Posts by Kristen Rampe, CPA
Many CPA firm founding partners are generous in casting off some of their compensation to incoming partners in the form of a promotion raise. At the same time, few founders would give up a sizeable chunk of what they have created to date. In other words, just because the new partners join as owners, they…
“Stay Interviews for CPA Firms” was one of the most popular articles I wrote a few years ago. Below is a refreshed version for today’s labor market. With the continued challenge of finding talented team members, keeping the ones you have is even more critical. The cost of recruiting, lost work and time to train…
You’re busy. Everyone is. You also need a pipeline of future leaders to continue to run the profitable accounting firm you’ve created and provide you, hopefully, with a generous internal buyout. You’ve been hearing that you need to actively develop your team to be successful, but who has time for that? After all, you learned how to be a consummate professional the hard way. Why not pass that experience on to the next generation?
As featured in Accounting Today. You’re busy. Everyone is. You also need a pipeline of future leaders to continue to run the profitable accounting firm you’ve created and provide you, hopefully, with a generous internal buyout. You’ve been hearing that you need to actively develop your team to be successful, but who has time for…
As featured in the CPA Leadership Journal. Do you want your CPA firm to thrive for years to come? Invest in the future of your firm by prioritizing new partner development. Use these ten best practices in new partner development to guide your firm to a bright future. 1. Communicate the Benefits of Partnership Never…
The plight of any professional is a continuous status of “busy”. Even when it’s not busy, or not “busy season”, we’re “busy”. In many professional realms busy is a badge of honor; it means you’re good, people want to work with you, and the revenue stream is strong. Acknowledging that being continuously busy has its…
Generating business is essential to all CPA firms. Even during times when firms are more desperate for staff than they are for new business, clients leave. Ideally, you will replace those clients with work that is even more profitable or better aligned with your niche. Business development still matters. Many firms generate new revenue from…
When two or three partners start a CPA firm together, it’s common to simplify how income is allocated. Often ownership percentages are split equally (e.g. 50/50, or 33/33/33) and total compensation or excess profits may be split the same way or with a small, fixed variation (e.g. $50k stipend to the managing partner, then 50/50)….
The staffing shortage continues to put pressure on CPA firms from top to bottom. Most firms already have enough clients, and serving them is often prioritized over looking for more. For most accounting professionals, choosing between starting on another client engagement or engaging in business development is easy: the client always wins. After all, approximately…
It used to be a pretty standard requirement, that for someone to be invited to become an equity owner at a CPA firm, they had to show achievement in, or strong potential for, new business development. How else could the firm continue to grow, or even remain stable with typical annual customer attrition? Rarely would…
Kristen Rampe, CPA
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