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Jason describes this time as his wilderness years. He deliberately went off the beaten track, trying things out and abandoning them when they didn’t work. A lot of the time, he got his ideas and inspiration while out on long meditative walks in the woods behind his home in Greenville, South Carolina.   

These strategy walks still play a big part in Jason’s life. “I walk two to three hours every other day. Some days it’s nine or ten miles, thinking and planning,” he says. His business partner, Julie, sometimes joins him on his walks. That’s when they figure out where to go next for their two businesses. Together they manage a successful CPA firm and Thriveal, an online CPA community. 

Youthful energy poured into creative play

Jason’s boundless ideas and energy were evident early on. He was the kid that got into trouble at school for talking too much, and at home for having fights with his brother. At college he was in rock bands and is into progressive rock. He likes creative things that are a little quirky, so he often gets asked how he got into accounting. It turns out that Jason chose accounting because his father was an accountant. He saw it as a reasonable way to make to make a living. “Accounting doesn’t stifle me”, Jason says, “but that’s because I’ve figured how to do accounting in a creative way. It’s led to running an accounting firm differently, and to starting Thriveal.”

The copycat years

Jason’s early career was with a larger accounting firm. And when he took over running his father’s accounting firm, Blumer CPAs, he copied the things he’d seen the large firm do. Then he woke up one day and thought, why the heck am I copying them? I don’t want to be like them at all. Luckily, he was in a situation where he was free to make his own decisions and free to make mistakes.  “Even though he probably didn’t agree with some of the things I did, my father was really good at saying, ‘You run this business the way you want to’.” says Jason.

The wilderness years

Jason started trying out all sorts of things – some worked, some didn’t. In retrospect, he admits he could have saved some heartache, and money, if he’d gone to his father for advice. But he reflects, “I kinda needed that – to be let loose to run it my own way; to play around and see what I could do.”

“Running a business is a creative process. It’s like playing chess – you’re assessing the risks, moving pieces at the right time, creating pieces when you realise you don’t have the right ones,” he explains.

Over several years, Jason experimented with new business models. It was a journey of exploration, and he was having fun. He offered innovative packaged services, value pricing and started using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for marketing. Over time, the business grew.  His wife, Jennifer, stepped in to help out in the office and began building her expertise in social media.

By 2010, Jason felt he was close to figuring out how to do the things that he wanted to. He and his partner, Julie, set out to become an online or virtual firm. Back then, moving all their clients and business processes online wasn’t easy. It took a good five years before they could finally close the office and work largely from home. 

Seeking like-minded people for support

Around the same time as the firm moved online, Jason started writing a blog, sharing his thoughts about how to run a non-traditional accounting firm. He was keen to forge collaborative relationships with other forward-thinking CPAs. So the Thriveal CPA network got started and has grown into a vibrant online community.

Jason uses Thriveal to foster innovation and creativity. “I think accounting firm owners forget that they’re entrepreneurs. They need to try pricing and presenting themselves in new ways,” says Jason.

Thriveal’s activities now include podcasts, community calls, Yammer communities, two-day learning gatherings and Future Firm Groups for larger growing firms. CPAs take part in online meetings designed to encourage their professional and business growth.

Now, Jason and Julie are kept extremely busy running both enterprises. There’s continual cross-fertilisation between their two businesses. What they learn in the accounting firm, they share in the Thriveal community. And the fresh ideas that come from the community, they apply in their CPA business.

Currently, Blumer CPAs biggest accounting niche is in creative design and development agencies. They’re keen to add law firms and fitness businesses like crossfit and yoga studios to the list. Work on their branding, messaging, and some structured marketing campaigns are all in the pipeline. They have big plans for the future, so that could mean a lot more walking! 

In simple terms, Cash Flow Forecasting involves the creating of a listing when a person or firm would spend money in the future. Business Dictionary explains it as an “estimate of the timing and amounts of cash inflows and outflows over a specific period”. 

