We all are taught one thing that is EXCELLENCE… Give Your Best… Put 100%.
As a consultant, advisor, accountant, service provider, we have always tried our best to provide the best of what we can to our clients.
Do we get paid commensurately for providing the best what we can?
Over and over, I have got answer to this question in negative from CPAs, consultants, advisors and now virtual CFOs.
There could be one of the three possibilities concerning this.
- Fairly paid: It is human psychology to always think what we perceive ‘is the best’, is the best and should be valued very highly. That is not true in most cases. There are many other people on this planet providing similar or even better services to their clients at comparable prices. And believe me, your clients tend to compare you with them. It is not you v/s yourself. It is you v/s many brilliant service providers.
This is true for any service profession and not only CPA practice. I have, in my consulting practice, many service industry clients. All of them have the same feeling and accounting profession is not the only one facing this issue.
- Underpaid: Another possibility is, actually, you are providing really great service to your client if not the best on the planet. And yet, you are underpaid to a great extent for such services.
- Overpaid: Third possibility is, actually, you think you are underpaid for the kind of services you are providing. However, you are overpaid when compared to what other similar level people are providing. Because, that is what the industry standard is.
In all of the above scenarios, you can get paid more than what you are right now.
In my coming posts, I will try to address the above scenarios one by one and explore possible solutions that can be adopted by the CPA firms.
Hint: In profession, it is not necessary to provide the best. However, it is necessary to provide the best perceived value to the clients.
