Business Strategy for CPA's

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast: 

https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/

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For many accountants, depending on the day, technology can be a powerful tool or a frustrating time sink. 

Here today to talk with me about effectively leveraging technology is my guest, Joe Woodard. 

Joe has trained over 125,000 accounting and business professionals in areas of practice development, changing technology trends, strategic consulting, and how to maximize the use of accounting software in their practices.

He's the host of Scaling New Heights, one of the world's leading training conferences for accountants and bookkeepers, which is coming up in St. Louis, June 25th to 28th.

Highlights:

— “What I would encourage you not to do is directly engage one-to-one with a business that can't afford to pay you.”

— “There is an endless vacuum of human need. It is not your job to fill it.”

— “Common classic mistakes that accountants are making when it comes to software are disparate technology and under-adoption.”

— “Be the accountant or bookkeeper in the pocket of your client, not in the inbox of your client.” 

— “You got to build a niche. If I did what I did for other professionals, it wouldn't work and would fall apart. I know my audience. I know what I'm passionate about and that's what makes it work.”

Connect with Joe:

Website: www.woodard.com 

Upcoming Event:

Scaling New Heights 2023: www.ScalingNewHeights.com

Book mention:

Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life

by Henry Cloud and John Townsend 

https://www.amazon.com/Boundaries-Updated-Expanded-When-Control-dp-0310351804/dp/0310351804/

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast: 

https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/

👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast: 

https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/

👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

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Niching is not a one-time task but an ongoing discovery process and refining and developing your expertise.

It can be a powerful tool for CPAs who want to build a thriving practice while enjoying the freedom to work with the clients they love and set prices in a way that reflects the value they create.

Erica Goode shares the challenges she faced when she started her business and how niching helped her build a more profitable accounting practice.

Based in Idaho, Erica is a seasoned financial expert and CPA who provides CFO services to coaches and consultants.

HIGHLIGHTS:

— “The best thing about running your own practice is you decide who you get to work with and who you don't get to work with. It's so liberating.” 

— “I had been resisting what felt easy and obvious to me. I was trying to find something fancy.” 

— “Niching is a process, not a task.” 

— “The more you can narrow down to what you actually need to know, then it just makes your job so much easier. And you don't feel like you're behind because you're choosing not to stay up to speed on certain things, because it doesn't seem relevant to your client base.”

— “As accountants, we underestimate how much relationship people are looking at from us. Clients want their tax person to sit next to them and explain stuff.” 

Connect with Erica:

Podcast: Coaches, Consultants + Money: https://www.ericagoode.com/podcast

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-goode-cpa-00205616/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erica.goode.cpa/

Episode mentions:

116 From Hourly Billing to Flat Rate for Cares Act Documentation

https://businessstrategyforcpas.com/116

175 Paid Strategy Sessions and Half-Day Workshops with Erica Goode, CPA

https://businessstrategyforcpas.com/175

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast: 

https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/

👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast: 

https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/

👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

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The hustle can be tempting: all that activity seems to have a positive effect. 

Hustle too much, and risk becoming stretched too thin across too many areas of your accounting practice. 

Hustle for too many years, and risk burning out.

If you don't solve your hustle problems now, you run the risk of carrying your hustle problems with you as your accounting practice grows. 

And as your accounting practice grows, the problems that caused hustle in the first place continue to grow, leading to more and more hustle.

Consider solving problems that cause hustle now, so you don’t carry them with you.

In this episode, I give you eight hustle-related thought patterns to consider shifting:

1. From: “The way to solve this is by working more.” To: “Working less is better for me, my clients, and my business.” 
2. From: “I am always behind.” To: “I am on top of my work.” To: I am getting ahead of my work.” 
3. From: “There’s always more to do.” To: “My responsibilities are finite.” 
4. From: One-time, this-time solutions to the solution that also works when your accounting practice is twice the size.
5. From: “This is how we’ve done it.” To: Bigger, better, faster results for your clients. 
6. From: Speed and intensity. To: Slowing both mind and actions down.
7. To: All the ways that when you work less your clients have a better experience. 
8. To: All the ways that extra time is good for you and extra time is good for your staff.