In a business world that is very competitive, running out of cash can be very catastrophic to a firm, particularly small enterprises, and start-ups. 

Why? Simply because Cash Flow is what makes businesses live. Often, when firms run out of cash, insolvency sets in. If these companies cannot get loans to rejuvenate their operations, that is the sad end to the business. 

Firstly, it is essential to note that technology has transformed the role of the accountant. Accountants who limit themselves to traditional compliance are shortchanging themselves. 

The area of Cash Flow is one where many businesses are hugely suffering. In a recent survey taken by Xero, it was discovered that only about 48% of small business in the UK were cash Flow positive at any given time. 
Moreover, you do not need stats to tell you that agitation over Cash flow is a variable that is common among most business owners. 

Accountants can take advantage of the existing technology around. Before the current technological advancements, creating a cash flow forecast was boring, monotonous and time-consuming. And even after completion, the data accumulated could become outdated almost immediately. 

The key to offering cash flow advisory is AI. Yes, I mean Artificial Intelligence. Fluidly is a program that uses machine learning to do heavy data lifting for the accountant. Using this program, you can quickly provide actionable insights that would help you decide and advise your clients on what to do next.

The portfolio view of Fluidly would not only show you a real-time list of all your clients. It would also give you an overview of financial numbers to help you identify which of your clients have cash flow problems. 

Yeah, Credit Control. Having an excellent credit control system is essential to solving cash flow problems when they pop up. Fluidly helps with this by sending email reminders about new expenses that may rise and recommending apps that would speed up the payment process.

When Donny Shimamoto, CPA/CITP, CGMA, talks about technology, the people listening to him often think he’s speaking about the future.

“People keep thinking, ‘This is all future stuff, this is all future stuff,’” said Shimamoto, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC, a CPA firm that helps small and midsize organizations leverage technology.

“When we get to AI and robotics, yes, some of it might be more futuristic. But there’s quite a bit of it that’s already here.

“It never fails to amaze me why people aren’t leveraging what we have now.”

On Wednesday, Shimamoto teamed with sole tax practitioner Dan Moore, CPA, at AICPA ENGAGE 2019 in Las Vegas to address how emerging technologies are enhancing tax practices. In their session, Shimamoto and Moore said that while artificial intelligence (AI) represents a quantum technological leap, firms of all sizes can prepare today with smaller jumps in technology and management philosophy.

Technologies of today

The first step in leveraging technology today is to understand what’s available and how it’s changing the business. Here’s are six areas tax practitioners should consider:

The paperless office. This is the baseline of technological change: Firms have been working for decades to digitize their documents and processes. “Some people are working dynamically with the information in its electronic format. Some people are working with paper returns,” Moore said. Small firms in particular have been slow to abandon paper, especially because so many clients still submit physical tax documents.

Cloud and collaboration tools. Digital documents now can be shared and manipulated more seamlessly. Online document management portals allow clients and colleagues to quickly exchange and organize documents. Other digital platforms allow easier comment review, invoicing, and payment. Cloud software allows for anytime, anywhere access to data and applications, reducing the need for in-house hardware.



Moore has transitioned some of his services — such as document management and QuickBooks integrations — to cloud services that allow 24/7, on-demand data exchange with clients. “That makes things so much more seamless than getting a backup of their QuickBooks file,” he said. Still, he hasn’t converted the firm’s central tax-preparation work to a cloud product, in part because he’s considering contingency plans for a disruption of internet or cloud services.

Client communication tools. As communication channels multiply, it’s becoming more difficult to get clients’ attention when further information is required. Phone calls go unanswered, and voicemails are ignored. Firms need to look to newer platforms, such as desktop communications software with text messaging options like Slack, Skype for Business, or Microsoft Teams. Alternatively, Moore recommends the Liscio messaging platform, which was designed with CPAs in mind and uses a smartphone app.

