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We don’t need no education!
Remember that line from Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’?
I certainly do, as my school teachers in 1979 would often point out that due to the poor grammar used, the band obviously were right - they did need some help with their education, as the double-negative will confirm.
So when I learned that this issue of the Bottom Line was to carry a feature on Education for Accountants, I thought I would add my ten cents into the mix via this column.
This is not going to be a ‘plug’ for any of my own products, although I will mention them briefly. What I wanted to achieve in this column is to show you the growing array of tools available on the internet that will either provide direct, online, educational tools, or will allow you to order something, like a book or a DVD, that you can use offline later.
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Books
i) Managing The Professional Services Firm – by David Maister.
This is the consummate guide to operating any professional services firm. Although it heavily features Law firms, the lessons learned are equally applicable to accounting firms. It covers a wide range of topics, from marketing and practice development to managing workflow and the division of profits among the partners.
Maister has several other excellent publications on similar topics, but if you were to buy just one of his works, I would strongly recommend that you start here, then build your library from there. You can learn more about David Maister at his website, www.davidmaister.com who, sadly, retired in 2010.
ii) The Professional’s Guide To Value Pricing – By Ronald J. Baker, CPA
A voluminous work by a CPA who operated one of the USA’s most profitable accounting firms.
This book teaches Accountants how to break away from the old billing formula of hours x rate = bill and move them towards pricing up-front based on the value of each project. I also strongly urge you to read ‘The Firm Of The Future’ which Baker co-wrote with Paul Dunn (yes, he of RAN-ONE fame). Read more about Ron at www.verasage.com.
iii) Million Dollar Consulting – By Alan Weiss
This book shows how a one-man operation can build a professional consulting practice to over one million dollars is billings. It contains some smart advice from someone who has actually done what they’re writing about. Visit Alan’s site at www.summitconsulting.com to learn more.
iv) Good To Great – By Jim Collins
I have written about this book many times before, in these pages, on my website and in my blog, and I do not apologize for repeating myself here, as this is a life-changing book. Get familiar with a ‘Hedgehog Concept’, ‘Level Five Leadership’ and the other key qualities discussed in this work and you will build a much better firm than before. Jim offers many useful tools at his site: www.jimcollins.com.
v) Absolute Certainty – By John Haylock This book picks up from where ‘The E-Myth’ left off and applies the ideas specifically to an accounting firm. Written by an Accountant from New Zealand, this is a fast-paced case study on how to move your firm away from compliance, and start to get your clients to buy value-added services. If you cannot find this book in your local bookstore, don’t worry, you can order it directly from the author’s website at: www.absolute-certainty.com.
vi) Accounting Practices Don’t Add Up – By Rob Nixon An Australian who is not an accountant but has worked for years alongside them, helping them to run their firm like a business instead of a practice, and getting great results! His book touches upon many subjects that I consult on in Canada, and I highly recommend his first book. You can order a copy from his consulting firm’s website at: www.nixonadvantage.com (click on the online shop tab to buy the book).
vii) The Succession Planning Toolkit – By Steve McIntyre-Smith My publishers would be most disappointed if I didn’t mention my own work here! This book was published in 2005 by the CICA, and is aimed at practitioners who are looking at building an exit strategy. This is still selling well through the Institute online bookstore at www.knotia.ca. Modesty forbids any further comment!
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DVDs & Audio CDs
i) Kantola Productions
These people offer a wide range of business-themed training videos including topics such as: Negotiating, Performance Coaching, Time Management and other highly useful topics.
They also distribute DVDs by Stanford University, which covers issues such as: Leadership, Sales & Marketing, Strategic Planning and The Power of Persuasion, among other things.
Check them out online at: www.kantola.com.
ii) Nightingale Conant
A name that will be familiar to many, this is a very reputable company that distributes high quality products on Audio CD, and DVD. Their roster is highly impressive and includes Tony Robbins, Bryan Tracy, Dale Carnegie, Zig Ziglar and many more ‘Superstars’ from the world of motivational speakers.
Their website can be found at: www.nightingale.com.
iii) AccountantsTV
Yes, I have slipped in one of my own web sites, where I have 5 DVDs available right now and a number presently in production for release later this year and early next.
Topics covered include: ‘Buying An Accounting Firm’, ‘Marketing Your Accounting Firm’, ‘Best Practices For Running Your Accounting Firm’ and more.
You can find this site at www.accountantstv.net.
Consulting Sources - There are several sources of ‘Educational’ style consulting sources or speakers who either offer in-house sessions or PD courses through your professional body, or both.
Morden Shapiro, FCA
My fellow columnist, Mort Shapiro, for example, has been doing exactly that for more years that he probably cares to mention! You can connect with Mort online at: www.shapiro-inc.ca.
David Cottle, CPA
A Florida-based CPA who has been around for many years consulting to accounting firms. You can find David online at: www.cottleconsulting.com.
Steve McIntyre-Smith
Of course, this is what I do too. You can find out more about me at www.stevemcintyresmith.com.
So, there we are. There is a growing number of resources available to the accounting firm these days, which were not around when I was in public accounting (then again, we didn’t even have the internet back then!) to help you succeed.
You can also check out New Clients Inc (www.newclientsinc.com), Mostad & Christensen Inc (www.mostad.com) Boomer Consulting Inc (www.boomer.com) Towards Awesome Client Service (www.awesomeclientservice.com) Principa (www.principa.net) and, of course, RAN-ONE (www.global.ranone.com).
I hope that you find some of these resources and that they help you design and build the practice you really want.
© 2003-2011,
Steve McIntyre-Smith. All Rights Reserved. |
