Necessity is the Mother of Invention

You could file this under the headline “in other news, water was found to be wet.”

A report came out this week announcing the winner of the “most unpopular company of 2017,” an award that lends new meaning to the word “dubious.”

To exactly no one’s surprise the company was Equifax, the consumer credit reporting agency that collects and aggregates information to nearly 1 billion customers and nearly 100 million businesses around the world.

Unless you’ve been on another planet, you probably know that Equifax suffered a massive data breach last year that affected some 145 million customers. And no, that’s not a typo - 145 million. That’s a lot of sensitive information circulating somewhere. You would think that a company of this size and scope would have had something resembling an impenetrable firewall, but apparently not.

In addition, the government watchdog, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fielded some 30,000 complaints about Equifax. I’m just guessing here but that probably didn’t do much to help their reviews on Yelp.

Are You Using the Right Bait?

In truth, I’ve never cared much for fishing. Having cast out my lines on riverbanks and various boating charters to much frustration, I can assure you I will never wind up on the cover of Field & Stream.

One time, a grizzled veteran of the sport subtly suggested my poor fortunes were the result of not using the right bait. Even a change in lures and night crawlers did little to improve the quantity of my catches. I did however manage to hook one of nature’s least attractive creatures – a horse shoe crab – which I had no regrets about immediately dumping back in the drink.

But I thought about the wrong bait analogy and strangely saw how it applied colloquially to CPA firms with regard to recruiting and retention.

No Excuses

Despite the fact that the temperatures and wind chills were lower in greater New York area this weekend than either Fargo, North Dakota, or Minneapolis, I recited a brief prayer and turned the ignition key hoping my car would start.

Then, I drove over snow and ice encrusted roads (not to mention potholes large and deep enough to hide a small footlocker) and made a much needed trip to a strip mall for the week’s necessities.

I also noticed something I have not seen in a number of years – a free-standing phone booth. My daughters think I’m kidding when I tell them that it was my mobile phone growing up. Yes, I actually had to stand inside and deposit money before making a call.

I thought about that relic of communications past whilst I was speaking to a New York City practitioner who, in this day and age, did not have a website. I didn’t think anybody under the age of 80 would eschew the benefits of an online presence to promote their practice, but as I found out, this was by design.

Let me repeat that, he purposely did not have a website. I honestly did not know where to begin asking him about this mind-boggling strategy, but instead let it go in lieu of beginning a United Nations-length debate.

Now I’m not within three area codes of being proficient in IT matters but I can tell you that as a former journalist and someone who knows something about communications, there’s no excuse in 2018 not to have an online presence. And it doesn’t have to be expensive or showcase a lot of bells and whistles, but in truth provide the following:

1. Contain the basics about your firm – services, contact information, specialty credentials and even client testimonials.

2. A brief history of the practice, when it began and its growth through the years.

3. An easy channel to communicate – in addition to the obvious, phone number, email, also LinkedIn and even Facebook.

4. A library of resources – this could include aggregated content from other areas and news such as the new tax law changes or articles your or other members of your firm have written for professional journals.

There.

And the good news is that there are a number of low-cost providers who can construct a basic framework for you.

Someone once told me that those who don’t embrace technology will be like the racehorse that can see the entire field because he’s behind. And in 2018, that’s surely a sucker’s bet.

Moving the goal posts

Welcome back and belated Happy New Year.

Here’s hoping you all enjoyed your holiday and now you have a month or so to not only prepare for another filing season, but digest all the new tax law changes so you can explain in layman’s terms to your clients what it means for them.

Believe it or not, in the midst of all this we still have a number of M&A deals awaiting closure. It sounds grossly counter-intuitive but just prior to tax season is sometimes the best time of the year to facilitate a merger. If you’re a seller firm it’s the one time of the year you see virtually all your clients in person and when you need all the resources you can muster.

Hence, it’s often a perfect time to set the wheels in motion for an efficient transition.

Unless of course you decide to move the proverbial goal posts.

And what I mean by that is to suddenly begin expanding your list of “must haves” prior to entertaining any merger meetings or discussions.

Case in point.

A 2018 Wish List

This will mark my final blog post for 2017 and that small bit of news will most likely elicit applause from those of you who are tired of me continually scolding you for procrastinating with regard to succession planning.

Yet many will continue to kick that critical can down the road in 2018 until you contact us in a mild panic about what to do. Trust me, I’ve seen this movie before and I can expect at least half-dozen reruns in the New Year.

Change: Whether Behind or in Front of the Door

A number of years ago, one of my former managers who had been charged with reversing a extended slide in advertising sales at our publishing company addressed a room full of editors and sales staff on what to expect in the coming months.

Most of us were fearful of wholesale layoffs and divisional restructuring and many in secret, including yours truly, were scouring the want ads (remember those?) in case we were summoned into the office and summarily handed the dreaded pink slip.

Instead, he held up a piece of construction paper with a picture of a clock – both hands on 12. He then took a Sharpie and drew one hand so it was five minutes past the hour.

“Change doesn’t have to be 24 hours,” he said. “This is change.”  We all breathed a sigh of relief that we would at least be employed for the short term and, in a storybook ending, within three years our division turned in the best performance in the company’s 50-year history.

Not to sugar coat it, “change” is often a scary word. For most, change is often perceived as a negative although it often can be quite the opposite.

Your Firm Should Have a “Honey Do” List

Once the seasonal decorations come down and the mailman requires a power-lifting belt to deliver your monthly credit card statements, the small window between now and tax season is probably a good time to take a holistic view of your practice to see what needs to be done post 4-15.

Unlike my already assigned chores of re-grouting the upstairs bathroom and finding a competent electrician to rewire the stove hood, yours should be far more practice-centric and have a checklist to determine if anything occurred during the year that would have an impact on your strategic goals.

And that list probably should start with your staff.