Bissett Bullet: Your Greatest Successes
Today’s Bissett Bullet: “The most powerful marketing weapon you have in the fight against the competition is the stories of clients you’ve helped in the past.”
By Martin Bissett
By Martin Bissett
Kick familiar to the curb and get paid what you’re worth.
By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA
The familiar is always more comfortable than something new. Shifting your pricing model is bound to be disruptive because the billable hour is what we know and have always known. It is the default billing model of every new firm. It’s comfortable, familiar, embedded in our DNA and seems like the easiest billing solution.
Certainly, there are some pros to billing by the hour. Profits remain relatively stable. If you work 40 hours, you know you’re going to bill and hopefully be paid for those 40 hours. There’s a clarity and certainty to it. But there are only so many hours in a week. By embracing the billable hour, you’re putting a profit ceiling on your firm.
“Reasonable comp” audits are coming.
By Eric Green
“The IRS never audits reasonable comp, so don’t worry about it.”
Have you ever heard this phrase? Well, when it comes to IRS priorities and increasing enforcement, S corporations and their owners will find themselves in the crosshairs of the IRS.
In 2020, the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) reported more than 10 million non-filers, many of them high-income earners. Then, in 2021, a TIGTA Report told the IRS to begin cracking down on S corporation owners who take little to no compensation to avoid employment taxes effectively.
Ten questions for reconsidering your prices.
By Martin Bissett
Business Development On a Budget
Undercharging – or lowballing as it’s also called – is the scourge of the profession. It has always been present, and unfortunately, it will probably be with us for the foreseeable future.
Undercharging is directly related to fear – fear of rejection.
When you are building your pipeline according to the process, you have assigned fees you think might be in the ballpark of what you believe you could get from a new piece of work or a new client. You may tend to estimate on the low side, which is not a bad idea in theory, because it lets you be pleasantly surprised when it’s anything beyond that.
The mark has been steady for three years now.
By Beth Bellor
CPA Trendlines Research
April 15 has come and gone. Finally, tax season is over!
Hahaha! Sure, it’s true for the 140 million+ represented on the returns filed so far, but it doesn’t speak to their neighbors who aren’t quite there yet. You know, the ones you filed extensions for.
Still, it’s a national touchpoint, so let’s take a peek at the data the IRS just released for April 19, just after the deadline.
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It’s not technically a phone, but it does almost everything a phone can … and some things a phone can’t.
By Rick Richardson
Technology This Week
Rabbit is a startup that stunned the world in early January with its surprising AI hardware announcement. The Rabbit r1 is a device similar to a smartphone, but it runs a different AI experience compared to what you know from ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Claude and other chatbots.
The Rabbit r1 will handle chats like ChatGPT, sure. However, its primary selling point is a different type of AI experience. The r1 features a unique Large Action Model (LAM) that lets it interact with apps for you.
Disruptors Wiley, Deshayes, Satterley, Etienne, Penczak and Vanover offer their takes on staffing in the accounting profession.
By Amy Welch
In a post-pandemic gig economy, the rest of the world laments the staffing crisis. However, while the solutions may not be easy, they seem to be pretty simple.
MORE THOUGHT LEADERS: James Graham: Drop the Billable Hour and You’ll Bill More | Karen Reyburn: Fix Your Marketing and Fix Your Business | Giles Pearson: Fix the Staffing Crisis by Swapping Experience for Education | Jina Etienne: Practice Fearless Inclusion | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | Scott Scarano: First, Grow People. Then Firm Growth Can Follow | Jody Padar: Build a Practice that Works for You, Not Vice-Versa | Ira Rosenbloom: With M&A, Nobody Wants a Fixer-Upper | Peter Margaritis: The Power Skills Every Accountant Needs | Joe Montgomery: Find the Sweet Spot of the Right Clients, Right Services and Right Prices | Marie Green: Your Bad Apples Are Ruining You | Megan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than Compliance | Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for Life |
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In the CPA Trendlines Disruptors one-on-one interview series with Liz Farr, some of the profession’s most innovative thinkers suggest solutions ranging from re-examining your firm’s culture to tapping into two-year colleges for new talent. Here, several weigh in on what they see as the potential answers to one of the most troubling issues in the accounting profession.
Critical demand for data analytics, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence skills.
By CPA Trendlines Research
Internships could play a pivotal role in addressing the talent needs of the profession, according to a new study.
MORE in TALENT & CAREER DEVELOPMENT: Talent Crisis? What Talent Crisis? | Why Would Anyone Become a CPA? | Five Questions About Facing Challenges | It’s Time to Prepare the Next Generation | Fifteen Strategies for First-Time Supervisors | Measure Knowledge Gaps (Then Close Them)
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With 74 percent of internships designed to lead to permanent employment, these programs are not just supplemental but foundational to preparing students for professional roles.
Still, only 28 percent of college programs make internships integral to the curriculum. READ MORE →