Monday, July 30, 2012

Are You Better Off Now Than You Were 10 Accounting Scandals Ago?

For those who pay attention to such things, you know that yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of Sarbanes-Oxley, the sweeping reform legislation enacted in the wake of the billion-dollar accounting implosions at Enron and WorldCom and the ensuing collapse of former Big-Five firm Arthur Andersen.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Uncorking Synergy

In a shameless bit of self-promotion, I’m presenting a webinar on Wednesday, July 25 on how to grow your practice through new client niches.

Admittedly, it’s not exactly an “Aha!” new-found avenue to CPA firm growth, but nonetheless one whose rise has more or less paralleled the roller-coaster economy which has made traditional organic growth painstakingly slow, if not impossible.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Bam’s Big Bang Theory

My grandfather’s story was probably typical of many who grew up in his generation. Reared on the lower East Side of Manhattan, he was forced to quit school in the 7th grade and, in order to help his family financially, sold driftwood he found under the Coney Island boardwalk by the pound and helped deliver ice.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The Mother of Invention

The first (well, second) question that came to mind after the Supreme Court upheld the 2,700-page colossus known as ObamaCare was how and when the accounting profession would react to the ruling.

No doubt there are hundreds of firms out there whose clients will inevitably be impacted by the High Court’s decision and will quickly turn to their financial and legal professionals for guidance not to mention a lot of hand-holding.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Long Distance

For nearly a quarter-century, I had this daily workday routine. The alarm went off promptly at 5:30 am; I showered, shaved, grabbed a newspaper, and made a dash for the 6:48 a.m. train to New York.

After reaching Grand Central Terminal, it was a 20-minute subway ride  before I was in my office, sipping coffee and exchanging pleasantries with my staff  (usually in the form of movie quotes from Goodfellas or Scarface) before we went about the business of grinding out a new issue.

No more.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Yes, But Is It Art?

Want to experience the absolute peak of pretentiousness?

Somehow wangle an invitation to an art gallery showing and just sit back and watch. Folks who couldn’t discern a Picasso from a Pickleman will gladly proffer their abstractionist views on what the respective artists were trying to convey. I had a friend who, following one black-tie gallery showing, told me no less than 10 guests spent a half-hour scrutinizing a block draped with canvas before someone realized it was a building column under construction.

But I digress.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Just Shut Up and Pay Your Taxes

When I was in college, a number of us once went to see Steve Martin perform at a long-since shuttered  nightclub in Denver. As part of his stand-up routine, he included a skit about filing your taxes, or more accurately, not doing so.
His advice was that should the IRS ever call you in and demand to know why you didn’t file, you simply tell them, “I forgot!”