Solo CPA to $290k Revenue | Yuri Kapilovich

Speaker A: All right. Hey everybody. Dave Costello here, Founder and CEO of Jetpack Workflow and host of Growing youg Forum podcast. Today's guest is Yuri Kapalevich. He's the managing partner of Capelowicz and Associates. He is known around the interwebs as the fun cpa. Uh, we got connected, uh, at a Live Flow event a few years ago. I've been following him on, on, on LinkedIn. He's now in the podcasting space. I've been seeing him have really honest, vulnerable takes about running a firm and having guests on that that do the same. And we're going to unpack so much about his journey of launching the firm, becoming the fund CPA and so much more. I think it's going to be really raw and authentic and maybe at times a bit funny. So, uh, let's dig into it. Yuri, how are you doing?

Speaker B: What's up man? It's great to be on the show. Great intro by the way. Thank you. I didn't, you know, don't have to do anything else, but I appreciate you having me on the show, man. And uh, it's really cool to see what you've done too in those two and a half or three years, the years almost since I've seen you last.

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Well, for like before we get into like the fun CPA stuff, tell me a little bit about the, the firm. And maybe it overlaps but like what type of firm is this? What type of clients are you serving? What kind of services you providing?

Speaker B: Yeah, so the firm itself, primarily a tax firm, uh, because of my own background. So I have been in the tax space for 12 years at those big firms, always, ah, working on the high net worth folks, the you know, people making 10, 50, $80 million a year. Um, and that was fun and all, but you know, you don't really get that reach, you don't really get that like helpfulness and value to those folks because they have a whole team around everything that they do. Um, so basically when I launched my firm, that was the focus to do tax work, to work with small business owners and do that. So as far as what the um, you know, servicings that I, services that I provide, I mean I do the bookkeeping, tax planning, tax consulting, um, and then you know, we meet quarterly with most of my clients and then you know, obviously do the bookkeeping on a monthly basis. So that's kind of like the high level, it's kind of a all, all services all in one place. Um, but, but, but for me and what I do primarily Is all most of the tax work.

Speaker A: Cool, cool. And you know, the extent you want to share, what's firm revenue, team size, what's the average client paying you? What does that look like?

Speaker B: Sure. Um, so as far as revenue goes, I'm about to share my 2025 financials here. We're in December 11th here recording. So uh, I'm going to be sharing that probably like the very beginning of January. But as of right now, um, it's probably going to be at around 29285 to 90. I'm going to close out the year at gross.

Speaker A: Nice.

Speaker B: I'm a lean firm man. I'm a more or less a team of one with um, like a part time bookkeeper helping me out and then two. So two of them. One is like kind of within my firm, so to speak. She's part time, she's just a contractor. And then another one is uh, she has her own firm out of Brooklyn. She does bookkeeping primarily. So I just outsource a few of the other clients to her. So it's kind of split between those two. Um, but yeah, my profit is probably going to be like the 200, 220. So I'm very lean as far as my expenses go.

Speaker A: And what's, what's the client? What's an average client paying you? I mean it kind of sounds like you're running like really efficient, uh, firm. And you mentioned tax planning. So I'm curious like how the packaging and pricing break down.

Speaker B: So I'm doing the math right now. Um, we're doing it average, we're doing it live. My average per relationship is 3,500 per client. Um, 3,500, 3,600 per uh, per that I have about 80 clients right now. I just did the math on that, um, shedding a few here in the next couple weeks before tax season. Um, so the other question you have, what would you say like as far as uh, what the break. Oh, the services breakout. Right. Like how, how that split. So out of that 290, um, about 120 or so is tax season only. So basically you know, just do the tax return and um, across for those and that, you know, for those couple clients. And then I would say about a

Speaker A: hundred,

Speaker B: about 100 of that ish, maybe even 80 is monthly recurring and then the rest is quarterly.

Speaker A: Is quarterly the tax planning work? Mhm.

Speaker B: Yeah. So just to give you an idea of the three tiers of service that I have, we have at the kind of bottom it's the tax only. So Effectively just doing the tax returns, you know, I'm fine with that is no biggie to me. Uh, I do try to meet with them once, once, once before the end of the year. And the minimum fee for that is 2000. So any tax return is going to be a minimum of $2,000. Um, and that, you know, more or less pushes away the 1040 only, you know, with a W2. Not interested in doing that, uh, because there's not a ton of value to be built in. So most of those would be new business owners or, you know, or business owners that, ah, just wanted more service. Um, and then the next tier is quarterly where I try to push a lot of the business owners too, just because there's a lot more value in that. Um, and where we stand there is that starts at 1500 a quarter and it still involves everything, you know, the tax return prep, as well as meeting, um, you know, once every quarter to just discuss the financials. And then the full package, kind of all inclusive is the monthly one and that starts at 1,000amonth. And that is, um, you know, bookkeeping and the quarterly and the tax returns and the tax, you know, planning and literally whatever, More or less, whatever. So long. I do my best, especially, especially at the quarterly and the monthly levels. I mean, I don't obviously I don't track time, I don't track my time. But you know, if they have a question, if there's like, uh, it's just like, hey, I want you to have a relationship with me where you don't feel like you're going to get billed for anything extra, we have a fee and we're done. That's really the approach that I take