Tax outsourcing. Digital platforms make it easier to collaborate with contractors — including, for example, the growing number of knowledge workers in India. Firms that master offshoring could find relief from tight labor markets and rising labor costs, but offshoring comes with new management challenges and isn’t yet widespread among small firms, Moore said.



“It takes a special type of personality to do that because you’re giving up control,” he said. But Shimamoto sees it as an inevitability. “Because [the cloud] makes our system more accessible, we can then leverage the best talent, wherever they have to be,” Shimamoto said.

Visualization. Data visualization tools, such as dashboards, maps, and interactive charts, have become commonplace. Options range from Excel tools such as Power Map to more specialized software like Tableau and Microsoft Power BI. “[Visualization is] getting easier, so you’re seeing it in more and more places,” Shimamoto said. That’s good, because as Moore pointed out, clients are increasingly looking for visualization options.

Automation. Simple methods of automation are broadly available. It’s now commonplace to use scan-and-fill technology to extract digital information from paper documents. Some firms are using robotic process automation (RPA) software that can automatically click through software interfaces to translate information between programs. In the long run, RPA could take over most basic data-entry services, according to Shimamoto.

Taken together, the six areas point to a tax practice marketplace where automation and outsourcing capture an increasing share of routine work tasks.

“In today’s world, you’re either going to automate it, meaning you’re going to use technology, or you’re going to outsource it to a cheaper labor market,” Shimamoto said. “And this is again, all these lower-end, menial, repetitive tasks.”

The tasks most likely to be automated or outsourced are repetitive and simple. That means the firms of the future will be competing on the ability to manage automation/outsourcing and deliver specialized products or meaningful insight.

How to prepare

How can firms embrace emerging technology tools? Some are tempted to pursue every option — the more tech, the better. But Shimamoto urges a business-first approach.

“Make sure that you’re not starting with the technology. What you really should be doing is figuring, ‘Where do I have a problem in my firm, and what really is the problem?’” he said.

The answer will be different for each firm, but some significant overarching trends are emerging. The most important of these is that new technology will reward the companies that are best organized.

“It’s not so much of a skill set as a maturity,” Shimamoto said. “To really be able to leverage outsourced services, you need a higher maturity in those processes and the management and the flow of your data.”

When a firm completes work in the office, it’s easier to take an ad hoc approach. Employees use their institutional and personal knowledge to complete processes and deal with aberrations. That changes when a firm needs to export the work, whether it’s to offshore workers or to AI. In both cases, structure helps.

For example, a sole proprietor might need a checklist of just four or five steps to document a process for herself. To teach it to an inexperienced colleague might take 15 steps. But conveying it to a worker outside the company — especially when there are language barriers — could require a 60-step plan, Shimamoto said.

A company with more uniform, documented processes also can capture more granular data — which is exactly what AI will need to thrive. Therefore, the company with the best-documented processes today will be best prepared to take advantage of new technology tomorrow.

Training for tech

Whether you’re thinking of the present or the future, consider these focuses for employee recruitment and training:

• Process analysis. Employees who are versed in project and process management will be able to incorporate new technology into the workflow.
  
• Data analysis. Analyzing the underlying data through current and emerging software tools — whether it’s Excel, a programming language, or a machine-learning tool — will allow employees to improve processes and see where technology fits. It also allows them to deliver more meaningful insights that can’t be automated.
  
• Communication. Tax CPAs will need to figure out how to best communicate insights in a way that’s meaningful to clients.
  

More than anything, companies must prepare their employees to be deeply knowledgeable but broadly adaptable.

“Say you’ve got a technology disruptor that says, ‘This part [of your business process] is all invalid.’ Can you actually adjust those processes?” Shimamoto said. “Or let’s say it’s actually an enhancer. Do you have enough understanding to take advantage of it?”

For Moore, it’s a question of whether new hires can truly grasp how data are flowing through the organization. But, beyond the technical skills, he also thinks that accountants can future-proof their work by providing the human guidance that their clients need.

