Lifestyle Accountant

This week we have Leigh Cummings on the show sharing her story about selling her bookkeeping firm. She had been running the business for almost 20 years, describing it as her baby having nurtured, built and grown it from the ground up. We hear how Leigh made the decision to sell, how she navigated the process with her broker, lawyer, weighing up the different offers, all the way through the transition and what she’s doing now post sale! In particular, this episode explores: ??How Leigh first started exploring the idea of selling her business ??Speaking with a broker, how did they go about the valuation for the business ?? How many offers were received and how did Leigh go about deciding which offer to take ??The challenges of staying on and working in the business after sale during the transition period ??What did Leigh do in the post sale phase and what is she working on now All that and more - now live! ??

This week’s episode features a fantastic acquisition story of a CPA firm in the Real Estate niche with guest, ?? Rachel Fisch, CPB. Following the successful acquisition of RealtyTax.ca, Rachel went on to scale her time down in the business to be able to take on a role as GM of Dext. In particular, we explore: ?? How acquiring RealtyTax came about, decision making process ?? What did the deal process look like, pricing & structure ???? What did the firm look like in terms of team members at the time of acquisition, did team members and co-founders stay on afterwards ?? What are the lessons learned from that deal process ?? What is the core tech stack for the firm ?? The story of starting a new role at Dext while still running the firm, how that came about and how to get the firm ready for that to happen ????? How to navigate removing yourself from client facing work and transitioning clients over to your team after they have already built a relationship with you Listen now on your favourite podcast platform ??

This week’s guest is ?? Electra Frost who has scaled an accounting firm, sold it down again, moved out of the city and freed up her calendar to spend more time on the things she’s interested in: blockchain, crypto and Web3. ? In this episode, we cover: ?? Why Electra decided to start her own firm ?? What did the transition look like for her team and clients when she moved out of the city? ?? How did she go about repricing clients? ?? Selling down from 800 to 30 clients and what that process was like - the broker, finding buyers, negotiation strategies, retention clauses ? After selling and freeing up more time, beginning of Electrifi in the blockchain space ?? If a business comes to you needing crypto accounting expertise, what does that engagement look like? ?? Crypto software for accountants ?? Planning for a successful trade show - designing a booth, budgets, swag and timelines Listen now on your favourite podcast platform ??

Our guest this week is Brannon Poe, the founder of Poe Group Advisors who are brokers in the accounting firm space to talk all things M&A - from trends, to things that have gone wrong and everything in between. Brannon has been brokering accounting firms for two decades and has grown to a team of 20 people, having helped facilitate hundreds of deals all over the US and Canada. In this episode we talk about: ?? What does a business broker or CPA Intermediary in the accounting space like Brannon, really do? ?? What are some of the trends in deals that you are seeing so far in 2024? Increase in private equity buyers ?? Have you ever sold a firm where the seller isn’t really motivated to sell? ?? Listed a multi-franchise firm that went wrong at the last minute, were there any red flags present earlier in the process? ?? What’s the worst employee issue that you’ve seen come up in a deal? ?? What’s the smoothest deal you’ve seen? And lots more. Listen now on your favourite podcast platform! ??

?? As an accounting firm owner, why is building your network so important? On this episode we hear from host Meryl Johnston as well as past guests including Jason Staats, CPA and Tyler Caskey to hear stories and strategies of how they have networked to get clients, attract team members, business partners both online and in person. In particular, we cover: [2:11] How Meryl managed to sell part of her business in 3 months utilising her network alone [7:02] Networking differently to attract clients vs business partners vs team members [12:41] Networking as an introvert [15:00] A brief masterclass from Tyler Caskey on networking authentically [19:14] Why every accountant should be posting online to create serendipity with Jason Staats [22:57] Strategic preparation for a conference to maximise networking opportunities [28:07] Can networking be outsourced? [30:07] How would Meryl approach networking if she was to start a new accounting firm today? [33:08] Linkedin strategy for networking [37:02] CRM for networking and tracking tools - are they useful? ?? S3 Ep12: Your Network Is Your Net Worth now live! Here's a sneak peek ??

This week's episode is Online Courses & Community for Accounting Firm Owners with guest, Jaclyn Anku : ?? "... the sort of impacts one can drive with any type of community and education programming really sits at the center of solving for both a customer and a business problem. So it's in the middle of that fen diagram and I think that's what's really made me fall in love with this type of work." We also talk about: ?? The opportunity for accounting firms to add education and community revenue streams ???? Should the ‘expert’ also create the course content or should you split this role? ?? How to get started creating educational content. What should you start with? ?? Why Intuit is investing in partner training for CAS (Client Advisory Services) ?? Is Community Building a top of funnel activity to drive leads or is it a retention strategy to build relationships with clients? Listen now on your favourite podcast platform!

This week's episode might be a little controversial: that every Accounting Firm Owner should be a great public speaker! Why? Because Speaking comes back to effective communication. It's about storytelling, persuasion, getting people on board, creating community and understanding. Whether you are wanting to get more clients, lead your team, recruit staff or find a new business partner, guaranteed public speaking in some way shape or form will play a role in achieving that goal. On this episode, Meryl chats with multiple guests including good friends of the show, Tyler Caskey and Heather Smith FCCA, FCA , as well as Producer of The Lifestyle Accountant Show and keynote speaker, Eleanor Carey. We cover: ?? Why public speaking is such an essential skill for accounting firm owners ?? Opportunities to gain from speaking ?? What are the different types of public speaking ?? How to be an amazing panel moderator ?? How to prepare for a keynote or presentation ?? What are the different ways you can practice your communication skills via public speaking Here's a sneak peek from the episode of Producer El talking about her strategy on how to create a brand new keynote ?? Listen now on your favourite podcast platform! #accounting #business #publicspeaker #communication #leadership

Our guest this week is Amy Holdsworth, founder of Clarity Street to talk all things Tech Stacks for Accounting and Bookkeeping Firms. Amy started Clarity Street over six years ago after having the realisation that none of the individual software providers in the ecosystem had the time or the knowledge of how all of the cloud apps should be set up, to provide an efficient client lifecycle with clean dataflows between apps. In this episode, we cover a series of case studies including: ?? Accounting firm doing $2m in revenue - Practice Management, Document Management and Engagement ?? Tax Firm doing $500k in revenue - Microsoft vs Google ?? Bookkeeping Practice - sole practitioner & contractors ?? An Accountant about to start their own firm ?? Tech stack considerations when scaling a firm to $10m Listen now on your favourite podcast platform! ?? This episode is brought to you by our sponsors TeamUp, Fathom and Brieff.

This week we are talking with Tyler Caskey from TheBeanCounters about Business Partnerships, Buy In Price and Salary Transparency. In particular, we deep dive: ?? Business partners ?? What financial metrics to share with your team (how transparent to be) ???? Executive assistants ? Time and materials billing Here's a sneak peek! This episode now live on your favourite podcast platform ??

This week we are very excited to have a good friend of the show back on again - Isaac Smith from TeamUp! Meryl and Isaac together explore the Myths and Mistakes of Hiring Direct in the Philippines: ?? Unpacking the myth that hiring direct in the Philippines is non-compliant ?? The pros and cons of hiring direct vs going through a BPO ?? Salary expectations in real numbers ?? Common mistakes when hiring direct ?? What does the recruitment process look like ?? 3 ways to manage computers with offshore staff ?? Onboarding and how to build strong relationships with new staff remotely ?? Fostering happy staff and a positive workplace culture Now live! Listen on your favourite podcast platform.