Case Study

Accountant Quits Job to Grow Accounting Firm

Goals Goals

  • Reach $250,000 annual revenue
  • Begin doing higher-level advisory services such as tax planning
  • Onboard first employee to do compliance work

Key Benefits Experienced Key Benefits Experienced

  • 50% of all revenue is now advisory services
  • Doubled revenue in 2019 and on pace to double again in 2020
  • More confident communicating the value his services provide to clients

“I don’t dread sales calls anymore, in fact, I look forward to them. The sales decks provided in 7 Figure Firms have taken the hard work off of me– they sell themselves! When I divert from the decks that 7 Figure Firms provides me with, I usually don’t get the deal. Even if you don’t like sales, this is a tool you can use to generate sales for your accounting firm.”

JOHN LELAND, CPA

John Leland was working a typical job at a typical accounting firm in 2017. In October of that year, he invested in a program with Corvee and realized that in order to do something extraordinary, he’d have to do something the typical accountant wouldn’t dare to do. So, he quit his job and started his own accounting firm.

Grow an Accounting Firm From Scratch

John Leland’s wife came up with the name for the new accounting firm, The Honest Accountant. While admittedly somewhat unconventional, the name has been a good conversation starter with prospective clients. John’s first year, in 2018, was spent struggling to earn just enough money to make ends meet. With a new baby (the couple’s second child) recently added to the Leland household, it was a tough stretch. 

“I was doing basically 100% compliance work such as tax preparation and monthly accounting. I took what I could get because I simply needed some revenue. I wasn’t in a position to pick and choose who my clients would be, but rather clients would pick and choose whether they wanted to work with me—usually based on price.” 

Going into 2019, John continued to learn the ropes of running his own accounting firm, and between getting a few new clients and continuing services with other clients from the year prior, he was able to double his revenue. By October, he was on track to possibly make 6-figures in annual sales. That’s when he decided to take the next step by investing in the 7 Figure Firms coaching program and start pursuing serious accounting firm growth. 

Grow an Accounting Firm With Help From Weekly Coaching Calls

Between October of 2019 and the first five months of 2020, John was able to drastically increase his revenue and is now on pace to double his revenue again in 2020. He attributes this accounting firm growth to the sales slide decks that help him sell tax planning services over video calls. In addition, he says the weekly 1:1 coaching he gets inside the 7 Figure Firms program to hold him accountable has been incredible.  

“Having a weekly one-on-one coaching call makes it feel like I literally have a business partner. I have all the resources I need to build my accounting firm as big as I want to make it, and I can finally breathe a little more because financially things are looking up now. The best part is that 50% of my services are now advisory, so I’m not just doing loads of compliance work anymore.”

With his $250,000 revenue goal within sight, John can conceivably bring on his first employee to take care of the compliance work as he continues selling high-value tax planning services. 

Control Your Accounting Firm’s Pricing

Before 7 Figure Firms, John lacked confidence in the value of his services or in communicating that value to clients. Now, he always uses the tax planning sales deck. He educates the client first, and he feels relaxed on sales calls because he knows he doesn’t have to take people on.

If you don’t control your pricing, it’s like your clients own your accounting business. Even though I had my own firm, it felt sometimes like I was a 1040 contractor working for hire even though technically, I owned my own firm. 7 Figure Firms coaching helped me be able to control my pricing, be confident in my value, and be able to say no to clients who wanted to look for an accounting service by price shopping.”

The 7 Figure Firms coaching program also helped John experience accounting firm growth during the months following the pandemic in March of 2020. He learned how to sell advisory services for the PPP and EIDL programs and generated an additional $30,000 in revenue, plus six new clients who could be with his firm for years to come.  

Grow an Accounting Firm with Tax Planning Services

Tax planning has been huge for John’s firm. He first reached out to one of his favorite YouTube stars and was able to save this person $22,000 in taxes in the first year alone. In fact, the YouTube star owed taxes before John made him his customized tax savings plan. 

“Tax planning is how I’m really building the business now, it’s a great way to get new clients in the door and upsell them on services later on. I know the value is there, because I can save them money. I just follow the sales deck, and when I keep to the process, it works. It’s only when I divert from the sales deck that things don’t work out.”

With a high-converting sales deck that gets new clients on tax planning services, John’s next goal is to simply continue filling his pipeline with soon-to-be happy clients from the prospecting strategies inside 7 Figure Firms. As his revenue grows, he will eventually look to hire more help as needed to scale the business and hit his biggest accounting firm growth goals. 

Want to learn more about the one on one coaching available in the 7 Figure Firms program?

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