Speaker A: to that now that we kind of got the nuts and bolts of the firm. Help me understand this. You're running when you started this kind of solo firm, it's doing well, you're growing this base organically. And then all of a sudden you're like, I'm, um, the fund cpa, so why tell me about this evolution? Because you didn't need to do that. Arguably you could have stayed on the same course. Maybe you would have ride at a slightly different place. But all of a sudden you decided to take a little bit of a departure from the normal firm building experience. So help me understand this.

Speaker B: So to understand that you, we got to go back and we got to go back to like day one of being self employed. Um, so for context, I started posting on LinkedIn day one, more or less of being self employed. Because the context behind that is that I was supposed to buy out a firm when I first started. A, ah, $100,000 firm that a friend of mine was selling. I was supposed to buy that out and I gave notice at my old job. Um, with that in mind, I was like, okay, I'm going to do that. 100,000. Great. Like, I was making a base. They got a base. I was making 150 at the time. So I was like, great, I can work with that. Um, but then five, ah, days after giving notice, the deal fell through. Uh, I had nothing. And so I was sitting there going, oh, shit, like, what am I going to do? You know? And then that's when I basically was like, okay, I'm gonna contract. Like, I need to do something, I need to bring money and I'm not going back on my, you know, quitting thing. I'm not going back.

Speaker A: I'm just going, you're not gonna, you're not gonna George Costanza and just show up the next day and be like, I said what? I don't remember.

Speaker B: I don't remember that I didn't quit. Yeah, so, um, so yeah, so that's what happened. And basically I started going to the city, to New York. Um, that was a 45 minute to an hour ride on the bus. And I was like, you know, I want the bus. I started like perusing LinkedIn and then started posting, just posting thoughts about the profession. But I say all this because. So there was two sides to that. Now I'm looking back at it, I think a big part of it was filling a gap, filling a void of being at a firm. And when you're at a firm, you're going there almost, you know, every day or whatever, and you're seeing people, water cooler talk, lunches. That was gone for me. I'm a very social person. I'm a very extroverted person. Um, that was gone for me. So I think I replaced that with LinkedIn, like in something in social media space. That's how it all started. But then the fun CPA thing evolved out of just posting about the profession. Posting, posting. I used to post bus thoughts, literally bus thoughts. 1, 2, 3, 4. Like, you know, as I was going on the bus and during the day and that would just share thoughts about the profession. And then there was trail thoughts, because I love riding my bike. So I'd ride my bike in the trails and, you know, my mountain bike. And then I would just check a picture and do like, you know, trail thoughts. And everything was related to the profession.

Speaker A: Yeah, what were some of the early takes that really started to like get some engagement? Like, what was the sampling of that? What really started to kind of ignite with the profession? Because I'm sure some, you know, when you post, you know, some, some like you're like, oh, this is, this is great, I can't wait. You know, you're almost nervous to hit publish because you're like, I don't know, this is so spicy. People are going to really react and you. And it's like nothing. Oh yeah. And then other ones you're like, this is okay, no big deal, just hit it. And then all of a sudden you get a hundred likes. You're like, where did that come from?

Speaker B: Yeah, that's a really good question. Um, so back then, I mean everything catered. So I remember specifically, like, I would say I like bus dots one or bus stats two, whatever. It's like this one is for managers, for the managers out there. And you know, and I would talk about like, how do you encourage your staff? How do you protect your staff? Um, like, you know, so for example, like I would say this for the managers out there. You know, if you have a staff person and you want to manage expectations of the partner above you and the client that you're dealing with, the first thing you're going to go to when you get a new assignment is not the partner or the staff or the, or the client, it's the staff. You're going to go to that staff and you're going to say, hey, tell me realistically what you are working on right now and when can you get to this job that I think is going to take 20 hours or whatever the time period is. They tell me. And then, and then I'm like, whatever they told me, I add two weeks or a week or whatever. I then go there and tell that to the partner or the client. So managing. So I mean obviously that's a long winded version of the post that I made. And I mean it didn't blow up nothing that I posted back in the. Back then, uh, really blew up like 20, you know, 20. 20 likes back then was like, oh my God. Yeah, like this is crazy. You know, um, but then it evolved.

