Struggling Accountant Increasing Revenue with Accounting Firm Software

Vanessa Gonzalez-Penaloza, owner of Aggregad Accounting & Tax Solutions LLC in Miami, Florida, has gone under quite the transformation. She worked previously as a full-time employee for a corporation before going out on her own as an entrepreneur. In 2016, she struggled to make ends meet, doing over half her yearly revenue in the short tax season leading up to April. The summer months were dead and she was finding it hard to get revenue that would be sustainable. In addition, she was feeling overworked and underpaid during tax season. Here is her story of transformation as well as the accounting firm software she now uses.

Accounting Firm Software Tools Help You Get Rid of Bad Clients

“I used to pursue any client that would sign up with me, it wouldn’t matter how difficult or cheap they were, I needed to take them on.” Like many accountants, that’s how Ms. Gonzalez-Penaloza began her accounting firm. The services were generic, with little to offer that other firms didn’t already give. 

With nothing unique to offer, Ms. Gonzalez-Penaloza knew she needed to begin to differentiate herself from the crowd, otherwise she’d be stuck doing $300 tax returns and never create the lifestyle business she longed for. “My goal has never been to create a gigantic tax firm. I want to have a boutique firm that is highly profitable while giving extremely high value to the right type of client—business owners who want more than generic accounting services.” 

Feeling overworked and continually having to deal with nagging clients who didn’t appreciate the low-end compliance services she was providing, Ms. Gonzalez-Penaloza found Corvee accounting firm software online along with the accounting firm tools offered, and decided to begin making necessary changes to her business model with the goal to begin onboarding better clients. 

Accounting Firm Growth Helps You Expand

Ms. Gonzalez-Penaloza decided that tax planning was the best service to offer her new clientele. “Andrew Argue [CEO of Corvee] really helped me fully commit to being an entrepreneur and gave me the confidence to begin calling on prospects. There is no way I would have achieved what I have without his push.” 

One of her achievements has been more than doubling her sales between 2016 and 2019, and she has experienced explosive growth thus far in 2020. Her goal is now to increase sales 100% year over year, and it’s becoming possible because of the coaching and tools found inside 7 Figure Firms. 

“Going from $300 tax returns to high-end tax planning, I needed guidance not just on the pricing and packaging, I needed guidance on how to run a business. I used to not understand how valuable my time was, I wouldn’t even charge $50 an hour, and sometimes I gave advice for free. Now at $175 an hour, I value my own time. I never would have had the confidence to set my pricing at this level if it weren’t for this program.” 

Ms. Gonzalez-Penaloza also sold nearly $100k of services during the outbreak of the pandemic in March of 2020, all due to specific and timely advisory services related to PPP and EIDL. These disaster loan advisory services were tools to increase sales that were introduced to 7 Figure Firm members just one week after the lockdown began.  

Accounting Firm Software Tools

Ms. Gonzalez-Penaloza’s accounting firm is now 80% focused on advisory services, tax returns have been reduced by 60%, and she uses Corvee Tax Planning for file sharing as an easy way to manage and track documents with her clients. Corvee’s accounting firm software helps to speed up her service delivery by efficiently managing client requests all in one place.

Her revamped accounting firm now helps clients in the following ways: 

• Tax planning strategies
• Improve process and profitability by increasing revenue
• Maximize efficiency
• Accounting, financial and operational management
• Forecast/ budgeting & strategic analysis
• Cost restructuring, boosting performance and profitability

These services are quite different compared to offering $300 tax returns and doing most of the yearly revenue in a short, 60-day tax season. It’s now a year-round business with steady revenue, upward growth, and work that allows for enough time off to enjoy life with the family. It’s about having a business that suits you rather than a business that owns you; having a business you design rather than a business that is unpredictable. 

With bigger goals still to hit, Ms. Gonzalez-Penaloza isn’t completely finished transforming her accounting firm, but she’s made great progress and now has the inward confidence and is armed with the right accounting firm tools that help her take on any challenge!

For example, In addition to the financial rewards of more revenue and winning back her personal time, Ms. Gonzalez-Penaloza used the same commitment and mindset shift she learned in 7 Figure Firms of improving her business to improve her personal life. She lost 111 lbs of excess weight and is feeling as healthy as she was back when she was much younger. 

“The 7 Figure Firms coaching program is both challenging and rewarding, but it’s more rewarding than challenging. It’s helped me take responsibility with all that I have, to give me that mindset of creating my own destiny—and giving me the tools to go along with it.”

Ready to take your tax and accounting firm to the next level?