by sandi smith leyva
if you have small business clients that don’t pay attention to their accounting as much as you would like them to, you are likely not alone. the problem is that most of us accountants give up on those types of clients who seem apathetic to our passion for numbers. we shrug our shoulders and consider the client a hopeless case if they won’t take a look at their financial reports at our urgings. read more →
five essential skills every successful practice owner needs.
by sandi smith leyva
accountant’s accelerator
there are courses and conferences to help you build the technical skills you need to succeed in accounting. but if you think about it, there is no cpe to help you with the emotional side of your business, and there are plenty of times on a daily basis that the emotional side of business comes into play: read more →
how to change your thinking to prevail over the most difficult circumstances.
perseverance is a skill that anyone can learn to not only survive, but thrive through life’s curves. when adversity strikes, it’s not what happens to you but how you respond to what happens to you that has the greatest impact on your life.
here are four specific ways you can change your thinking to persevere in the toughest of circumstances, from sandi smith leyva, cpa, creator of the accountant’s accelerator small-firm growth program. read more →
by sandi smith leyva
accountant’s accelerator
we all spend a huge amount of time working all those emails we receive. luckily, there are many ways to tame the task so you can free up valuable time to work on other things.
here are four ideas to check against what you’re already doing and possibly get a productivity boost… read more →
as data-entry costs plummet, new opportunities for accountants open up.
by sandi smith leyva
accountant’s accelerator
after over 30 years in this profession, accounting has never been more promising and more exciting. the main reason is technology is driving data entry costs so low that it’s just about to disappear. that means we can finally focus on helping small businesses get more out of their accounting dollars through more analysis and better tools.
here are five areas that i believe are essential to serving clients best: read more →
checklists work for astronauts. why not accountants?
by sandi smith leyva
accountant’s accelerator
airplane pilots and astronauts have checklists for just about everything they do. checklists promote performance consistency, make it easier to learn new procedures and increase safety exponentially. in accounting, we can learn from the airline industry and apply checklists to certain areas of our practices in order to reap similar benefits. here are three areas of your accounting practice that can benefit from checklists: read more →
never more important than in busy season.
by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator
no matter what time of the year it is, it seems like there is never enough time for entrepreneurial accountants to get everything done. here are three not-so-common ideas on how to make the most of your time. read more →
tip #5: get paid before filing.
by sandi smith leyva
accountant’s accelerator
here are some fast tips to help you make the most out of busy season, which is when you have the highest amount of your clients’ attention all year long. read more →
by sandi smith leyva
accountant’s accelerator
adding revenue does not have to take much time or money. start by going after the low-hanging fruit.
open excel or your favorite spreadsheet tool, and make a worksheet from the sales numbers in your accounting system. list the name of each current, active client you have in the rows of the spreadsheet. across the top, make columns for each service you offer. for example, if you offer tax, bookkeeping and quickbooks consulting, you will have three columns.
you can break your revenue out any way you like. the more columns, the better.
then, drop in your revenue numbers from your accounting system. in quickbooks, you may be able to run your sales by customer summary to make it faster. you can create the columns by class, if that’s what you use to break out your revenue by service line.
that’s step one, to create your spreadsheet. step two is the fun part.
what makes you flinch?
by sandi smith leyva
accountant’s accelerator
if you feel you should be doing better than you are in business, you may have a belief pattern that is unconsciously holding you back. the first step is to bring it to the surface. only then can it be addressed, released and replaced with a belief that will lead you to increased success.
here are five of the most common thinking patterns or beliefs that will keep your accounting business from growing. read more →
7 key elements.
by sandi smith leyva, cpa
accountant’s accelerator
it’s quite common for accounting firms (even the regionals) to have no marketing plan in place. the marketing plan might very well be, “get as many referrals as we can.” or it might be a number for each partner (which is not a marketing plan). or it might be, “if it’s not busy season, i’ll go to my business networking international group.” none of these are plans. they are individual marketing tasks and components. read more →
by sandi smith leyva, cpa
accountant’s accelerator
with 2014 upon us, it’s a good time to take stock of where we stand for the year, plus regroup as needed before the busy season begins. with so many changes in software, politics, tax laws and global standards, it’s pretty easy to feel a little disorganized.
here are three steps to help us take stock of our foundational business goals, re-evaluate our big picture and get us centered as we enter this new phase. read more →
how to learn from clients’ spoken and unspoken needs and desires.
by sandi smith leyva, cpa
accountant’s accelerator
i feel extremely fortunate to have such a wonderful set of clients that i have learned much from the last few years. here is a list of lessons learned that i hope will inspire you to work with your clients in new ways. read more →