the disruptors

caleb jenkins: firm growth requires owners to shift roles | the disruptors

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leave the stone age behind. join the new paradigm.

this is a preview. the complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members. 

the disruptors
with liz farr

when caleb jenkins was eight, he started selling cookies to his dad’s firm during tax season. his dad told him, “for me to pay you, i need you to create an invoice for me.” so jenkins set up his own quickbooks file and has been playing with quickbooks ever since, and eventually joined his dad’s firm.

more podcasts and videos: ira rosenbloom: don’t merge for the money | adam lean: get out of the accountant’s trap | geraldine carter: charging more is better for your clients | vimal bava: when working smarter, not harder, is the only option | dawn brolin says grow your firm by shrinking it | jason blumer & julie shipp: move leaders out of client service | james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill more | karen reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusion | bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow |

goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

like most small firms, rlj financial focuses on the fundamentals of tax, bookkeeping, and payroll, but, as jenkins says, “in the eyes of the beholder, there’s really not a whole lot of value there.” however, shifting into advisory – a big talking point in recent years for the profession – is where accountants can bring “incredible value …beyond the baseline of traditional compliance services,” jenkins says. shifting into advisory also means “there’s way more work that happens all year round.”

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chris hervochon: be the leader you want to work for

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avoid the mental gymnastics required to switch between customers in different industries and niche your services.

this is a preview. the complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members. 

subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music and audible, player fm, audacy, gaana (india), and boomplay (africa).

the disruptors
with liz farr

chris hervochon is building his firm, better way cpa, “in a very specific way, for our tribes.” he explains, “not everyone needs to be our customer, not everybody’s our tribe, not everybody needs to be our employee.” leading with their core values, the process for bringing on new customers and new employees “weeds out the bad or the potentially poor fit customers,” which, in turn, helps with managing their time, the most valuable thing they have.

more podcasts and videos: ira rosenbloom: don’t merge for the money | adam lean: get out of the accountant’s trap | geraldine carter: charging more is better for your clients | vimal bava: when working smarter, not harder, is the only option | dawn brolin says grow your firm by shrinking it | jason blumer & julie shipp: move leaders out of client service | james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill more | karen reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusion | bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow |

goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

his tribe includes marketing agencies, which he started working with by accident. then, one day, he realized that “i like working with these people. they need help. their model fits into what i’m doing. they’re professional services. they work roughly the same way that i do.” so he leaned into his niche.

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rosenbloom: don’t merge for the money

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merge to make a better business.

this is a preview. the complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members. 

the disruptors
with liz farr

ira rosenbloom has worked in m&a with accounting firms for years, but things are changing today. the community of buyers is shrinking, so firms are being more selective about with whom they partner. rosenbloom is also seeing more creativity in transactions, and acquiring firms are looking closer at the clients they may be adding.

more podcasts and videos: adam lean: get out of the accountant’s trap | geraldine carter: charging more is better for your clients | vimal bava: when working smarter, not harder, is the only option | dawn brolin says grow your firm by shrinking it | jason blumer & julie shipp: move leaders out of client service | james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill more | karen reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusion | bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow |

goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

“we’re bringing in more clients. are they the right clients?” he asks. “and if we bring in clients from this other firm, and we do some cutting, how do we let that other firm earn some money back?”

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adam lean: get out of the accountant’s trap

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be unstoppable without sacrificing your soul.

this is a video preview. the complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members.

subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music and audible, player fm, audacy, gaana (india), and boomplay (africa).

the disruptors
with liz farr

like many of today’s younger accountants, adam lean didn’t want to be relegated to the back office recording history and focused on compliance but wanted to have an impact by helping businesses grow. “i didn’t want to just be that person that just recorded the fact that the titanic was sinking. i wanted to help the titanic not sink.” younger people “want to make waves,” lean says. “they want to make more money without having to sacrifice their soul.”

more podcasts and videos: geraldine carter: charging more is better for your clients | vimal bava: when working smarter, not harder, is the only option | dawn brolin says grow your firm by shrinking it | jason blumer & julie shipp: move leaders out of client service | james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill more | karen reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusion | bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow |

goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

lean, the ceo and co-founder of the cfo project, had an epiphany.

instead of being “at the whim of my clients or government deadlines, or bookkeeping deadline,” lean discovered that by helping business owners understand their numbers, he could do something bigger and better. most business owners don’t understand their numbers, but as lean says “that’s a skill that if harnessed in the right way, you can be unstoppable.”

