May 28th, 2010 | Bill McIntosh, Founder

It is tough to talk to someone who is really smart and is who not really sharing their intelligence, insight and experience with those that are so desperate for what they have to offer those in need.

Very few professions are under marketed. Most industries and professions spend billions to convince you that you need to buy or join. As Seth Godin refers to it we now live in a world with, “Interruption Marketing.”  We try to get by in life, do well, solve our problems and hopefully gain some piece of mind. While on our way we get interrupted with radio ads, billboards, spam, pop ups, text messages and now advertisements on our mobile devices. It is endless and mind numbing.

But CPA’s are different. It is one field that is suffering from “Marketing Deficiency Syndrome.” (Please, do not take this as a serious diagnosis. I do not need some wacky psychiatrist now using my blog to invent some new disease.)

But it is true, the need for CPA’s and their services outweight their actual delivery. It is one of the few fields that is still stuck in old-fashioned think that is hampering its own expansion and profits. Do you realize how many businesses suffer from bad bookkeeping? Almost all. Do you know how many business people and entrepreneurs have tax problems, IRS suits and other messes that are not being confronted or resolved? It is in the tens of thousands.

I had lunch with a highly knowledgable CPA last week. A real smart business man who went on to tell me success after success of assisting the near hopeless with tax situations that would have stumped most others. As he was talking, I asked him if he had been blogging any of these successes. Not only was he not blogging, he was not sending these successes out even on email or through snail mail in a newsletter. He did not even know what a blog was.

A CPA’s best opportunity to demonstrate his acumen, other than face-to-face in person or on video, is through a blog.

This CPA was passionate and had no voice. He did not realize that for every one person he saved from IRAS purgatory, there were thousands in his area that were suffering from the same malady and malaise. His blog is the perfect venue to share his passion with the world, as well as educate the apathetic and worried. Done right, his blog could eventually reach tens of thousands and even get him into places he never dreamed of.

In that conversation he told me an old adage that has died along with the Dodo: “Hang out your shingle, let your reputation speak for itself and they will come.” Sorry, but a CPA firm is not the Field of Dreams. Those days are gone for the CPA who wants to rise above being a single practitioner and has a desire to rise above 70% of his industry counterparts. And he can do this through a well-written blog that is consistent and offers informative content.

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