I was at the IRS Tax Forum in San Diego last week (and DC before that and Atlanta before that). It’s been a minute since TaxProMarketer’s been to an IRS show — it’s been a long minute for all of us. I gotta say, it felt good to be back.
I always particularly enjoy seeing our clients face-to-face and hearing all the chatter from visitors to our booth. And despite the bad lighting and low ceilings in the exhibit hall, I had many great conversations with practitioners.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure if these shows would be the same post-pandemic. And I was right (it happens sometimes) — this was better than before.
Really! I’m not just blowing smoke here.
The overwhelming sense I got from owners (that I didn’t always get before) is that almost everyone is proactively trying to adjust their practice to the new environment – and grow.
Even though this was one of the smaller IRS tax forums this year, my team and I were BUSY talking with tax pros from across the spectrum who are adjusting their services, examining their staff and systems, trying to improve their communications, and generally pivoting to adjust to the new market around us.
One conversation was mostly about the need for better systems for their five locations. Another was looking to grow because they had done very little marketing up to that point. An accountant knew she had a bad website and decided it was time to fix that. A tax resolution-focused firm owner was recognizing his need for better visibility online.
These are all conversations I have on a regular basis with people in this industry, but this week felt more energetic than usual. Maybe everyone was just glad to be back with fellow tax geeks at a trade show again … but my sense is that firm owners are recovering from the grind of the last few years and are rising to the challenge of the new economy before them.
They know that the need for knowledgeable tax and accounting experts is not going away anytime soon.
Were you at any of the recent shows, too? I’d love to hear your takeaways. And if you’ll be at the IRS tax forum in Orlando next week, please come say hi.
The tide is rising.