“That’s a great need that will continue,” he said, “whether or not we can get more of their tax return automated.”

As a business owner, conferencing can come with its high sides and low sides. While they could be an excellent opportunity to learn new skills and develop new strategies that can be useful for your business, they could also be expensive. While they can give you a chance to meet new people and expand your business through networking, they can make you lose focus on your business. 
So, the million-dollar question is how do you get the most out of any business conference you attend? 

1. Have Clear Goals and Objectives

Conferences tend to move at the “speed of social” these days. People are moving from one conversation, session, or event to another, quickly. It is easy to get lost in the flow of things. Identify clear objectives of meetings to attend, who you hope to meet, and what you want to take away, before the event.

2. Be Prepared

You would run into people who can help grow your business. So be prepared for that. I could be either a client or someone who offers some services that you may need. It could either be a new mentor or a protégé. Just be ready for that. Make as many promotional materials as you can be available. This would make it easy for people to be able to contact you when the conference is over.  

3. Avoid the Helicopter Approach

The Helicopter approach is simply a situation where when you begin to approach someone in a meeting only to stop a few feet away to go into “hover mode”. I do not understand why people do this. I believe if you want to go and talk to a person at a conference, walk up to the individual and start up a conversation. Hovering around would make you seem like a stalker, and if the person you want to approach notices this, he would almost immediately begin to form a plan to escape. Complete your approach and introduce yourself.

4. Be Approachable

Conferences are an excellent opportunity to meet people and network for the growth of your business. That cannot happen if you do not look engaging or approachable enough. So, stay off your phone and your tablet, wear a reassuring smile on your face. This would make it easier for people to approach you. Knowing “how to network”. “is just as vital when” to network. 

5. Create a Schedule

Find out who the speakers are and what they are going to be talking about. Figure out the sessions that would benefit you the most and go for them. The truth is that it is impossible to go for all the available courses and the best ones fill up fast. 

6. Carefully Pick the right Action Step After the Conference

After a conference, you would come back with so much information and skills that you would want to put to practice immediately. Relax first. The reason is that your enthusiasm may cause you to make so many changes at once. And when the changes become complicated, you may give up. Instead, before making any changes, go over the things you learnt and pick the right action steps that would help your business the most!

It’s much easier to remember your password if you use the same one across multiple platforms. And that’s probably why so many people keep using the same password despite being warned for years not to do so.

Password reuse remains one of the biggest cybersecurity risks on the radar of Chip Witt, head of product strategy for SpyCloud, an Austin, Texas-based company that alerts customers when employee or company assets have been compromised.

Witt gave a presentation on cybersecurity Tuesday at the AICPA ENGAGE 2019 conference in Las Vegas. He discussed the growing risks of password reuse and account takeover as well as how to keep credentials and data from being monetized on the “dark web” by cybercriminals.

“Password reuse is a really big problem,” he said in an interview before ENGAGE. “Once people find a good password, they’ll continue to reuse that password exactly, or variations of it. This is dangerous because the cybercriminal, once he has your password, can very easily access your accounts and the loyalty points, cash, and/or personally identifiable information within.”

A one-password — or weak-password — approach places the user at significant risk of fraud, theft, and professional liability, Witt said, adding that hackers have a variety of tools for stealing account credentials, including social engineering manipulation, malware, prior breaches, and other tech tools.

It’s not just personal data that are in jeopardy. Firms of all sizes are at significant risk of companywide data breaches when employee accounts are hacked; once criminals break in, they can leverage stolen data for a variety of fraud schemes, such as business email compromise, invoice fraud, and employment fraud. They also gain access to corporate secrets, financial accounts, employee personnel records, and business plans, putting the company at high risk for financial and reputational damage.

