What do you need to know before selling your life’s work or buying someone else’s? Learn from Stephanie’s experience as she shares her perspective on avoiding key obstacles during the acquisition and transition process in buying or selling an accounting practice. After working together in the mergers and acquisitions space for more than 15 years, you don’t want to miss out on Brannon and Stephanie's conversation! 

This podcast touched on:

• The importance of having a vision before you sell your CPA firm. 
• Why buyers and sellers need to consider cultural fit before transitioning. 
• Having hard conversations early on to avoid issues in the long run. 

Whether you are considering buying or selling a CPA firm, it is crucial to consider your personal and professional goals beforehand. Knowing what your vision is before leaving your practice or buying a new one is vital to the success of either endeavor. Additionally, knowing what your values are and focusing on finding a cultural fit is key to the negotiation and transition process. Listen to learn more in this episode of the Accountant’s Flight Plan! 

If this conversation inspires you to learn how your firm would fare in the marketplace, please download our CPA VALUATION KEY FACTORS REPORT. 

You can listen to the podcast on the player below or watch the latest episode here! 

Time stamps:

00:34 - Introduction of Stephanie Smith; Poe Group’s most experienced broker.

3:10 - What makes for the most challenging and most enjoyable deals?

10:55 - What you need to do to prepare to sell your CPA firm.

16:12 - Why focusing on fit is key to a successful accounting firm transition.

24:05 - How AI could help the accounting profession.

28:28 - Book recommendation: Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High

Is tracking your hours decreasing your productivity and profitability? According to Geraldine Carter, the answer is most likely yes. In their conversation, Brannon and Geraldine break down how the hourly billing model takes you away from providing real value to your clients. Conversely, getting your hours down and doing away with the hourly billing model altogether could be the key to raising your bottom line. 

This podcast touched on:

• Hourly billing vs value pricing.
• The impact of private equity on the accounting industry.
• Why hiring won’t solve the problem of overwork.

By refocusing on the value you can provide to your clients rather than on the hours you are billing them for you can increase your revenue while simultaneously lowering your hours. The key to building the business you want and living the life you want lies in refocusing your firm so that you can make meaningful changes. Listen in to learn how you can gain capacity, think critically, and make moves to live a life with balance. 

Time Stamps: 

0:38 - Introduction of Geraldine Carter

1:44 - Private equity firms in the accounting space

5:50 - Why are so many CPAs overworked and what is the solution?

15:31 - How to price upfront without hourly billing.

19:40 - Why hourly billing is a trap.

35:38 - Geraldine’s new book - Down to 40 Hours [https://geraldinecarter.com/book] 

38:22 - Wrapping up  

Getting in touch with Geraldine:

Geraldine’s Website: https://geraldinecarter.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geraldine-carter/ 

Since joining Poe Group as a Regional Market Leader, Darryl has been an integral part of the team. Listen in on our conversation discussing the ins and outs of guiding buyers and sellers through the transition process. Discover what makes for a smooth transition and why preparation is integral to the acquisition process. 

Join me in a conversation about the world of specialization with Catherine Tindall, founder of Dominion Enterprise Services.  Catherine’s area of expertise lies within her ability to craft precise credit and income tax planning strategies, particularly focused on the Employee Retention Credit (ERC).  In this episode, Catherine shares her rationale for choosing to specialize in ERC, including where her practice will head in a post-ERC world.  Together, we dive deep into the complex history of ERC, the future for professionals assisting in ERC, and the importance of understanding eligibility determinations for practitioners venturing into this specialty.

Contemplating the sale of your practice or firm?  Seasoned entrepreneur, Clay Blakely candidly shares how he grew his CPA practice and why he and his wife decided to sell.  Finding the right buyer is all about fit so we chatted about how Clay was able to establish what he wanted in a buyer and his motivation for a sale.  Of course, we can’t talk about selling an accounting firm without reflecting on Clay’s experience with transition.

Ready to grow your accounting firm?  Let’s listen to the wisdom shared by a seasoned entrepreneur, Meryl Johnston.  A Chartered Accountant, founder of Bean Ninjas, and Head of Accounting at TeamUp, Meryl brings a wealth of experience to the table.  Together, we chat about the power of niching down and the art of running a non-owner-centric business.  Meryl shares her entrepreneurial journey, transitioning from CEO to a part-time advisor role, noting the importance of sticking to your goals while growing a business, and ensuring your needs and life take precedence.