Speaker A: And how does, and how does that translate? Did people start reaching out to you to subcontract work or were you able to start getting referrals for. Or you just needed an outlet, you needed that kind of out social outlet that you didn't have.

Speaker B: Yeah, there's. And we can touch on this when you know later, too. There is no, to this day, there is no intention behind my posting. Like, never. I will tell you one thing, the one main thing is that never at any point in my, in my, in my content that I've had a, uh, goal of anything outside of, like, just motivating the profession. None of my posts, you'll see are ever like, hire me or like, refer to me or like, let's work together. That was never the intent. It did. I did, I did get plenty of that, like, through people authentically reaching out and being like, I love your content. I like what you're doing, you know, and then referring some work to me. Um, but it was. I never wanted to go direct to customer or never. I have no intention of that.

Speaker A: Got it. Well, to hop around a little bit now. So knowing that you had this 100k lineup, and by the way, I think people don't talk about how often deals fall through at the last minute. I hear about it all the time or how often it changes me. And this partner is going to buy this thing. Partner backed out. I was going to buy this firm. Last day something happened at the firm. I didn't buy it. You know, I, I hear about this stuff all the time. So your day, 1 $0. Like, how did you recover your base? You know, um, um, you know, so, like, what, what, what did that look like in that first year? How did you get overflow work? Who are you reaching out to? Who are you contacting to try and get some initial dollars in the door?

Speaker B: Yeah, really, really good question. So to go back even. That even the contracting was not intentional, right? The contracting was a panic. This is real. This is real talk, man. Like, yeah, the contracting to me was, oh, shit. Like, I don't have a hundred thousand anymore. I got zero now.

Speaker A: That's right.

Speaker B: I got a mortgage to pay. I had, I had one kid at the time. I have two now. I had one kid at the time. I need to figure out how to pay for health insurance.

Speaker A: That's right.

Speaker B: I need to figure out what the hell I'm gonna do because I'm not going back. And I need to, you know, figure it out. So thankfully, at the time, my friend of mine, she was working with this guy named Dima. Uh, so he was in the, in the city. He had a practice of his own. And he was like, listen, like, come, come to two, three days a week. You know, help me out. You got the experience. You know, I, I was just. And that's what I was traveling to the city for. Um, that was 75 bucks an hour at the time. And I was like, great. So to answer your question, of, of, of what, what happened then mentally, once I cleared like probably 20 hours a week at 75, I don't, you know, I'm terrible at math. So we got 20 a week. At 75, that was 1500, uh, a week. And then obviously you have 70, 72

Speaker A: a year or something.

Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. So, you know, so it was like 6,000. It was 6,000amonth, right? Yeah, 6,000amonth. I was like, good, okay. Like, I'm all right, right? Like that was level one.

Speaker A: You're going to keep your home, you have groceries, stuff like that.

Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. I was like, okay, 6,000amonth. I can work with that now. But remember, that was two, that was 20 hours.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So the rest of the time I was basically posting on LinkedIn and I was okay. I wasn't feeling that, like, oh my God, where's my next money going to come from? So that's why now, in retrospect, if anybody ever asked me, how do I start a firm and what should I do, what should I get plenty of. I'm a contracting dude. Like, don't even, don't even think about it. Use the skills that you've built up over whatever amount of time, uh, whatever experience that you have, use that skill set and just put yourself to work in 75 to 100 bucks an hour. And you will not have to worry about, you know, bringing on $300, $500 little tax returns just to survive.

Speaker A: Dude, that's such a good piece of advice if you're still managing recurring client work with spreadsheets, checklists, or disconnected tools. It's time to look at Jetpack Workflow. Jetpack Workflow helps accounting and bookkeeping firms organize deadlines, standardize processes, and see exactly what's due across every client. So nothing falls through the cracks. Thousands of firms have used Jetpack Workflow to streamline operations and gain confidence that, ah, work is getting done on time every time. Visit jetpack workflow.com to schedule a demo and see how your firm can get more organized. Today I interviewed Taylor Hartman and I was like, how'd you launch your firm? And he, I think he was landing gigs on Upwork. It used to be called Odesk or whatever. And he built 60k, 70k side hustle. Now he was working 40 hours a week and then 20ish hours a week on top of that, or, you know, plus. And then at some point he's like, oh, wait, I can Just I kind of am getting the thing I want, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna quit. But he, he was, you know, putting in 67 hours a week, but he did that over, I want to say, 18, 24 months. And then he had like, to your point, he had a cushion. Um, where it's just easier to jump off of.