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geraldine carter: why charging more is better for your clients

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do the work you love for clients who value your expertise.

this is a video preview. the complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members. 

subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music and audible, player fm, audacy, gaana (india), and boomplay (africa).

the disruptors
with liz farr

geraldine carter wants accountants to get off the treadmill of working too many hours for too little pay. her new book – down to 40 hours – will help accountants achieve the “utterly reasonable” goal of working only 40 hours a week.

more podcasts and videos: vimal bava: when working smarter, not harder, is the only option | dawn brolin says grow your firm by shrinking it | jason blumer & julie shipp: move leaders out of client service | james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill more | karen reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusion | bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow |

goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

carter helps accountants solve the problem of overwork with a three-pronged approach: creating value for clients, pricing effectively, and delivering services efficiently. a key to this approach is focusing on a niche. by focusing on a particular type of client, you see the patterns that help you create value for clients, “and you’re likely going to be one of the few with that expertise.” providing more value “enables you to increase your prices for the same work,” she says.

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vimal bava: when working smarter, not harder, is the only option

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humans are the most advanced supercomputers, but there’s no user manual.

this is a preview. the complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members. 
subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music and audible, player fm, audacy, gaana (india), and boomplay (africa).

the disruptors
with liz farr

like many who start out in public accounting, vimal bava didn’t initially question the status quo of our high-stress profession where long hours and little time for self-care are the norm. part of that stress was a partner who would “chew us out” for mistakes on returns.

more podcasts and videos: dawn brolin says grow your firm by shrinking it | jason blumer & julie shipp: move leaders out of client service | james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill more | karen reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusion | bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow |

goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

but when vimal’s doctor told him he needed to find ways to reduce his stress, he started his own firm. another wake-up call for vimal came in 2017 when one of his accountant friends suddenly passed away.

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jody grunden: be different. make more money

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prove the naysayers wrong.

this video is a preview. the complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members. the podcast version becomes available in a few days everywhere you get your podcasts.

the disruptors
with liz farr

in 2013, jody grunden’s firm, summit virtual cfo, became one of the first financial firms in the world to go fully remote. at the same time, they narrowed their focus to creative agencies. those two changes, combined with a weekly subscription pricing model they’ve been using since 2007, resulted in a “hockey slope type ramp up.”

jody grunden, part 2 of 2: see part 1, june 20 – jody grunden: subscription pricing is a game changer

more podcasts and videos: dawn brolin says grow your firm by shrinking it | jason blumer & julie shipp: move leaders out of client service | james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill more | karen reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusion | bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow |

goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

since then, they’ve been doubling in size every three years, reaching $10 million in revenue by 2022 while maintaining a profit margin of 10-25%. they also ditched the suits and ties back in 2004 and “decided to go against the norm…it really changed the way that people thought about accounting,” grunden says. he is the author of the best-selling building the virtual cfo firm in the cloud.

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disruptors: cut 90% of your clients with dominique molina

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we risk losing a generation of highly talented people if we continue to expect them to pay their dues and work long hours.

this is a preview. the complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members.

the disruptors
with liz farr

in 2006, dominique molina was overworked and burned out at her accounting firm. but instead of throwing in the towel, she drastically overhauled her firm: she pruned her client base from 300 to 30, focused on her expertise in tax planning, and shifted to value pricing.

more podcasts and videos: dawn brolin says grow your firm by shrinking it | jason blumer & julie shipp: move leaders out of client service | james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill more | karen reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusion | bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow |

goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

that transformation was “beyond my wildest dreams,” molina says. “i never could have predicted the joy that i feel in my life, the satisfaction and fulfillment i feel from my work” by helping her clients with their own business transformations.

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jody grunden: subscription pricing is a game changer

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get rid of the noise of hourly billing and create value.

this video is a preview. the complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members. the podcast version becomes available in a few days everywhere you get your podcasts.

subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music and audible, player fm, audacy, gaana (india), and boomplay (africa).

the disruptors
part 1 of a two-part episode.
with liz farr

for over a decade, jody grunden, cpa, has been doing things that many firms are just now discovering. summit virtual cfo (now part of anders) offers weekly subscription-based pricing as a fully remote firm, and their main offering is virtual cfo services or, in today’s parlance, cas 2.0 services. he’s also the one you might spot at accounting conferences in his signature tommy bahama shirts instead of a suit and tie, not quite what you might expect from the leader of a $10 million firm.

jody grunden, coming in part 2, june 27: be different. make more money
goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

grunden, the partner and co-founder of summit virtual cfo, got his start as a thought leader and virtual cfo (as well as his signature wardrobe) when he was invited to speak at a conference in new orleans. at the conference, he used an easel and pad of paper to walk a roomful of successful creative agency owners through the way they made money and how their decisions impacted the bottom line. he is the author of the best-selling building the virtual cfo firm in the cloud.

