Services for CPAs

Are you looking to Significantly grow your Practice?

Niche is not just CPA practice owners but those who have significant growth goals and who feeling either stuck or are not growing as fast as they would like. Alternatively, they may be confident that they can achieve a lot of growth but want it to be an easier, faster and more predictable path. Our ideal client is looking for a blueprint of how to get to the next level because not having done it before, they don’t always know exactly what it looks like.

Tailored Services: Ever feel like consulting/coaching programs you’ve done are cookie cutter and not quite right for you? Do they involve group coaching where you didn’t feel your particular needs were being met? While our consulting program does contain a group element, it is 90% one-on-one consulting, to ensure that you get the attention you deserve. This is what accounts for the higher growth rates and much faster results that our CPAs obtain, compared to other programs.

Services We Provide to
Scale Tax & Accounting Practices

Written Step by Step Strategic Plan:

Strategic Planning for growth, tailored to achieving the specific goals of each practice. This is our premier service, and it includes the following steps:

Data gathering – including input from all team members,

A Strategic Planning Session with Ciara MacMahon – which includes the creation of an Organizational Chart specifically for your practice. A CPA Organizational Chart is a must-have for any firm that seeks the correct infrastructure for expansion that does not overwhelm its management personnel.

A written Strategic Plan for your Practice with the step-by-step actions needed to achieve your practice goals.

The Implementation Phase – where you and your team receive ongoing consulting to ensure successful implementation of your Strategic Plan.

Your Strategic Plan includes:

Marketing

We have multiple marketing campaigns that we know work well for tax and accounting. Clients usually choose 2 to 3 initially that are most suitable for their new client acquisition objectives. This often includes target marketing i.e. to a specific niche/industry.

Fee Structure

Guidance on how best to structure your service offerings/packages/fees.

Infrastructure

Systems and processes review and input, as well as efficiency/time management training. This also includes our recommended technology tools so you don’t waste time implementing software that does not contribute to your growth.

Hiring

Many of our CPA clients completely outsource their recruiting to us to ensure a more effective process is employed for screening than they might otherwise have the time for. Also, CPAs often want our assistance to find candidates who are not actively seeking employment & therefore would not have responded to their hiring ads.

Leadership training

Making decisions that will propel the practice to the next level of growth. Many owners have no unbiased input they can lean on for high level decision making, much less someone who has observed how these decisions have impacted other practices.
They also face issues with staff performance or problems with partners, as well as clients that they would like an objective perspective on how to address.

Team Building

Key methods for gaining agreement/buy-in and increased productivity from staff. This includes a 360 exercise, which solicits input from your team.

Business Retreats

We facilitate opportunities for our CPA firm’s leadership team and key staff to go off-site and focus on planning the next phase of growth of the firm. This not only improves morale - but ensures key team members fully understand and are aligned towards the goals of the practice.

Sales training

How to conduct the new client consultation so as to ensure the client agrees to all of the services they truly need, rather than bare minimum services. Many CPAs consider they are very good at selling, and while that is true, a good percentage will still leave a lot on the table.

Partnerships

We provide consulting regarding partnership issues e.g. partner buyout plans. We facilitate revisiting the partnership agreement and updating its provisions on a regular basis; handling conflict in relation to financial matters or any disagreements surrounding the contributions of each partner. This service also includes optimizing the decision-making processes for reaching consensus faster which in turn allows for quicker implementation of growth strategies.They also face issues with staff performance or problems with partners, as well as clients that they would like an objective perspective on how to address.

Transition Strategy/Exit Planning

Either internally to staff - or externally (buy out by another firm). Most CPAs are very concerned not only about ensuring they are fully compensated for their practices, but also that their clients are very well taken care of in the process. The key is for us to line up as many buyers as possible so that the CPA owner has multiple choices. Then the most important step is to help the owner choose their buyer wisely, so that the transition is very smooth one.

Practice Acquisition

Analyzing the pros and cons of practices that are up for sale and guiding CPAs as to whether or not they are worth acquiring. In our experience, only about 50% of practice acquisitions are successful. Over the past 2 decades working with CPAs, we have developed a checklist to ensure that all the boxes are checked before an owner makes their final decision on a purchase.

Successes :

"Having experience in sales and running accounting practices, we were a little skeptical working with Phase Two. Ciara however, quickly alleviated our concerns by helping us increase our top line recurring revenue by 15% in just two months and reducing the amount of time we spend running our practice!! If you're looking to build a framework for long term revenue growth and more free time, look no further."

"Ciara has been a great resource over the past year, as my firm has had major growth. She has been everything from psychologist to strategist to boots-on-the-ground recruiter. Ciara has helped me stay accountable to myself on my goals, avoid irrational decisions, and counselled with me on the correct next steps so I can proactively stay ahead of growing pains. I highly recommend her for anyone looking for a steady, guiding hand as they grow their practice."

“I just opened my own CPA practice a little less than two years ago. What is unique in my situation is I had over twenty five years of experience as a manager and employee of small CPA practices. I met Ciara and we decided to work together to help me develop a better administrative structure, and a better marketing plan to help me achieve the type of growth I wanted to achieve for the practice. With Ciara’s guidance, I began to focus my efforts on my strengths, streamline my internal processes and more aggressively market my practice. She helped me see the value of social media and numerous other marketing techniques. She has superior knowledge on how small accounting works and knows what is needed to make the jump to the next level. My practice has grown with her guidance to the point I will need to hire help for the upcoming season! There is no doubt her guidance helped me get there. I recommend her services to anyone!”

“Ciara provided me with business management and development advice over the years that enabled me to more than double my CPA practice and finally sell the practice as I move into retirement. Her assistance has been invaluable ”