[CPA TRENDLINES]

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Read the article: Rick Telberg/On Careers, "Benefits Packages: On the Fringe No More."
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RICK TELBERG / CPA TRENDLINES
Job Benefits: What Matters Most?
(Early data based on partial results, Aug. 16, 2007)


Join the survey, get updated results.
Read the article: Rick Telberg/On Careers, "Benefits Packages: On the Fringe No More."
Email your comments.

Early results, based on 691 responses as of Dec 31, 2007.

Highlights:
-- CPAs expext 6%-7% average rate of return on investments.
-- Plan on more than 25 years in retirement.
-- Clients' biggest problem: Under-funded retirement accounts.
-- 56% of respondents provide retirement planning services.
-- 66% of CPAs comlain financial services providers are "too sales-oriented."
-- 86% of CPAs expect the profession to expand its PFP services.

Hank Berkowitz of AICPA Media talks about "Beyond the Click," the research report that unlocks the secrets of B2B e-newsletter advertising.
Bay Street Group conducted the research and co-produced the report.

Click here for the free download of the report (PDF).

INTRODUCTION
At a time when overall spending on U.S. advertising is growing at just low single-digit rates, online advertising is growing at more than 20 percent a year and is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of nearly 15 percent1 through 2010.

Yet, for all the promise that online advertising holds –– and for its increasing share of business-to-business marketing budgets –– it is still widely misunderstood, particularly in the highly competitive accounting and finance channel. CPAs are the trusted gatekeepers for millions of corporate finance departments, small businesses and high net worth individuals. Yet they’re highly elusive. Risk averse by nature, they’re much less tolerant of the hard sell than attorneys, doctors, architects, insurance and other influential professionals.

In essence, marketers must learn to get their messages to (and through) CPAs more effectively and they must also do a better job of understanding the unique characteristics of sponsored electronic newsletters ("e-newsletters"), particularly those reaching influential, time-pressed professionals. So, how do you sell effectively to influential professionals online who don’t like to be sold to? That’s the impetus behind this report prepared by AICPA Custom Media Solutions and Bay Street Group Research.

Join the survey here.

Read the article: Rick Telberg/At Large, "Home-Based Accounting Practices Thrive."

4 Key Findings:
97%: CPAs who know colleagues with “on-the-side” practices.
26%: CPAs who say they currently “moonlight.”
27%: CPAs working full-time in a home-based CPA business.
61%: Working in their home-based business year-round,” not just during busy season.

8 Top Problems for Home-Based Practitioners:
45%: Meeting clients, colleagues in a professional setting.
48%: Overcoming isolation from peers.
39%: Managing time effectively.
21%: Obtaining enough admin/support personnel.
18%: Backing up file and preparing for disaster recovery.
15%: Have the right mix of technology resources.
12%: Resolving equiment/technology breakdowns.
6%: Maintaining IT security & privacy.

10 Essential Strategies for Success:
69%: The right technology setup.
85%: The right attitude and self-discipline.
66%: A quiet, dedicated work space.
51%: Experience and maturity.
47%: Time Management: Balancing the need for new business vs. getting the existing work done.
35%: Good communications with co-workers, clients.
31%: The appropriate kind of work or tasks.
23%: Get out of the office and meet new people.
15%: Regular face-to-face meetings.
5%: Ccorporate culture of support.


Join the survey here.

Read the article: Rick Telberg/At Large, "Home-Based
Accounting Practices Thrive."

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It all begins with personal attention...

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It all begins with personal attention... More tables and verbatim comments...

How Engaged Are Your Co-Workers?

Executive Preview
(Early data, final results may vary)

Selected Highlights:
-- Most CPAs say they work with highly committed and engaged colleagues.
-- Most, too, say their offices are experiencing a chronic staff shortage.

Marketers missing up to 55 percent of online ad response

NEW YORK (AICPA.org) – U.S. spending on online advertising is growing at more than 20 percent per year and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 15 percent through 2010. However, marketers are missing more than half of all responses.

In fact, 55 percent of follow up to online ads appears to occur up to 30 days after the ad has appeared, according to “Beyond the Click, Maximizing Advertising ROI in B2B E-Newsletters,” a new online advertising study by the electronic media group of the American Institute of Certified Public and Accountants (AICPA) and Bay Street Group LLC.

