CPA Accountant

                When opening a small or large business it is a difficult task to choose the right accountant for with you and your company.  Many businesses decide to go use a Certified Public Accountant, which means they had passed the Uniform CPA Examination.  The benefits in using a CPA are that person possesses integrity, professionalism, and is certified by the state.  If you want an accountant that is the most qualified choose a CPA.  When picking a CPA it can mean the difference between success and failure.  A company’s financial records are what make or break your business.

There are many places to look when trying to find prospective CPAs.  The first would be to get suggestions from friends, business associates, or even your attorney.  Ask owners of local businesses you frequent to see if they have any suggestions.  Another way is to look in the Yellow Pages or online at <www.cpadirectory.com >.  The last recommendation is to ask your local Chamber of Commerce for names of CPAs who are members.

                When you have inquired a list of qualified CPAs and are ready to interview there are specific questions that you need to ask to make sure you are choosing the correct CPA.  Questions could include: What kind of business advice will you offer me?  What type of services they will offer for clients, including what computer programs they prefer to use?  How much experience they have in the accounting practice?  How do they calculate your fees? (Make sure they will guarantee not to exceed an amount agreed upon up front).  The final question to be asked is what are the benefits of choosing them over another CPA?  Make sure before the interview is over to ask for references and don’t forget to ask to see their CPA certificate.  You should be very thorough, interview several candidates, try to establish a common ground with similar values, and check out their listening skills.  Also, make sure the candidate specializes in corporate accounting and can meet all of your specific accounting needs.

                Once you have chosen the right CPA you must be certain on what their duties are and how they can benefit your company.  There are various services performed by CPAs, such as taxes, bookkeeping, setting up businesses to be able to keep track of records, auditing, which is when a CPA comes in and reviews how you are conducting your business, or lastly consulting, which includes advice from keeping the business alive to expanding your business.  Their main abilities should be to analyze data, record, interpret, and compare it to make important business and personal decisions.  Accounting involves the ability to reason, solve, and propose new ideas.

                When deciding where you want to go with your company your CPA should be able to tell u how to get there.  The CPA shouldn’t just show you the financial paths of where you have been, but where you will be in the future.   Certain qualities and characteristics are needed to be the right CPA.  They include: maintaining good relationships with clients to obtain good service, the ability to recognize needs of their clients to develop personalized strategies and consider the aspects of the client’s financial life, becoming well-experienced in the areas you need, being a good communicator, doing what they promise to do, and having a good network of associates.  A perk should also be having an office location in close proximity to where your business is.

By being well educated in finding and choosing the right Certified Public Accountant it can help provide you with the necessary requirements in opening a new business.   All theses tips can help with allowing your business to run smoothly and efficiently.

Most CPAs don’t have a strong enough foundation on the subject of marketing. Even in college, we focus a lot on accounting theory and hardly learn anything about real world marketing, despite the fact that many CPAs will be, effectively, small business owners running their own practices. If you’re like most CPAs and haven’t spent much time thinking about marketing, let’s start with fundamentals.

I think of marketing as the 3 M’s:

1. Market
2. Message
3. Media

Market first, message second and media third. The order is very important. Most folks get it wrong. They choose how and when to advertise based on which advertising rep solicits them, which means they are starting at the wrong end.

Market:

The first step in developing a marketing strategy is to identify your target market. Many CPA practices make the mistake of skipping this step, but if you truly want to grow your practice, you must begin with a clear sense of your ideal clientele. Identify a group of people or businesses that fulfill the following requirements:

• You would really enjoy working with these clients.

• They will recognize that working with you is essential.

• They can be easily identified and contacted.

• They will happily pay what you’re worth, without negotiating.

Resist the impulse to serve anyone and everyone. You’ve heard the old saying “You can’t be all things to all people”? Remember it every time you’re tempted to try to market yourself to everyone. When you target the mass population (everybody) as the ideal client base, you will have a hard time differentiating yourself from others in your field. In fact, it’s pretty much impossible to create a specific message to speak to everyone in a way that makes them want to work with you – and creating too many marketing messages could be confusing for prospective clients.

Without a clearly defined target market, you’ll also find it difficult to establish yourself as an expert in a particular area, type of client or situation (remember that experts make more money, get more clients, are more sough after by the media, etc.)

One of the most important secrets of marketing is knowing WHO your ideal clients are (the ones who’ll recognize that working with you is crucial to solving their problems, pay you what you’re worth and tell others about you), figuring out WHAT their particular issues are, WHY they’re having them and HOW you solve them. You have to begin by defining your real ideal market:

EXAMPLE of markets or niches that my firm targets:

- Businesses with revenues of $1.0 to $10M, with up to 50 employees, within 10 miles from my office
- Dentists within 10 miles from my office
- Chiropractors within 10 miles from my office
- Service professionals within 10 miles from my office
- Business owners who belong to your place of worship

Notice how far any one of these demographics is from “anyone who’s willing to pay my fees.” That’s not to say, of course, that you’re going to turn away potential clients who aren’t in your niche market. But you can’t begin to effectively target those in your most desirable market until you’ve clearly identified who they are.

Remember, the order is important; market first and foremost, followed by message and then media. Make sure you’ve taken the time to clearly indentify your market.

It takes enormous amounts of time and effort to get organized and accurately keep track of your finances. To eliminate this pain, hire a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). A CPA is a trained financial professional that helps individuals or businesses organize and keep track of their financial records. Besides tracking your finances, developing financial statements and filing taxes, CPAs can also act as business advisers. They can create your budget plans, prepare cash flow projects, advice on investments and help secure business financing. Many businesses hire CPAs to only file their taxes. CPAs are trained to complete tax returns. They can help you organize tax documents and maximize deductions.

How to hire a CPA?

Following is a list of things you need to keep in mind while selecting a CPA.

* Is your CPA familiar with your industry and its accounting standards? Ideally, she should have experience working with clients in a business like yours.

* Does your CPA have good relationships with banks? If you are a growing business, your CPA may be able to help you secure funding.

* Does your CPA have relationships with attorneys? Any business can fall on hard times. Your CPA may be able to help you find an attorney to negotiate with your creditors.

* How involved is the CPA going to be with your company? If most of the work is handled by junior staff, make sure they are well supervised.

* How much interaction will you have with your CPA? If the meetings are much spaced out, how much attention will the CPA pay to your company in the interim?

* Does your CPA firm guarantee its work?

* Has your CPA passed the exams to gain the CPA designation? Does she have the license to practice in your state?

* Is your CPA a member of professional organizations that ensure that their members follow a professional code of ethics and are regularly reviewed for quality? Every country has such professional organizations. For example in the US one such organization is American Institute of CPAs (AICPA).

* Is it important for you to have regular face to face meetings with your CPA? If not then you may also consider a non local CPA. There are many firms that operate nationwide accounting services and may assign a non-local CPA to you.

* Have you checked the references and made sure they are happy with the service?

How much does it cost to hire a CPA?

Accounting service can be expensive. Before you hire, compare price quotes from multiple Certified Public Accountants and shortlist a few to interview. Ask your business associates and friends for recommendations. You can also find multiple CPA firms on a B2B network such as TradeSeam.

Many Certified Public Accountants will bill you hourly for rendering their service. If you are uncomfortable with the hourly rate, ask for a fee based service. Before you sign on, ask for an engagement letter that details costs and services and review it carefully so that there are no surprises later.