Thriving on Busyness

My second favorite class in college was Psychology Applied to Work. It was truly eye opening – there was more to the corporate life then just plugging away at your computer and meetings. It was about relationships, people skills and managing time and resources. Just simply understanding why people do things and how each of us are different helped me in starting my career. Over time (25 tax seasons later) and a lot of wisdom gained along the way, I’m still learning and have a long way to go yet.

From the practice management perspective, I think we’ve all learned this during our tenures - summers are often filled with projects and initiatives at our firms. While our plates our full year round, summer is at its peak because this is the time we implement _______(you fill in the blank) to be ready for next tax season. It’s no different for AAA, especially as we rebrand to CPAFMA – CPA Firm Management Association.

Change you say? That is a big one, it will be a challenge for all of us as we let the world know who we are and what we do.

That happened on a grand scale in Orlando back in June. Our co-location with AICPA and AAM for our national conference afforded us the opportunity to make new connections and raise the bar for practice management in CPA firms. Overall, it was a success with many lessons learned for potential future combined events. My own straw polling of attendees garnered several positive themes – having a wider array of vendors, new industry peers to meet and greet and a broader list of course offerings. The one concern heard often was the feeling that we lost some identity. This comment is very much noted and was recognized by the AICPA as well. If we co-locate again, we will ensure that sufficient time and space is allocated for networking among CPAFMA members.

For next year, we are all set to meet in Baltimore at the Inner Harbor. In July, our conference planning committee was hard at work planning ahead for that event and we are close to finalizing a strong line up of speakers and events. All I can say is, I see a bright future ahead.

Your CPAFMA board is busy with the rebranding initiative as well as other projects to ensure we maintain and expand your membership benefits. Education leads that list, especially as it pertains to just understanding what all benefits you have as a member. As we work toward firm memberships as opposed to individual memberships, we expect even more connections as the long standing goal of membership growth beyond 1,000 members moves forward. While it is not about the numbers, it is truly about connecting those in our industry together to grow ourselves and our practices so that we can be future ready. Start connecting if you have not already on our discussion board, Q&A FM.

These projects are big for CPAFMA, and I’m sure your summer to do list – for work and at home is staggering as well. As Rita Keller often states in her blog, make sure you take time off and disconnect. Many of us speak of busyness as a badge of honor. Don’t be that person. The fact is, if you are too busy, you’re missing a lot…..especially of the things that really matter.

Slow down and enjoy this fall, we will be gearing up for tax season soon!