EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BEING A RELIABLE SOURCE of timely information for busy editors and reporters can give a CPA who is a sole practitioner or in a small practice a significant marketplace advantage. A practitioner can pursue this opportunity by developing a relationship with local media. TO BECOME A KEY LOCAL
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Firm practice management
Offer Family-Business Solutions
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY MILLIONS OF BABY BOOMERS who own businesses will approach retirement during the next decade. They will need help with the 10 key issues that affect management and succession. THE MYRIAD FAMILY-BUSINESS CONSULTING opportunities include improving organization design, creating greater operational efficiency, developing effective leadership, organizing fair compensation plans,
Help Clients Take Measure
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT (PM) IDENTIFIES, monitors and improves those business activities that affect a company’s profitability. The method uses both leading (future) and lagging (past) indicators to assess how well a business is meeting its targets in the present. THE SEVEN ESSENTIAL STEPS FOR A PM system are: Prepare
Pay for Performance
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FIRMS THAT PUT PRODUCTIVITY CRITERIA in writing help principals stay focused on growing the firm as well as the bottom line. MEASURABLE PARTNER ACCOMPLISHMENTS include the number of new engagements, realization and niche development. Personnel development, image building and public relations are important partner accountabilities, too. ONE FIRM
The Hedge Fund Mystique
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY HEDGE FUNDS ARE SUCCESSFUL ONLY IF THEY MAKE money in both up and down markets. To do this, they employ some creative and risky investment strategies—selling short, using leverage, trading put and call options, trading futures and investing in emerging markets. SINCE HEDGE FUNDS ARE NOT RIGHT FOR
Got the Picture?
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AN AUDIENCE UNDERSTANDS AND REMEMBERS numerical information more easily when a CPA presents it visually as well as verbally. TO SELECT THE PROPER CHART OR GRAPH to add to a written or oral report, a CPA needs to consider the message, the nature of the information comparison and
Pass the Baton Without Missing a Beat
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A FIRM’S SUCCESSION PLAN ISSUES include mentoring new leadership, providing retirement benefits and deciding how to transfer the firm to younger owners. TO ENSURE FAIRNESS, CPAs should establish a succession plan before the partners know who will stay and who will move on. The ideal time is when
The Business of Bankruptcy
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A CPA FIRM WITH A CLIENT filing for bankruptcy has a responsibility to serve the client as well as an opportunity to compete for some of the work on the case—and through it develop a specialty. The need for bankruptcy services is expected to grow for a while.
CPAs Get Into Focus
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A FOCUS GROUP CONSISTS OF clients and local business leaders can help a firm gather insights to manage practice development in a changing marketplace. It’s important to set clear objectives, select participants who represent the market and choose a neutral facilitator. FOCUS GROUPS REVEAL QUALITATIVE information—attitudes, opinions, feelings
A Primer on Exchange-Traded Funds
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SINCE THE AMERICAN STOCK EXCHANGE INTRODUCED them in 1993, the market for exchange-traded funds continues to grow despite the current disappointing investment climate. As an alternative to index mutual funds, ETFs offer investors a low-cost, tax-efficient way to invest in their favorite market segments. The expense ratio for
Ten “Musts” for Developing a PFP Practice
CPAs interested in careers in personal financial planning or who have established practices and would like to create a niche in this area can follow these steps to get started: Select a practice structure. Depending on their firm’s purpose or the way they conduct business—including how much liability they are
Teaming Up for the Bottom Line
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FOR A MODEST INVESTMENT within reach of any small to midsize firm, a 48-member, seven-partner office of J.H. Cohn drew on football as a model for a team incentive program (TIP). THE FIRM’S GOALS WERE to bring in new business and develop a team approach, encourage nonpartners to
Strategic Planners Lead the Pack
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THERE’S NO COOKIE-CUTTER STRATEGIC PLAN that works for all firms, but all strategic plans encompass clear initiatives that enable a practice to analyze the effectiveness of alternative actions and logically link tasks and relationships designed to move an organization in a particular, or perhaps new, direction. FIRST, CLARIFY
How to Build an Outsourcing Niche
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THERE’S WIDER RECOGNITION OF OUTSOURCING as a tool for day-to-day management. Outsource services CPA firms provide most often are accounting and finance functions—payroll, accounts receivable/payable, financial statement preparation and analysis, budgeting, cash management, internal audit and tax—but the possibilities include CFO functions, too. REDUCING THE COST IS THE
Put Me In, Coach
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY COACHING IS A HYBRID PROFESSIONAL and personal service that has potential as a popular CPA service niche. CPA coaches do everything from assisting practitioners and other entrepreneurs to improve staff productivity to helping businesses target, acquire and integrate technology or other niche acquisitions. A COACH HELPS THE CLIENT
The Internet as an Investment Tool
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CPA/FINANCIAL PLANNERS NEED TO BE WEB SAVVY. The Internet makes it possible for CPA/financial planners and individual investors to be notified on-screen when news breaks about a particular stock. INVESTORS FOLLOW A STOCK BY WATCHING its price and trading volume and factors such as the P/E ratio and
Reverse Exchanges Come of Age
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PAST PROBLEMS WITH CERTAIN SECTION 1031 exchanges had led to the development of the reverse or “parking” exchange in which a third-party “warehouses” the new property until the taxpayer sells the existing property. Although the IRS didn’t attack parking exchanges, questions about their validity remained unanswered until revenue
Auditor Independence and Tax Practitioners
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE SEC’s NEW AUDITOR INDEPENDENCE RULES could have a significant effect on some tax practitioners. The SEC includes tax among the non-audit services CPA firms provide. AS PROPOSED, THE SEC RULES PUT IN DOUBT whether an auditor can do anything other than review the tax provision in
Avoid Taxes in Liquidation
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE IRS SAYS DISTRIBUTIONS of customer-based intangibles to shareholders are taxable. When a firm or corporation distributes to its shareholders all of its assets, both tangible and intangible, and ceases doing business, the IRS says there is a taxable distribution of its intangible goodwill. THE CRITICAL ISSUE FOR
Be a Standout on the Web
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A WEB SITE IS A VALUABLE DIRECT MARKETING TOOL when it has action-oriented copy and graphics, reader involvement devices and promotional offers that prompt readers to respond. FOCUS ON WHAT CLEARLY SEPARATES YOUR FIRM from the competition and can be locked into the minds of your prospective clients.
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