The Succession Planning for CPA Firm Owners to Build a Business That Runs Without Them

- · Speaker 1 This is our quarter one update for 2026. A couple of things that we've been doing this year that have been successful. Last year we brought in a tax reviewer, another CPA who came in at the partner level review. She's been reviewing the entities that get to her from her managers.

She's been working with the staff. We have produced and sent out K-1 advisory letters. So a K-1 is a pass through business. It reports your income as an owner in that company.

So we've never had K1 advisory levels before. A third of the K1 from our entities go out to outside partners. There's no what's going to happen at tax filing. It's not going to be a huge surprise if you have an overpayment.

So that is our ultimate goal. And part of making sure that we can meet that is to inform those partners where we're not preparing the tax return. Second, big process or platform change for us, this tax season has been. - · Speaker 2 As you've been listening to this guest, you're probably starting to ask your questions.

How do I apply this to our own situation, our own succession story at the company that I'm working in now at GWC. We have built a custom GPT that you can find linked down in the description below on our website. We have loaded this GPT up with all of our knowledge about public accounting and tax preparation around succession planning. We've also included the insights from the guests from the past two years of interviews at the Art of succession.

You can find all of that at the custom GPT use at any time of day. Start to apply it to your situation. Ask it the questions that are keeping you awake at night. I want to thank you for listening so far and let's get back to the episode.

- · Speaker 3 Welcome to the Art of succession podcast with Barrett Young. Join us as we explore the strategies, stories and insights that shape the journey of leadership, transitions and business success. No matter where you find yourself along the journey, this is the podcast where you'll find the tools to make it happen. - · Speaker 2 My name is Barrett Young and this is the Art of succession podcast.

This is our. - · Speaker 1 Quarter. - · Speaker 2 One update for 2026. So I started doing these updates last year in second quarter.

Actually with the show. And then branched into quarterly updates for our CPA firm. So my name is Barrett Young. I'm a CPA and I'm a partner of two in a team currently sitting at about 13 people in Maryland.

We are in our own succession journey, and that's what the art of succession is about. And so the quarterly updates here are to model for our listeners, to model for our customers what succession actually looks like. So we're an 80 year old CPA firm. I'm the ninth partner in succession.

My partner Samantha, and I have been running the company together for three years, coming up on three years since she took over as managing partner and our last partner was retired. This is his final tax season. I've been in public accounting. This was my 20th tax season.

Got about 20 more to go. So we want to model, you know, the work that goes into overhauling a traditional firm overhauling an existing business, positioning that business, not necessarily that everything that needs to be overhauled is a bad thing. It's just positioning that business for the next phase of its life. And that's what the art of succession is about.

That's the work that we do that we want to do more of with our existing clients. And so that's what these updates are about. Sam and I went through a branding and reorganization at this point three years ago with our marketing agency to identify who we are, who we want to work with. We shortened our name from Garbo and Winslow to GW, CPA.

We got a new website, new colors, new logo, moved locations. We did a whole bunch of things as we were entering the phase of her taking over as managing partner. And the key discussion for us about that was, you know, what sets us apart from other CPA firms in southern Maryland, in the state, you know, in the Mid-Atlantic. Across the world, what sets us apart from other CPA firms?

What can't a client go and get from the other firm right across the street from us? You know, we've been around for 80 years. We have succession baked into our DNA here at the company. And it's also something that's reflective of the clients that we work with.

So a lot of our clients have been, you know, with us through many decades themselves, second, third, even fourth generation, in some cases with our clients. And so that was our differentiator that we decided we know succession. You know, and so we're going to start talking about it more. We're going to start incorporating that into our conversations with our clients, not just finding out after the fact that they're buying out a partner, or they're bringing in a new partner, or they're looking to sell to liquidate or private equity roll up, but actually have those conversations with our clients well in advance so that they don't get to the end of their working career and then try to find a quick solution at the very end.

So that was our realization three years ago. This is our differentiating, you know, strategic advantage that we have over other firms. And so we have been baking that into our conversations. I've been building up the marketing of our company.

Another thing we've never had really in the past. We've always had partners that do their own marketing, whatever, whatever they like to do. If it's mixers or golf or whatever the case might be. We have been building a marketing department over the past three years, and really showing this is not something that you're going to get at every single firm.

You know, prior to us focusing on succession planning, prior to me coming to GW and working here, I would probably do a partner acquisition, a partner buy out once every 3 to 4 years. Since we've been having these conversations, since we've been focused on this with our clients, I'm are probably doing 2 to 5 in a year, and it's only going to increase from there. So that's a little bit about these updates. You can go back.

