After writing my first blog post, “Intern’s Corner: The Big Four Push” I began to think about how does one choose the right firm. I am lucky enough to have had to opportunity to experience different firms and different values over the past two years. I have been a member of Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) in that time period. By having those opportunities, I feel that I have been able to explore different options, and I know what is right for me. These are the steps that I took when choosing the firm I choose Read more…

Unquestionably, large mature accounting firms can have some distinct advantages.  As smaller firms can we overcome them and compete on the same level?

When I left the ‘Big 8′ (yes children, before it was the Big 4 it used to be the Big 8 back in the olden days) to practice with several other big firm refugees we were certain of the many opportunities that existed to invoke positive professional change, and do it better.  Like most teenagers, we knew it all – especially everything that was ‘wrong’.  We missed no opportunity to criticize.  And like most teenagers, we somehow missed all the things our former Big 8 employers had done that were ‘right’.  The naivete of youth.  And we were professionally youthful having only been recently emancipated.  Read more…

Recently, Bob Nugent the Chief Financial Officer for Scolari’s Markets, a chain retail grocer in Northern Nevada and one of our favorite and most valued clients, gave our firm a compliment that created a HSD for me. (HSD is the acronym for High Satisfaction Day – a phrase I first heard from author Ron Baker.) We had recently completed several projects for Scolari’s, which had involved several of our team members. Bob, not known for lavishing unsolicited praise in the thirty years I’ve known him, told me how impressed he was with the knowledge, professionalism and service level he had received from our associates. Read more…

Coming from the marketing side of our firm I spend some of my time browsing other firms sites to see what they are doing different, what information they have put on their sites, how they update them, etc. What is very interesting is that almost all of them have one thing in common, “They are different!” Different from the typical accounting firm. Read more…

When I ‘retired’ from Arthur Young and Company a couple of years ago, (1978) it wasn’t because I didn’t love the profession, or the work. It wasn’t because the compensation was inadequate. It was the job. It was my employer. I wasn’t trusted. I was given an annual quota of time to fill, monitored by a semi-monthly report submitted on my time sheet in quarter hours. Annually, there was a summary of my hourly performance in comparison to my peers and to employees that I had never met, who had served before me. We complied with an arbitrary standard we had no input in setting. The majority of my waking hours were planned for me, without my input. Read more…

It’s the little things that make “work” an enjoyable place to be. Since the average American spends more time at work than at home, I think it should! So many companies “budget-cut” the small things and perks that many employees enjoy. Is it really worth the happiness of the staff to save a little? Some little things I appreciate having at work:

• coffee with “flavored creamer”
• as many “post-its” as I need, or other office supplies
• snacks
• flexibility in coming and going to work
• wearing what I want to wear
• no time sheets/ punching in, punching out
• good health benefits

What makes it worth it for you to spend most of your life at work? What “little” things do you appreciate?

When I was a child (longer ago than I’d readily admit) my parents buying choices were significantly impacted by retailers who gave trading stamps with each purchase. For a new retailer, S & H Green stamps guaranteed an automatic approval from my mother, faster than the Good Housekeeping seal of approval, and almost as fast as my four brothers, sisters and I could disappear when we heard the buzzer on the clothes dryer go off and knew someone would be conscripted to fold under wear.

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I nearly killed myself in college to get straight A’s. Well, almost straight A’s. I graduated with 37 A’s and 3 B’s for a GPA of 3.921. At the time, I thought I was hot stuff. Now I wonder if it wasn’t a waste of time.”

We are taught that our grades are a reflection our our success. After entering the workforce do we still believe that? This post on Penelope Trunks’s Brazen Careerist by guest poster Jon Morrow hits the nail on the head.

We are an accounting firm. Why would we blog?

The list is endless, but mainly, we are different. We are not a typical accounting firm, nor are we a typical work environment.

I actually like coming in to work everyday. Wow, that’s not something you hear everyday. It’s true, though!

Our boss respects us, the staff is fun and works hard, and we have a purpose in our work. Neither our work nor our time is micromanaged. One of our main goals is to make people enjoy working here, working with each other, and spending lots of time with their family and friends.

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