Good BV firm PR from Citrin Cooperman’s Terry Silver
Building a BV practice takes planning and a lot of outreach. As a result, most practice leaders have become adept writers and good business lunch companions. BVR tries to highlight examples of this kind of relation building–another good example is an article in today’s Legal Intelligencer, a blog that goes out to Pennsylvania and [...]
E&O insurance products struggle to keep pace with BV profession?
“I have both the CBA and the AVA, with the CMA accounting credential,” reports a respondent to our recent survey on errors and omissions (E&O) insurance among BV firms and practitioners. “I provide a full range of valuation services, plus extensive consulting on fully transacted sales (both internal and external). Because I am not a [...]
Are BV firm mergers accelerating?
One sign that the BV profession has reached a peak maturity: small to midsize BV firms are becoming increasingly attractive targets for larger accounting and other “generalist” firms looking to pick up competence in a particular market or specialty area, according toRon Seigneur (Seigneur Gustafson), who spoke at the pre-conference and also opening sessions of [...]
Do appraisers need to specialize now?
Mark Edwards says that his peers at Grant Thornton use the term “chose a major” when mentoring new staff. ”We want people to find an area they’re passionate about, learn it, and become the best in the business at it.” Linda Trugman agrees that younger professionals will do better to pick an area, whether industry [...]
AICPA report: How do you institutionalize your BV practice if the lawyers are hiring a specific individual?
“Here’s how we do it,” said Neil Beaton. ”Let’s say we’re doing a road show at Skadden in New York. We’ll bring in a team, so it’s not Beaton who shows up, it’s Grant Thornton. Bring your younger people with you. Don’t go alone.” “There’s a session on passing the baton here,” said [...]
AICPA report: How does the business valuation profession retain women?
At the opening AICPA National BV conference session, Stacy Collins (Financial Research Associates), the one woman on the panel, got this question. She reflected on the major rule she believes in: 1. Mentor and be mentored. ”The most important part of this is the informal day to day mentoring.” Start early, and multiple mentors is [...]
AICPA report: How to mentor new appraisers when your traveling
“I’ve become dependent on GoTo Meeting,” Jim Hitchner said, addressing the opening session at the AICPA National BV Conference on the future of the BV profession. ”I can be 2000 miles away and we’re jointly editing spreadsheets and reports. It’s a simple, incredibly empowering technology,” particularly for training. “Using the internet to get the input [...]
AICPA report: “You should never be here for lunch”
That was the advice that Randie Dial (Clifton Gunderson) got from Jim Alerding the first year of his practice as an appraiser. ”And it’s even important now. When I started, we weren’t hiring analysts out of college. Now we are. They need more coaching, and more mentoring.” “There’s a rule of thumb [...]
A billing hour target model
Here’s a model discussed at this morning’s Practice Management session at the AICPA. It recognizes that there are CPE, vacation and other obligations, so the expectation is a target of 1600 billable hours (35 hours a week). Then if some one bills 1600-1800 hours, they get 20% of what they bill in addition–and 25% [...]
AICPA BV Conference Update: BV and public accounting: it’s not always a bed of roses
The pre-conference session here in Las Vegas at the AICPA National BV Conference is on practice management–led off by Gary Trugman, Linda Trugman, Neil Beaton, and Ron Seigneur. One topic is the problem of fitting a BV practice into a CPA practice. For solo practitioners, the conflicts can be obvious–”it’s almost a guarantee that a [...]
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