Business Strategy for CPA's

243 15 Hour Weeks, $200K, 70%+ Margins, with Erica Goode, CPA

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe 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...

242 Time and Cash Runway to Transition Your CPA Firm

241 How to Get Down to 25 Hours

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe 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 pra...

240 Offer One-Time Intensives with Sheila Hansen, CPA

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe 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 clien...

239 Finding Your Niche with Matt Chiappetta, CPA

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe 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, Mat...

238 Getting Control of Your CPA Firm with Laurie Rauk

*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...

237 40 Hours Fiction

*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 ...

236 Why CPAs Get Stuck & How to Fix It

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe 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 th...

235 Advanced Decisions

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe I've been asking myself for a long time: What are the common characteristics among my clients who make the most progress towards their own version of success the most quickly?  What do I see among them? What are the common traits that they have? Or what are they doing? I've looked at all the different possible characteristics of their business to try and see wha...

234 Time's Up! with Ron Baker: Subscription Business Model for CPA Firms, Part 2

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe 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 compell...

233 Time's Up! with Ron Baker: Subscription Business Model for CPA Firms, Part 1

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe 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 compell...

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

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe   Many accountants and CPAs (and business owners!) struggle to manage their time and use it to get done what they want.  When they lose a grip on time, the tendency is to work more hours than they want to.  Here today to talk with me about this is Dawn Goldberg, the author of “The Smarter Accountant.” Dawn shares how accountants and CPAs can get better and m...

231 Seven Stages of Change

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe Lots of people don’t like change. They have enough going on, thank you very much, and one more thing to change is one more thing they have to learn, and remember to do differently.  Change, seems like work.  If we like our currently reality, then there may not be a need to change.  But many people don’t like their current reality. They want things to change, ...

230 How To Have A Stress-Free Tax Season, with Dawn Goldberg, CPA

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe Not all accountants and CPAs get stressed during tax season. They've got their systems down. Stress isn't their go-to thing.  But for many CPAs and accountants, stress is a common experience. But it doesn't necessarily have to be that way.  Here to talk with me about how to go from being stressed to not being stressed in tax season is my guest, Dawn...

229 Get Paid in Full Up Front for Tax Returns

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe   Would you love to get paid in full up front for tax returns? There’s a long history of paying for your tax return when you pick it up at your CPAs office, or when they send the invoice, which might be weeks or months after you did the work.  Despite knowing the benefits of getting paid in full up front:  - You can have a clearer sense of how much of your c...

228 Selling Ingredients

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe Can you tell what this is? Sugar, unbleached enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), palm oil, cocoa (processed with alkali), high fructose corn syrup, leavening (baking soda and/or calcium phosphate), salt, soy lecithin, chocolate, artificial flavor. . Would you pay $4.25 for two sleeves o...

227 The Problem You Solve

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe   Your clients buy a solution to a problem they have. And the better you get at understanding the nature of their problem, talking to them about their problem, and explaining to them their problem in ways that show them that you understand their problem more deeply than they do, the easier your business will get to run. Here are 8 questions you can a...

226 Why We Work Too Much

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe Falling into the trap of working too much is a common place to land. But working too much doesn’t have to be a thing, even though it’s become normal in our society. The good news: working too much is imminently solvable. Get the solution to 15 reasons you might be overworking and what to do about it.  I use the term overworking to simply mean “working more hours t...

225 Selling Summit CPA for Multiples with Jody Grunden

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe   Many CPAs work until they're done. And they either hand their firm down, sell it, or turn off the lights and close the door. Some miss an opportunity to be more strategic about what they choose to build with an eye toward future value creation.  Here today to talk with me about this is my guest, Jody Grunden.  Jody is the co-founder & CEO at Summit CPA Group...