Listen to other episodes you know. See what brought us on this journey up to this point. But this is the quarter one update. And so everybody's expecting me to talk about tax season.

I am the tax partner here at GW. That is the current seat that I sit in on our iOS accountability chart. One of the decisions, you know, three years ago leading into Sam taking over as managing partner, we had to get her out of a lot of the operations, day to day operations side that she was also doing for her client base, and so I moved into tax partner role two tax seasons ago. This is now my second one in the tax partner role, which means I am responsible for all of the entity business tax returns that go out the door, and all of the individuals that are related to those businesses.

Sam then is freed up to focus on her 1040 only clients, a at 1040. As an individual client, we differentiate a 1040 only client is one that's not tied in with one of our business clients. She's only focusing on those right now and then running the company. And then she is also in the iOS world.

She's also the integrator. She's in charge of our quality control of what goes out of the firm training up the next, you know, the level of teams, the managers below her on that and running the company. So anyways, tax season update I'm the tax partner. This is my domain uh, currently.

And a couple things that we've been doing this year that have been successful. You know, last year we brought in a tax reviewer, another CPA who came in at the partner level review. She's been reviewing the entities that get to her from our managers. She's been working with the staff on feedback, on coaching them through, you know, what's required at the preparation level, what's required at the manager level.

And then she does the first pass partner review. and then it comes to me for final review and goes into processing. So this is her second tax season with us. Last season was extremely successful.

This season we've just seen even more efficiency gains, a more just interaction with her. She's doubled the amount of time that she's been able to offer us as a part time subcontractor. And just the way that we interact together, the way she interacts with the team, has just really found an awesome rhythm, an awesome pace. You know, one of the things we're trying to do is decentralize.

I say that as we're centralizing all of that through through a tax review, but we're trying to push down the level of knowledge as far down as we can get and expect more at the preparation phase. At the manager phase, one of the things that we've been doing this tax season is we meet every Tuesday for a tax review training session. And so myself or this partner reviewer Denise, will review on zoom a manager's work with the entire tax team on the call, and then alternating weeks will have a manager review staff.

Accountants work on the call. Kind of like a this is what we're actually looking for. This is what we're actually doing in this process. Like if I was sitting over your shoulder learning how to review a tax return as a manager, what would you be teaching me how to do?

And we're doing that in public for the entire team. Not critical. Not like this is what you got wrong. Don't ever do it again.

But just as we see what a manager is looking for, what a partner is looking for, the standard is just increasing across the entire team. I'm having my managers alternate who is running that meeting. Denise and I are alternating who is doing the partner review level, and I think it's really beneficial. I hope it's beneficial for my team so that we all see, you know, what standard what we're looking for.

And the quality just improves across the board something that's new for us this year. So I talked about the distinction between a 1040 only client versus a business owner who's also involved with one of our entity clients. We have brought in a CPA who's only doing those 1040 only clients. So she has been working with mine.

I still have a small group of clients that are not tied in the bigger strategic vision of the firm, but they've been clients, and so we're continuing to serve them. Currently, she's preparing those returns for us. She's also working on our trust and estate clients that's been going well this tax season. She's a brand new CPA.

She is just coming into accounting and tax. She's a career transition. She was actually a marketer, which is hilarious. She's a marketer that wants to become an accountant.

I was I'm an accountant that wants to be a marketer, but I've been working with her on the ten 40s, trying to keep those moving so that they don't end up at the back of my queue, the back of my priority. Because that's not fair to those clients. Even though I've got my attention elsewhere as the tax partner for all of our entity tax returns. So she's been working on those we meet after, you know, half dozen of those are completed.

We review them together, we go over notes and we keep those moving throughout the door. So really, my tax season this year is focused on those two people answering questions from the team, handling training, handling any kind of worksheets that need to be created from scratch or, you know, polished at the beginning of the tax season. But beyond that, it's making sure Denise, who's my tax partner, review level, and then Amber, who's doing the ten 40s making sure that they keep everything moving.

I'll get back to just, you know, one of the big changes for quarter one in a second. But then we also have Michelle who's been with us for over 30 years, really sharp in tax. She has actually Taken position within our accountability chart as the Director of Tax. I'm going to talk more about this as we go, but I'm actually subordinated to her in that role, even though I'm a partner, even though I'm an owner of the company in iOS, they try to separate roles as owners positions, as owners from titles.

