[CPA TRENDLINES]

When all else fails... just tell them you're moving to Yemen

Clients are the lifeblood of any business. Without them, your firm simply doesn't exist. On the other hand, some clients are so bad that your business, not to mention your personal sanity, is better off without them. So what do you do when you have a client that pushes you to the brink? You fire them! Here's how to give 10 of the worst offenders the pink slip without burning bridges.

1. The bargain shopper: As a general rule, the client who pays the least will expect the most. The words "I need this done cheap" should strike fear in your heart, not because of profit margins, but because this client will nickel-and-dime you within an inch of your life for extra work, support and other nuisances that were not in the original scope.
How to get out: This one's simple: Raise your rates, if only for this particular client. The bargain shopper will move on to the next firm that offers a better price, as he's concerned only with the bottom line, not the value of your work.

2. The client who can't make deadlines: This client wants you to set his project at top priority because he’s on a tight schedule and needs to get something produced right away. You agree, assuming that you’ll have all of the

Sure you send out cards. But do you have a plan?

Law firm marketing consultant Larry Bodine is a big believer in maintaining year-round contact with clients and prospects. The holiday season is a perfect time to make another positive impression. Bodine reccommends charitycards.com, which send 10% of its revenue to a charity of your choice. It's a win-win.

Typical firms buy anywhere from 25 to 25,000 cards each season. There are five major techniques common to all firms that run a successful and timely greeting card program. These techniques – plus valuable tips – will increase your efficiency throughout the process.

One of the keys is to treat this task as a project with all the planning, marketing timelines and budgets of any other major project. This is not an “add-on” program, but a key element of an integrated marketing plan.

The five techniques to implement a successful marketing campaign for client greeting cards are:

1. Create a Plan – Systematize the Process and Gain Commitment to a Timeline
2. Quantify a Budget
3. Maintain Your Client List
4. Incorporate Interest
5. Build Ownership

More at LawMarketing.

Step 1: Don’t delay.

CPAs assess the Baby Boomer market. Join the study; get the benchmarks.

by Rick Telberg

It’s funny how CPAs can go to a client and discuss the intimacies of life and death, children and parents, bank accounts and bankruptcy, but when it comes time to talk about fees, the topic is buried, breezed over, or brushed off.

It’s easy to understand why. The CPA financial planner is there to talk about making money, not spending it. The focus is on helping the client, not funding the financial planner. The fee almost feels like an insignificant afterthought, a voluntary tip for service well rendered or a topic too mercenary to talk about.

CCH 2007 Unscheduled Absence Survey: Most Employees Call in “Sick” for Reasons Other Than Illness

RIVERWOODS, ILL. (www.cch.com) – Two-thirds of U.S. workers who call in sick at the last minute do so for reasons other than physical illness, according to the findings of the 17 th annual CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey. CCH is a leading provider of human resources and employment law information and services and part of Wolters Kluwer Law & Business (hr.cch.com).

The 2007 CCH Survey found that while 34 percent of people call in sick to work at the last minute due to “personal illness,” 66 percent are taking time off to deal with personal or family issues.

“Most people today are juggling the demands of busy personal and professional lives, and are trying to do their very best in both places,” said CCH Employment Law Analyst Pamela Wolf, JD. “Organizations need to stop the tug of war with people for their time, and become a partner to employees to help them, and the business overall, be more successful.”

Internet forums and chat groups explode in popularity

By Rick Telberg

One problem that almost all accountants face, whether you are in public or private practice, is information overload.

On one hand, there is an abundance of it—between subscription services from CCH, Thomson, and LexisNexis, to name just a few, and web sites maintained by a plethora of agencies and organizations, information is everywhere, and for the most part, affordable.

But that’s information, not necessarily answers. Most accountants turn to these resources when they aren’t sure how to handle a client or company accounting question. And having the applicable code or private letter ruling doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be able to apply it to your particular situation.

Take control of your IT systems

By Rick Telberg

As a financial services professional, you know the horror stories… Fidelity National, Wells Fargo, ChoicePoint, H&R Block, Ameritrade. Each has suffered data breaches in the past two years that ranks among the worst in history.

Privacy and security are already common watch-words in the financial services industry, but now independent bankers, brokers, traders and lenders are taking the next step by building protections into their corporate structures and processes. It’s called “governance.”

By itself, it’s not immediately intuitive exactly how governance is applied to information technology. One definition—offered by an auditors group--is a bit more focused: “A structure of relationships and processes that direct and control an organization and help it achieve its goals by adding value while balancing risk and return over IT and its processes.”

“Too much to do, not enough time.”

