Maintaining Chemistry & Engagement in Remote Relationships

Over the past year, thought leaders in every industry and profession have put their figurative pens to paper, writing about communication and engagement with remote coworkers and team members. Of course, it’s just as important to maintain strong relationships with clients even though we may not be able to meet with them face-to-face. Like so…

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Make Your Website Accessible for Everyone

It wasn’t that long ago that accounting firms – and nearly everyone else – were rebuilding their websites to be responsive, so they were easy to read and accessible regardless of the device used to access the site. Now it is time to take that one step further and make your website ADA compliant.  …

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To Address Racism at Work: Stop Microaggressions First!

With this month’s trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, reflections about the past year’s events involving George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Christian Cooper, and Jacob Blake are stirring new support for racial justice and equality. Organizations and CPA firms have been making public declarations, posting in social media and funding…

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5 Steps for Increasing Your Connection With Clients

Your clients drive your business model. This is why, in these tough times, it’s so important to connect with them and show them you care. Your clients have likely felt a sense of panic over the public health situation, the economy, their own customer base, and their employees.  They may be facing a tension between…

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Communicate to Drive Change

“Every time I find the meaning of life, they change it.”  ~ Reinhold Niebuhr Have you found the meaning of life?  If we each had to define our meaning, the meanings we’d interpret would be as diverse as our backgrounds, experiences and beliefs.  But no matter what you’re planning and expecting in this life, the one constant you…

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What Do I Write About Now?

Follow this Advice and You Will Have a Plethora of Ideas!    By this point, you are probably pretty familiar with the differing qualities and benefits of inbound and outbound content marketing. You’ve even considered how you might take advantage of strategic inbound initiatives to support your longstanding outbound efforts but may be afraid to…

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Check Your Bedside Manner to Gain More Client Trust

We have all been to a doctor who had an impeccable bedside manner and we tend to remember it for a while. Bedside manner is the way a doctor interacts and communicates with us, their patient, and it is most memorable when we have an ailment that is either extremely concerning, painful, embarrassing or all…

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Speak Up!

In my leadership development work, I have the privilege of working with high-potential rising stars within firms. In the past few years, we’ve noticed that an increasing number of those participating in our programs come to us with a reticence to speak up. And I don’t mean speak their mind. I mean simply talking more in internal…

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Eight Reasons Firms Should Consider Moving to the Cloud

The 2018 CPA Firm Management Association (CPAFMA.org) IT Benchmark Survey found that more than half of responding member firms had moved the majority of their applications and IT Infrastructure to cloud/hosted application providers instead of building and maintaining networks themselves.  Read below why this trend is accelerating and why your firm should be considering the…

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THE KEY TO CLIENT ENGAGEMENTS IS REFRAMING “SALES” AS “COMMUNICATING VALUE.”

In our last post, we talked about how the accounting industry has been disrupted. High-volume, low-profit services such as tax returns are being pushed out by large commercial organizations, leaving small and medium-size accounting firm owners to work increasingly harder for decreasing profits. The solution is to allow your business model to adapt by following these…

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