Speaker B: Yeah. Look, the reality of it is, is we're accountants, right. We're accounts. So we are risk averse. Nobody hears, you know, I mean, I know a few people that were just like, I'm going for it and I don't care. Right. But we're risk averse. We weigh so many other, so many circumstances in place and we're not going to make a move until we're fully ready. So a cushion is very important. I, I had a, I had probably like 200 grand saved up or something like that, you know, thank, you know, blessed to have that. So that was also there. But even with that, I was still scared.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Because I'm like, if I have zero, that's going to wipe out pretty quickly, you know, so that's, that's kind of where, where, where that culminated. But, you know. Yeah. So the contracting is huge. That helped. And then because I was posting on LinkedIn and because I just tap. I also had, by the way, some $15,000 on the side of like, that I've had even when I was at the firms, like just family, friends, stuff like that. So I was like, okay, I'll have that in tax season. And I then just kind of opened up those floodgates. Hey, would you guys refer people to me? And you know, that kind of, that's how it kind of built up in that regard.

Speaker A: Yeah. How long into your journey, like, are you, are you still 20 hours a week at that other firm? Like, how long into your journey you are?

Speaker B: Uh, oh, now. Oh, sorry, Now? No, uh, now. No. Um, um, how long into your journey

Speaker A: where you're like, okay, I don't need the 20 hours a week. I seek some client momentum here and I need to scale that back so I can invest more in my own firm.

Speaker B: I don't remember the exact number that I was making a month at the time, uh, when I did, but it was about a year and a half in, so about a year and a half in. I, I. And by the way, I switched. So after two or three months of going to the city was, was too much for me because you wait for the bus, you go on the bus for like an hour sometimes an hour and a Half one way. Um, and then you come back and then I still have to get my son. So I'd have to leave at like 4. And like, it was just, it was, it was jumbled up a little bit. Um, so I ended up going to contract at a firm in New Jersey. Um, a pretty, pretty big firm that, that hired me off of LinkedIn, which was, which was also cool. Again, just posting so, just making connections there that, uh, helped me out tremendously because I didn't have to go to the city anymore and I had a little bit more flexibility and everything kind of worked out. Um, but at that firm, I was there for about a year and a half helping them out. And then we kind of had a mutual like, okay, I think, I think we're good here. You know, like, and then, uh, at the time too, I've built out my practice where I think in tax season I was doing about 80,000, 60,000 or 80,000 in just tax season alone. And then probably, um, had about five grand a month just built up. So, so that made me feel good. I was like, all right, we're good. I don't need this anymore. Yeah.

Speaker A: All right. So to, so to retrace our steps a little bit. At what point in this journey you were like, I am, um, the fund CPA now. Like, when did that, when did that officially become like a thing? And why did it become a thing?

Speaker B: So I think I remember, like, I just, I was always posting at those bike things. I was like, bike Thoughts, Bike Trail. And then one time I just wrote like the Fun CPA on one of those. Like it was one of my hashtags on the, during my bike ride. I was like, yeah, the Fun cpa. That's funny. I don't know. Cool. And then I was like, uh huh, that's interesting. And then I did it again. I just like was randomly doing it and then I just started doing it more often on my posts. And then I was like, I kind of like, this, this is cool. And I went to. This is a story I share a lot. So I went to this event. Uh, it was a kind of like little meetup for like very wealthy people where they were. It was in an airport, which was really cool. I love planes. So as I get an airport, I had private jets there. They had, you, um, know, like helicopters, private helicopters, you know, luxury sports cars. And I reached out to the, uh, owner of that event or the person organizing and I was like, hey, can I get a booth for a cpa? And they were like, what? Like Nobody has ever asked me that. Like, that is the weirdest thing. But they're like, sure, they were running booths back then for like, for the day of like two or three grand or something crazy like that. And I was like, I can't do this. Like, I can't afford that. But I was like, you know, so I was like, but how much would it be? I asked him and he was like, you know what? I was like, he goes, 500 bucks. I was like, 500 bucks. Sign me up. I don't know. I don't even know what this is really, or what it's going to give me or if anything, but I'll do it. I signed up for that. In typical me fashion, everything is last minute. So I last minute, create, had my friend create me a, um, poster, uh, thing. Like a little like standup poster thing. It said the fun cpa. It was really cool, uh, how he made it. And actually, hold on a second. We're gonna do this.

Speaker A: Yeah. If you're watching it or if you're listening to it, if you flip to, if you flip to, uh, YouTube, uh, you're gonna see this, you're gonna see this poster.

Speaker B: So this is a little, this is a little replica of it. And I. So this says the fund, cpa, Real estate strategies, luxury and taxes. Growing your business while saving on taxes. It's a Lamborghini Countach. And my little firm thing.

