Are You Wondering How to Adapt to the Changes?
Your Industry Is Changing Rapidly
You probably already know this. There is a massive paradigm shift occurring in the business advice and tax-planning world. It’s a shift from backwards-looking tax compliance to forward-looking business advisory services. Most CPAs and tax professionals know this is happening, are concerned about it, but aren’t sure exactly how to manage this change and paradigm shift.
LET’S FACE IT, CHANGE IS HARD. MOVING YOUR BUSINESS IN A NEW DIRECTION IS CHALLENGING, AND OFTEN FEELS FRAUGHT WITH PERIL. NOT CHANGING, HOWEVER... THAT’S WHERE THE REAL DANGER LIES .
The problem. Nowhere is this risk more apparent than in the business advice community. According to a study by the Fleeter Group, 72% of successful small business owners left their CPA because the CPA was reactive, not proactive. An American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) study found that 92% of CPAs are not “future ready”…compelling statistics. Automation, software, and other factors are all pushing the evolution of the business; commoditization is a threat—and arguably already a reality.
Some accounting and bookkeeping professionals are well aware of the competitive landscape and are taking steps to get ahead of the curve by expanding, purchasing practices, bringing in more partners and associates, and hopefully, more clients. This increases revenue, but also dramatically increases overhead, scalability issues, and complexity. Plus, this pricing model still relies on selling time for money, and that has a finite cap. None of these responses truly solves the real problem—that your business is evolving. |
Embrace change or fight it? Look, most of us don’t like change. Neither did Blockbuster Video, but that didn’t stop change from driving them out of business. Choosing to embrace and master change is the choice of those who wish to progress in virtually any endeavor. It’s always been that way, and that might be the one constant in business.
Those who embrace change will add more value, to their very best “A” level clients—and help them build a stronger and more resilient business. That’s exactly what those clients want! Think about it. What is your current value proposition? Why do clients choose you? The answers usually look something like this:
Here’s the problem with all of that: Those are all the basic things that you’re expected to do! They’re ubiquitous. What you need to strive for, is what those clients really value—what they hunger for—and that’s creative, innovative, and forward-looking, proactive advice about their “baby”—their business. |
The opportunity. The real opportunity lies in helping clients achieve their most valued business goals: crafting a compelling vision, staying on track, planning for success, increasing profits, driving revenue, building equity, and managing succession. This is where business owners are going to gravitate. This is what they want. By offering this type of service, you’re going to look different and better to them.
If you’re like most accounting and bookkeeping professionals, you know you have to change, but you just don’t know how to do it. What you need is a system, so you can do it in a predictable, repeatable, and scalable way, and most importantly, deliver consistent value. The solution. Consider that some professionals routinely earn $10,000 to $30,000 per engagement for their tax reduction work. Even more surprising to some, is the clients don’t even complain about it! The keys to ultimate profitability are scalability and leverage. |
SCALABILITY
Michael Gerber’s classic book, “The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It” is still, we believe, the most brilliant book ever written about small business and scalability. It’s filled with gems, but it could all be summarized by one sentence: “Go to work ON your business, rather than in it.”
This means using strategies that build a system, that create a process that works without you having to be the guy or gal pushing all the buttons, pulling all the levers, and doing it, doing it, doing it 10 hours, 12 hours, 14 hours a day. It means not becoming a victim of your own success, but rather a victor who helps others get what they want and need. It means doing it in a duplicatable, disciplined, and systematic manner. It means you “skate to where the puck is going, not to where it’s been” as hockey legend Wayne Gretzky famously said.
LEVERAGE
Leverage comes from having access to a myriad of sophisticated solutions. It comes from switching from a “just-reporting-the-past” focus, to a proactive, forward-thinking approach. This way you are compensated for the results you deliver to your clients, rather than just the same old compliance work.
Michael Gerber’s classic book, “The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It” is still, we believe, the most brilliant book ever written about small business and scalability. It’s filled with gems, but it could all be summarized by one sentence: “Go to work ON your business, rather than in it.”
This means using strategies that build a system, that create a process that works without you having to be the guy or gal pushing all the buttons, pulling all the levers, and doing it, doing it, doing it 10 hours, 12 hours, 14 hours a day. It means not becoming a victim of your own success, but rather a victor who helps others get what they want and need. It means doing it in a duplicatable, disciplined, and systematic manner. It means you “skate to where the puck is going, not to where it’s been” as hockey legend Wayne Gretzky famously said.
LEVERAGE
Leverage comes from having access to a myriad of sophisticated solutions. It comes from switching from a “just-reporting-the-past” focus, to a proactive, forward-thinking approach. This way you are compensated for the results you deliver to your clients, rather than just the same old compliance work.
Blue Ocean Rule. By changing your behavior strategies, and aligning with the real needs of your best clients, you create a veritable “blue ocean” of opportunity. That moniker comes from a book of the same name, and it refers to a landscape that is “blue water”, because it’s not bloodied red by vigorous competition, or by a race to the bottom of lowered fees, less time, less value, and more low-value relationships. The ocean is blue, because you’ve carved out a niche and built a moat around it.
Moving your business in to the “blue ocean” makes you elite instead of average, great instead of good, and best of all, it leverages the 80/20 Rule in your favor.
Moving your business in to the “blue ocean” makes you elite instead of average, great instead of good, and best of all, it leverages the 80/20 Rule in your favor.
