Tell Me Something Else I Don’t Already Know

I read this week that a survey conducted by one of the state societies revealed that, while CPAs regularly advise clients on business matters, many of them score poorly with regard to possessing key business skills.

Much like the likeable police captain in the classic firm “Casablanca” who feigns shock when he “discovers” gambling at the local watering hole, I could have saved them the trouble of polling some 600 firms and told them that by and large, CPAs are some of the worst business people I’ve ever encountered.

And I’m not talking about general business skills such as leadership or communications; I’m talking about common sense. 

Case in point: I was once advising a small-sized client firm in the Midwest who wanted to wind down from full time work in about three years and had just begun the process of meeting with potential successor firms. Then inexplicably, he took it upon himself to extend his lease for another three years. His explanation for that unfathomable act: The landlord offered me a good deal.

I gave him a verbal beating pointing out that no firm was going to maintain a $600K satellite office, so they would probably have to sublet the space or else eat the cost for the duration.

In a related scenario, the owner of a 7-figure firm in the Northeast seeking a succession plan re-upped his lease for 10 years (no that’s not a misprint) despite my vocal objections to him doing so. One year later, he’s no closer to merging than the he was the first day we met.

Want more?

Okay, I had a client in the Midwest (it must be something in the water) who told me he was in the market to acquire a firm. I always do a brief triage in an attempt to ascertain a client’s urge to merge.

His answer: I have some empty desks and cubicles. I told him to forget the merger and sublet the space. He would be saving himself untold grief and aggravation and pointed out that he would be spending more time with his new merger partner than with his own family.

In this instance I managed to convince him to abandon his consolidator fantasy and concentrate on making his practice more efficient which, if I remember correctly, was dropping a very modest 21 percent to the bottom line.

Look, I’m not saying the average CPA has to have the business acumen of Warren Buffett or Carl Icahn, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who sees the irony of a most trusted advisor being light in basic business skills.