In this episode, I interview Geni Whitehouse, CPA, co-founder of Solve Services, and a Level 5 Advisor and Coach at www.TheImpactfulAdvisor.com. Geni is an advocate for unlocking the magic in numbers for business owners. Geni and I share a conversation about the current opportunities in advisory: Setting frameworks, showing accounting impact, and exploring niche services.

It’s time we talk tech. In this episode, I interview Jesse Rubenfeld, Founder and CEO of FinOptimal, and Tom Zehentner, Director of Growth.  We dive deep into the topic of automation including the three main characteristics of an automated process.

We were thrilled to have Andrea MacDonald, the founder and CEO of Pro Tax & Accounting LLC, on this episode of Accountant's Flight Plan Podcast. In addition to her wealth of expertise in managing micro businesses, Andrea shares her insights on the strategic process of acquiring an accounting firm. 

On this episode, I chat with Jason Blumer, one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting (Accounting Today) about the current state of the accounting industry.  Jason is the founder of Thirveal, CEO of Blumer & Associates, and co-host of 2 podcasts: Thrivecast and The Businessology Show.  He shares how he grew his cloud-based accounting firm over the past 20 years and why he became an advisor in the industry.

If you are ready to learn the mindset shift needed to start thinking about scaling challenges creatively, this is a great episode.  Geraldine Carter, coach to single-owner CPAs, joins me on this episode of Accountant’s Flight Plan and shares the mindset needed to bring your work week back to 40 hours.

Are you a firm owner who is considering selling your practice?  Or are you a potential buyer that’s looking to acquire your first business?  Then you do not want to miss the opportunity to learn how Patrick Dichter leveraged his non-CPA background to acquire and grow 3 CPA firms.  On this episode of Accountant’s Flight Plan, Patrick shares his top 4 reasons why CPA firm owners should consider a non-CPA buyer.  Brannon and Patrick even discuss both the bad and good surprises to expect as a buyer, with a non-traditional CPA background.  

Learn why buying a CPA firm “isn’t like buying a house” with buyer specialist Carol Poe. For the aquisition and transition process of buying an accounting firm to be successful it is crucial that both the buyer and seller are the right fit. By focusing on the work culture and personality of both, Carol guides buyers and sellers to find the best fit for their clients and team. 

This podcast touched on:

• Working with your spouse. 
• What to look for in a buyer.
• How to find success in your new firm.

Having a vision for your new firm is crucial to the success and longevity of that firm. Part of that vision starts with making sure that each practice is paired with the perfect buyer. Listen to the full episode to hear more about how getting clear on your goals before acquisition is crucial to finding the success you want. 

Time Stamps: 

0:39 - Introduction of Carol.

4:20 - How Carol started working as buyer specialist for Poe Group.

7:45 - The process of finding the right fit.

17:40 - Why sellers are looking for someone who will take care of their clients and staff.

23:55 - Book recommendation and closing thoughts.

• “The Women” by Kristin Hannah
• [https://www.amazon.com/Women-Novel-Kristin-Hannah/dp/1250178630] 

Getting in touch with Carol:

For appointment email: cpoe@poegroupadvisors.com

Bill Cates, expert in acquiring new clients through referral, joins me to chat about building habits within your business to maximize referrals, and convert them into clients or even new staff!  Join this discussion to learn more about creating a perpetual revenue system, the power of asking questions, and result-producing strategies that build personable relationships.

This book has actionable practice management advice for all firm owners whether you are a CPA, EA, bookkeeper or general accountant.  With the lessons in our latest book, you’ll learn to build upon your firm’s success and make your firm more enjoyable for you and your staff or a future buyer. 

On this episode of Accountant’s Flight Plan, We interviewed Giles Pearson, former partner of PWC & co-founder of Accountests.  Giles shares how Accountests was developed as a solution to a gap in the hiring process for CPA’s.

Randy Crabtree, former general tax practice owner, and current specialty tax prep firm owner, discusses the impacts of burnout and how to avoid it!  Randy has experienced both the highs and lows of leadership and chats with us about maximizing your traits as an entrepreneur and growing employee morale.

How Ravi Patel purchased his accounting firm through Poe Group Advisors.

