The Lifestyle Accountant Show Lifestyle Accountant

This week we have Leigh Cummings on the show sharing her story about selling her bookkeeping firm. She had been running it for almost 20 years, described 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:

[10:40] Leigh’s background and how you first started exploring the idea of selling her business
[16:10] Speaking with your broker, how did they go about the valuation for the business
[19:10] What did the marketing piece look like for you in selling the business?
[20:00] How many offers were received and how did you go about deciding which offer to take?
[24:40] Deal details - cash payment, retention clauses
[28:08] The challenges of staying on and working in the business after sale during the transition period
[30:40] How did you broach the conversation with your team and at what point did you tell them?
[32:40] Deciding between buyers and offers
[34:40] Learnings from working with the broker and lawyer
[36:30] Any other lessons for other bookkeepers or accountants from your sale process
[37:50] What did you do in the post sale phase? 
[43:30]  Negotiating the contract, non-competes and restrictions

 
Leigh is a business consultant with over 20 years’ experience and is also a Registered BAS Agent with a Certificate IV in Accounting. Her logical approach combined with the ability to embrace and create change has been the foundation of her successful career. Leigh is skilled at identifying organisational requirements and implementing cloud solutions to enhance business efficiencies. After 19 years of building a profitable bookkeeping business, she sold to focus on her passion of improving business performance. Whether this is an ear of support, cashflow management or implementing systems to improve the overall running of the business it is what she loves to do.
 
You can connect with Leigh on Linkedin, and get more information about her work on the Mint Dynamics website, or on Facebook or Instagram

This week’s episode features a fantastic acquisition story of a CPA firm in the Real Estate niche with guest, Rachel Fisch. Following the successful acquisition of RealtyTax, Rachel went on to scale her time down in the business to be able to take on a role as GM of Dext. 
Rachel has over 25 years of experience in bookkeeping and accounting. She previously served as National Bookkeeping Lead for Deloitte, was the Accountants Group Leader for Sage, and led growth at a US based firm including the acquisition of two accounting firms. Rachel is known as an accounting technology expert and advocate in North America; for predicting where the market is heading. She takes a strategic approach to accounting software and applications, and understands how to position their features for a global market.
In particular, this episode explores:

[11:40] Rachel’s background and overview
[12:40] How acquiring RealtyTax came about, decision making process
[18:01] What did the deal process look like, pricing & structure
[25:35] 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
[28:50] What are the lessons learned from that deal process
[32:30] Once you were handed the keys to the business, what were some of the key things you did in the first 60 days 
[36:36] What is the core tech stack for the firm
[37:40] As owner of the firm, the challenge of being accountable to deliver what has been sold to the clients - do you try to add value or simplify
[46:00] Transitioning clients between tech platforms, their response
[47:50] 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
[58:10] 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
[1:04:00] Get in touch with Rachel

 
You can connect with Rachel on Linkedin, and get more information about her work via websites at RealtyTax and Amalgam8.
This episode of the podcast is brought to you by sponsors:
Teamup: Hire top Filipino accountants without ongoing BPO fees. 
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This week’s guest is Electra Frost who has scaled an accounting firm and sold it down again, in the process moving out of the city and getting to spend more time on the things she’s interested in: blockchain, crypto and Web3.Electra Frost is a public accountant specializing in accounting systems, processes, and tax planning for SME businesses and start-ups. As a co-founder of an Australian charity focused on technology adaptation for those most at risk of falling behind, she encourages accountants to study and apply Bitcoin and open blockchain technologies. With 16 years of continuous innovation within her own practice, Frost is now not only at the forefront of merging decentralization technologies with accounting but also pivoting her practice to ElectraFi, with services to help accountants navigate their clients' transitions into digital asset business models. 
 
In this episode, we cover:

[10:36] Why Electra decided to start her own firm
[13:35] What did the transition look like for her team and clients when she moved out of the city?
[23:40] How did she go about repricing clients?
[30:30] Selling down from 800 to 30 clients and what that process was like - the broker, finding buyers, negotiation strategies, retention clauses
[36:10] After selling and freeing up more time, beginning of Electrifi in the blockchain space
[41:20] If a business comes to you needing crypto accounting expertise, what does that engagement look like?
[48:30] Crypto software for accountants
[51:50] Planning for a successful trade show - designing a booth, budgets, swag and timelines

 
You can connect with Electra on Linkedin or via her website.
 