Download the AICPA press release: Marketers_Missing_up_to_55_Percent_of_Online_Ad_Response2.pdf

The executive summary, which includes additional notes on the research and the “Top 10 Recommendations to Marketers,” can be viewed at http://www.aicpalearning.org/profdev_news.asp?id=10360.

Hint: They like hanging out with people in their own industries.

According to new Warrillow research, four out of five small business owners have attended a business-related event in person. When asked what type of business events they attend, responses ranged from a local Chamber of Commerce meeting to a large national trade convention.

According to the small business owners Warrillow surveyed, "vertical," industry-specific events are clearly more attractive than cross-industry, or "horizontal," events.



The next decision is whether to go for the reach of a national event or the intimacy of a local event. Again, the research suggests there may be a happy medium in state-wide events that provide the scale and reach of a larger event, with the relevance of local issues being discussed by local industry leaders.

Warrillow cites ADP's sponsorship of the Calfornia CPA show, produced every June by Flagg Management, as a good example of vertical focus.

QuickBooks founder launches SaaS startup

New York (AMI-Partners) -- On September 5, the start-up NetBooks launched its suite of on-demand business management solutions for what it has dubbed "true small businesses," or TSBs (2 to 25 employees). The suite includes sales and customer relationship management, vendor relationship management, inventory and production management, shipping, bookkeeping, and reporting capabilities. NetBooks' offering includes functionality needed by inventory-based businesses, but it can also be used by services firms.

Available as an on-demand or software as a service (SaaS) offering, the vendor provides unlimited 24 x 7 support from staff with small business bookkeeping experience. Pricing starts at $200 per month for five users, with free access for a subscriber company's accountant or bookkeeper. Additional user subscriptions are priced at $20 per user per month. NetBooks is also offering customers a price guarantee, which provides lifetime protection against any subsequent price increases, and no additional charge for future features.



Perspective

Ridgely Evers, Founder and CEO of NetBooks, and one of the original developers of Intuit QuickBooks (the #1 small business accounting package in the U.S.), began developing NetBooks in 2003. NetBooks launched in February of this year.

Marketing information agency reports on "Beyond the Click, Maximizing Advertising ROI in B2B E-Newsletters"

Newsletters and Delayed Ad Clicks

Marketers are missing more than one-half of all responses to their online advertisements, according to the American Institute of Certified Public and Accountants and Bay Street Group "Beyond the Click, Maximizing Advertising ROI in B2B E-Newsletters" study.

More than one-half of follow-up to online ads occurred up to 30 days after the ads had appeared.

Readers who were exposed to online newsletter ads but did not click on them could recall the ads almost as frequently as readers who did click on the ads (22% versus 28%).

"Content-driven e-newsletters for financial professionals seem to have much longer shelf lives and reader acceptance levels than e-mail blasts and pop-up banner ads," said Hank Berkowitz, director at AICPA, in a statement. "It's essential that marketers grasp the power of this dynamic new medium."

The AICPA sent online surveys to more than 2,000 readers of its most widely read online newsletter.

About eMarketer

eMarketer aggregates and analyzes information from over 2,800 sources, and brings it together in analyst reports, daily research articles and the most comprehensive database of e-business and online marketing statistics in the world.

Finance and accounting professionals are hooked on email. And it’s a daily problem.

The highlights from our survey so far:
• 79% of our respondents check email at least hourly.
• Web surfing and listening to music are among the top distractions.
• 60% indicate distractions are a chronic problem.
• Two of the other biggest distractions are phone calls and co-workers.



Click here to join the survey.

How do you stay focused? (Comments)
• I don't, are you kidding! I'm responding to your e-mail!!!
• I block out time on my calendar where I don't check e-mail or answer my phone. If I really need to focus I shut my door as well.
• Play music softly to drown out the noises outside my office; if it's been a distracting week, I'll work for a few extra hours on the weekend to make up for the downtime
• By planning and structure.
• try to ignore the notifications
• close my door, tackle many small tasks or find things to delegate
• Ignore the casual chatter-chatter outside my office.