Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Gale Crosley, CPA, is founder and principal of Crosley+Company, which specializes in "the business discipline of practice growth." She has consulted with dozens of CPA firms on revenue growth issues and opportunities, and designing strategies and tactics for achieving aggressive revenue growth objectives. She transfers knowledge involving opportunity development, marketing, and service line management to managing partners, partner groups, marketing directors, and staff. Her approach is designed to generate optimal revenue from every aspect of the practice. Gale lives in Atlanta with her husband, Steve, and their children.

Debbie Stover is a freelance writer withextensive writing and publishing credentials. She lives and runs in St. Louis, aided by her partner, Chris, and their mostly furry family.

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Praise for At the Crossroads

The Remarkable CPA Firm that Nearly Crashed, then Soared

"Here's a bird's-eye view as told from the inside of exactly how a CPA firm went from a five percent growth rate to a twenty percent growth rate. You'll find it hard to believe this is a work of fiction, since its message is so true."
―Stuart Kahan, Executive Editor, CPA Wealth Provider

"Using a brilliantly realized novelistic approach, the authors, with rare understanding of therelationship between managing a professional firm and marketing, break through the long standing resistance that firms have to change. A remarkably successful and profoundly useful work for both professionals and marketers."
―Bruce W. Marcus, Editor, The Marcus Letter on Professional Services

"Every reader will see themselves or someone they know in Crosley's compelling first book about a CPA firm doing it right."
―Allan D. Koltin, CPA, President and CEO, PDI Global, Inc.

"There isn't a partner out there who won't recognize themselves somewhere in this book. GaleCrosley takes the reader by the hand and sometimes by the neck down the path to becomea remarkable CPA firm. Read this book with an eye toward learning and you will see what I'mtalking about."
―August J. Aquila, CEO, Aquila Global Advisors LLC and Chantrey Capital Advisors, Inc.

"At the Crossroads: The Remarkable CPA Firm that Nearly Crashed, then Soared is a compelling fable with an inspirational lesson for every CPA firm. It's an entertaining page-turner of a novel that shows how a little vision, courage, and knowledge can transform any group of also-rans into a team oftrue champions. More than merely a lesson in business, Gale gives us a lasting lesson in life. Everymanaging partner should take a dose of this book each morning before going into the office.Every aspiring CPA should embrace the message. They won't succeed without it."
―Rick Telberg, CEO, Bay Street Group LLC

Aus dem Klappentext

At the Crossroads

The Remarkable CPA Firm that Nearly Crashed, then Soared

Joe Abriola has a problem―a big problem. Managing partner of a prosperous Minneapolis CPA firm, Joe has just learned that his partners are on the vergeof mutiny. Why are they so upset? It's him!―or, rather, it's the way he's let their practice slide intocomplacency. Why are other CPA firms growing so fast when theirs isn't?

The partners want answers―fast. If not, Joe may find himself out in the cold . . . and it gets awfully cold in Minneapolis in the winter. What will he do?

What Joe does forms the backbone of this delightful new growth parable from Gale Crosley and Debbie Stover. In years of teaching CPA firms how to grow, Crosley―who heads Crosley+Company, an Atlanta-based CPA consulting firm―has developed a dynamic approach called the Practice Growth Model.

In At the Crossroads, that model gets put into place, and in the process, we learn what it takes to transform a sleepy, uninspired CPA firm into a powerhouse. Will all the partners survive? Will Joe survive? What about know-it-all Frank, too-lofty-to-care Charles, orcounting-the-days-till-he-retires Harold?

And what about the staff? The business developer who dresses like a dream but doesn't have a clue about bringing in business . . . the marketing director the partners won't take seriously―even the mailroom guy gets in a few licks!

Does this firm, with its head in the sand, blithely ignoring the complexities of a changing marketplace, look anything like yours? Would you like it to? Especially when the makeover is complete, and they're chalking up phenomenal growth, with a win rate on highly qualified opportunities of seventy percent?

If your firm is underachieving or growing inefficiently, and you'd like to know how to change all that, At the Crossroads may hold the key to a bright new future.

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At the Crossroads

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

Some Bad News

Joe Abriola looked up from his desk as his favorite "son" in the firm, Eric King, slipped quietly into the room and took a seat.

Joe leaned back, linking his hands behind his head. "What's going on, Eric?"

Eric leaned forward, brought his hands up, and opened his mouth, but no sound came out at first. Finally he shook his head and spoke. "I feel bad about telling you this, Joe. I want you to know that up front."

"What's the problem?" Joe asked. "Is it a client?"

"No," Eric said, and then the words came skittering out of his mouth in a terrible rush. "It's the partners. It's a problem with the partners. You've got a great big problem with your partners." Eric paused. "And I don't think you even know it."

The Problem

Joe had leaned forward in his chair as Eric spoke, but now he settled back cautiously. "No," he said at length, "I'm not aware of any problem with the partners. What kind of problem?"

