After months of long, stressful days hunched over a computer, dealing with difficult clients and sorting through unorganized receipts, you’re ready to unwind. Come April 16, many accountants will take a well-earned vacation. But it’s not always easy to flip the switch and go from a constant-pressure mode to a Zen zone. 

You already know that stress is bad for your health. It distracts you during the day, keeps you up at night and manifests itself in physical aches and pains. The stress that practicing accountants face can be more intense than that of other professions, in part because of the deadline pressure. Whereas people in other lines of work have various ongoing deadlines, much of some CPA’s work is due on a few specific single days. Until those times, pressure mounts; after them, it drops off precipitously. 

Despite a lousy economy, it’s nice to see “leading edge” accounting firms acquire new business systematically, almost like there was no economic downturn at all.  In fact, it’s great to see small accounting firms stick to their marketing plans and fight thru this economic storm like it did not exist. 

At the same time, I have heard from some firms that pulled in the reins last summer and are now struggling with high client attrition rates in certain industry sectors (e.g., real estate, construction, manufacturing, etc.).  In fact, I received a long email from a client earlier this month who pulled the plug on marketing last summer and is now trying to cry on my shoulder about how his practice had too many construction clients…blah…blah.  And because the practice declined so quickly, he can’t really sell the practice for a fair price either.  In response, he got some tough love from me back within the hour about how his marketing expense reductions cut into the bone and did not trim any fat.  Much to my surprise, he agreed.