Case Study

Quit Your Corporate Accounting Job and Find an Accounting Niche

Goals Goals

  • Learn how to find high-value prospects
  • Price and package services for higher profit margins
  • Significantly increase monthly revenue by at least 100%

Key Benefits Experienced Key Benefits Experienced

  • Defined an accounting niche market to offer expert compliance and advisory services to 
  • Large, steady revenue increases year over year
  • Continuous professional development and growth to expand service offerings

“We knew accounting, we had our CPAs. But almost everything we know about running a successful accounting firm is solely due to being a member of 7 Figure Firms.”

JOHN MOLLICA, CO-FOUNDER OF MY FRANCHISE CPAS

John Mollica and Jason Yeaman were both working in corporate America in 2018. John was a controller at a real estate firm, while Jason was a portfolio manager for a foreign asset-based lender. At the time, Jason had a wife, a daughter who was 17 months old, and a son who was born prematurely and in the NICU. His boss at the accounting firm was difficult, and with all the stress in his life, he ended up getting laid off. The truth was, Jason was miserable in the job and felt it could be an opportunity to start his own accounting and tax firm. 

Meanwhile, John was also unhappy at his job. He wanted to leave the corporate world and start his own business, so John decided to quit his job. The two young men, each now a CPA entrepreneur so to speak, decided to join forces and go out on their own as business partners, looking for an accounting niche to serve. 

With zero cash flow coming in with their corporate salaries cut off, the pair needed to begin making money quickly in order to meet their monthly life expenses. Out of necessity, they began searching for clients of their own mostly via cold calling. The first few weeks were tough without much success.

They then decided it would be best to invest in the 7 Figure Firms coaching program. Today, their firm, My Franchise CPAs, is rapidly growing and profitable. Here is their story of two CPAs transforming into CPA entrepreneurs, starting a firm from scratch and creating a strong accounting niche with potential to massively scale within 24 short months. 

Launching an Accounting Firm from Scratch

Our story began in March of 2018. We both quit our jobs (one of us actually got fired) and we were incredibly motivated to launch our own firm.” As Mr. Mollica and Mr. Yeaman soon realized, however, being a CPA entrepreneur comes with challenges. They weren’t closing deals and lacked direction on what services to offer their potential clients. 

Since my dad was in the construction industry, we decided to go after those types of clients, specifically, companies that built swimming pools,” explained Jason. “I really thought that niche would work out, but no one was interested when we made our pitches.” Whether the problem was with the pitch, the offer or just an unneeded service for that accounting niche, they just weren’t having any success.

They decided to make an investment into coaching with Andrew Argue, CEO of Corvee, when they only had $7,500 in sales after nearly 6 weeks of doing cold prospecting. “Up until that point, we were just calling anyone. We didn’t even know you could prospect on LinkedIn,” Jason explained.

The coaching we received helped us to not only find new clients, but to go after specific types of clients. We also learned through the 7 Figure Firms program how to properly value our services by pricing higher.

A CPA Entrepreneur Must Find a Good Accounting Niche

“We had very few clients, and the clients we did have were quite random,” said John. “In essence, we were just taking on any work we could.” This resulted in lower prices, less profit and more scattered work than what is ideal for an accounting and tax firm. “Our first client was a salon that went out of business. It was a disaster.”

The pair began to change course when they discovered an accounting niche they could serve well—franchises. “We made a bilateral decision to start pursuing franchises when we realized we had success serving one,” as told by John.

The firm then began to double in revenue within a month and we found a good rhythm with our workload and profits. We found the more value we brought to clients, the more they were happy to pay. The sales presentations provided in the 7 Figure Firms program really helped us communicate that value to our prospects.”

This new value capture was in the form of tax planning and giving franchises everything they needed to start their businesses. Mr. John Mollica: “We help new franchises with the right legal documents and everything they need to get properly set up, including speeding up the process to get their doors open…plus, we help them with tax planning.”

Jason went on to explain that clients today are much more willing to pay a premium for premium services that bring high value as compared to the generic services they offered when they first went into business over two years ago. “When we started, we wanted to charge an hourly rate, then we switched to value-pricing. It’s much better for us and the clients to do fixed packaging and pricing for services.” 

The firm is now more careful to only take on the right type of clients, rather than any clients, which makes for happier engagements and better overall service. 

Every CPA Entrepreneur Needs Coaching

To grow and evolve as a firm often involves expert coaching and training materials. John and Jason are typical when it comes to being a CPA entrepreneur, taking responsibility for the growth and success of their firm by investing in 7 Figure Firms: “I see accounting and tax firms to be continually shifting into more niche-related services to be successful,” noted Jason. “We’ll keep evolving and growing as a firm as we add additional services and packages for our clients, but we are happy to have found an accounting niche where we can really serve our clients the way generic accounting and tax firms just can’t. We’ll also continue looking to 7 Figure Firms for guidance on best practices moving forward to optimize our pricing and packaging.” 

The goal for their firm is to grow it big, but also to grow it in the right way—meaning not to stray from the type of clients they are presently serving, but to continue to add more value to their niche. “We used to have a client pay us $2,000 per month for a service, but it was miserable, both because he was difficult to work for and because we hated the work we were doing for him. As we grow, our goal is to build our client base with only clients we want to work with.”

With firm revenue on pace to double again in 2020, the future is looking bright for My Franchise CPAs and other tax and accounting firms that truly serve a niche in the market. Jason looked back, “Being a CPA entrepreneur, I needed some guidance, especially when we first started, to get our firm going in the right direction. Having access to 7 Figure Firms coaching has been the biggest thing to help get our business from a startup into what it is today.”

“The resources like sales decks and marketing material are just invaluable since they are ready to go from the moment you join. Those alone are worth the investment into this program.

If you find yourself where John and Jason used to be, a CPA but you’re not happy making other people money, then consider becoming a CPA entrepreneur and start your own firm and find an accounting niche. 

Get the coaching you need to build a successful and profitable accounting firm.

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