Author: Ric Payne

Why great ideas get left at the door of CPE conferences

There is great content on the web that deals with questions like how to build a great business, how to be a great business advisor, how to charge what your worth, and any number of other “how to’s” you care to think of. With that in mind and given that most of these are free or low cost relative to their potential payoff it amazes me Continue reading “Why great ideas get left at the door of CPE conferences”

Discounting as a Pricing Strategy: A 100 Year Old Story

I’m inviting you to Boston MA 1891. In that year Edward and Lincoln Filene took over the management of their father’s retail store called Filenes. At the time it was quite a successful business that specialized in women’s fashions and accessories but the two brothers built it into one of the world’s leading retail companies by implementing a non-traditional business model. Continue reading “Discounting as a Pricing Strategy: A 100 Year Old Story”

Managing Working Capital Is Key to Growth and Survival: Hard & Costly Lessons

In this post I want to share a story with you. It arises from a chance conversation with a member who is working with a client who has an inventory management challenge which came on the back of an article another friend of mine sent me about a report on the failure of the Dick Smith retail group in Australia. Continue reading “Managing Working Capital Is Key to Growth and Survival: Hard & Costly Lessons”

Structural Change in the US CPA Industry – Small Firm Challenges

 

Because industry structure plays a major part in determining the way in which competition plays out in an industry it’s useful to take a look at how structure changes over time due to forces coming from outside the industry (e.g. regulatory changes, technology impacts) as well as shifts in the way firms within the industry respond to those forces, innovate and compete. Continue reading “Structural Change in the US CPA Industry – Small Firm Challenges”

So you want better clients

“Explain how I can attract and retain better quality clients” was one of the responses from 92% of the people who attended a webinar I presented last year in which I asked the following question: what are the top 3 questions you’d like me to answer in the book I’m writing on practice development? Continue reading “So you want better clients”

The theater of service has been around for a long time

I’ve been reading a biography on the Wright Brothers that describes in minute detail the hugely difficult process they went through to create an airplane. One of the side notes that caught my attention was a reference Continue reading “The theater of service has been around for a long time”

Financial literacy raises its head again

How much better our society would be if everyone did what is right. I choose not to watch the news much because it’s so depressing but I made an exception last night and, as predicted, it was depressing. So much so that I feel compelled to share Continue reading “Financial literacy raises its head again”

The Why and the How to Measure Customer Lifetime Value

They–the nameless and faceless people who make predictions about everything from the weather to the stock market–say it costs 6 times more to acquire a customer than it does to retain an existing customer. Interestingly, the literature contains references to acquisition to retention cost ratios ranging from 3:1 to 30:1. Quite frankly, I don’t know if the 6:1 metric is an urban myth or a thoroughly researched observation but I do believe Continue reading “The Why and the How to Measure Customer Lifetime Value”