Speaker A: What's cool about this? So you can't. If you're listening. So just imagine it kind of has this like mixture between like a futuristic gradient look to it with like a, uh, little. It's like some mixture between like an 80s vibe, but it has this futuristic look to it and these gradient colors so it pops out. It's not like, you know, most signs I feel like in the accounting industry is like kind of white background with like black text and then a green logo. There's like always green or blues and things like that. Yeah. And you have none of that. You know, the background is kind of this gradient black and it has these splashes of kind of yellow and pink and orange and this kind of gradient fashion. It's, it's very typical branding for an accounting firm.

Speaker B: That. Yes, that is exactly what I was going after. And my friend killed it with this one. He really, he's. He's an artist too, so he did it for me. And then I went to, um, Signorama and had it printed out. Um, and yeah, dude. So I did that, um, and I had that big sign. This is like you imagine that like almost twice my height. And um, then I had champagne there. I had like chips and stuff. I had tables and little like chairs. Dude, I bought this stuff on like Wayfair. It was like a set with like a bar stool set. And I had to set it up while I was at this airport. And I was like, just building it, putting it together, man. It was a fun time anyway.

Speaker A: And was that level? That level. And so did people. I mean, you're having like this kind of access to, you know, ultra wealth, um, which. Your background, you had experience actually working with them too. And so you're there and what was the reception like from the audience there? All these folks that, you know, yeah, we're at this event.

Speaker B: So. So that leads perfectly into what happened. So I set up the sign and you know, it says the fun cpa. But people walking by and I'm not talking about just one person, I'm talking about probably like two or three, maybe five people walk by and they're like looking at the sign, looking at me. Uh, the funk pa. What? They're like, what is the funk? The funk pa. What is this? I'm like, the fun cpa. And they're like, what? What do you mean, the fun cpa? I don't understand. Like, it was that level of confusion that got me going like, damn. Like, this is, like, this is. I'm on to something here. Like, this is so. And with the sign and everything, this is so like counter intuitive to everything that, that, you know, is happening in the space. So I guess they were just thrown off. And so I was like, yeah, I'm leaning into it hard. But that's really the moment where I was like, yeah, I need to keep going with this fun CPA thing.

Speaker A: But you saw them stop in their tracks.

Speaker B: Oh yeah. Stopping. Not understand. Like, they were just like, I don't know what. But. But to be honest, I mean, I didn't get any like, traction. So I didn't get a client out of it. I got like one potential prospect client where it was had like, Probably I think 10 or 15 million dollars in the real estate, um, that he owned. But he ended up like we were going back and forth and he was going to hire me. But then he was kind of like he felt like he needed someone with a team. Um, and that's fair. You know, honestly, to some extent, like, it's, it's good because it would have been too much for one person. But long story short, that's where the fun CPA thing came out. Of, and, uh, that's when I lean into it harder.

Speaker A: Got it. And, and you've been running, you've been running your own podcast. And I'm curious, you know, I feel like one of the interesting things you do on your podcast is you really try to get into the, um, it feels like at times the emotional journey, uh, of running, of running a firm. So I guess what were some of the kind of either, uh, affirming things you've heard on your podcast or surprising things you've heard on your podcast? Just from the emotionality of building a practice.

Speaker B: That's, it's, uh, another good one, man. Um, it's a good, really good, like, recognition that you've had that, that I go into the emotional side of things. I like, I like to ask people about their journey, and I like to, like, really dig into, like, some of those tougher moments, especially around the beginning. But the one thing I found that, that, um, didn't necessarily surprise me. But no matter what you see on social media, like, this is my one big thing with social media. It's like, it seems fake. Everybody is like, oh, my God, they got to this number. And how did they do it? Like, this is amazing. I want to be like them. They all struggle at the beginning. Everybody struggle in the beginning. And not just the beginning, but then along their journey multiple times. And I'm no different. So I, I, I try to get that kind of aspect out of it. But I guess what I would, what I found out in, in a short sense is nobody's perfect, man. Nobody's perfect. And no matter what you think of them on social media, because they post now, they all struggle at the beginning. And that's really what I, what I drill down on. Because the journey is never linear.

Speaker A: Yeah. And it feels like it's so easy to look at somebody's journey. I mean, I include myself in this at times, which is you're like, oh, man, they got to this scale or they got to this number faster and kind of the game, you know, whether it's healthy or not. Sometimes I play with myself. It's like I really try to assess, like, well, when did they get into the game? And sometimes you meet these people that have been entrepreneurial or entrepreneurs since they were like, 16, 17, 18. So like, this accounting firm or this tech company is like their fourth or fifth thing. And you're comparing against your first attempt. Right.