Going from 40 down to 25 hours requires a new set of skills, and a new way of thinking. 

When you work less, it’s better for your accounting practice, it’s better for your clients, and it’s better for you. 

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast: 

https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/

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Registration for Down to 40 Hours CPA Mastermind is open!

The summer cohort kicks off May 1st. 

Create higher-paying clients without working more hours. Simplify your accounting practice so you can grow and scale without more effort from your team. Permanently end overworking without losing revenue.

Go to geraldinecarter.com to find out more and register.

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast: 

https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/

👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?*

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Acquiring and retaining clients is crucial for maintaining a successful accounting practice. 

But not all potential clients are the right fit for an accounting firm, and working with the wrong clients can drain resources and decrease overall profitability. 

One solution to this problem is offering paid intensives to pre-filter potential monthly accounting clients. 

This approach allows firms to work closely with clients over a short period to assess their needs, expectations, and overall fit before committing to a longer-term relationship. 

In this episode, Sheila Hansen shares her insights on offering her one-time services, particularly the benefits of paid intensives.

Sheila is a CPA from Omaha who focuses on creatives striving for $250K and above in revenue.

Highlights:

—  “Clients know they need an accountant, but they may not know exactly why having a good one is important.”

— “Whether clients have a bookkeeper or are keeping books themselves, often they don’t know what their financials are telling them.”

— “While it might be tempting to “teach clients everything,” often clients find value in just one or two steps that make an impact.”

— “When it came to offering this type of intensive, I finally just put it out there – tried it, tested it – to see what worked.”

Connect with Sheila:

Website: https://www.hansenllc.net/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheila.hansen.cpa/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheila-hansen-cpa/

Episode mentions:

235 Advanced Decisions

https://businessstrategyforcpas.com/235

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast: 

https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/

👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast: 

https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/

👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

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Starting an accounting practice from scratch can be a challenging journey for any entrepreneur. 

One of the biggest challenges for a new CPA firm owner is finding a niche that aligns with one’s values and expertise.

Today I speak with Matt Chiappetta, a CFO turned CPA firm owner working with digital solopreneurs. 

Starting as a solopreneur just last year, Matt talks about how he found his niche and shares the steps he’s taking to build an audience.

Highlights:

— “You're a soloist and business operator, but that doesn't mean that you need to do everything by yourself all the time.”

— “I don't worry about getting bored in my niche because I feel like there's just so many different ways to serve my target market.”

— “If you don't like your niche, there's nothing preventing you from changing it.” 

— “You get an immense amount of clarity when you pick your niche in terms of the problems you're trying to solve, which makes you more valuable for your client.” 

— “If you're making genuine connections with the content you’re creating, it almost seems like there is going to be a time when you unexpectedly  gain a lot of traction.”

Connect with Matt:

Website: https://www.mattchia.cpa/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattchiacpa

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast: 

https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/

👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast: 

https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/

👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?*

Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe

It's not uncommon for CPA business owners to find themselves overworked and swamped with too many clients.

It's easy to feel overwhelmed, like you're losing control of your business and that it's running you rather than the other way around.

But with the right approach, it's possible to turn the tide and regain control of your CPA practice.

I talk with Laurie Rauk, a CPA from Calgary. She shares the steps she implemented in Down to 40 Hours CPA Mastermind to transform her business and achieve a manageable practice.

Highlights:

— “When I sent out a price increase letter to my clients and asked them to pay upfront, more of them signed up right away to have me do their personal tax returns this year than I was anticipating.” 

— “The clients who decided to stay with me understand that if I'm overstretched and have too many clients to serve, then they are not going to get the good service that they deserve.”

— “Because I have reduced my client base, I'm not feeling pulled in different directions. I feel a lot more in control of the rest of the month here because I know what I've got on my plate now and what's still coming in.” 

