Another example would be in the game of golf when I was playing competitive amateur golf. In this situation, I loved my old MacGregor persimmon woods and dragged my feet to even try metal woods. The old Tommy Armour woods that I used in college were very forgiving on mis-hits and were my safety blanket so the thought of caving into some fad using these Pittsburgh Persimmon woods from Taylor Made was out-of-the-question. It wasn't until Big Bertha came around that I realized that my loyalty to persimmon woods was costing me too many yards off the tee.

I was also slow to adopt Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser because of my anti-Microsoft mentality. Hanging onto Netscape was another example of my adoption rate, slow.

Talkin' about slow adopters, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are feeling the pain for missing the transition to hybrids and more environmentally friendly alternatives. It's so bad that Ford is now considering going private.

In many ways, YOUR reluctance to adopt QuickBooks is costing you as well. Here are the plain facts so you can evaluate the landscape:

• QuickBooks is used by nearly 3 million small businesses
• 86 percent of QuickBooks users work regularly with accountants
• QuickBooks accounts for nearly 90 percent of the market share for retail accounting software sales
• Four of five accountants recommend QuickBooks to their small business clients

Yes, I've heard all of the arguments against QuickBooks. At the same time, the sea parted years ago and I clearly see how this "slow adopter" mentality is costing many small business accounting firms. By refusing to adopt QuickBooks, you are clinging to a Macintosh, Netscape, Sony's Beta and Lotus. Yes, I understand that there may be better alternatives out there but it is costing you in the back pocket, big time. Keep in mind, Sony's Beta was better than DVDs, Lotus was better than Excel, and Macintosh was better than PCs but that didn't matter at the end of the day.

Hugh Duffy MBA

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Hugh Duffy is co-founder and chief marketing officer for Build Your Firm, a leading practice development firm dedicated to the accounting industry.  Based in Madison, Conn., Build Your Firm works with small accounting firms providing accounting marketing, practice management and Web site development services. 

Prior to co-founding Build Your Firm in 2003, Hugh was a Vice President of Internet Marketing for Business & Legal Reports (BLR), a business-to-business publisher for small and medium sized businesses.  Prior to BLR, Hugh was a Director with a publicly traded global internet media company, 24/7 Real Media responsible for Business Development and Strategic Partnerships.  The foundation of Hugh’s marketing background is fourteen years of consumer packaged goods marketing with Schick, Nabisco, Clorox and Coca-Cola. 

Hugh has 25 years of marketing experience, an MBA degree in marketing from the University of Rochester and a B.S. in finance from the University of Maryland.  While at Maryland, Hugh was on a golf scholarship and his coach was Fred Funk, PGA Tour player.  Today, Hugh’s golf game suffers and he is content watching his two kids play college lacrosse.