Now is the time to change because our customers and the world are changing around us. Before you go and tell yourself that being radical is a negative term – STOP! Please don’t get all political on me. Radical is defined as:

rad-i-cal adjective \ra-di-kl\ : very new and different from what is traditional or ordinary: very basic and important: having extreme political or social views that are not shared by most people.

As the Radical CPA, I’m leading a movement that creates significant change. However, it’s built on a happy expression. When you see what’s possible, I want you to say, “That’s radical, dude!” Be part of this movement.

You can learn more about how you can radicalize your practice here on Substack and in the following book I’ve authored:

Radical Pricing: How to Optimize Profits, Delight Clients, and Build a Top-Value Firm

Radical Pricing: How to Optimize Profits, Delight Customers, and Build a Top-Value Firm redefines the way accounting firms approach pricing. In this groundbreaking book, Padar challenges the outdated "billable hour" model and introduces a transformative strategy centered around value-based pricing. She provides a step-by-step guide to transitioning from traditional methods to a model that focuses on delivering unparalleled customer experiences while maximizing profitability.

Through real-world examples, actionable exercises and insights drawn from years of experience, Radical Pricing empowers firms to embrace the future of accounting. Readers will learn how to align their services with customer needs, standardize processes and leverage new technologies to stay ahead of the competition. Whether you're a seasoned accountant or just starting out, this book is your roadmap to creating a more efficient, customer-centric and profitable practice.

Learn more: http://www.cpa.click/RadPricing

From Success to Significance: The Radical CPA Guide

In an era where the accounting profession is rapidly evolving, From Success to Significance: The Radical CPA Guide offers a bold roadmap for CPAs ready to break free from tradition and lead their firms into the future. Jody Padar shares her innovative strategies for transforming your practice into a vibrant, technology-driven firm that not only thrives but excels in today’s competitive market.

This essential guide explores the four tenets of the Radical CPA: cloud technology, social business, value pricing and customer experience. But Padar doesn’t stop there. She delves deeper, challenging readers to embrace continuous innovation, rethink outdated processes and adopt a mindset that places creativity and adaptability at the core of their firms. With real-world examples, practical tools and inspiring stories, Padar shows you how to build a firm that attracts great clients, empowers employees and remains relevant in an ever-changing landscape.

Whether you’re leading a multi-generational firm, starting fresh or simply seeking to future-proof your practice, this book is your guide to becoming truly Radical.

Learn more: https://cpatrendlines.com/shop/radical-success/

The Radical CPA: New Rules for the Future-Ready Firm

In The Radical CPA, Jody Padar challenges traditional accounting practices and introduces a bold, new approach for firms ready to embrace the future. Through her journey of transforming a small firm into a thriving, technology-driven enterprise, Padar offers practical insights and strategies to help CPAs innovate and stay ahead of the curve.

With a focus on cloud technology, social business, value-based pricing and enhanced client experiences, this book serves as a blueprint for building a modern, agile and profitable accounting firm. Whether you're an established CPA or just starting, The Radical CPA will inspire you to think differently, take risks, and lead the charge in the evolving landscape of professional services.

Join the movement that is redefining the accounting industry—because the future is already here.

Learn more: https://cpatrendlines.com/shop/radical/

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But the world isn’t made up of identical people, working in identical businesses and driving identical cars to and from their identical homes. Thank goodness!

Clients are as different as you or me, but we can group them into a bucket, called personas, based on shared values or traits. In a client-centric firm, it helps to understand these basic personas so you can more efficiently meet the needs of each. You probably have a handful of personas in your firm right now, you just haven’t seen them as a grouping because, in your bill-by-the-hour model, it doesn’t matter who they are.

Once you understand the concept of personas, you can start building service packages around each persona’s unique needs, and then further customize those service packages to meet the specific needs of individual clients.

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One of the buyer personas I developed was “Joe Small Business.” Let’s explore how we take everything we know about him to see how that translates into a formal persona. 