Speaker B: It's wildly different comparison. Obviously, everybody says this, right? Is the thief of joy, and nothing will take your joy away worse than social Media. And I, I have been on this journey of, like, trying to figure out what I'm doing on social media now being a little bit more specific with it. And, and that, because the more time you spend on there, the more you're gonna feel like a piece of crap, that you're not doing well enough, that your firm's not growing fast enough, that so, and so has a million dollars in revenue already and you only have 300. You only have a thousand subscribers, and that person just posted that they have 10,000. There is nothing, you know, that on social media that, you know, stops you in your tracks to go, what, I got a thousand subscribers. Holy crap, I started at zero. Or I have $290,000 in revenue. Holy crap, I started at zero. Like, that's the real problem that, that social media would, would create. And I think that, and I think that that that's something that is important to, like, not dwell on and, and try to get out of that comparison game. And I know by no means I'm a perfect specimen of that. I fall attuned to that myself, but it's important to keep remembering that.

Speaker A: All right, well, as content creators, what can we. Like, how do we, like, how do you and I deal with that, right? Because I know, I agree with you, right? Like, I really try to time block, you know, I find myself candidly, like LinkedIn. I do probably check it now too much because I'm posting, I'm looking at reactions and things like that. But I have a easier time just hopping off of LinkedIn if I open up like Twitter, I actually put a little timer on. I got 15 minutes a day, and that's it. I'm getting kicked out, right? And then I'm really trying to make sure the algorithm doesn't, doesn't put me into, like a spiral of, uh, anger, right? So I have my tech companies and my tech leaders and my product leaders, and it sometimes will try to pull me out. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, don't dwell on this post, don't like it, don't comment. Because I want to keep my algorithm pure, or at least for what I'm trying to learn. But then on the flip side, like, I'm obviously going to be clipping this episode, I'm going to be clipping other things from our summits and what have you and dropping it on LinkedIn. And so, you know, I, I'm looking for engagement on LinkedIn, but there has to be guardrails. So how do you think about if you're a firm owner today, or aspiring firm owner, what's the appropriate use? Or how do you set yourself up so this doesn't become like a place that just saddens you or angers you or pushes you into a very fearful or insecure state.

Speaker B: Something I'm working on right now, honestly, um, to figure it out myself. The one thing that works for me, honestly, I just delete the apps. Like, I don't, obviously don't delete my account, but I delete the apps from my phone. I just delete them. I just literally delete them because the pain of going into my app store and, and hitting delete is like, that's too much time. I don't need to do that right now because to your point, like LinkedIn. So I feel like when you're, when you're on like Instagram or like, you know, Twitter or whatever, you could. Your comparison, it's a little bit different because you're like, ah, it's video. And it's like, uh, you know, like you're not really hot takes.

Speaker A: I feel like hot takes, yeah.

Speaker B: You're not feeling like, oh man, this person is really doing better than me. But LinkedIn is really where that negative energy kind of, kind of can drain you a lot. Um, but to your question about as a new firm owner or somebody getting into LinkedIn or somebody like, my biggest thing and biggest take on that is just remember that there are thousands of firm owners out there that are literally not on LinkedIn, that are arguably doing better than 95% of the people yapping on LinkedIn. What I mean by that is you don't need to be on LinkedIn. You don't like. That's the, that's the bottom line reality of it is. And, um, you know, I don't like me personally, again, I don't even try to get work on LinkedIn. I know some people who do and I know some people who are successful at it. But just remember that it's. You can go to a networking event in your local, you know, city or somewhere in your area and get more clients than you ever will on LinkedIn.

Speaker A: Hey, David. Here. Thanks so much for checking out this episode. Did you know that we run the Growing youg Firm newsletter where we not only publish upcoming podcasts and episodes, but it's where you get invited to the summits that we hold multiple times a year. These are virtual summits. They are free. And we do things like the AI Summit, the Advisory Summit, the M and A Summit, Go to Jetpack Workflow Dot com. Click that learn button and make sure you sign up for the growing your firm newsletter. Yeah, It's a creative outlet. It's camaraderie. It can all obviously tip into a place that's like, unhealthy and it's. And the system set up to try to tip you in there for it to be a place of unhealthiness and feeling kind of addicted to it. Um, but using it as a way to gather best practices, connect with community as a creative outlet for takes. Whether people are a thousand likes or just one comment that says, I love this. Just things that help make the journey feel less lonely. I feel like that's when it's in its best place. But, uh, again, it's set up for you to be in there in its worst state. And I really like the idea of deleting apps. It's funny I just mentioned the two. I probably struggle with Twitter and LinkedIn. I have both those apps. I'm not even on Instagram as I created an account. I don't have an Instagram app. I don't have the Facebook app. I don't have messenger app. I don't have like, Pinterest or TikTok. And you know what? I have like, zero ambition to ever go in there. Like, it's just. It, uh, kind of eliminated. Like, I have to open up my computer. I have a website blocker for these two things as well for like Facebook. And like, I actually have like zero. Like, I probably haven't been to Facebook in a couple of weeks. Like, it doesn't bother me, but, like, I will feel it if I'm not in, like, LinkedIn or Twitter for probably a couple days. Yeah, I'm gonna start itching. Like, am I relevant? I'm gonna be worried somehow in some weird way I don't understand about. About it.