This was a great meeting of minds on practice management! We had Roger Knecht on the podcast discussing insights from his post secondary course for accounting professionals, Universal Accounting. 

This podcast touched on:

• Opportunities in the profession 
• Service offerings
• Staffing issues and solutions  
• What drives practice value and client retention 
• Improving time management and profits 

In this podcast, Jordan (of Troika) and I dive into what it means to be intentional about marketing as an accounting firm. Jordan takes a thoughtful approach that considers what a firm needs, and what would be most effective which is refreshing when most marketers say more, more, more. 

 We recently had productivity expert, Marcey Rader, on the Accountant’s Flight Plan Podcast to chat with us about managing remote staff, healthy work from home boundaries and how to best work in that pesky email inbox!  

 Rob owns Guardian Financial and Gordian Staffing which places remote staff in Mexico who are fluent in English and college educated in Accounting firms across America. His goal is to help create capacity and lighten the burden of the staffing shortage.  

In this episode we dove into: 

1. How marketing and branding impact your practice 
2. Staffing and retention 
3. Jessica’s possible acquisition (I always love to hear about how people approach acquisitions.)
4. Vacation! (Jessica is the reason we have our book The Unplugged Vacation) 

How do you strike out on your own as a solo or small firm CPA? Learn from Josie Parr’s experience doing just that. Hear how her work as a tax strategist for entrepreneurs led to the development of the Profitable Lifestyle Summit [https://summit.profitablelifestylefirm.com/], a free virtual summit to empower entrepreneurs in the accounting world to build profitable firms that support their ideal lifestyle. PGA will be speaking at this virtual summit and you can attend this August 27th-29th. 

This Podcast Touched On:
- The challenges and opportunities of working as a solo or small firm CPA. 
- Why burnout is one of the biggest challenges CPAs face.
- Resources for entrepreneurs in the accounting industry.

Taking the leap of faith to work for yourself can be a daunting task. However, it can also become one of the most rewarding challenges a professional can face. Through sharing her experience and cultivating a community with others, Josie demonstrates that it is possible to build a practice that feeds the lifestyle you want to build. Whether you are just beginning to consider that journey for yourself or are in the process of building your practice, this is a conversation you don’t want to miss. 

Time Stamps:
0:39 -  Introduction of Josie Parr, CPA and the Profitable Lifestyle Firm Summit 
6:07 - Why burnout is one of the biggest challenges and opportunities in the accounting industry. 
12:28 - Josie’s experience branching out on her own after working in a top 100 firm.
15:40 - Book recommendations: 
- Leading from the Front by Courtney Lynch and Angie Morgan [https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Front-No-Excuse-Leadership-Tactics/dp/0071465014] 
- Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss [https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended/dp/0062407805]

Getting in Touch with Josie:
💻  Josie’s Website: https://jparrcpa.com/ 
📝 The Profitable Lifestyle Summit Website: https://summit.profitablelifestylefirm.com/ 
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jp_cpa/ 
📱Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/josieparrcpallc 
🤝 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/josie-parr-cpa-llc/

Susan Bryant, recognized as one of the Top 50 Women in Accounting (Ignition 2021) and firm owner of MB Group in Plano TX, joins us on this episode to discuss staffing, pricing, and client acquisition from an insightful, high level POV. 

You know it's time to go up on fees when you hit a growth plateau. If you are capped out on time and can’t take on new clients to increase revenue, it's time to increase your fees. 

This week we have Loren Fogelman on the podcast. She is a business coach for accountants and gives step-by-step advice for raising fees. Her expertise is in pricing strategies. 

 Alex  Loewenstein heads up talent acquisition for CPAs at Paro. Paro places fractional 1099 accounting professionals in firms. 

Kenji and I had an awesome conversation I’m excited to share with you guys. I really wanted to get into how he grew his accounting firm and his advice for how you can scale your own…not to mention… He has some amazing key insights on attracting and retaining staff. 

Learn tips and tricks for converting your rural accounting firm to the cloud. 

Lessons from Millions in accounting firm sales

Creating a virtual firm

Learn how Alex Dawes scaled her cloud firm and gain insight into how you can implement those growth tactics in your firm. 

How can you grow your firm into the most efficient and customer-focused business that it can be? Jason Ackerman and Brannon do a deep dive into the importance of value billing, building a healthy firm culture and why private equity sees value in the profession.