224 Time Creation: 7 Ways to Get Hours Back in Your Accounting Firm

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe: geraldinecarter.com/subscribe You can create time.  You don’t have to be busy all the time.  The accounting space mostly believes that CPAs work long hours, and that’s just “how it is.” That’s not how it needs to be.  You can create time.  You create time.  You can create time with these seven tactics: Plan to your time Make decisions - faster, more strongly Stop wondering - start fi...

223 Time + Work ≠ Money: Value Creation for CPAs

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe In this episode, we're talking about value creation.  In the accounting space, it’s easy for the firm owner to think that revenue comes from clients, work, time, or deliverables. Because your client pays the bill for the work you did, it can appear that that’s where the money comes from. But the money comes from the value you created.  The more you...

222 Holiday Accounting Humor with Hazel and Remy

Happy holidays! Enjoy the annual tradition of accounting humor, hosted by Geraldine’s two kids, Hazel and Remy. This year: Top Ten 10 Signs of a Bad Accountant. Wishing you all the best in 2023!   *Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe

221 12 Reasons to Niche Your Accounting Practice

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe In this episode, I want to give you 12 reasons to focus on a niche or an industry, or your ideal buyer or a market segment. Whatever term you like to call it. There are slight differences in the details but what's most important is understanding how valuable it can be to your business to focus on an ideal buyer, to pick a niche and move in that directi...

220 Effortless Value: Price for Access, not Work

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe Here are some different ways to think about what you price.  Why?  Because what you price informs your revenue. Depending on what you price has a huge impact on how much you work, or don’t work. Depending on what you price will inform your revenue or the revenue that you do not bring in.  If you look at the accounting space right now, the going mod...

219 Automation as Business Strategy with Jason Staats

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe   Accountants and CPAs have loads of systems running through their tax practice. Perhaps some things must still be done manually. But what if more of your work and your staff's work could be automated?  Here today to talk with me about this is my guest, Jason Staats.  Jason is a CPA turned automation nerd who enjoys sharing new ideas and memes on T...

218 Mindset Coaching for More Powerful Results with Emma Richter

***Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?*** Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe Today we are talking about stress and overwhelm and overworking because it's not just common in the accounting space, but it's almost as if it's expected. It's almost assumed that a firm will have or being a CPA will include long hours, and it will include the stress of meeting client demands and client deadlines. Not only does mental health suffer...

217 Get Down to 40 Hours with CPA Mastermind

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe In this episode, I share with you how you can get down to a 40-hour workweek, work with great clients you enjoy, all without forsaking revenue.  It's what we do in Down to 40 Hours with CPA Mastermind, my four-month program designed to help CPAs like you build simpler, more profitable, easier to run businesses.  It is the best program out there for t...

216 Inside CPA Mastermind, with Sheila Hansen

***Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?*** Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe   We're talking with Sheila Hansen, who is a participant, a masterminder in my program, Down to 40 Hours CPA Mastermind, to get her perspective on the experience of what it's like, and the value of being in this program. Sheila helps female-owned creative businesses understand their numbers while increasing profit and scaling to $500K-$2M in reve...

215 How to Disengage Clients to Strengthen Your Accounting Firm

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe Today we're talking about disengaging and disengagement letters and the process of letting go of some, or many of your clients so that you can free up space and bandwidth in your business to focus on generating high-margin revenue.  I want to share with you what this looks like, sounds like, and feels like, so that you have a sense of the experience, s...

214 Communicate Your Value More Effectively with Six Elements

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe As an accountant, chances are good you don't like selling: you don't want to be dirty, pushy, smarmy or gross. Nor do you want to have to convince buyers that accounting is good for them (they should know)! If you’re stuck believing “sales is dirty,” you will hinder revenue coming in the door.  When you believe that what you offer solves problems for...

213 Coaching Confidential: Where One Multi-Six Figure Coach Invests Her Cash

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe at https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe Many CPAs tell me they are looking for high-paying clients. They wonder where those clients are, and “how to get them to spend more.” Knowing what I'm about to tell you will expand your view of what's possible for you when you have a deeper appreciation for what's valuable to me as a multi six figure coach and what is less so. This episode is born of a ...

