Accounting
The shiny object trap: How to stay focused on what really matters
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Like many professional advisors, I love checking out all new shiny objects coming down the pike. If they can make our professional lives easier, why not? Sometimes, it’s a new app or a new way of doing business or the latest AI improvements. Hearing about the next big thing gets excited about the future ahead. That’s the fun part of our profession.
But Alex Hormozi, an accomplished entrepreneur, author, and investor, believes that when you’re running a business, you have two competing buckets taking up your time and energy: (1) problems and (2) missed opportunities. Cool tools, like AI, new technology or even new niches to pursue, offer the potential to make your business even better. It’s human nature not to want to suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out). But there’s an opportunity cost to pursuing those shiny objects.
Meanwhile, stubborn problems in your business may be holding you back from reaching your full potential. Like Hormozi, I believe you should address these impediments first. For instance, is your team failing to get back to clients promptly? Is your firm’s Net Promoter Score sinking? Is staff turnover higher than you’d like it to be? Are you chronically underbilling your clients?
You know you should address these basic blocking and tackling issues, but Hormozi believes many business owners — including professional service firm leaders — would rather pursue the next hot thing instead. The reason? Solving problems is hard. It’s not sexy. But shiny objects are fun and exciting. In other words, missed opportunities are about doing more. Problems are about doing less — but better.
Low-tech solution to a high tech issue
So, how can you stay focused on your most important business problems without being distracted by the shiny objects? Keep a notebook. Better yet, keep two notebooks with you at all times: One for problems and one for missed opportunities.
In the missed opportunities notebook, write down every shiny object pining for your attention, and let it sit for 60 days. After several months have passed, revisit those opportunities. More often than not, those fantastic ideas from a month or two ago may not seem so great today. They may not seem very realistic to implement. This approach prevents you from making impulsive decisions that waste your valuable time, resources, and mental energy. Meanwhile, if an idea from several months ago still seems worth pursuing, then you can move it to the next level of consideration. But only after you’ve tackled your core problems first.
Here’s why.
Your clients don’t care about the new AI tool you are implementing if it still takes you six days to call them back. I’m guessing they won’t be impressed by the new client portal you’ve rolled out — with all the bells and whistles — if you can’t keep a senior tax manager for more than 18 months because of your firm’s toxic culture.
As we’ve discussed in prior articles, clients don’t leave your firm because you lack tools. They leave because they don’t feel important. What’s the best tool to make them feel important? The telephone. Use it. Give them a call and remind them how valuable they are to your firm and that you’ve got them covered at all times.
Again, exploring shiny new objects is much more fun than addressing your longstanding problems. But once you make the commitment to fixing your problems, many other challenges in your business will start to solve themselves.
Solving persistent problems
When you take out your problems notebook, write down the three biggest core problems in your business. Ask your team:
- “What’s going on with our client service? What’s our core problem there?”
- “What’s going on with our team? What are their biggest issues?”
Then ask: “What’s going on at the business level, and what’s the biggest problem there? Next, pick one problem — one problem only — and be relentless about solving it.
You can’t work on three problems simultaneously and hope to solve them all. Mobilize the entire team and put a laser focus on the highest priority issue and get after it. If someone brings up another problem, that’s fine. Write it down in your problems notebook and file it away.
If everyone on your team is rowing in the same direction and focusing on the same goal, solving the problem won’t take nearly as long as you think. But if you and your people are continually distracted by different problems and opportunities, you won’t make any progress.
Have the courage to clear the decks and say, “This is all we’re working on right now. We can’t focus on new stuff until we lock the back door and solve the issues weighing us down?” Tackle the core problems first because if one of the opportunities works out and doubles your business overnight, guess what? You’ll have exponentially more problems. People will burn out and leave. Clients may drop you. Morale will plummet, and your reputation will take a big hit.
That doesn’t sound like such a great opportunity after all, does it? So right the ship first. Then, you can pull the lever on opportunities as much as you want.
Just don’t tell me you have no problems to address. All of the client feedback is great? Really! No one is saying client service could be better? C’mon! You’re having no trouble attracting and retaining talent? And at the business level, are all of your numbers where they should be? I didn’t think so.
