofenterprise.com/

Ron’s book:

Time's Up: The Subscription Business Model for Professional Firms

https://www.thesoulofenterprise.com/timesup

Episode mentions:

Subscription Business Model: Build Greater Wealth in Your CPA Firm, with Ron Baker

https://businessstrategyforcpas.com/147

Time to Rethink Your Pricing Strategy?, with Ron Baker, Founder of VeraSage Institute

https://businessstrategyforcpas.com/081

Breaking Away from the Mainstream Medical Model with Dr. Lewis Weiner

https://businessstrategyforcpas.com/206

Selling Summit CPA for Multiples, with Jody Grunden

https://www.businessstrategyforcpas.com/225

Hold My Beer and Watch Me Niche, with Josh Lance, CPA

https://businessstrategyforcpas.com/212

 

Book mentions:

Uncommon Sense, Common Nonsense by Jules Goddard

https://www.amazon.com/Uncommon-Sense-Common-Nonsense-Organisations/dp/1846686024

Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You by John Warrillow

https://www.amazon.com/Built-Sell-Creating-Business-Without-ebook/dp/B004IYISQW