This podcast touched on:

• Timesheets vs value billing.
• Education in the accounting field.
• The implications of private equity for CPA firm owners.

Whether you are a well-established firm or looking for new opportunities to grow, it is crucial to put the customer first and effectively communicate the value you can provide them. Making the switch to value billing, offering advisory services and building a healthy culture for your team could revolutionize your firm. 

Time Stamps: 

0:39 - Introduction of Jason Ackerman

5:18 - Jason’s path to choosing Accounting as a profession.

13:11 - Timesheets and why value billing is more efficient.

25:35 - Implications of private equity in the accounting industry.

28:22 - The importance of education in the accounting profession.

On this podcast, we discussed accounting trends specific to the U.S and how they compare with the industry world-wide. Bruce has noticed a slower trend for the United States to adopt fixed price billing packages compared to Australia and the U.K. He attributes that to the complicated tax code of the U.S. We also chatted about digitization, and why data collection is one of the biggest hindrances to the transition from traditional accounting.

The tech stacks and tools accountants are using to virtualize their firms, and the benefits of converting. 

Mario cut his client list by 150 clients and increased his revenue by $150,000 all the while setting boundaries around his weekends and nights. In this experience share, Mario says, “I got control of my business so it could provide for my life and not be my life.”

We know that hiring and retaining staff is a huge struggle for many businesses right now, not just in the accounting industry. In short, what employees want is work-life balance, flexibility and a healthy company-culture. Our most recent podcast guest, Jill Christensen is impassioned about helping companies build the right culture for attracting and retaining employees.

Jill is a former Fortune 500 Corporate Communications business executive with a Six Sigma Green Belt, Jill understands how organizations operate, and what they need to do differently to engage employees.  Her book, If Not You, Who?, is a global best-seller, and her popular weekly blog was named a Top 100 Corporate Blog alongside of Apple and Microsoft.

Allocating time and energy toward automation can seem daunting, but truthfully it's just tedious. It’s a matter of selecting the right software and getting support to help integrate. Help could come from a team member or an external coach to help move your clients over 1 by 1. 

I’ve always said it’s analogous to doing dishes. You can only load one dish at a time, and you can only convert one client at a time. Tedious for sure, but when you think about the potential to scale while reducing your owner hours the temptation to automate grows. The fact of the matter is, it makes your firm highly marketable.

In this episode, David and I cover a lot of ground in the realm of automation. We got to see how our perspectives in tech and in brokerage influenced each other and played off one another's viewpoints for the future of the industry. There's some great back and forth here that I think you'll enjoy.

In her coaching, Geraldine focuses on the kind of pricing model you use in your firm, what your client list looks like, and what changes could be made based on your goals; and from there onto how to revitalize your firm with some simple changes to your service packaging and advisory. 

It was awesome getting to chat with her in this episode and share some commonalities in our coaching experience. In this episode, we both leaned into a common truth – that there’s so much possibility on the table for firm owners – especially in the forecasting and advisory role.

Liz Farr is a CPA and full-time freelance writer for the accounting profession. Her words have been in Forbes, CFO.com, Accounting Today, and the Journal of Accountancy to name a few. 

Liz is hoping to bring accounting into a more balanced future with her writing partnerships. We discuss how the accounting profession is moving towards automation and how if you don’t adjust you’ll be left behind. Accountants now have the opportunity to offer financial advice and clear reporting to give clients value in a new and exciting way. 

“The org chart of the future for accounting firms is not going to be a pyramid, it’s going to be a diamond shape.” We talk about how automation will reduce the size of the lower strata of admin/staff and increase the quantity and value of CPAs who can act as advisors and who “connect the dots” for their clients. The biggest message I gathered from our chat was that you can’t be afraid to move into the future and protect your biggest retirement asset, your firm.

In this episode, we quickly connected on how important it is to have a simple explanation of the numbers even for our own businesses. If you stop for a moment and think about what’s possible when you as a business owner get a solid, tactical expression of your numbers, the world gets a whole lot bigger. With better reporting , you can properly formulate a growth plan for your business over the next year, three years, or even 10 years. 

Without a simple explanation of numbers , your perspective is too narrow. Spencer helps widen the scope of what’s possible with his team at Shift Financial Insights. 

We decided to change up the podcast a little bit and turn the focus inward to give you guys a glimpse into how Accounting Practice Academy came to be.  