As dangerous as that sounds, the risk doesn’t stop there. Criminals can also sell your stolen credentials to other criminals on the deep web, which is the part of the internet not indexed by search engines. Most of the credential sales take place on the dark web, which essentially is a sliver of the deep web, accessible only by special browsers. The dark web provides a level of seclusion and anonymity that makes it an attractive place for criminals to digitally congregate for illegal activities.

“Once information shows up on the dark web, it’s no longer a secret,” Witt said. “A wide variety of people have access to it.”

Witt offered several tips for how individuals and companies can protect themselves against account takeover and credential theft.

Use a password manager. 
Password managers like Keeper, Zoho Vault, True Key, and many others generate complex, unique, and encrypted passwords for every site you need access to. There are many types of password managers, but no matter which you choose, they go a long way toward erasing the password reuse problem, according to Witt. In combination with other security steps, such as two-factor authentication, password managers can create significant hurdles for cybercriminals trying to break in to your accounts.

Be proactive. 
Witt recommends allocating part of your budget to external-credential and identity-monitoring systems, which mitigate the risk of your data being disseminated after a breach.

Quite often, companies don’t know they’ve been breached until after the harm is done. Criminals can sit on breach data for 12 to 18 months before exploiting them, giving your data time to clandestinely circulate, Witt said. However, they may share or sell breach data on the dark web without acting on them, which gives companies an opportunity to find their stolen material before criminals use it.

“You want to constantly monitor your credentials and identity for exposure,” said Witt.

Protect employees’ personal accounts. 
Because people tend to use the same password across multiple accounts, if an employee’s personal email account is hacked, cybercriminals may potentially gain access to your company’s networks, using that same password. Witt suggested that companies extend security protection to employees’ accounts to lessen the risk of password reuse damage. He also recommends extending those protections to employees’ family members to protect their larger online networks.

“The majority of individuals will use the same password across multiple aspects of their identity. They’ll use it for their work mail, for their personal email, et cetera,” he said. “Know an exposure in one area could definitely affect another.”

When an employee or customer whose credentials have been compromised logs in to your systems, “if a password has been exposed, criminals are likely to use it.”

Automate account takeover prevention. 
Witt advocated taking choice out of the equation when it comes to password and account protection by automating every possible stage in the process, such as scanning the web for credentials, comparing credentials against known compromised material, and monitoring account creation for fraud warning signs. Automation using technology like SpyCloud’s ATO Prevention software, Imperva’s ThreatRadar, or LexisNexis’s ThreatMetrix ensures that your protection activities are constant, current, and as habitual as possible.

“Whatever technologies you leverage, build them in to your environment and automate the process. Anything that relies on a human doing something is going to get set aside or pushed back to the back burner,” Witt said. “Automate your security measures wherever possible.”

Let’s get something straight before we go any further: teams always beat groups of individuals. Want to accomplish the impossible? Build a team. Looking to turn around a hopeless situation? Fire up a team. Trying to launch a new-to-the-world idea? Yep, you guessed it, a team is what you need. Turning a startup into a success only happens with hard work, determination and a team. Yet, somewhere along the journey between sketching out the world-beater idea on a napkin and turning that idea into reality, many entrepreneurs lose sight of the fundamentals that will bring them to the promised land of viability and profitability.

I call these principles the Unstoppable Team Fundamentals because if you’re truly in it to win it then you need an unstoppable mindset for you and your teammates. I’ve learned these leadership fundamentals the hard way — through multiple failures and a few remarkable successes that span my life’s journey from leading Navy SEAL platoons to founding Perfect Fitness, my company that makes Perfect Pushup and other revolutionary fitness devices.

In fact, these fundamentals apply regardless of your industry, business structure or startup focus. Disregard them at your own potential peril; heed them and you’ll discover that your greatest challenge will be dreaming up bigger entrepreneurial mountains for your teams to climb.