They also separate titles from roles or accountable who's accountable for a process within a business. And so Michelle is assumed this role of director of tax with, you know, she's very good at project management. She's very good as a at the manager level review. And so her job is to keep all tax moving, all of the processes moving, make sure all things are being paid attention to and that the entire team is ultimately accountable to her.

And so she sits over the tax department. And then within that I've got a couple positions. One of them is signing partner. So as a partner, as an owner in the firm I sign, all of the entity returns that go out the door.

That's probably a role I will always keep within the company, but then another role that I have. Both Denise and I have is the partner level review. And so as an employee in that role within EOS, I report to Michelle and I'm accountable to Michelle. And she keeps me honest.

She keeps me responsible. She lets me know we've got this coming. I need you to get you to turn this around, I need you. This has been sitting on your queue for a while.

I need you to get that to me. And so that's been phenomenal. I'm going to get into more of that as we get into, you know, just what EOS has done for us here in the first quarter. We are seeing massive gains through that system each quarter as we go.

But before I do that, I want to just talk just a couple more tax season updates, new things. These are two new things that we've done this year that we've never done before. And I'm really excited about this. So the first one is we have produced and sent out K1 advisory letters.

So a K1 is a pass through business. It reports your income as an owner in that company, whether you're a shareholder or a partner in that company, you get your income reported from the partnership or the S corporation, and you report it on your personal tax return. Larger tax firms, larger tax departments. I've received letters in the past from them on behalf of my clients.

It's a letter saying we project that your income will be this for 2025, so that you can take this and you can take it into account to do your to plan your extension. And then we expect that your tax return, your K1 will be ready in May, June, July, whatever the case might be when a return goes on extension, the due date for those past returns becomes September 15th, so we've never had K1 advisory levels before. Honestly, a lot of our clients, we do all of the ten 40s. All of the owners for those clients.

But we do have, I would say, probably a third of the partnership, a third of the K ones from our entities go out to outside partners. And so we needed in order to build towards our goal of all clients, go on extension taxes is just a byproduct of the operations of your company. We're working with our business owners. We're working with our companies on a regular basis.

They know what their tax projection looks like. They know what their estimates are that's paid in. There's no like what's going to happen at tax filing. It's not going to be a huge surprise if you have an overpayment, which is the case.

And you know, if we've done our job, it should be a decent overpayment and it's applied forward to the next year. So that is our ultimate goal. And part of making sure that we can meet that goal is to inform those partners where we're not preparing the tax return so that they're aware they can do planning on their own end for their extensions. So I've received templated letters like this in the past.

We actually developed it here for the first time ever. GW sent those out at the time that this is airing, those will be going out. And so that was a big unlock for us as far as processes go. So we did it with a small group of our clients that have external partners.

And then as we roll this out, as we continue to develop this and hear response from it, we will roll that out to every entity that has an exterior partner in the future. Second, big process or platform change. For us, this tax season has been electronic payments for tax extensions for estimates for federal and for all states involved. So, you know, last year executive order went out.

That said, the IRS is now going to require direct deposit of refunds and it's going to require electronic payments of taxes. Honestly, a lot of states had already moved in this direction. Like for example, Virginia requires electronic payment of taxes. If you owe more than $2,500 of any type of tax over the course of the entire year.

So it's some states were already there. Maryland not there yet. Uh, not mandating it. Just have the capability.

A lot of states are like that as well. So the federal government finally mandating this is kind of a necessary push in that direction. Motive. I'm not going to comment on, you know, the motive, but it is time.

It is something that's necessary. You know, we needed mandatory e-filing to get electronic filing off the ground about 20, 25 years ago. And it started with CPA firms. And it said if you prepare more than 100 tax returns, you must e-file.

Then it filtered down to more than ten tax returns. You must e-file. And you know, we did see during Covid a lot of people are still paper filing. Those are usually the one off tax returns.

And it's a hugely inefficient process. You know one of the biggest headaches that I deal with as a tax preparer is the tax notices that come after the filing, and that's from clients that still mail in paper checks. Those paper checks get credited to the wrong year. They get credited to the wrong account.

They don't get credited to an account at all. I've had situations with the IRS where the IRS says you owe us money for your tax return, and it was a joint tax return because the spouse has a account on IRS gov. And she's got the business. She logs in and makes a payment.

But the IRS is not matching up the payment under her Social security number to the two Social security numbers that are on that individual tax return. That's what I deal with. Times federal and state for every single client and working with businesses. That's times Federal and possibly 3 to 6 states for every single business, especially if you mail in checks because you have to handwrite what year it goes on.