How does your office rate? Join the survey; see the answers.

by Rick Telberg

Accounting firms and finance departments have but a few stark choices when it comes to managing the epidemic staffing crisis: Do more with less, or just do less.

In fact, too many offices are simply doing less. But there is an alternative to simply throwing in the towel. Almost as many firms are learning how to cope—even thrive—through the crisis.

More than half of the CPAs who are responding to our current survey say their firms are so understaffed that it’s impeding business. While the reasons why firms are facing a shortage may vary, many respondents cite difficulty in finding quality associates.

But is it for the right reasons?

Busy season 2008 is right around the corner. How are CPAs adding value? Join the survey. Get the answers.

by Rick Telberg

Tax professionals could be making a stronger case about the value they bring to small-business clients.

This comes after looking at a National Federation of Independent Business survey that found that 88 percent of businesses with fewer than 250 employees used tax professionals to prepare their most recent federal tax returns. But very few cited it as a cost-effective move.

Only about 5 percent of all small business, including 3 percent of those with more than 20 employees, said that it’s more cost effective to use a tax professional than to do it in-house. Also, only 11 percent of small businesses, and 9 percent of those with 20-plus employees, said that their tax professional is most likely to determine the lowest legal amount of taxes.

How worried should you be?

"The last few years have seen a slew of data breaches—all bad, but some worse than others," says eWeek in compiling the 17 top security failures in the past three years.

July 2007
Fidelity National Information Services
A senior-level employee of a subsidiary of financial processing company Fidelity National Information Services stole 2.3 million consumer records containing credit card, bank account and other personally identifiable information.

July 2007
SAIC
By neglecting to encrypt data sent over the Internet, employees of government contractor Science Applications International Corp. put the sensitive information of more than 800,000 U.S. service members and their families at risk.

June 2007
State of Ohio
A computer storage device containing the names and Social Security numbers of every Ohio state worker was stolen from an intern’s vehicle.

Benefits packages play key role in attracting and keeping staff.

Which benefits matter the most? Join the survey; get the answers.

by Rick Telberg
On Careers

The accounting and finance profession is clearly struggling mightily to address chronic staff shortages and work/life balance issues. As a result, fringe benefits packages seem to be gaining increased importance in the battle for talent and competitive advantage.

To be sure, employers in the tax, accounting and finance fields face hiring pressures little different from those found in other industries. And the attitudes of CPAs are hardly unique to the CPA profession. The employment situation is a national, perhaps global situation, requiring broad new economic and social policy initiatives.

A few simple rules can guarantee success.

by Rick Telberg

Creativity is a management issue. Indeed, it must be when it can lead to new ideas that push businesses forward and increase productivity and profitability.

The kind of creativity that leads to those gains for organizations and clients can be taught, nurtured and enhanced, or, in other words, managed. Creative problem solving is not limited to “creative types.” Any firm or department that wants to leap forward, innovate or simply refresh their energy after busy season can benefit from the techniques.

Staff motivation translates into business success.

How does your office rate? Join the survey; see the answers.

by Rick Telberg
On Careers

The best firms to work for may also be the most successful.

New research findings from the Gallup Organization reveal that among publicly-traded companies, those with the highest proportions of “engaged" employees increase their earnings more than twice as fast as companies with low proportions of engaged employees.

Moreover, the study quantified that companies in the top-quartile for employee engagement have 18 percent greater productivity levels — and 12 percent higher profitability — than the bottom quartile companies. That all translates to 2.6 times faster growth in earnings per share.

But when do you say ‘Enough!’? Join the study. Get the answers.

by Rick Telberg
At Large

CPAs do a lot of things in the course of their accounting work, from audits to tax prep to business advice to mopping up the tears of those who have been brave and foolish enough to venture into the jungle of American entrepreneurialism.

But in a certain way, all of these functions boil down to one: Satisfying your clientele.

U.S. Small Business Administration

Marketing is all about satisfying customer needs. The following represents a comprehensive list of marketing ideas. Use it to help better understand customer needs and ways to satisfy those needs.

How about your client's time?

It's worth considering when pitching or serving small business owners. Researchers at Warrillow & Co. asked 905 of them. The median response was about $100 per hour.

Given these findings, Warrillow says, it's not a surprise that small business owners ranked "time and complexity to set up" among the top five reasons they decline to buy new business processes, including:
-- Buying Internet search-based keywords
-- Paying your company bills online
-- Checking bank balances online
-- Accessing business software applications over the Internet
-- Obtaining customer service support online
-- Accessing business email remotely

"If you're trying to change a small business owner's behavior," says Warrillow, "make sure switching to your solution/company/service will save or make them money - at least as much money as their time to make the change is worth to them."