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We’ll never be widget producers and, from my viewpoint, that’s a good thing. However, our position among the professional class shouldn’t blind us to the benefits of standardizing many of the services we offer. 

Anyone who has been an accountant for any length of time has certainly seen enough to eliminate the need to reinvent the wheel every time they start a new engagement. An entire firm has even more institutional knowledge to draw from. By capturing this institutional knowledge, you can come up with reliable and repeatable recipes for different services and deliverables. This is standardization, and it makes your service offerings more efficient, cheaper, consistent and predictable – all good business practices. You’ll be able to predict with better accuracy the time frames required for new projects and you’ll be able to scope out exactly what will be required to bring the project to a successful conclusion.

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Your firm can standardize and price just like McDonald’s does, if you have the right tech infrastructure, in addition to standards related to both clients and workflow.

The number one hurdle that keeps firms from standardizing services is how they receive data and documents from clients. Data may arrive in shoe boxes of receipts, reams of paper, QuickBooks desktop files, excel files, checkbooks, registers and any number of other archaic data collection methods. 

You may have some clients who arrive with banking credentials and bank feeds and others who don’t know where to start. 

If you’re allowing this amount of chaos to walk through your door, there’s no way to standardize your processes. As a facilitator, you are as much a part of the problem as your clients.

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It really wasn’t that long ago when the internet was intriguing rather than indispensable.

At some point change becomes inevitable and, I would argue, value pricing has reached this critical stage. The key driver has been the increasing automation of the compliance work accounting firms used to consider their bread and butter. This makes value pricing instrumental to your future as one day, too, there will be a generation who doesn’t know what a billable hour is. 

How to Start with Value Pricing

As compliance work moves from an hours-based profit driver to an automated loss leader, firms have turned to more value-driven services. These kinds of services are most amenable to value pricing, too. Use this as a detailed guide to ease the transition. 

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I’m not interested in the color of your hair or skin. I don’t care whether you wear glasses or fashionable clothes. I’m not really concerned with your weight or the size of your nose.

What are you?

If you’re reading this book, you are probably a trained accountant or CPA. 

But what are you?

What are your experiences? Your professional and educational achievements? I’d venture a guess they’re substantial. In fact, I’d dare to say you are probably the most financially knowledgeable person at any social gathering outside your professional life. I’d also wager you are surrounded by skilled professionals at the place you work.

You have value because of the things you know, the work you’ve done, the people and technology that support you.

And, yet, so many accounting professionals I know think of themselves as a watch.

A simple timepiece that measures their life by the hour. They sell themselves short!

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Undervaluing ourselves and what we bring to the table is a chronic problem plaguing accountants and CPAs. Why do I say this? Because people pay more for the luxuries they value. Let’s look at a comparison: 

Today, the MSRP of a Cadillac Escalade is over $81,000 while the MSRP of a Chevy Suburban is slightly under $60,000. If these automobiles were priced according to the time it takes to make them plus the cost of their parts, the difference between their retail prices would probably be far less. To maximize profits, GM spends a lot of time and money researching how much their customers value their different products. Certainly, the brand makes a difference, but the Cadillac also offers a more luxurious package. It doesn’t cost GM a lot more money to offer these luxuries, but their customers place a much higher value on them and GM understands that value.

Pricing according to value really isn’t a radical concept!

Accounting firms also factor brand into their pricing models by charging higher hourly rates, but the driving factor is almost always the same: hours x hourly cost = price. Value gets lost in the mechanics of tracking billable hours. As a consequence, accounting professionals tend to undervalue themselves and what they bring to the table. Measuring our value by the hour has done a number on our self-esteem.

Perhaps we should start basing our value on the important things we know rather than the length of time it takes us to do a job. I have high regard for factory workers, but the idea of paying for labor by the hour is a factory mentality. I don’t know a lot of accountants who would prefer to stand at a machine making parts all day. So, why do we insist on being paid like people who do such work?

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