You have to handwrite your Social Security number in the memo, because as soon as that check comes in the door in Annapolis or wherever, whichever state, they separate the check and the coupon and they both go different directions to get entered, and hopefully they match up to the correct account again. That's not the case. And so the majority of, you know, hassle, the majority of friction that we deal with is on calling states, calling sending proof. Here's canceled checks.

You deposited the money. Here is the proof that the money was deposited. Find it in your system and credit to the account and remove all the interest and penalties. So it's an idea whose time has come.

Electronic payments should be mandatory. It does take, you know, someone with as strong willpower as the current president in order to enforce that, to force that on the IRS and to hopefully force that the states will follow suit, hopefully, because changing behavior in this case, I mean, you know, Canada has had a system in the platform we are using for this actually comes from Canada. They've had an electronic payment system in place for a very long time, New Zealand, Australia where a lot of our software platforms come from, they don't even have checks.

They don't even have paper checks down there. They haven't for 20 something years. So that's our other big platform that we've been rolling out. You know, the headache of this.

Yes. States have had electronic payments. Federal governments had electronic payments. You can draft your payment with your tax returns and your electronic banking information.

They can pull it from your they can pull it with the filing. The problem with that is it's all spread out all over the place. So 50 something states, every single one of them has a completely different website for different types of tax payments. No accountability, no usability, no centralized dashboard for me as the preparer to make sure those payments were made, to make sure those payments actually went through.

So we're using a platform called remission. It came down from Canada. It is a complex system that they have encountered coming down here into the United States. I'm on kind of like their strategic U.

S. adoption task force down here. Have been working with them for the past year. And I'm like, you don't know what you're getting into with these states, but we've been rolling that out slowly to our clients this year with extension payments, with first quarter estimates that are due.

It allows me, as the preparer to put in the amounts, make sure that it's the right tax type, it's going to the right place. It's got the right dates. Send that to the clients. They link their bank accounts on their end and then approve the payment.

And I get a confirmation number that it's actually been received and accepted by those agencies. That's been a big missing piece is I would draft up an email, manually type everything out, send them paper coupons. They would have to print those out, Attach them to checks. Send them to the IRS in Maryland.

They would forget they did it, I would check. Did you send them? Oh, yes, I think so. And then we'd file the tax return and find out they made three out of four of the payments.

They didn't make the fourth one. Or I've had cases where a client has sent the Maryland checks to the IRS and the IRS checks to Maryland, all sorts of issues over 20 years. And so this was a big piece of really making tax a byproduct, making it. So it's not such a big deal.

We have to cut down on the number of notices that our clients are receiving after the filing, because immediately they think we did something wrong. And more often than not, the the issue is at the state level, because their systems are antiquated, their processes are broken, they don't have good reporting. They don't have good follow up to say that the payments were received. They don't even send.

Maryland doesn't even send notices if they've changed your tax return, unless they've changed it to a position where you owe them money. That's the only way that they're send out notices. So that was a big push that's been, like we said, incremental. Our goal is by this time next year, that will be adoption across our entire client base and mandated by us.

If the states aren't going to mandate it, we are. Because this is really where our clients need to move to, and it's going to become a defining deal breaker for clients that renew with us if they're not willing to do this moving forward. So. So that's a little bit about tax season.

Let's talk about, you know, where we are in the succession planning of the company. So I shared iOS. I shared the department heads. So we have been working with our iOS implementer now for since last summer.

So we started with her in July. So it's been nine months now that we've been working with her. The big change or the big piece that fell into place in the first quarter was finishing our accountability chart. Samantha and I finished our accountability chart.

We looked at the company and, you know, all of the different seats that were in the company. It's based on roles. It's not based on titles or assumed job responsibilities. It's like I said, I'm a reviewer and I'm also the signer.

So those are two different roles within the company. On the marketing side, we split marketing, head of marketing from head of business development or head of sales. Those are two different roles. Those are two different positions that are accountable within a company.

So we did that with the entire company. It ended up having 65, 70 something roles within the entire company. I think I currently sit in like 14 different roles within the company. Sam's up there in double digits as well.

A number of our staff are almost to double digits or high single digits, and so there's plenty of opportunity within our company. But you know, we are moving away from everything running through Samantha and I. That's the whole point of succession planning. Increasing the value of your business means that the business cannot flow through one key person that does everything and holds it all together.