This episode of the podcast is brought to you by sponsors:
Teamup: Hire top Filipino accountants without ongoing BPO fees. 
 
The Lifestyle Accountant Show is a podcast that helps today’s accounting firm leaders build successful businesses while living healthy, happy lives hosted by Meryl Johnston. 
For more information or to get in touch with us, head over to our website lifestyleaccountant.co.

Our guest this week is Brannon Poe, the founder of Poe Group Advisors (PGA) 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. PGA helps firm owners buy, sell and grow their business and have thousands of qualified buyers in their database. Brannon is a thought leader and author of several books in the accounting space as well as the Accounting Practice Academy.
 
We cover:

[11:40] What does a business broker or CPA Intermediary in the accounting space like Brannon, really do?
[15:10] How do you find firms that are on the acquisition side?
[16:42] How did you get started as a business broker and what does your firm look like now?
[20:50] What are some of the trends in deals that you are seeing so far in 2024? Increase in private equity buyers
[25:32] In private equity deals, how are they being structured? Valuations, deal terms
[28:25] Outside of private equity, what other trends are you seeing in 2024?
[30:19] Are you seeing an increase in ageing accounting firm owners that are looking to exit and retire in the next 10 years? “The silver tsunami”
[31:52] Have you ever sold a firm where the seller isn’t really motivated to sell?
[35:10] What happens when there are multiple partners and a couple want to sell but one doesn’t want to and slows the deal down?
[37:00] A story of a husband & wife team that sold to a brother & sister team
[39:50] Listed a multi-franchise firm that went wrong at the last minute, were there any red flags present earlier in the process?
[41:48] What’s the worst employee issue that you’ve seen come up in a deal?
[45:08] What’s the smoothest deal you’ve seen?
[46:35] What’s the most frustrating part of deal making?
[50:35] Any potentially dirty tactics that sellers should look out for?
[51:56] Helpful resources - “How to prepare your CPA practice for sale”, “How to scale your cloud accounting practice” if you are looking to sell one day, “how to take an unplugged vacation” for firm owners -

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 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?

 
You can connect with Jason Staats on Linkedin or Twitter and Tyler Caskey on LinkedIn or via the Bean Counters Website.
 
This episode of the podcast is brought to you by our sponsor, Teamup: Hire top Filipino accountants without ongoing BPO fees.
 
The Lifestyle Accountant Show is a podcast that helps today’s accounting firm leaders build successful businesses while living healthy, happy lives hosted by Meryl Johnston. 
For more information or to get in touch with us, head over to our website lifestyleaccountant.co.

Our guest this week is Jaclyn Anku, here to talk all things online courses, education and community for accounting firms.
We cover:

[20:17] Jaclyn’s intro and backstory
[32:29] The opportunity for accounting firms to add education and community revenue streams 
[38:20] Should the ‘expert’ also create the course content or should you split this role?
[39:55] How to get started creating educational content. What should you start with?
[45:46] Why Intuit is investing in partner training for CAS (Client Advisory Services)
[50:49] Is Community Building a top of funnel activity to drive leads or is it a retention strategy to build relationships with clients

 
 
 
Jaclyn is small business and accounting community enthusiast who has spent more than 10 years developing scalable, compelling initiatives at leading SaaS companies, honing her ability to drive a dual bottom line. When she’s not busy creating programs that educate, motivate, and break the mold, you can find Jaclyn around the Bay Area with her husband and two beautiful girls. You can connect with Jaclyn on Linkedin.
 
This episode of the podcast is brought to you by Teamup: Hire top Filipino accountants without ongoing BPO fees.
 
The Lifestyle Accountant Show is a podcast that helps today’s accounting firm leaders build successful businesses while living healthy, happy lives hosted by Meryl Johnston. 
For more information or to get in touch with us, head over to our website lifestyleaccountant.co.