Rob Nance's Page

Greetings on this Friday before a three-day holiday weekend. For MyAccountingLife members only...I have new AccountingWEB ball caps that I would like to give anyone who wants one. Simply e-mail me at rnance@accountingweb.com with "MyAccountingLife Hat Offer" in the subject line. Include your postal address in the note. This is just another benefit of being involved with the MyAccountingLife community!

Right before "Saturday Night Live" debuted in 1975, Dan Aykroyd thought to himself, "If we die tonight, it's all over. I may as well get into the snowplow business." I suppose we've all had those moments, but perhaps not on that scale. This leads me to the question, "If you could not have a career in accounting or finance, what would you do for a living?"

It's 95 degrees here in Columbus right now. I don't think anyone is thinking of snowplows today.

Barry Schimel's new book, 100 Ways to Profit in a Volatile Economy: Battle-tested Business Strategies, is really a great read. I highly recommend it. For those of you who may not be familiar with Barry, he is the co-creator of BizActions, a provider of a variety of very useful and powerful tools for the accounting industry. Barry built a successful accounting firm in Washington D.C. prior to launching BizActions in the year 2000. I think you will find his book worthy of your time. If not,… Continue

I was talking with a CPA at a large regional firm in Illinois this morning when we got on the subject of office pranks. Apparently he's one of a handful of jokers in their office, keeping those who play along on their toes at all times. It sounds like a fun place to work! The most recent prank he played was on one of the senior partners who naps on the sofa in his office for 45 minutes after lunch every day. He snuck in to this guy's office and slipped slices of bologna in his shoes. Classic.

O… Continue

Many accountants like math challenges, so here’s a dandy. I’ve been to hundreds of baseball games in my life, but at a recent Columbus Clippers/Charlotte Knights game I witnessed something I had not previously seen. What are the actual odds of this event?

Here’s what happened: In a game where 9,140 people attended, the batter hit a foul ball into the right-field corner, which was caught in the air by a fan. On the next pitch, the batter hit another foul ball--caught in the air by the same ma… Continue