A Risk Reduction Strategy? Being self-employed is no longer code for “recently laid-off” or “fired”. The self-employed professional diversifies risk. It is a privilege for the talented, but it also requires motivation and continual sharpening of the saw. How ready are you to assess your talents? Level of risk tolerance?   As a practice development coach for our industry, I get a ton of questions asking what ...

For Finding Guest Blogging Opportunities Have you considered an article you have written on another website, posting a guest blog? What are the benefits? How hard is it to get or become a guest blogger? In this article, the author discusses the opportunities of posting a guest blog. Have you ever considered writing a guest blog to reach new audiences? If you already post blogs on your own site, guest bloggi ...

Of Your Work? What can a BVFLS professional do to stand out amongst his or her peers? In this article, Rod Burkert shares his thoughts. How do BVFLS professionals like us to demonstrate our analytical skill? How do we exhibit our problem-solving acumen? How do we showcase our report writing talent? I have an idea…turns out it is somewhat controversial…but read on and let me know what you think. All creative ...

Engage the audience! Conducting webinars is a great way to accomplish that goal; however, it is important to understand how the topic selected can have a dramatic effect on its success. Just as a great headline can hook readers, a good webinar topic will bring in more attendees—and the more people who attend, the more opportunities will arise for the speaker and his or her firm to sell services. This articl ...

Technology Expectations This article discusses the importance of adopting the latest technology and software and how to minimize the value gap. Most accountants have struggled to keep up with this new wave of technology and a growing value gap is arising in firms of all sizes. This value gap represents all the lost opportunities by not having the right technology solutions in place. These lost opportunities ...

One Has Traction with Prospects, the Other Does Not Any product/service can almost always be viewed as either a vitamin or a painkiller. Which do you (or your firm) offer? Any product/service can almost always be viewed as either a vitamin or a painkiller. Which do you (or your firm) offer? BVFLS Services Can be Either Vitamins or Painkillers What’s the difference? Kind of obvious, but vitamins: Are conditi ...

an Effective Elevator Pitch Professionals in the accounting, valuation, and finance sectors frequently struggle with a deceptively simple task: describing in a few words what their firm does and how it stands apart from the competition. If you, the reader, have experienced this difficulty, you can make it easier on yourself by having a thoughtful and concise elevator pitch ready to deploy when the opportuni ...

Establish Yourself as a Sought-after Speaker Public speaking offers a range of opportunities—from professional growth, to promotion of you and your business, to breathing new life into your existing network. In addition, by doing a little preparation and research, you will find many excellent opportunities within your reach. In this article, the author helps the reader learn how to find the perfect audience ...

Beyond Keyword Placement—An Illustration for Search Engines to Find You In previous QuickRead articles, the author discussed the role blogging can play when marketing a firm’s services. When relevant articles are written and posted on a website, those articles can be found by prospects who are looking to solve a business challenge. But to ensure that blog posts are discovered, one needs to optimize them by ...

Understand the Cyber Security Threat Landscape and Threats to the Accounting Industry Do you feel like your firm’s data is safe? Do you feel like your client’s sensitive information is secure? Do you sleep each night feeling secure that you will not be hit by a data breach? If you answered yes to all three of those questions, it is time to wake up to the real risks you are faced with. You need to make sure ...

Consider Michael Jackson, the Empire State Building, and Myriad of Value Drivers (Part II of II) In this concluding article, the second of a two-part series, the authors conclude presenting additional illustrations that underscore their primary thesis: that in many businesses, value is illusory and there are a host of factors that are unanticipated and cannot be modeled. In this concluding article, the seco ...

Options that Provide Superior Results Compared to Renting Marketers of accounting and valuation firms have long used e-mail marketing to nurture new and existing prospects. But what is the best way to develop a good list in the first place? This article provides seven proven strategies for building your firm’s e-mail list faster. Marketers of accounting and valuation firms have long used e-mail marketing to ...

Everything is Changing (Part I of II) In this two-part article, the authors present some illustrations that indicate the illusion of value of many businesses. Business appraisers have many tools to determine the value of a closely held business. So many so, that many “official” conclusions of value for the same business generate significant differences. This borne out by the normal expectation of rebuttal r ...

Full-Time Mother and the Firm Perspective (Part II of II) This article is a follow-up article to an earlier article written by Laura Whitman, CPA, MS, manager, WithumSmith+Brown, PC titled Part-Time Accountant; Full-Time Mother. In this article, Edward Mendlowitz, CPA, ABV, CFF, interviews John Mortenson, CPA, partner in charge of the Withum East Brunswick, NJ office who interviewed Laura Whitman regarding ...

For Prospects and Clients to Work With You One of the easy-to-implement practice development tips proposed by the author, who coaches, is this: If you are looking to build/grow your practice, start by making just one thing easier for your prospects and clients to use or understand. Identify something they do, read, or experience and answer this question: How could I make that easier? In this article, four c ...

Meet Skynet … Your Professional Role is About to Change! What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? How will AI impact the way we work? Serve our clients? In this article, the author explains what AI is and how the evolving technology will impact our professional practice. The goal of artificial intelligence (AI) in the computer science world is to create human intelligence demonstrated by machines. Once this hu ...

Full-Time Mother (Part I of II) Striking a work-life balance is difficult. Are there solutions and an upside to firms committed to retaining the investment made developing professionals? This article was originally written in 2013 for the Withum Journal where Laura Whitman shares her perspective. The article has been updated to reflect events that occurred since it was originally published. This article was ...

Implement Your Content Marketing Strategy To successfully implement a content marketing plan to support your firm’s overall marketing goals, you need to build an editorial calendar. In a solid, well-planned editorial calendar, everything is planned out in advance, from scheduling to headlines. In this post, Dr. Lee Frederiksen shares some tips for creating an editorial calendar. To successfully implement a ...

Your Blog Posts Writing a blog is an achievement, in and of itself, but that is just the beginning. In this article, Dr. Frederiksen shares five steps you can take to effectively promote your blog posts. If you have written a blog post for your firm, well done! But before you start celebrating, you need to promote it. Why? The more targeted your promotion, the greater its reach, and the more likely that it ...

Good E-mail Newsletter In January, I asked: Are you a Digital Sharecropper? Are you relying solely on someone else’s digital platform (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) to reach your audience of leads, prospects, clients, and referral sources? Many of you do … that is not a good thing … and I told you why. In February, I wrote about How to Build an E-mail List from Scratch. It all starts with personally an ...