Speaker B: I don't understand it either. But I'm the same way as you. Like, even when I delete it, I mean, I'm looking at it on the computer, but at least when I'm on the computer doing it, it's associated with the work. And I, and I, and I can control it a little better rather than what usually would happen, which is a loop of still on my computer. I open up Instagram, boom, boom, boom, scroll there. Okay, I'm done there. Then next automatically LinkedIn on my freaking phone. And then it's like, Instagram, LinkedIn, Instagram, LinkedIn, boom, boom, boom. Where is the work getting done? Like that, that really, like, would just. And, and, and thankfully I I, you know, I have a practice where I don't have to do that much work. That's the reality. Right. Like, right now I'm doing about 10 to 15 hours a. A week of actual work. I don't work that much. And in tax season, I, you know, I, I don't work more than 40 hours a week ever.

Speaker A: Is that to dive into that tax season? Um, what. Help me understand people listening. 80 clients, uh, right now we're in December at 10, 15 hours. Taxis in 40 hours. How, like, what, what have you, what have you learned or implemented? Was it always that way or like, what have you implemented to kind of keep your work schedule that way?

Speaker B: Always? Because that's always. That was always the intent. That was always the goal sometimes, I mean, never, like, the only intentionality behind it. Like, so I can't say I was like, intentionally from day one going, I'll never, I never want to work more than 40 hours a week in tax season. That was not the intent. But the only intentionality was I want clients that value me that are willing to pay a, uh, higher price. And with the contracting, I was able to not, you know, I was able to hold steady to that.

Speaker A: I see. So you don't have this. So these are 80 great clients. It's not like 20. I really like. And 60 are like, you know.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: You know, $500, 10, 40 clients or whatever. These are, These are all clients. You're like, this is who I. Exactly who I want to serve. And I didn't have to sacrifice that because I had this other cash flow.

Speaker B: Yeah, these are exactly. These are all clients that are high paying. Like I said, average. Average relationship is 3, 500. $3,600. Right. So. And that's for a tax re. Like, for. Some of them are just regular tax return. I'm looking at the list right now. I got. Looking at one that I charge $2,000 and it takes me two hours. Yeah. So, you know, I mean, like, that, that, uh, that really comes down to, like, that's the intentionality I had. Right. Like, that's what I wanted to build, and I wanted to have a price where they feel valued. How do they feel valued? Because I have 80 clients. Meaning they don't know, obviously, that I have 80 clients per se. But they know that when they call me or when they text me or when they email me or whatever it is, I'm answering, I'm answering their thing. If it's like, hey, I got a notice, can you deal with it? Hey, this and that. It's dealt with immediately. Right, but you can't really do that if you have 500 clients. You just can't.

Speaker A: It's interesting, uh, earlier this year we were running, maybe it was the CAST summit. I forget we've done a couple of these summits and somebody was like, the capacity problem is a pricing problem.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And I feel like in some ways, you know, that's what you're saying. Like I priced right. So now I have a lot of capacity. I mean, I'm sure you have systems and tools and I mean, it's not like everything's in your brain and nothing's written down, nothing's documented. Like you have some list somewhere, at least who the 80 clients are. And yeah, there's a process. You follow the. But. But your capacity was a downstream product of how you priced up front, right?