In this episode of the podcast, we have Ian Brennan (APA’s Creative Director), and my wife Carol Poe (PGA Buyer Specialist/APA’s right-hand woman) who played a pivotal role in the creation and execution of the workshop. This workshop wouldn’t exist without them and there’s some fun stories as to why that’s the case.  

The main reason it wouldn’t exist without them, they filmed and produced the workshop! The pandemic left us without a studio or film crew and so, we created our own little film studio in the office. There was a lot of determination and good humor that went into developing this workshop that we are so proud of. In the end, doing this project with a less than traditional film style gave us the opportunity to revise, condense and perfect our virtual course. 

David and I have been friends for years, and when we last spoke I could see him light up as he talked about this new venture he’d been thinking about in the podcasting world. I could tell he was excited and it shows. His new and now-running venture is Your Podcast.Team.

“[Podcasting] It’s the rarest  form of online content.” 

David noticed there were some barriers to entry in the podcasting scene, the technology aspect, the worries about hosting capabilities, “what will I talk about?” etc. but because he saw so much value in the art form he wanted to make a streamlined avenue for anyone to build out there own podcast and that’s where YourPodcast.Team came from.

Hear first-hand experiences on dealmaking from broker, Laurens Ball, on considerations for private equity buyers and finding the right fit. Whether selling your firm or looking to buy, finding the right cultural fit for your clients and team is key. When considering private equity deals it becomes paramount to consider the buyer’s background and industry knowledge to accurately assess whether or not it would work for you.

This podcast touched on:

• The key factors that help increase the number of potential buyers for an accounting firm.
• The importance of cultural fit for buyers and sellers.
• What to think about when considering a private equity buyer for your CPA practice.

Looking at the big picture and talking to as many buyers as possible can help you gain clarity and differentiate a “no” from a definite “yes”. Every deal is different and looking for a buyer who you would enjoy working with yourself can be a good indication that they would be a potential fit for your firm. Whether you are buying or selling–the right fit is everything!

Time Stamps: 

0:32 - Introduction of Laurens.

6:54 - The challenges that could accompany a private equity deal.

11:15 - What to consider if you are a buyer.

14:55 - What to keep in mind if you are selling.

• A seller’s guide to evaluating buyers: [https://poegroupadvisors.com/sellerguide/] 

17:28 - Pros and cons about the presence of private equity growing in the accounting space. 

Book Recommendations from Laurens: 

• Shoe Dog [https://www.amazon.com/Shoe-Dog-Memoir-Creator-Nike/dp/1501135910] 
• Atomic Habits [https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299] 

In this episode, Gina and I dive into the finer points of her hiring process so you can instantly come away with practical, implementable “to-do’s”. She explores common pitfalls most of us are making, simple tweaks in our hiring conversations that make substantial changes, and a workflow to sift through your candidates.

Recently, Brannon had an exciting conversation with Ryan Lazanis. Ryan is a CPA who considers himself more of an entrepreneur than an accountant.  In 2013 he founded a fully cloud-based accounting firm which was acquired five years later with the help of the Poe Group team. Now Ryan is focusing on his passion to help modernize the traditional accounting firm model and foster innovation in the profession. To learn more, check out his website and blog, futurefirm.co.

Ryan shares on this podcast how he started his completely cloud-based firm and how there was originally a good deal of push back from other CPAs. He had a revolutionary vision to create not just good client service, but to create an incredible client experience. He also wanted a fun workplace for himself and his workforce that allowed for flexibility and required less of the aspects of the accounting business that he found mundane. Ryan succeeded.

If you want to get out of the bottleneck position in your firm, you have to delegate. The first step toward delegating is Auditing Your Time. 

Brad’s advice, “Audit yourself…for a week or so just audit. Every time you sneeze document it. And estimate how many hours per month you’re spending on [any given] task.” 

Mitch Baldridge is a CPA based in Houston, Texas and he has been steadily growing his firm, Baldrige CPA, since going out on his own in 2014. His first year, he essentially made no revenue and now he has several employees and steadily growing margins.

Mitch found Brannon a few years ago when he was thinking about acquiring a firm. He thought he would purchase an existing practice to help build the capacity and growth he was needing. Instead, Mitch actually ended up being a beta member for what would become Accounting Practice Academy™ (APA). In 2020 he took the workshop again with the first round of members.