Takin' Care of Business - Real CPAs Explain W
Business Management
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants presents "Takin' Care of Business"
All right, all right, settle down, everybody. Come on. Give me your attention, please. So, Aaron, any ideas about what you'd like to be? I'm not really sure. Barron, those are hardly the words for the editor of the school paper and president of the class. Hey, don't forget. Captain of the field hockey team. Right. Nice form. Okay, Aaron. It says you like being counted on for your good judgment. You like being in charge.
No surprise there. Since the Supreme Court requires a tad more experience, what about CPA? What? A dweeb? A contra, a certified public accountant is not in the same universe as that stereotype nerd with glass is no a CPA is viewed as the master of business people. One who gives guidance. Insight. Think Yoda minus the swampy shack with a cell phone and a laptop. And Shannon, you too, you've got the talent to see things that others can't. No, not like the 6th sense, more like Bill Gates, the ability to think differently. So mister dilworth, everybody should be a CPA. No, some must graze in other pastures. But everyone sure needs a CPA. Here.
Maybe this video can explain it. The great thing about going into accounting is that it opens a whole world of possibilities. I started talking to people in a professional, oh, you know, working in a local firm where I get to work with entrepreneurs. I think that really is my calling because then you really do get to tie in more of the creative thought processes and you really are thrown into the mix right off the bat. The reason that I chose the firm that I'm looking at is because of the diversity of clients. Everything from high-tech clients, Internet startups, construction, contractors, manufacturers, nonprofit organizations such as the Seattle symphony. If there was one thing that I really did not learn a lot about in college, it was the whole world of nonprofit organizations behind the scenes. There are hundreds of people that really make this an organization they're not very exciting and dynamic part of that behind the scenes group is the accounting department. Knowing people donate money to the symphonies, someone has to keep track of all that.
Someone has to try to continue to make those donations grow and put them to the best use. We use the word consultant rather than the typical staff accountant because we are really looked at it as a business adviser to our clients. When we actually do come out to a client, there are various opportunities that just present themselves. Maybe they need help hiring particular people to grow their accounting department. Maybe they need help, putting together a business plan, something that they can present to donors. You know, helping people figure out the best way to structure their company. Math is really not the focus. Yes, there are numbers, yes, there are dollars and adding in subtracting is pretty critical. But beyond that, it's more of having the thinking skills. You come out of college thinking, oh my gosh, do I know anything, am I really ready for the real world, but it's pretty amazing.
First of all, how much you do know, and second of all, how quickly you learn? If you have any inkling that business is what interests you and you really want to get on the inside track of any type of business, then public accounting is far and away, the most direct route to do that. I've heard sort of the joking explanation of an entrepreneur is somebody who works 16 hours a day so they don't have to work 8 hours for somebody else. But there's some truth in that, but I think an entrepreneur is really somebody who looks for opportunities in the market. The market being business all over the world. And then try and figure out if they can create a business out of that opportunity. The CPA profession really prepared me for business and with my desire to start my own business anyway. I knew that this huge infrastructure of Internet that could reach millions of people would have to be used for business. And the businesses will be looking for professionals who can help them create that. I decided it was time to just jump out and start my own business.
My primary role is business development. And I mean to meeting with new clients, talking to them about their business, why the Internet is an advantage. My typical day is I start failure early. I'll touch base on all the projects, all the websites and ecommerce development projects that we have going is to make sure that everything is in order. Then I'll roll in maybe 5 30 or 6 o'clock, have evening with your family, and then when the kids all go to bed, I'm cranking up my laptop at home at 8 or 8 30 and working till ten, ten, 30, 11 o'clock at night. I don't think you can ever stop being an entrepreneur. Even if you're within a huge firm, the firms live on entrepreneurial ideas. We always keep that in front of us in our business. We need to keep looking at new ideas. Because somebody else is.
The opportunities for CPAs who understand technology who understand the Internet specifically are im so you can go in and advise the new dot com startup companies of how they ought to structure their own company because you understand how they're going to do business on the web. You can go into the major companies that are trying to re-engineer the way they perform services with the Internet and advise them. The opportunity to serve in this role is going to be huge. Now, Lynette. Hey. I was going to use that. You think strategically you have excellent communication skills and if it weren't for your high ethical standards, I'd say maybe a third world dictator. But I got to say CPA for you too. Let's go to the videotape. Well, I decided to obtain my CPA after working in the accounting field for about three years. As soon as I passed the exam, I applied to the FBI. It's very competitive. I mean, because you're competing with applicants nationwide for just a few positions. They look for advanced degrees, professional certifications, which CPA qualifies.