— “I have a deeper appreciation for the value I bring as a highly trained CPA with 20 years experience and the individualized personalized service that my clients get is worth a price premium.”

— “When I cut 15% - 20% of my client base, my revenue has actually gone up because of the price increases that I introduced.”

Connect with Laurie:

Website: https://laurierauk.ca/

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast: 

https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/

👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast: 

https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/

👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?*

Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe

The need to work 40 hours a week is entirely fictional.

You don’t need to work a 40-hour workweek just because that’s the standard, and because there’s a whole system, economy, business organization structure, all set up around the idea of a 40-hour workweek.

As a CPA firm owner, you can work less and you can work on your business to increase your revenue. And your revenue is not reliant on the time that you put in. Your revenue is reliant on how much value you create for your clients and how effective you are at capturing that value created with your prices.

So I want to talk about the process of getting down from an overworked state, be it 50, 60, 70 hours, or more a week, down to a 40-hour workweek and what that looks like. And then setting up to get down to a 25-hour workweek, and letting go of the appearance of safety of the conventional 40-hour workweek, and taking a fresh approach so that you can have the business that you want and have the life that you want, with your business that supports that and fits nice and neatly inside that life.

Through this process, I also worked on my thinking, because the more I could switch myself into more productive, effective thoughts, the more time I started getting back for myself.

Steps to get down to a 40-hour workweek:

1. Disengage 

2. Highgrade your best clients' package and price. 

3. Deal with your most pressing challenges. 

4. Organize and protect your time

5.  Work on the thoughts so that they help you get where you want to go.

It is absolutely possible for you to work the number of hours a week that you want to work, whether it's 40, 38, 32, 28, 24, or 18 and a half. You get to design and you get to decide what you want. And it has nothing to do with the 40-hour standard, which is fiction. You get to decide what you want. And you get to design it.

When you do this work going through this process of getting yourself down to a sane workweek and bringing in the high margin revenue that suits you, it's better for your business, it's better for your clients, and it's better for you and you your life on your one trip through space. 

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast: 

https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/

👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast: 

https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/

👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?*

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When you better understand the nature of your problem – if it’s tactical or mindset in nature –  you can make better sense of your experience in your accounting firm and why sometimes it might feel so hard. 

We try to solve problems with tactics. And we just keep hitting the same nail with the same hammer thinking that we have a tactical problem, not realizing that in fact we have a mindset problem. 

We’re not solving the correct problem. 

Here are three areas of your accounting practice that are critical to your success. 

Here are the tactical challenges and mindset challenges of these three areas: 

1. Knowing who you're selling to - positioning
2. What they want to buy - understanding your buyer
3. How to sell it to them - selling

All of them have tactical solutions. And they have mindset problems that tend to come along with them:

1. Positioning - “I don’t want to limit myself” & “I’ll be bored” & “What if I don’t pick the right niche”
2. Understanding your buyer - “I don’t have time to talk to my clients” & “I know everything and don’t know how to listen” 🙂
3. Selling - “Selling is dirty” & “I don’t want to be pushy” & “I don’t like selling”

You need the tactical solution, and we see what happens. If it doesn't work, if you can't solve your problem with the tactical solution, then we need to explore and address the mindset challenges.

A tactical solution without a mindset solution is an incomplete solution.

I want you to have a complete solution. 

Because giving you tactics without giving you the mindset help that you need is like giving you a one-sided zipper. Giving you only the mindset without the tactics that you need is like giving you the other side of the zipper.  

And it's the same in your business. 

It doesn't work without tactical solutions, and it doesn't work without mindset solutions. 

Down to 40 Hours CPA Mastermind is designed to give you the complete solution. Baked into it are tactical solutions, and mindset solutions. It’s the only program of it’s kind to deliver the complete solution you need to get your time and your life back. 

Episode mentions:

232 *You Can* Master Your Time and Calendar, with Dawn Goldberg

https://businessstrategyforcpas.com/232

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast: 

https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/

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