One person who is, you know, needs to work 60 70 hours to get 14, you know, 12, 13, 14 different roles finished on, on a timely basis. And so we are pushing down to the team, elevating team members to director roles. So we through our accountability chart and working with our team, we have implemented a director of tax role, a director of bookkeeping role, and a director of a test roll. A test is accounting speak for financial statements.

So we have elevated our three managers to these roles within the company. They have accountability and they have the team underneath them that works in those various roles. They have responsibilities for training, development processes and worksheets within each of those roles really control and freedom to define how those roles grow. And so that's what we've been doing in quarter one that started back in January.

We shared the accountability chart with the rest of the team. We showed them their positions in the accountability chart and our goal. The conversations I've been having with my team has been not, this is the box that you're in and you're going to stay in that box for forever. It's look at all of the opportunity that we have within our company.

We've got all these other positions, and this is showing you where you can move up to or laterally or into a completely different responsibility within the company. There's a lot of work that is getting done by a small group of people. It's also defining and helping shape how Sam and I are looking at hiring, growing the company beyond the 13 or so of us. Which hats can be swapped, which seats can be filled so that somebody is now working.

You know, in my mind, I envision it. I'm never only going to be doing one thing. I would love to just be the visionary of the company and not fill any other roles, but that's probably not realistic at any kind of size. Probably need to be, you know, 100 person firm in order for that to actually be my day job.

But we are going to have most of our team. I would love to get to the position where you have like a day, a role that you fulfill day in and day out, and then you have like a monthly or quarterly responsibility kind of role. And so, for example, for me, I'm in the marketing seat. I do not necessarily think I'm a good marketing director for the company.

That's one of the realizations that's come through this role development. I enjoy marketing, but I don't think I should be head of that department. But underneath that, one of the roles is podcast host, another role as subject matter expert. And so as I think through like what that looks like.

Of reducing the number of hats that I wear. It could probably be like visionary as my day job. That's my primary role. And then I have responsibilities on a weekly or monthly basis as the subject matter expert.

The content, you know, the head of the YouTube channel, the head of the podcast, the head of content production, not the head. Sorry, that's the wrong word. The one that they tap into, the one who has the knowledge that gets shared, and then also bringing in additional subject matter experts within my team to fill that role as well, so that that need is reduced off my plate as well. So that's what we've been doing with the accountability chart.

That's been a big push for us. It's also, you know, iOS runs on issues lists. And so re redone our weekly team meetings. So we had a same page meeting and we had a lot of people on that meeting.

I would say more than half of the company was on this meeting every single Tuesday. We have since pared that back, gotten it to you are on this meeting because you're sitting in this specific seat, and then we're working through our issues in that meeting. So it's not so much a checklist or a task list. Did you accomplish what you said you were going to do?

It's more of this is a problem that we're facing in the company. What is the task? What is the problem? What is the problem behind the problem?

What needs to be done with that? So that's now what we do in our weekly level ten meetings on Tuesday. And then now each of our managers has a responsibility as a director of tax. We also have additional level ten meetings that occur within the company.

So we have a business development level ten. We have a firm administration level ten. We have that quality control seat that sits above the three tax directors. That's the like accounting production team level ten meeting.

Those managers each have meetings with their team. You know, under the manager or director of tax to the staff kind of meetings as well. So they're solving issues now in those meetings, and we're ensuring that they don't make it all the way up to the weekly leadership level ten meeting. That is huge for running a business.

You know, I read a book in December. Fantastic book. Highly recommend it. It's not saying anything necessarily brand new.

If you've read books like Emeth, if you've read traction, if you've read walking to Destiny, which is the book around the CPA value acceleration methodology, it's called Making Money is Killing Your Business. Compelling title. I really enjoyed the book. It's not saying anything brand new, but it's emphasizing it.

It's reiterating it. And for me, it really sunk in. You know, I've got two teenagers. I don't know how much I've shared about that on the show, but my oldest, she graduates this year.

So that's like one of my big things on the radar for spring 2026. One of the things about the intro to that book talks about if you had a 25 year old who still couldn't tie their own shoes and you had to make every decision for them, you would admit that you have failed as a parent apart from anything developmentally. You know wrong with that kid. If I'm still treating you like a five year old, but you're 25 years old, I have done something wrong to prepare you for adulthood, but we accept that from businesses all the time as business owners.

You know, you've worked in this company for 25, 30, 35 years and it's still operating as a year five business. But we think that that's normal. We wear that as a badge of honor sometimes, because your business never moved past the toddler stage into full adulthood, where it was able to, you know, run itself without you being the one making all the decisions. You know, the whole thing rotating around you, working 80 hours a week in the job.

