How to Buy and Grow an Accounting Firm with Chris Williams of System Six

Chris Williams, CEO and of System Six, provides an overview of the process of buying and growing a CPA accounting firm. This video will help you understand what to expect when acquiring a CPA firm and provide some tips on how to make the process smoother.

SHOW NOTES:

00:00 Intro

00:47 Starting in Private Equity

03:25 How he found his mentors and High Net worth Investors

05:47 Mentor recommendations - should I raise capital need help with down payment

08:25 Who did the sourcing

10:35 What was your search criteria - $1m EBITDA or about

12:50 How he found his acquisition

14:01 Was seller motivated to sell?

15:24 What seller looking for?

17:19 How much seller financing with SBA loan?

18:03 Seller Note Downside

20:32 Participating preferred from Investor

21:09 How long did it take to land an investor

22:09 Working with Live Oak Bank for SBA loan

24:25 Why are accounting firms priced at 1X sales?

29:00 Overengineering the Reps & Warranties in APA

31:10 How was the seller handoff

32:30 Did anyone leave at sale - rage quit?

32:57 One year in, do you like what you are doing?

34:08 How did you grow revenue 30%?

36:45 PE employee to CEO - how is it changed you - realizations

40:00 Why he wants to grow to 100 people