AN OPEN LETTER TO YOU
I’ve been hooked on accounting since my first required course in college, Accounting—The Foundation of Business Decisions. How cool is that? Then I started a post-grad job as an auditor for the Big 6, where I neither laid the foundation for business decisions nor spoke the language of business. Instead, through two decades of practice, I witnessed the difference between what a business does and what business is. A business is vision, brand, strategy, execution, systems, structure, technology, sales, and marketing, which come together to improve what a business does.
Making CPA firms better--better for stakeholders, clients, employees and the people who own them--is my mission. This means laying the foundation for better business decisions, speaking the language of business, and asking why. Questioning why has served me well (and sometimes landed me in hot water!) in leadership positions and as I launched my own firm in 2002. As we challenged, changed, reverse engineered and executed decisions, our firm got noticed. We landed in the number one spot—two years in a row—on Accounting Today’s Best Place to Work For and were named to the Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest growing companies in the country.
How do I know my way is right when the accounting industry has been doing things the same way for 75 years? My answer is I don’t, but I do know is that no industry stays the same for 75 years. Accountants haven’t kept up as a profession, taking advantage of efficiencies from tech-advancements and converting time-saved into advisory services. The speed of change is accelerating and we must keep up or we will be devastated by it.
By focusing on the issues businesses face, challenging longstanding beliefs, and encouraging entrepreneurship, we can make CPA firms better. We can generate best results for the clients who use them, people who work in them, and the people who own them.
My work is dedicated to this extremely worthy cause.
With Resolve,
Brian Amann
Consider this
I once saw a statement which read, “despite significant advances in technology, CPAs make the same and work as hard or harder as they did 30 years ago.” This truth should incite a riot among professionals in the industry!
We can make good money as CPAs. We can make more money by working harder. We know how to squeeze gross margin. We know how to commoditize our services to sell more to a larger population.
BUT:
Can we make more by working less?
Can we de-commoditize and create more value for our clients?
Can we create environments where our professionals thrive?
Can we attract top talent to the profession?
Can we create a better customer experience?
Can we be cool?
MY STORY
Brian Amann, CPA, CGMA, is an entrepreneurial evangelist for CPAs. Through CPAEdge, he’s helping accountants and CPA firms easily transition to change, guiding true vision and strategy, and driving home the methods and means for accounting professionals to work less, make more, and be more valuable.
In 2002, Brian left the Big Four behind and struck out on his own, forming Amann & Associates. By 2009, he rebranded the firm as TaxOps and set ambitious service, quality and growth goals for the benefit of clients, employees and partners of the firm. In four short years, Brian grew the award-winning firm more than six-fold during a period when single-digit growth rates were the standard for the industry. That growth puts TaxOps in the top one-half percent of accounting firms in the country.
It’s a feat that landed TaxOps on the Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest growing companies in the country, the first accounting firm in the history of the award to win this distinction. Brian was also named to Accounting Today’s Managing Partner Elite as a top firm leader in the business. During the same period, TaxOps landed in the number one spot--two years in a row--on Accounting Today’s Best Place to Work For.
Today, Brian inspires accountants and professionals to rise above the antiquated metrics of the profession, developing their personal brand, and take control of their future, whether they are new to the industry or sitting in the partner office.
A promoter of entrepreneurship in the accounting industry, Brian has worked, biked, trained, and consulted with some of the top entrepreneurs in North America. He speaks and consults on the business issues accountants’ and their firms face.
In leadership roles with Ernst & Young and TaxOps, Brian spearheaded recruiting, team development, workplace culture and staff development initiatives. He recognizes specialized talents and soft skills that lead to higher levels of success, and inspires team members. At BrianAmann.com, he transitions individuals from practitioners to entrepreneurial business owners for greater growth, both personal and professional.
Brian is an Advisory Council member with the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Business School and is a member of the AICPA; Colorado Society of CPAs; Vistage; Professional Pricing Society; Association of Transformational Leaders; and the Association for Corporate Growth.
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““Thanks Brian for sharing your insights and passion for creating a challenging and fun work environment.””