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

*Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?* Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe Many CPAs serve all kinds of clients, from service-based business owners to manufacturers to nonprofits. It seems like accounting is accounting and tax is tax, and you can do these things for anyone who needs them.  The problem with generalism is that it leads to broad but shallow expertise. And shallow expertise is not worth as much as deep expertise....

211 Pricing for Improved Profitability

Do you wonder how to price accounting services? Stop wondering, stop pricing accounting services, and start pricing for value you create. When you front-load your services with value, you have more latitude to price in a way that ensures both you and your client are mutually profitable in the exchange.  ///// If you want to know more about working with me to increase your profitability, put 15 minutes on my calendar: https://calendly.com/geraldinecarter/15min   Let me show y...

210 Selling Experience and Transformation Instead of Services and Deliverables

***Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?*** Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe   I want to talk to you about experience and transformation. Why? Because if you deepen your understanding of these two aspects of what you provide to your clients, you'll be able to make more money without working as hard. Many accountants are selling only services and deliverables. And they're missing out on selling transformation and selling a...

209 How to Communicate Value More Simply and Effectively

Do you wish you could communicate your value more effectively? Today I cover how to communicate value in more simple terms and more effectively so that your buyers and clients have a better understanding of what they're buying and why, and to make it more compelling for them to buy from you. If clients don't understand the terminology that you're using, they will have a very difficult time connecting the dots between the things that you're doing for them, the tasks that you're p...

208 Minting New Niches for CPAs: Inside the CHIPS and IRA Bills

***Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?*** Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe-main-list   There's a giant new bill that just came out that we're trying to get on top of and underneath to understand where the business opportunities are. Here today to talk with me about this is my guest, Randy Crabtree, co-founder and owner of Tri-merit Specialty Tax Professionals, and the host of the Unique CPA podcast.   Highlights: ...

207 The Flat-Rate Pricing Debate: Cost Plus or Value Minus?

Making better use of pricing tools is among the longest levers you have in your business to change your profitability, fast. Some say that Flat Rate Pricing is Cost Plus and not to use it, but I disagree, and I tell you why Flat Rate Pricing is a useful pricing tool in your accounting firm.  If you want more business strategy and pricing tips, be sure to subscribe to my Daily Newsletter at geraldinecarter.com/subscribe.

207 How to Scale Without Hustle: Other Business Model Options

***Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?*** Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe-main-list What I have for you today is the audio from a webinar I recently hosted on Crowdcast, in which I shared 4 other business model options for CPAs that don’t require hustle or a battle with technology and automation in order to scale.  What I notice in the accounting space is an absence of how to grow your revenue without hustling. The going model is...

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

***Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?*** Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe-main-list Long time listeners to this podcast know I am on the hunt for a better business model for CPAs, than the traditional time-for-money-for-reports model. In many cases, that model doesn’t work well for the client, and for CPAs who are working long hours, that model doesn’t work great for them either.  CPAs may want to do things differentl...

205 Create High-Paying Clients: a 5-Step Process for CPAs

***Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?*** Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe-main-list One of the most common questions I get from readers of my email list is:  “How do I get high-paying clients?” This process need not be a mystery. There is a formula for creating high-paying clients, that gets you out of being at effect of outside forces, and gets you in the driver’s seat. These five steps are ones you can start implemen...

204 130% Revenue Increase While Working Less with Paige Gott

***Want one piece of business strategy delivered daily to your inbox?*** Subscribe here: https://www.geraldinecarter.com/subscribe-main-list Sometimes you want to transition away from your current situation and create a new set up.  But between knowing what exactly to create, and how to create it, while transitioning away from the old thing can be a bit daunting.  Here today to talk with me about this is my guest Paige Gott.  Paige is the owner of Tidewater Consulting, and...

