Smaller CPA firms are making it through the recession just fine

Based on my experience last week at the 2009 AICPA Practitioner’s Symposium and preliminary data from the AICPA’s Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS) 2009 Practice Management Top Issues survey, it seems smaller firms are doing just fine.

Informal polls and conversations at the Symposium found that many of the smaller firm attendees are looking for marginal growth in the upcoming year and some are even expecting double digit growth! The PCPS Top Issues survey is starting to show the same thing. This survey will close at the end of May with the results completed by June.

This is encouraging news for the CPA profession. Many firms seemed up beat, saying their tax season was easier than the last few. They attribute their success to losing a few clients, making their workload a little more manageable.

Many of these firms weren’t as successful in finding and retaining talent during the CPA boom of the last few years, but now, the tides are turning. Some larger firms have had minor layoffs in the past two months allowing for the smaller firms to find the talent with the culture fit they need.

Smaller firms are finding success hiring CPAs from the larger firms and boomerangs from business, industry and government. If you are a smaller firm in need of talent, be sure to post your job on the AICPA CPA Job Finder which is still available free to AICPA member firms.  For instructions on how to get the free job posts, email me at mkoziel@aicpa.org.

If you’ve been recently displaced, get your resume up on the AICPA Job Finder today. There have been quite a few jobs coming and going on this job site.

So how was your tax season? Post a comment.

– Mark Koziel

Comments

what occupations that this person could get are probably slightly similar to a wildlife ecologist,

I guess that would depend on where you live...