The 80/20 Rule. In 1949, while researching patterns of wealth and income in 19th century England, Harvard professor George Kingsley Zipf discovered the “principle of least effort”, substantiating the 1906 work of an earlier economist, the Italian Vilfredo Pareto, whose findings illuminated an actual numerical ratio. It became known as The Pareto Principle.”
Zipf refined this to state specifically that resources (people, goods, time, skills, or anything else proactive) tended to arrange themselves so as to minimize work; approximately 20-30% of any resource accounted for 70-80% of the activity related to that resource.
This rule applies to all areas of our life and work. If we can use the 80/20 Rule creatively, we can leverage our results not in just a linear fashion, but exponentially. Indeed, exponential leverage is the true “secret” of all history’s greatest entrepreneurial success stories. Billy Durant understood leverage when he was inventing General Motors. Steve Jobs used it to build Apple. Bill Gates did it with Microsoft. Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook. Every minor start-up that later sold for millions or billions of dollars mastered it, as well.
The few things that hit home runs in our life and business should be identified, cultivated, nurtured, and multiplied. The less productive actions and resources should be redeployed, cut back on, or eliminated. Our goal should be to focus on efforts that maximize our value to our very best clients, which helps them pursue their life goals for themselves, their families, and business.
Zipf refined this to state specifically that resources (people, goods, time, skills, or anything else proactive) tended to arrange themselves so as to minimize work; approximately 20-30% of any resource accounted for 70-80% of the activity related to that resource.
This rule applies to all areas of our life and work. If we can use the 80/20 Rule creatively, we can leverage our results not in just a linear fashion, but exponentially. Indeed, exponential leverage is the true “secret” of all history’s greatest entrepreneurial success stories. Billy Durant understood leverage when he was inventing General Motors. Steve Jobs used it to build Apple. Bill Gates did it with Microsoft. Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook. Every minor start-up that later sold for millions or billions of dollars mastered it, as well.
The few things that hit home runs in our life and business should be identified, cultivated, nurtured, and multiplied. The less productive actions and resources should be redeployed, cut back on, or eliminated. Our goal should be to focus on efforts that maximize our value to our very best clients, which helps them pursue their life goals for themselves, their families, and business.
The Next Move. You did not get this booklet by accident. Either you requested it from us, or you were hand-picked by our team to receive it. We look for accounting and tax professionals who we feel might be innovators, forward-thinking professionals who may be open to taking the next step in their practice.
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"The future of the business is clear. It's life coaching, relationships, and comprehensive wealth management." |
This is where we come in. G. L. Fisher Capital Management, LLC President, Gary L. Fisher, has been helping people make smart choices about their money and business for 27 years. Helping to develop a scalable and leveraged approach to better serving clients is the way to increase profitability without increasing work load and hours. It’s all about the model, strategy, process, and TEAM you engage with.
There can be little doubt that the future of the financial and accounting worlds are rooted in forward-looking, comprehensive, holistic advice. While that change can be unsettling, the rewards can be outsized for those who capitalize on the movement. The days of more work, and more hours, for mere incremental increases can be a thing of the past. There is a certain nobility in earning what you are truly worth. Not unlike a family office, you can create an experience and model for clients once reserved only for ultra-high net worth families, and offer it to clients in a cost-efficient manner through our system.
More than just money though, this system may offer you:
Remember, if you aren’t offering these services to your clients, someone else will. Competition in the traditional CPA/Accounting space is coming from all over the country, and indeed, all over the world, including firms offering virtual services. Conversely, the waters remain very blue in the proactive, holistic, comprehensive advice space. This just might be the best time to step into the mix.
If you’re stepping in, you likely have a lot of questions. We’d love to offer some answers! If you’re ready to learn more, let’s talk. We’d love to try to help you make your business “Stronger for Longer"!
There can be little doubt that the future of the financial and accounting worlds are rooted in forward-looking, comprehensive, holistic advice. While that change can be unsettling, the rewards can be outsized for those who capitalize on the movement. The days of more work, and more hours, for mere incremental increases can be a thing of the past. There is a certain nobility in earning what you are truly worth. Not unlike a family office, you can create an experience and model for clients once reserved only for ultra-high net worth families, and offer it to clients in a cost-efficient manner through our system.
More than just money though, this system may offer you:
- More freedom
- More flexibility
- More options
- A more valuable practice
Remember, if you aren’t offering these services to your clients, someone else will. Competition in the traditional CPA/Accounting space is coming from all over the country, and indeed, all over the world, including firms offering virtual services. Conversely, the waters remain very blue in the proactive, holistic, comprehensive advice space. This just might be the best time to step into the mix.
If you’re stepping in, you likely have a lot of questions. We’d love to offer some answers! If you’re ready to learn more, let’s talk. We’d love to try to help you make your business “Stronger for Longer"!
If you’re stepping in, you likely have a lot of questions. We’d love to offer some answers! If you’re ready to learn more, let’s talk. We’d love to try to help you make your business “Stronger for Longer"!
Call us at: 810.603.9100 Email us at: [email protected] |
Sources:
1 Lozada, Alan and June Braithwaite, “Is Your Accounting Practice Reactive or Proactive?”. Forbes, May 7, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/impactpartners/2018/05/07/is-your-accounting-practice-reactive-or-proactive/#c6e676e44b52
1 Lozada, Alan and June Braithwaite, “Is Your Accounting Practice Reactive or Proactive?”. Forbes, May 7, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/impactpartners/2018/05/07/is-your-accounting-practice-reactive-or-proactive/#c6e676e44b52
Email: [email protected]
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