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loren fogelman: stop undercharging and start being client-centered

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stop letting your business and career “suck the life out of you.”

this video is a preview. the complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members. the podcast version will be available everywhere you get your podcasts.


the disruptors
with liz farr

loren fogelman is on a mission to help accountants and bookkeepers build businesses that “don’t suck the life out of you.” as fogelman says, “how much can you actually give up your personal life before it’s not sustainable any longer?”

more podcasts and videos: dawn brolin says grow your firm by shrinking it | jason blumer & julie shipp: move leaders out of client service | james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill more | karen reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusion | bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow |

goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

according to fogelman, a keynote speaker and one of america’s top-ranked business coaches for business success solution, “at least 57% of firm owners are undercharging for their services.” she encourages professionals to double or even triple their fees, which frees up time so they can provide client-centered services and “go back to the gym or spend more time with your family or take that much-needed vacation.”

the highly-sought business coach has several methods her clients use to earn more, work less, and have more quality time for themselves.

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brannon poe: grow your business by preparing to let it go

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the two big metrics and 12 more takeaways.

this video is a preview. the complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members. the podcast version is available everywhere you get your podcasts.

subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music and audible, player fm, audacy, gaana (india), and boomplay (africa).

the disruptors
with liz farr

after helping people buy and sell accounting firms for years, brannon poe realized he was sitting on a treasure trove of valuable information that could help firm owners who were “motivated to change their practices for the better.” he’s leveraged those insights into a coaching program for accountants (accounting practice academy) and several books. his latest book, prepare your cpa firm for sale, describes the process of transforming a firm into one that buyers willingly pay top dollar for.

more podcasts and videos: dawn brolin says grow your firm by shrinking it | jason blumer & julie shipp: move leaders out of client service | james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill more | karen reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusion | bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow |

goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

poe recommends that firm owners start planning for an eventual sale well before they’re ready to leave. “i think the biggest mistake that i see often is they don’t do any planning,” poe says. starting the planning process three to five years ahead gives firm owners time to change things, including getting alignment on the timetable and price with other partners, which may be a tricky issue.

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disruptors: dawn brolin says grow your firm by shrinking it

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make life at work better for yourself, your team, and your clients.

subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music and audible, player fm, audacy, gaana (india), and boomplay (africa).

the disruptors
with liz farr

dawn brolin, cpa, cfe, intentionally shrank her firm, powerful accounting, from 11 to three team members, the opposite of the way most firms grow. she also drastically cut her client list, while nearly tripling her fees from a select group of just 19 clients.

“i decided i wanted to change my life,” brolin says. “i want to change my staff’s life. and i want to change the way my clients work with me where they weren’t worried about getting a bill because they called me and asked me a question.”  

more podcasts and videos: jason blumer & julie shipp: move leaders out of client service | james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill more | karen reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusion | bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow |

goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

part of that change in dawn’s life was her passion for coaching college softball, where she serves as the team’s designated motivator. because softball season overlaps with tax season, she leaves the office at 2 pm, five days a week. no one in her firm works more than 35 hours a week.  

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disruptors: nicole davis & jw davis show how to create your own pipeline

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change your business model, change your life.

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the disruptors
with liz farr

what would an accounting firm look like if you had never worked in public accounting? because nicole davis, cpa, and jw davis, a registered investment advisor, didn’t follow the traditional path to firm ownership. they reimagined what a firm could look like, starting from a blank canvas instead of the regimented, structured, paint-by-numbers design of traditional accounting firms.

more podcasts and videos: dawn brolin: grow your firm by shrinking it |jason blumer & julie shipp: move leaders out of client service | james graham: drop the billable hour and you’ll bill more | karen reyburn: fix your marketing and fix your business | giles pearson: fix the staffing crisis by swapping experience for education | jina etienne: practice fearless inclusion | bill penczak: stop forcing smart people to do stupid work | sandra wiley: staffing problem? check your culture | scott scarano: first, grow people. then firm growth can follow |

goprocpa.com exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

nicole is the founder and principal of butler-davis tax & accounting in the atlanta area, while jw is the ceo.

like many disruptor-led firms, jw explains that ”one of the really big things we focus on was work-life balance.” nicole adds, “if your culture is one of stress and long hours, then you really need to rethink your business model.”

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