Building a Sustainable Accounting Firm - by Blake Oliver (Paperback)

About the Book

This book is more than a guide to building a sustainable accounting
firm; it's an invitation to rediscover why you became an accounting
professional. It's a roadmap for stepping off the transactional treadmill
and into the transformation economy, where relationships thrive, lives
change, and legacies are built.
Professions aren't transformed by sweeping mandates or top-down reform
decreed by professional bodies. They are remade by bold individuals who
dare to reimagine what's possible.
As you read this book, I encourage you to embrace the challenge. Be the
change you seek for your firm and your profession. Because the future of
accounting isn't something to observe--it's something to build.
Building a Sustainable Accounting Firm illuminates the path forward.
You'll meet some of the pioneers who are blazing the trail of new business models that challenge the fossilized status quo, while leaving behind maps for the curious.
Whatever the design, the bold leap into the unknown is yours to create. One
day, posterity will thank you.

Book Synopsis

This book is more than a guide to building a sustainable accounting
firm; it's an invitation to rediscover why you became an accounting
professional. It's a roadmap for stepping off the transactional treadmill
and into the transformation economy, where relationships thrive, lives
change, and legacies are built.
Professions aren't transformed by sweeping mandates or top-down reform
decreed by professional bodies. They are remade by bold individuals who
dare to reimagine what's possible.
As you read this book, I encourage you to embrace the challenge. Be the
change you seek for your firm and your profession. Because the future of
accounting isn't something to observe--it's something to build.
Building a Sustainable Accounting Firm illuminates the path forward.
You'll meet some of the pioneers who are blazing the trail of new business models that challenge the fossilized status quo, while leaving behind maps for the curious.
Whatever the design, the bold leap into the unknown is yours to create. One
day, posterity will thank you.

CONTENTS
Foreword....................................................................................................... III
Introduction: Why I Wrote This Book........................................................ 1
About the Author......................................................................................... 17
My Personal Story........................................................................................ 19
Section 1: Revenue....................................................................................... 31
Section 1.1 Changing the Revenue Model for Accounting Firms........ 33
Section 1.2 How Modern Accounting Firms Set Prices........................ 51
Section 1.3 Systematize Your Marketing .............................................. 59
Section 2: Staffing ........................................................................................ 81
Section 2.1 Motivating People and Aligning Compensation
with Billing............................................................................................. 83
Section 2.2 What It's Like to Work at a Virtual CFO Firm.................. 89
Section 2.3 Franchise Model: Alternative to the Partnership Model.... 95
Section 2.4 How to Incentivize People Beyond Hours ......................101
Section 2.5 Give Employees Flexibility About How Much,
Where and When to Work..................................................................105
Section 2.6 Offshoring.........................................................................111
Section 2.7 Managing Remote Teams.................................................117
Section 3: OpEx .........................................................................................125
Section 3.1 Building and Upgrading Your Tech Stack........................127
Section 3.2 How Niching Simplifies Operations................................145
Section 3.3 New Client Onboarding...................................................155
Section 3.4 Quality Control and Quality Management.....................167
Section 3.5 Marketing as CapEx vs. Operating Expense....................179
Section 4: Profit.................................................................189
Section 4.1 Building Services and Systems So You Can Have a Life..191
Section 4.2 Measuring Capacity: Bigger Isn't Necessarily Better.........205
Section 4.3 How to Maximize the Value of Your Firm.......................209
Section 4.4 Selling Your Firm ..............................................................219
Conclusion................................................................................................... 235

Review Quotes

"This book is more than
a guide to building a sustainable accounting firm;
it's an invitation to rediscover why you became an
accounting professional.
It's a roadmap for stepping off the transactional treadmill and into the
transformation economy, where relationships thrive, lives change, and
legacies are built."
- Ronald J. Baker, best-selling author, radio show host and
co-founder of Threshold

"Blake has used his work experiences inside and outside accounting
firms and combined them with hundreds of podcast interviews with
successful firm owners to crack the code on real firm transformation.
Then, he turned into a playbook for building and running a successful
and highly profitable accounting practice. From choosing your billing
model to building your team and tech stack to selling your firm, Blake
provides a path to creating a successful firm that still allows you to get
home at a reasonable time every night--no more killing yourself with
50, 60, or 70-hour work weeks. If I was starting an accounting firm
today, I would buy this book first. And if I already had an accounting
firm, I would buy this book, too."
- David Leary, Co-host of The Accounting Podcast and
recovering QuickBooks evangelist

About the Author

Blake Oliver, CPA, is the founder and
CEO of Earmark, an app that offers
National Association of State Boards of
Accountancy (NASBA)-approved continuing professional education (CPE)
for listening to your favorite accounting and tax podcasts. Additionally,
Blake co-hosts The Accounting Podcast,
a Top 25 Business News show on the
Apple charts and the most popular
podcast for accountants and bookkeepers worldwide. He has been named one of Accounting Today's Top 100 most
influential people and recognized as one of CPA Practice Advisor's "40 Under
40" in the accounting profession. Blake lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he
enjoys hiking in the Sonoran Preserve and playing his cello.
Blake has experience working in public accounting, running his own small
firm, and leading marketing at technology companies. He built a cloudbased, subscription-based bookkeeping practice and sold it in five years with
zero prior experience in public accounting. That's how appealing subscripBUILDING A SUSTAINABLE ACCOUNTING FIRM
-18-
tion-based pricing and service delivery are for clients. They like it so much
that they'll trade your years of experience for a guy with none! Now, imagine
what you could do by combining your professional expertise with the best
way to run a professional services firm.) After selling his practice, Blake spent
years working in multiple SaaS startups, where he learned the best business
practices for subscription-based businesses. There's a reason these technology companies are typically valued at 10-20 times their annual revenue (and
sometimes more).
Now, he is sharing the secrets of these technology companies with you so
you can rewire your firm to benefit from recurring revenue generated by
productized services and make more money while working less.