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06/14/2013

How the Internet Works

The Thriveal CPAs had such a good time in Las Vegas this week. We learned stuff, and hung out together. But what was really cool was how a dude named Lance Walley hit me up on twitter on the way to Las Vegas with a message: “Hey dude, I need to meet you!” I didn’t know who he was, but I always say “sure” when strange people want to meet me when I’m out of town. : )

He said he owned a company that did online recurring billing for clients of CPA firms. I told him to take a bunch of us Thrivealists to dinner if he wanted to meet innovative CPAs, and HE DID! Sweet!

This is a story about how the internet works. Read more

Category:: Community, Computer and Technology
Comments:: 5

05/27/2013

Veiled Value

Entrepreneurs are so busy, so excited about serving their customers, that they often overlook value deeply embedded in their services. Value is embedded in the processes by which they service customers, price customers, collect money from customers, communicate with customers and practically every other interaction. As a coach, it’s fun to “unearth” that value. But when on your own, you often can’t see it, or don’t even know it’s there.

I call this Veiled Value. And it’s dangerous, because veiled value is no value at all if you can’t request a price for it. One of the greatest strategies firm owners or business owners can do is unearth the value they are delivering, display it before their customers, and effectively communicate that value with an adequate price. Read more

Category:: Pricing
Comments:: 4

03/25/2013

A Tale of Two Business Models

A friend emailed me the other day asking what I thought about his idea to create a new online ‘Accountant Marketplace.’ Sort of like 99Designs for accountants. In effect, it would be a place where those needing accountants could search for the best accountant, and pick the one they want. Maybe the price would come from a bid type system, or something similar.

This is definitely one type of business model. And it works too. Teaspiller was one such example. Teaspiller was purchased by Intuit, and now the url www.teaspiller.com redirects to this site: Read more

Category:: Business, Pricing
Comments:: 3

02/28/2013

In The Trenches With Carianne Weston, CPA

In The Trenches videos are brought to you by Thriveal and Bill.com.

You can find Cari on the web at Carianne Weston, Certified Public Accountant or follow her on twitter at @carianneweston.

Category:: In The Trenches
Comments:: 1

02/25/2013

Dolly Parton, Brand Genius

Maybe you don’t personally know Dolly Parton, but you do know of her, right? I believe almost everyone in the world does. She is a living definition of a brand. Seth Godin defined a brand, and I believe Dolly Parton fits his definition exactly. He said:

-a brand involves a set of expectations, memories and stories. There are definitely certain things you expect when you are talking about Dolly Parton (some I would blush to mention in this blog post), as well as the memories of her songs and the stories you’ve heard about her.
-you will pay a premium for the brand. You will pay a premium to see and hear Dolly’s music live.
-you will choose a brand over something else. Obviously, Dolly Parton is not for everyone, but you have to admit that she has a cult following.