203 Killer Niche: Farm + Ag CPA with Catherine Ozment

Many of you know how difficult and time-consuming it can be to run a tax shop. It's all too easy to get buried under a mountain of tax, underprice services, and be in what feels like a near-steady state of chaos. My guest today is Catherine Ozment. Catherine is a CPA in south Texas who called two years ago now, wanting to get off the hamster wheel and get intentional about creating a thriving practice that is designed and built to sell at a high multiple. We're talking today abo...

202 Selling Value to Create Better Clients at Higher Prices with Mark Stiving

Many CPAs struggle with pricing. Some have moved to flat rate or subscription pricing, and some still bill by the hour. For CPAs who are used to getting compensated for time and effort, it can be difficult to learn how to see value and to learn how to price accordingly. But if they don't make the transition, they risk underpricing themselves in perpetuity and having to keep working long hours to make up for unearned revenue.  To talk with me about this problem is my guest, Mark ...

201 Effortless Value

There is vestigial thinking in the accounting space that value comes from working. “If I worked hard on a thing, then you should pay me money for it.” But that's not how money works: people don't really care if you worked hard on a thing.  I want to undo this idea in your mind that working hard is the thing that is valuable. The idea is effortless value: that you can create a lot of value for your clients without actually having to work hard. When we create effortless value in o...

200 Make Podcasting Great for Your Accounting Firm

On why and how podcasting can be great for your business. It has been the core of my business for four years and my business wouldn't be where it is without a podcast. I share this with you because I see few accountants and CPAs with podcasts in niche spaces. I look for them because I want to get them on my podcast and they're difficult to find. Yet, podcasting can be valuable for your business and so beneficial. Reasons why that is, and why, especially for accountants and CPAs, I thin...

200 Make Podcasting Great for Your Accounting Firm

On why and how podcasting can be great for your business. It has been the core of my business for four years and my business wouldn't be where it is without a podcast. I share this with you because I see few accountants and CPAs with podcasts in niche spaces. I look for them because I want to get them on my podcast and they're difficult to find. Yet, podcasting can be valuable for your business and so beneficial. Reasons why that is, and why, especially for accountants and CPA...

199 Selling Cloud-based vs Traditional CPA Firms with Brannon Poe

A lot of CPAs have had enough, and are looking to sell off parts or all of their business. They have options when it comes to selling. And the farther ahead they plan, the better deal they’ll create for themselves. Here today to talk with me about what he sees happening right now in the buying and selling of CPA firms is my guest Brannon Poe, owner of Poe Group Advisors. Highlights: — “Firms that have a large number of personal tax, not associated with a business, tend to have...

198 Killer Intel for CPAs on the Real Estate Investor Niche with Tom Wheelwright

For many CPAs, it feels risky to pick a cross-section of the tax-code, and burrow in. The fear is around losing clients, having to turn people away, and what if there’s a recession? Consequently, most CPAs work as generalists, and pay the price in the form of seemingly infinite rotations on the treadmill.  My guest today has built an exemplary business around expertise in one niche, and that person is Tom Wheelwright, CPA.   Tom is a tax and wealth expert and is the CEO of Wea...

197 Listening Tour: How CPAs Can Create More Value with Less Effort

Many CPAs work super long hours and go for periods of time where their head is down, getting the work done. But when your head is down and you’re busy, how do you take the time to find out what your clients truly want? Here today to talk with me about this is my guest, Rochelle Moulton.  Rochelle turns consultants and big thinkers into authorities. She earned her consulting and big thinker stripes leading introverted brainiacs at some powerhouse global consulting firms like Towe...

196 CPA Mastermind: Create More Profit with Less Effort

There are a number of mindset, structure, and mechanical components that are not working well for CPAs and accountants. Many are working long hours and are underpricing. And they continue to be busy because they are positioning themselves in the marketplace as generalists. It's difficult to create value, which means it's difficult to raise prices, which means it's difficult to do less work.  There is an easier way, and it doesn't have to be thaaaat hard to make the changes that ...