That's a failure. And it needs to be identified as such because once you identify it as such, you can actually move past that and you can grow beyond that. So really great book, I enjoyed it. You know, I talked to think it was on the last update about practice versus deliberate practice and why I enjoy that about tax season of you've got another repetition coming up next year.

We're going to change something. If you are running a five year business for 25 years, it has not grown to a 25 year old business. It has been a five year old business just repeated 20 times. You know, that have serious conversation with my partner about this as well.

You know, we say we're an 80 year old CPA firm, but every single year, every single partner that has come through here, the business has risen or fallen based on who they were, what type of partner they were, how they ran the company during their time as managing partner. That's key band risk that decreases the value of the company. That's one of the reasons the value of the company has not really grown beyond just the, you know, cost of living inflation adjustment over 80 years because we've intentionally kept it.

I'm the person. I'm the top. I'm the smart one. Everything needs to filter through me.

Everything needs to be decided by me. And that's crippled the company. You know, it's a lifestyle business. It's effectively been an 80 year old lifestyle business.

It's a company that stands on its own. It does rise or fall based on the current mix of who the owners are. So we are working on that. That's part of iOS.

That's part of pushing the decisions down to the lower levels so that in our leadership level ten on Tuesdays, we are only spending our time on the most important decisions, the most important issues, the ones that need the combined brainpower of everybody on that leadership team. If it is a process that can be solved by the tax team, it needs to be solved by the tax team with just a notification sent up that this is what we did. They do not all need to be decided by, you know, the leadership team on a weekly basis.

So that's been one of the great and learning processes through this. Bringing the entire team into that process has been a little bit new because we have team members who for, you know, three, 4 or 5, ten years, we've just expected them to do their job. We've not expected them to be involved in decision making, to be involved in strategic, you know, shift in their mindset to what would you do in this situation? What do you think is the best path forward and or, you know, here are a couple options.

Each of you take one and make your case. So that's been a little bit new for the team. I actually had this conversation with Denise. You know she's my tax review partner.

We were talking about great bosses and bad bosses. And she said actually one of the best bosses she's ever had in her life, she couldn't stand him her first year working for him because she would bring him a problem. And she was responsible for a, you know, a branch in that firm that she was at. And he would come down and visit like once a week, and she would bring him a problem, and he'd sit there and he'd listen, and then he would do the most frustrating thing.

She said. He would ask me questions about it rather than solve the problem, which I think a lot of us would love. I would love as a business owner if somebody else just told me all the answers to my problems. But rather than solve her problem, he would ask her questions and she would get frustrated because she'd answer those questions and he would ask her more questions and he would ask her more questions.

And it wasn't in like it was frustrating to her, but it was deliberate on his part. And she saw in the rear view, as you know, as she moved on from there or just in the continuing development relationship with that boss, she realized that what he was doing was teaching her judgment and she became a better professional. She ultimately became a better professional somewhere else once she left there. And now as a business owner herself, you know, because of him teaching her judgment.

And I think, you know, one of the problems, nobody grows up wanting to run a toddler, 25 year old company. But we want to be helpful. We want to be fast. We have all of this knowledge, and teaching that knowledge to other people is hard work.

There are people that are going to get it quickly. There are people that that it's going to take a long time for them to get it. And so we're just so busy doing the work for our customers. And we also like to be the helpful one.

We like that our customers love working with us. We do like being, you know, the center of attention, the name on the door kind of thing like that. And so we are used to responding quickly, to need quickly to problems, to fires that need to get put out, but to stop and push that back on your team and say, what would you do in this situation? You make the call, I'm, I'm going to back you on this, you know, working on that.

That's hard. That's hard work. You know, this is we're talking about the ten year vision of our company this spring, and we're going away to our strategic retreat in May. And I'm going to be sharing the ten year vision of our company.

Sam and I have been working on what does that look like three years from now? You know, she retires in five years at this point. And so three years from now is, you know, more than halfway to that point from where we are now. She does not expect that she will be highly involved in our strategic retreat three years from now.

And so this is really her final push as managing partner of the company to make sure we're heading in that direction. And we've got the leadership team in place to be successful once she retires. But I'm going to be sharing the ten year vision of the company. And as I'm thinking about this, like succession planning has been like the heartbeat of my journey for the past three years.

Become an evaluation analyst, becoming a CPA, working in this with the podcast, with the YouTube channel. I have lived and breathed succession planning. Our team not hasn't necessarily lived and breathed succession planning. They have continued to live and breathe accounting, bookkeeping, financial statements, tax returns and so to help them see how these two things work together.