The training for becoming an FBI agent was quite extensive. It consisted of 16 weeks of vigorous firearms, physical fitness, and classroom training. For most people, when you think of the FBI, you'd think of kidnappings, bank robberies, organized crime, but there's another aspect of the FBI white collar crime. I specialize mostly in the bank fraud and bankruptcy fraud area. The motive for a majority of crimes is money. And we need agents and individuals with that financial background to trace funds, we have to prepare extensive prosecutive reports once we gather all of the evidence and present it in a logical manner to the United States attorney's office so that they will be able to prosecute the case. We also have to testify in court, so you have to be comfortable speaking in public. In a typical day, you might have to help out a fellow agent on a surge. You might have to go out and do an arrest. I just feel good about being affiliated with an organization that has such a rich history.
To know that I had a part in eliminating some type of crime. I had to get a lot of career satisfaction from being an FBI agent. Class, while I try to reconstruct my knowledge of 1983 technology. How about some facts about other CPAs? Did you know that Tom Picard, the FBI's number two kahuna is a CPA? Oh, and anybody know Phil knight? Yeah, that guy who started the little sneaker company, Nike. CPA. You know, just look anywhere where the action is and you'll see CPAs. That's a little loud. Now, where was I? Jackie, you've got an analytical side and a creative side. Maybe you could find a career where you could use both. Gee, I wonder where this is going. Stay with me here, okay? Mike, you have a more competitive side, right? That fire in your belly to win. You ever consider it contact sport. Have I? You could be a CPA for a professional sports team. Real team player. Unless of course you blow out your knee and you'll thank your lucky stars because there's a CPA, you'll still have a career.
Here, let's watch. I have personal interest in the entertainment industry because I love the movies. A common job would be as a production accountant. Each production has its own set of books, it gets funded by the production company, which would be new line, and the production account is basically the controller, the CFO, the VP of finance for the actual production for the length of time that the production is going on. Spray plant Einstein. You actually see the stars of the movie and you deal with the actual finances of the movie what's actually making up the cost of the budget of the movie. And when one movie is over, you go work on a different movie. My job is a little different than that. I get very involved in the big picture of the business. I'm the person who does the business plan. Every film that we make, I have a projection for. And the films that have already been released, I update based on what actually happened was it available on television this quarter and how much was the revenue and when are they paying us? Things like that, I keep track of for every single film and then I add all the films together and then that's our business plan.
Where it gets creative and fun is the stuff that you haven't made yet. Are we going to make ten very large budget pictures? Are we going to make 20 small budget pictures? What's happening to our TV division? Are they going to have straight to TV stuff? Is there going to be a TV series, a movie of the week, a special? What ends up happening is that I know what the vision of the company is and I have to put the pieces together to portray that. I have to say the best thing about my job is how it enables me to live my life. I had a baby last year and the company has been very flexible with me. I can work from home via a computer that the company gave me. I can access all of my files and everything. Having that balance in my life between my job and my and my family. It makes everything that I do worthwhile. Working here at the jets is a dream come true for sports enthusiasts. Jets going all the way next year. It wasn't until I came to work here at the jets that I realized that there's a lot of different components that go into this finished product that you see on the football field at 1 p.m. on a Sunday or on Monday Night Football.
The great thing about being in the accounting department and being in controller is that everything will somehow some way pass through your desk and you can gain some real insight into the company that you're working for. I get involved in all aspects of the organization in terms of measuring the performance of the organization, taking a look at the marketing aspect, the operations aspect. So when we're talking about maximizing revenue, it says, okay, we've got to sell more tickets or we've got to sell more pretzels at the game. Same thing with expenses, okay? We've got to control some player costs because we're spending a little bit too much money on this a little bit too much money on that.
The 1993 that the NFL introduced a salary cap it became a matter of now I have this piece I need to fit into the puzzle can we work this guy in. He's going to need a signing bonus of X, he's going to have a base salary of Y will how will this fit in under the salary cap? Working in the sports and entertainment industry in general is very rewarding. It's like being part of the team, but without being on the playing field. I would have liked to have been on the playing field, but I'll take the next best thing and that's working in the front office and being a part of the team and very much involved in making a contribution towards our ultimate goal, which is to win football games and hopefully compete for the ultimate experience of playing in the Super Bowl.
So there you see, because CPAs know the language of business, they can be whatever they want to be. CPAs work with nonprofits like charities or hospitals or they run companies that make money. Truckloads of it, but hey, who's counting? You could work with athletes. Or actors. You could even make a career tracking down criminals or Internet bandits. Just imagine the possibilities. And if this stupid machine would just work, we'd see the kind of respect job security and flexibility that CPAs enjoy. Ow. Stop. Little help. Class. Class? Anyone? You could have every morning from the home crops wouldn't take me 8 50 to the same there's a whistle up above the people pushing people shoving out the curls over trying to look pretty and I'll be taking care of business.