Are you a CPA professional and tired of working for someone else? Then you might want to consider starting your own CPA firm.
Or perhaps you already run your own CPA business but you are struggling to stay ahead of your competitors. Nobody ever said running your business was easy. And that’s especially true in accounting, where you are competing with cheap and popular software as well as more than one million other accountants.
Luckily for you, we have the insights you’re looking for. So keep on reading and we will take you through everything that you need to know to grow a CPA business!
1. Start By Working in a Small Practice
A small practice is not just a little big practice. Many of the CPAs out there who leave a large firm to start their own company struggle to understand how a small business actually operates. If you all know is what it’s like to work in a large, international accounting firm, you are likely going to be ill-equipped to run a company out of a small office with just one location.
Also, CPAs who work at large institutions tend to only know large clients. They rarely work with local small businesses that don’t have their own research departments and various managers.
This is why it is so important to pay your dues. Before you start your own company, you should at least get some exposure to what it is like to work for a small firm. You’ll be able to sharpen your CPA skills and your business skills at the same time.
After a few months or even a few years, you should have the skills to know how a small business operates. This can help you get an edge over the competition.
You’ll also really be able to tell if running your own accounting firm is for you. When you run a big firm, you have a lot of people under you who are handling all of the dirty work. The same is not true for a small firm made up of just a few people.
It could even be helpful to get experience as a freelance CPA. Companies like TaxFyle (https://www.taxfyle.com/freelance-cpa-jobs) are great places to gain this kind of experience.
2. Start Small
At the start, it is all about cash flow. If you have more money coming in than going out, you will be able to survive. Don’t start off by buying a nice office with a lot of expensive furniture.
For your first year, you want to spend as little money as possible. You might want to consider working from home or renting out a small office space. Maybe even consider a shared workspace.
Another good idea might be to set an office up in your of your clients’ building and do some quid pro quo kind of work.
At the start, it is tempting to “dress the part.” But what matters most is doing quality work and giving your clients the attention and time that they deserve.
You can build a strong client base by providing them with quality service that they can recommend to others. When you have low overhead, you don’t need to stress so much about making as much money as possible as quickly as possible. This will allow you to focus on getting the job done properly.
3. Grow Slowly
It is much easier to get rich slowly than quickly. If you grow too quickly, your business might fall apart before you know it. You want to control your growth and meet attainable goals.
Personality, character, wisdom, skill, and experience are going to be your best resources. They will serve you well if you know how to use them.
Don’t take on more than your business can handle. Otherwise, you will end up pleasing no one and losing future customers in the process. It is far better to have one satisfied customer than three or four disappointed ones.
At large and fast-growing companies, clients tend to feel that they aren’t properly cared for. But if you grow your business slowly and deliberately, you can make every client feel seen and appreciated.
4. Specialize
When people become CPAs, they want to only do high-level accounting, tax, and consulting. Nobody wants to do write-up work. However, it is this kind of disparaged field that can end up helping you beat out the competition.
In order to compete, you need to be willing to do the work that other CPA companies aren’t interested in doing. This is going to allow you to fill a niche and serve more clients.
You want to specialize as much as possible. For example, if you specialize in accounting for dentists, then a dentist will be more likely to work with you than a larger company that will take any client looking for help.
The Importance of Knowing How to Grow a CPA Business
Hopefully, after reading the above article, you now understand how to grow a CPA business. As we can see, it isn’t easy to start and grow this kind of business. But if you put in the work and pay your dues then you should have a much easier time finding success and beating out your competitors.
Are you looking for other interesting and useful articles about business like this one? If you are then you should make sure to check out the rest of our site today for more!