I think this book, Making Money is Killing Your business, this decentralization of decision making. This reduction of key man risk, this building a business that can stand without you being involved in every single decision. I think that's ultimately what succession planning is for us as a template. It doesn't matter if your business is three years away from selling or 30 years away from selling.

You should be working on your business. Growing beyond the toddler stage. Growing to a position where it doesn't just provide you money as a business owner, it provides you money and time as a business owner because it's not required on you to be, you know, pulling 80 hours a week just to keep the business profitable. So that's what we're going to be sharing at the strategic retreat, how that kind of fits in.

Not that everybody needs to become CPAs. Not that everybody needs to become, you know, be in the meetings where the actual succession planning happens. But this should be the heartbeat of our meetings with our clients on a quarterly or on a monthly basis is making sure they're not ignoring this stuff, making sure they're having the difficult conversations. That's probably been one of the rewarding things of our client meetings through the end of the year, you know, through, um, renewal season, getting subscriptions signed and then even here at the beginning of tax season has been in these conversations we are bringing up, what's your plan for, you know, exiting the company?

What's your plan to bring in your your son or your daughter who's been working there for five years to bring her into the decision making process? What are your plans for your own future? Even beyond that, hard conversations like when's the last time you've had your will updated? What is the business plan?

If you were to, you know, be incapacitated tomorrow? What is the plan? Have you had those conversations that has come up? I think in every client meeting that I've been in for the past three months.

Some of it very organically, because we do find that our clients are interested in this. They are asking questions. They are seeing our content elsewhere and hearing that we do this. But then we're also forcing it a little bit into the conversations, because succession is not something that can happen two months from now.

It's going to be a very low value of the company if you are not prepared for it. But again, because we want this to be the heartbeat of the meeting. What if you're 30 years old and succession is nowhere on your radar? You should be growing the value of your company.

You should be removing it from you as the key person. So that's our thesis. That's what we are testing in conversations with our clients and we're seeing good response from that. And so that is something that our entire team can be involved in is this is why we're doing a software conversion.

This is why we're doing a payroll conversion. This is why we are implementing AI and helping them think through their pricing model. Is this is what the monthly, you know, even all the way down to the simplest thing we do, the monthly financial statements and the tax return. This is what this is serving because we are making these changes is, you know, is it positively being reflected in the numbers we are making these changes?

Are we up to date on our tax estimates. And we know what our liability is so that we have money in order to implement the next phase of that, you know, value acceleration. That is something I need every single person on board on the team talking about this with our clients, reminding them, holding them accountable, having those conversations, looking for areas for improvement, not necessarily so that we can sell and make more money, but so that we can serve our clients and make sure that they are in a better position at the exit of their company, whether they decide they want to exit at 40 years old or they want to, you know, exit at 60, 70 years old, they're going to be in a better position because they worked with GW to get there.

That has to be the heartbeat of our meetings. That's what we're going to constantly be drumming through our quarterly meetings, through our quarterly rocks with our clients. Where are you at on your, you know, shoring up the risk within your business? Where are you at on growing the value?

What's your goal for the next year? How do we break that down into quarterly rocks? How do we hold you accountable to that? How do we help you with that even though you're busy?

How do we do this and and that be the basis for every client meeting we have? If you're not interested in that, then you don't need to be a client here. You can go somewhere else and you can get a tax return. You can go somewhere else.

You can get bookkeeping, you can go somewhere else, and you can get financial analysis. But our goal here is you are working with GW. We are working on building a business that survives without the exertion of the primary owner. And that is what you come to us for.

And succession planning is just like a final stage along that journey. So we're going to be sharing that in May. I'm excited about that. As the visionary, I love that, you know, I shared this with our iOS coach and Sam, a couple, you know, early in January leading up to the meeting.

I'm like, you know, as the big picture visionary guy, I'm like, you know what I really love to do at this meeting is I would love to get all of our team in a room and ask them where they want to be in ten years. And, you know, this is something I'm very interested in. I want to make sure if I'm building a company that's heading in this direction in ten years, that it's something that resonates with the team, that it's something that aligns with where they, you know, where they want to go.

I don't expect them to vote. I don't expect them to, you know, us to get majority approval in order to head this direction. But I do want to make sure it's not something that is completely contrary to, you know, our core values here as the firm. So anyways, I want to know what their goals are, personal goals for their life.

Where do you want to be in ten years? You know some of them will be entering their, you know, 30s in ten years. Some of them will be entering their 60s in ten years. What does that look like for you?