1. Use the “swim buddy” system

The single most important team in SEAL Team is the swim buddy; it’s also the smallest team. All SEAL teams are developed from the swim buddy system. Two swim pairs form a fire team, two fire teams form a squad and two squads form a platoon. (The names have changed slightly with the term “platoon” replaced with squadron but the basic premise remains.) The same holds true in the civilian world whether you’re just starting out, rebuilding or rebranding — it’s all about pairing people up. The goal of swim buddies is three-fold:

1. Pair an experienced person with an inexperienced member to rapidly close the learning gap. The faster you close the experience gap the stronger you make the “weakest” link of your team (the one with the least amount of experience).

2. Team up complementary skill sets to problem solve faster than individuals working alone in silos.

3. Bring together diverse backgrounds (i.e. diversity of thought) to spark creativity and overcome negativity within your organization.

Swim buddies aren’t forever — rotate people through the pairing up process and not only will they solve problems faster and more effectively they will also develop the critical bonds of trust needed to galvanize individuals into a selfless focused winning machine — an Unstoppable Team.

2. Model the way you want your team to perform

Understanding and articulating your company’s “why” is fundamentally important, but the “how” behind how you and your team execute drives your organization’s culture and ultimately, it’s brand. Your company’s brand is nothing more than a reflection of your culture, and culture is a reflection of your teammates’ actions…and guess where your teams’ reflection comes from? It comes right from the leader: you. No detail is too small when modeling the way for the organization you strive to build. Make no mistake, your actions are under a microscope.

What you do gets emulated not just internally but externally to your customers. J. Willard Marriott developed a simple rule to live by when he founded his company 92 years ago: “Take care of associates and they’ll take care of your customers.” That simple philosophy remains at the heart of Marriott’s leadership focus today (Marriott’s HR policy is called “Take Care”). You might think because you’re the inventor, creator or founder of the company, you can operate differently than others. Wrong! Products will come and go, but the single hardest thing to build and the easiest thing to lose is a winning culture focused on caring for each other, customers, contributors and the communities in which you operate. As the leader, always model the way in which you expect others to emulate.

3. Caring leads to daring

One of the greatest challenges of team building is getting people to relinquish their selfish ego-driven desire for personal gain and replace it with a selfless drive to help the team flourish. Legendary coach John Wooden said, “It’s amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.” The only way to help people transform from selfishness to selflessness is by showing how much you care for them. The goal is getting them to forget about worrying about their own “backs” and, instead, keeping them focused on caring for each other and the team goals. It takes time, transparency, consistency and thoughtfulness to prove to others that you have their “backs,” but when you succeed at proving to them how much you care about them, then they will start proving how much they will dare for you. Caring leads to daring. Seek ways to connect with your teammates — to understand their challenges and pressures not only during the work day but also in their personal lives. People are not robots, they have emotions which drive their behaviors. Unstoppable Teams are powered by care.

4. Hire for culture first

I don’t care how smart someone is — if they are a jerk or have some kind of caustic attitude they will become a liability in your team building process. When hiring people you want to look for what Eric Schmidt in Trillion Dollar Coach refers to as “smarts and hearts.” Seek competency and compassion that are a cultural fit for the “why” and the “how” of the organization you are building. You want diversity of thought but not diversity of heart. Make cultural fit a top priority when selecting people to join you on your entrepreneurial journey. There is hard evidence supporting the soft arts of emotional intelligence, and while you’re contemplating who to hire, know that women are instinctively better at building caring relationships. They typically have higher levels of oxytocin — the caring/nurturing hormone — then men do. If your team doesn’t have women on it, it may not be as unstoppable as it could be!

Team building is an imperfect science — it’s messy and at times frustrating but so incredibly worth it. We are all imperfect. We need each other, and how we form those bonds directly impacts how well we will succeed together. We are much more powerful together than we are standing alone. So, leaders, this is a call to step up, give it all you have and don’t you dare give up on going all-in every day…because that’s exactly what you need your team to do too as well: Go All-In All the Time.

Now go build an Unstoppable Team and make greatness happen!