Eric took a moment to collect his thoughts, shook his head briefly, then spoke. "Joe, I want you to know, as I said, that I feel really uncomfortable doing this. You brought me into this firm, you've given me a terrific chance to succeed here, and ... It feels, I don't know, not like disloyalty, but like ... carrying tales, maybe. But I really think you need to know what's going on, and nobody else is going to tell you. So I feel like I'm elected."

"Spit it out, son," Joe said.

"It's like this," Eric said, leaning forward again, elbows on his knees. "There are these ... I'd call them rumblings-and they're just sweeping through the partner group. I think they started with Harold and Kevin, but it seems like every day, one more person chimes in. We've got-what?-24 partners in this firm, and I swear half of them are grumbling about 'changes.'" Eric drew quotation marks around the word with his voice. "They say 'changes' need to be made. And at first it was generic, but now people are specifically mentioning you."

"All right," Joe said cautiously. "What kind of changes?"

Eric shifted in his chair uncomfortably. "To be perfectly honest, Joe, I'm afraid some of this may have started with me." Joe frowned, but Eric plunged ahead with his story.

"You remember last month, when I went to that niche meeting"-Eric had his own niche, health care, well in hand within the firm-"and they were talking about growth and comparing notes. And one guy's reporting eighteen-percent growth year to date at his firm, and the other fellow has twenty-one. One guy said his health care practice grew twenty-five percent last year!

"You remember I told you about that, right, Joe?" Eric pressed.

Joe nodded.

"Well, I mentioned it to some other people around here as well. And it turns out that I'm not the only person who's hearing it. We all know what started it-Sarbanes-Oxley back in '02-but it's gotten bigger since then, much bigger. It seems like every CPA firm in the country-or in Minneapolis, anyway-is growing like wildfire.

"But it's not just Minneapolis, because, well, you know what people've been reading over the past few months. IPA, PAR, Accounting Today, Practical Accountant-everybody reads those publications, and you know what last year's figures were, that they reported. The CPA profession had its best growth year since the late '90s, but Crandall & Potter did not."

Displaying the kind of sure-handed knowledge Joe had grown to expect from Eric, the younger man ticked off the alarming details. "Aggregate growth for the top one hundred firms of more than sixteen percent; many firms growing at well over twenty. Compared to us-we grew just seven percent last year!

"So at first it was just a couple of people talking, but then they started asking around, checking with their friends. And it sort of took on a life of its own.

"And you know how it is, there's grumbling about one subject, and then pretty soon there's something else that's wrong. And I do think, in all honesty, that in some ways they have a point. We aren't experiencing the kind of growth we could. But somehow, the problem's being simplified, and it's become you, Joe. As managing partner of the firm, you're responsible for everything, so that means you're responsible for this too."

"Specifics?" Joe asked.

"Well, everybody's got their own ax to grind. Harold, he's been threatening to retire the whole time I've been here. Well, now he's finally close enough to read the writing on the gold watch, and he doesn't like what it says. He's seen all these growth numbers floating around, and he's thinking his share of the Crandall & Potter pie isn't worth what it should be, because the pie itself should be bigger."

Eric tapped another finger as he went through the list in his head. "Kevin," he continued. "Kevin's beef, best that I can make it out, is that he's carrying his load, he's doing his share to bring in business, and what is everybody else contributing? 'I make rain; everybody should make rain!'" Eric imitated Kevin, pumping his arm and speaking in an exaggerated tone.

"Even Charles chipped in yesterday afternoon," Eric finished. "There were a couple of guys kicking around the new auditing standards that just came out, and the talk started up again. And Charles had to toss in his two cents' worth."

Joe's eyes narrowed in surprise. "Charles?"

"Yeah, I know. Charles doesn't even bother to notice the rest of us unless he has a gripe. Well, he's got one now. He was kind of light on the details, but his point seemed to be that we missed the boat on 404 work, and again, somehow, that's your fault."

Joe slapped his desk in frustration. "That was in his bailiwick-404! I asked him about it a long time ago, even pressed him on it, and he blew it off completely. Said we 'didn't need to go there.'"

"Well," Eric said, "he wishes we'd gone there now. Maybe he was just piling on, but ..." His voice trailed off.

"The thing is, Joe, I do think they have a point-at least some of them do. This firm is not growing the way it should. The opportunities are there-hey, it's like a stampede, they're coming at us so fast-and we're just not grabbing on. We're not even trying. We sit around doing the same old things, chasing leads the same old way, and making the same old excuses when we lose out.

"How are the other firms doing it? How are they racking up those kinds of gains? Do you have any idea?"

"Do You See It, Joe?"

Joe took a deep breath. As a matter of fact, he did have a pretty good idea what some other firms were doing. He'd attended an association meeting in June, and the whole focus of the meeting was disciplined growth and how to achieve it. A few key phrases floated back: best practices, disciplined growth, pipelines, revenue segmentation, product management.

Joe stirred in his chair. "Well, a number of ways, I guess. There are some new kinds of business available today, that's true. And some firms are going after them very aggressively. But that's not the way we do things here at Crandall & Potter. That's never been the way we do things."

He leaned forward to press his case. "And the way we do things is not half bad, Eric. All the...