Instead, write down your most significant problem in each of those three areas, focus on that one thing, and then have everyone focus on the same problem relentlessly until you can say: “OK. We’re 80% there. This is good. Let’s move on to the next problem.”
Take the time to fix what’s broken before chasing the next shiny object. You’ll be better positioned to capitalize on future opportunities when the time is right. How is your firm addressing challenges and pursuing new opportunities? I’d
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent named Internal Revenue Service chief operating officer Melanie Krause as acting commissioner after the retirement of acting commissioner Douglas O’Donnell.
O’Donnell has been acting commissioner since January, taking over from former IRS commissioner Danny Werfel, who announced he would be
“The IRS has been my professional home for 38 years,” O’Donnell said in a statement Tuesday. “I care deeply about the institution and its people and am confident that Melanie will be an outstanding steward of the Service until a new Commissioner is confirmed.”
The IRS has been going through a period of turmoil, with an estimated
Senate confirmation hearings have not yet been scheduled for Long, but he is expected to be questioned about his record of
Until Long is confirmed, IRS COO Krause will now move into O’Donnell’s deputy commissioner role and serve as acting commissioner of the nation’s tax agency.
“On behalf of the Treasury Department, I want to thank Doug O’Donnell for his decades of public service and dedication to the nation’s taxpayers,” Bessent said in a statement Tuesday. “He has been a remarkable public servant, and I wish him the best in retirement. At the same time, Melanie Krause and the agency’s leadership team are well positioned to serve during this critical period for the nation in advance of the April tax deadline.”
Krause has served as IRS COO since April 2024 after acting as deputy commissioner of operations support since January of the same year. As COO, she oversees the operations including the Chief Financial Officer; Chief Risk Office; Facilities Management and Security Services; Human Capital Office; Office of Chief Procurement; Privacy, Governmental Liaison and Disclosure; Research, Applied Analytics and Statistics.
She began her career at the IRS in October 2021 as chief data and analytics officer. In this role, in addition to leading the RAAS team, Krause also coordinated research activities including using AI and other advanced analytics. Krause also served as acting deputy commissioner for services and enforcement from November 2022 to March 2023.
Prior to joining the IRS, Krause spent 12 years in the federal oversight community, including the Government Accountability Office and the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General. Krause also maintains an active license as a registered nurse. She holds bachelor, master and doctoral degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs released a
The report analyzes how accounting firms in Pennsylvania are structuring compensation, navigating retention and recruitment challenges, and adapting their benefits to remain competitive.
Jennifer Cryder
“Our latest findings make it clear: salary alone isn’t enough to attract and retain top talent in today’s market and firms need to be thinking differently about what matters,” said PICPA CEO Jennifer Cryder in a statement. “Holistic compensation strategies that include competitive benefits, flexible work arrangements, and clear career development pathways are critical in today’s world. Above all, we intend for this report to provide firm leaders with the insights they need to build a sustainable workforce for the future.”
The report found the firms surveyed by PICPA are experiencing inconsistencies in their ability to retain talent, with 48.3% reporting an increase in staff retention, while 24.1% of the respondents saw a decrease and 27.6% said retention remained stable. Firms reported an average salary increase of 8% in June 2024, up from 5% in July 2023, indicating slow but consistent average salary growth.
Offering comprehensive benefits remains a priority, with 88.5% of the firms surveyed providing medical insurance, 80.8% offering dental coverage, and 73.1% including vision insurance for employees.
Efforts to attract talent are changing, with 58.7% of the firms that responded to the survey increasing their hiring activity over the past year, while 37.9% maintained steady recruitment levels.
Many firms are responding to employee expectations for work-life balance, with 80% of the surveyed firms allowing flex hours outside of core hours and 76.9% offering flexible work options year-round.
With over half (54.2%) of the surveyed firms identifying hiring and talent retention as a top priority in 2025, the report stresses the need for firms to move beyond traditional compensation models. The report found a shift toward total rewards strategies — integrating salary, benefits, professional development and work-life balance — is essential to attracting and retaining top talent in an increasingly competitive market.
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