Turning technology gains into client value

So, um, The ASCPA and the community and professionals use that word advisory a lot, right? And I've been in the ASCP for 10 years, so I've been out of public practice for 10 years.

But, you know, even though it might seem like a new term, like I feel like I was definitely an advisor and a trusted advisor at that, like before now.

So, I mean, I provided advisory services, but I'd love to hear from you, like when you talk about Tax advisory.

I mean, we're a tax section, obviously, so we're going to talk about tax, right? When you think about tax advisory, what does that mean to you? And how does that look different for your practice? Yeah.

Tell me more about what you're thinking about that.

I mean, it takes a lot of, you know, internal searching because, of course, you know, when people come to you, it's like we were saying with the ER.

You know, when people come to you and they need to get their surgery or, you know, they got a gunshot wound and they're in the ER, like, that's what you fix.

You know, we don't talk about, you know, changing your diet and, you know, exercising more.

It's like, no, I'm shocked.

I need to get that taken care of.

So, of course, I love hanging out in these communities.

Being an accountant in this time is one of the greatest things because you can lean on all these resources, the podcast, the thought leadership.

I mean, you could go on the town hall, YouTube.

There's so much Jason Stats, Ron Baker.

I've joined both of their communities years ago because...

You know, when I was just learning about, OK, I got to switch from just doing tax compliance work because that's all people see me as.

You know, it could literally be your friends like business owners that are your friends and you'll go through this whole like free advisory that you're giving them.

And then when it comes time to talk about the fees.

they're going to complain if you're sending them an invoice with just bookkeeping times, this amount tax preparation, this many forms, like nobody's happy to pay for compliance, even if it's a dollar or if it's a thousand dollars, like people just don't like that word.

Um, but they do, they do value your advice.

So once I started realizing that I'm like, I'm already doing advisory, I thought it would be a whole new thing.

I'd have to learn a new class I'd have to take.

No, I was already just doing, I just wasn't charging for it.

So when you really sit back and think about how you're charging for things, how you're giving people access to you, how you're bundling all your services and that kind of thing, you start to think about the client experience.

And that's what I've just realized.