{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Business Strategy for CPA's","title":"114 CPAs Need to Stop Accepting Trap Money","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":642,"description":"Trap money is money that looks like good money, but in reality, it’s a trap.  Trap Money is important to be able to recognize because it’s one of the factors keeping CPAs under the glass income ceiling and working long hours.  If you can learn to recognize Trap Money for what it is, you’ll be better equipped to say No Thank You at the gates, and then, eventually move your Trap Money income out of your revenue streams. If you can stop accepting Trap Money, it will make your transition to a high-margin CPA firm that much faster, and that much easier.  So what is Trap Money? It’s money that appears to take only 20 minutes to make, and you make 3 or 4 hundred dollars. Typically it’s in the form of individual returns.  It looks like good money, because the thinking goes that if it takes 20 minutes to make $300, that’s an hourly rate of $900, and that’s not shabby.  The problem is, that math doesn’t account for the whole picture.  The math on 20 minutes for a personal return is 18 weeks working 40 hours a week. 18 weeks is 4.5 months. Tax season is only 2.5 months, or 10 weeks.  Now, if you have 3 staff you can push the work to, that’s another situation. That’s 6 weeks per staff member. So that’s doable. If it’s truly 20 minutes per return, which we have established that it’s more like 2 - 3 times that.    But would you rather that your business have:  10 CFO-Advisory clients at $75K  30 clients where you are a Concierge CPA at $25K  50 simple Advisory clients at $15K  250 business returns at $3K   or 2,000 Individual returns at $350 apiece?   A reason that so many CPAs are stuck on the hamster wheel is Trap Money.  Recognize it for what it is, decide WHO you want to have as clients and where you want to focus your talents, and get rid of anything that risks getting you caught in trap money.  If you don’t believe me, let me give you an update from Minnie, my client from last week’s episode. Last April, she was drowning in Trap Money. She was making enough Trap Money...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/AZFvbY29RNsC20PTchqbqXsFoNMjM1040wmYivreg-g/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9lZmE1/ODU2OWRkNzA4ZDQ2/ODg2YmEwYjYzNmEw/NjkzNC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}