Dealing With Change

By Monica J. Rebella, CPA

Hello all and welcome to February.

For those of you like me who are embarking on yet another busy season, just remember: We love meeting with our clients and we always get through busy season.

I hope you keep a few good friends’ e-mail addresses and telephone numbers nearby during busy season, just for support and reality checks from time to time.

Busy season is tough on staff members as well, so please make sure you check on your staff to let them know you care. Regardless of whether your busy time is now or at another time of the year, do you remember when you began your accounting career? In my early career, busy season made me think, “Oh my goodness, what have I gotten myself into?” Today it is so hard to find good staff that we certainly do not want to loose someone after a busy season in which they thought no one cared how hard they worked.

On another subject, are we ready for change?

We have a new president and Congress. They promise hope and several other things, but mostly change. Not only do we look to them for positive change, but we also rely on them for steady and upward progress in our economy, banking stability and market growth to help get our state and country headed back toward prosperity. Much will change in the areas of taxation, legislation and regulatory oversight.

As I have stated in all my messages, we all need to share our knowledge and experiences. This message is no different.

Our clients, fellow CPAs and firms will need our help during this year of change. We all possess unique skill sets and must be ready to advise clients and firms on where they can cut costs and where profit centers exist and should be exploited. As CPAs, we are excellent at providing insightful analysis, no-nonsense budgets and experienced counsel.

We will have clients, friends, relatives, co-workers and neighbors looking for help in understanding their situations and how these changes will affect them. Some of these people may be out of work, some may have lost their homes and others may have lost their retirement savings. Additionally, some companies are out of business or looking at bankruptcy. All need sound advice.

It is not going to be easy, but we are caring and skilled professionals who are ready for this challenge. In good times and bad, CPAs have much to offer. Our profession provides us with almost a recession-proof career. Some of you may want to volunteer your time to help at your church or other nonprofit organization to assist those individuals who cannot pay for help.

I encourage you to take a look at the Education Foundation courses and other publications for examples of how to help clients through difficult times. I also ask you to be ready as a resource to other CPAs. We are an organization that not only promotes our profession, but also supports each other by sharing our knowledge and experience. It works very well—try it!

As Kahlil Gibran said, “You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”

Your humble president,
— Monica Rebella, CPA

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 4:53 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.