Speaker B: Yeah. And to drill even further into that, the reason why I had these, I have, I have a time constraint right at the end of the day. So my wife is an optometrist. She cannot work from home. Um, she's in the office and she's working. You know, at the time she was working full time every day. You know, now she works, uh, three days a week. But at the time when I first started, so, you know, I'm like, I need, okay, so I need to take my son and daughter to um, school. Right. I want to work out. That's not really optional for me. So what does that mean? I wake up at 7 or 7:30, whatever, whatever time I wake up, go get, you know, get the kids ready. You know, obviously wife will help out, of course, and whatever it is. And then take the kid to the bus stop, my son then come back, then take my daughter to her daycare around 8:45, 9:00, clock, I'm working out. 10:00', clock, I'm done. 10:30 m. My day starts. Yes, obviously, many would say you can shift that around. You could try to go to the gym at 5. I have no interest to go to the gym at five in the morning. That is not me. So work around that. My day starts 10:30, 11 o' clock every day. And then my son comes home at 3:30. That's it, that's the time. So how do you work backwards like to, to fill that time? Now obviously, during tax season, you know, when my son comes home at 3:30, I'm not spending time with him as much. You know, we kind of, we hang, he hangs out by me, whatever, but I'm, you know, still cranking and uh, we you know, and then, and then a lot of times I'll go back to work after the kids go down, you know, go to, go to sleep. Yeah, so you obviously work around that. But my point being is there was always that time constraint and there was always that desire to have the freedom and the flexibility. So that's what drove me not wanting to, like, just simply being like, I don't want to work more than 45 hours because I don't even know how I'm going to do it.

Speaker A: Yeah, I hear you. Um, what. You know, as we wrap up here, we're going into 2026, you know, how are you thinking about the future of your firm? Both as, both as how you position it, but also as, like, you're at 80 clients, things feel good. Are you saying no to more clients? Like, how are you thinking about the firm? Both, like, maybe strategically, but then also as growth. Right. Because it feels like you've kind of design the ideal day in, in some instances, but as you continue to do great service for clients, you're at a minimum going to get referrals. I'm curious how you think about the future, how you think about growth, and how you think about where you're going to take it.

Speaker B: Yeah, it's, um, it's a really big thing on my mind right now, uh, because obviously, inherently, we all want to grow. Right? I, my goal for 2026 is, um, I, I would, I want to hit 400 in revenue, and I did the math the other day, but I want to be very specific again about the kind of clients. My main goal right now is to grow strategically, obviously, and focus on clients that are easy or, like, meaning, you know, like, not a whole ton of transactions and they're bookkeeping, not like, you know, super complicated. I want nothing to do with inventory. That is a very big rule of mine. Um, you know, I want the simple but, you know, high paying. That's really the goal. Um, you know, and then at a thousand, at a thousand bucks a month, like, I really want to grow that monthly revenue piece of it. So right now, what. And what I need to do to achieve that is one, I need to stop wasting so much time on LinkedIn. So that is goal number one. Um, I need to get, you know, instead of posting two or once, one or two times a day as I've been, you know, and then checking this crap nonstop like a, you know, crazy person, um, you know, I need to tone that down and be a little bit more mindful of that. So I'll be posting like two or three times a week on LinkedIn and making LinkedIn be the place where I'm just the accountant for accountants. You know, the fund CPA really at first, you know, it really where, where it's culminated at is, is just showcasing to the other accountants out there that accounting does not have to suck. Like that's really where the brand is at. It's not client facing. Yes too, to some extent because it's intriguing. But really that's where that kind of move towards. So focusing on that on the LinkedIn side and then um, doing on the YouTube side, I'm gonna, I'm gonna push through with YouTube and continue doing obviously like the shorts from the podcast, that kind of stuff on one and then launch another YouTube for uh, me, my personally. Me personally. And where I'll be doing like reaction videos and stuff like that to try to get some, some more clientele from, from that side of things. So that's kind of the goal. So. So to answer your question, yes, I am definitely looking for more clients, but again, only the right ones. I'm not looking to just grow top line for top line sake.

Speaker A: Yeah, I love that. The right clients, ideally monthly, simple. And I'm sure there's opportunity in your existing client base to get some of those low, you know, basic tier to a mid tier, mid tier, up to the high tier and stuff like that. So you have some flexibility there. Um, Yuri, this has been a lot of fun. If people want to reach out, say thank you. Follow you on that platform. We said you shouldn't be on. What's the best way the community to connect with you?

Speaker B: LinkedIn, I mean LinkedIn is, is really where, where I still will be and certainly I'm going to be checking it. It's going to take a while for me to wind that down. Um, yeah, uh, so definitely hit me up on LinkedIn or um, you know, follow along on the YouTube journey, whatever, whatever it is. But I'll, I'll answer on LinkedIn anytime.

Speaker A: All right, amazing. Uh, we're going to link everything up@jetpack workflow.com blog. That's Jetpack workflow.com blog. We'll put up your YouTube. We'll put, put up LinkedIn, we'll put up show notes there. If you enjoy the interview, leave a review. If you really enjoyed it, share it and dare I say share it on LinkedIn. Tag us, let us know what you thought of it. Yuri, this has been a lot of fun. Until next time.

Speaker B: Yes, sir. Thanks for having me.