So let's get in a room. Let's dream big. Let's write it all on stickies. Let's put it all up.

And Sam and Doctor Gene both stop me, and they're like, you know, that's going to terrify people, right? And I'm like, what? Like, I love thinking about the future, I love possibilities. I do know when I say something is my goal for ten years from now, life doesn't work that way.

You're going to get kicked, you're going to get, you know, stuff is going to get thrown in your way and you're going to have to shift. But ultimately, you should be, you know, picking a direction and heading off in that direction. But they're like, not everybody's brain thinks like that. And they're going to be so terrified of sharing some of that stuff in a room full of their peers, in a room full of their supervisors, in a room full of the owners of the of their workplace.

They're not going to be as open to this as you think that they are. And so doctor Jean actually challenged me and said, but you know what you can do as the visionary of this company, you should be having those conversations one on one with each of your team members before May. And so that's what I did back in January and February. Met with every single one of my team on, you know, a one time basis will probably do this, you know, check in twice a year, once a year, something like that.

I've shared with doctor Jean and Sam. I'm like, thank you so much for pushing me to do that, because this is probably the most fun thing I've had. I've done in the past year, six months, at least, with this company. You know, the most fun project, the most rewarding conversations, hearing from my team on a personal level.

And I go into it, I'm saying, look, I'm not looking for a checklist, and you have to accomplish these five things in order to be successful or not. You don't even necessarily need to be here or say that you will still be here. I'm just trying to hear from you. Like are your goals?

You know, I want to pay off debt. I want to travel some more. I want to be able to move to, you know, close to my parents. I want to start a family.

I want to buy a house. I don't want to be in public accounting. I do want to find, you know, something that really gets me excited and then talking with them. No judgment, you know?

No. No accountability. I know that's terrible, but I really just getting them dreaming about it, thinking about it. I've I'm not trying to cause existential crises among my team, but, you know, ten years is going to be up before you know it.

And I have in my own life picked directions where I want to be, you know, ten years from now, I'll be 52 years old. This is what I want. I'll have 28 year old and a 26 year old adult children. This is what I want, the position I want my life to be in.

For my last ten years in in the profession. That's like general principles, rules, guidelines kind of thing. Of of what I want it to look like. So trying to model that for them.

I didn't actually even talk about this, but the other another really exciting piece that's come out of iOS for us is we have one of our team members, Jenna, who just came back on board with us back in the fall. She sits in the director of Attest Services. She's really sharp on the financial statements, the attention to detail, the compliance side of checklists and everything like that. We have also put her into a different role of team developer within our company.

So up to this point, team development was dependent on who your manager was and who their partner was that they reported to. We would do annual reviews with salary renegotiation, all that kind of stuff, but we've never really had one person that oversees the entire team and has conversations with them on a. We're starting it off on a quarterly basis to help them identify what they would what a year from now looks like, what three years from now looks like. And break that down into okay, this is the next step for, you know, this coming quarter.

Somebody that works not just with the accountants but with the admin across the entire team in a team development role. And you know, they're she's they're mentor. She's their coach. She helps them identify next steps forward and how to get there.

And kind of yeah just is the coach I always wanted in this profession. I never had it inside of any of the companies that I worked, worked in when I was when I was a staff. I've always had outside mentors, I've always had outside development, but never a boss who cared about that stuff, never seemed to convey that they cared about that stuff. And I've told them, I've told Jenna, and, you know, Sam and I are on the same page on this.

Our goal is not to put a barrier between us and our team either. They should still feel free, like they can come to us and ask us questions and get, you know, insight into their own direction from us as well. But we do want Jenna in that position as one of her roles, developing the team, working on, you know, professional development direction for their career, different things like that. And also, you know, Jenna was with us for 6 or 7, eight years, I think, and then left us and went to government, left public accounting behind entirely, and then came back to us after six years.

My own journey is very similar. I left public accounting thinking I hated public accounting, and then went out on my own and started my own company, and then ended up coming back to public accounting. She can provide them that kind of insight to of this. You aren't happy here or you don't think this is a good fit.

Sam and Barrett want to hear from you and they will help you find, you know, somewhere where you can do work you love for clients that you enjoy and not just look forward to Friday night every single, every single week. So so that's one of the things I'm also excited about. Long term vision for the company is building out a team development role in. Jenna is piloting that for us right now.

And I'm really excited about that. You know, I haven't talked about AI on this update and we're coming up on the end. I was having a conversation with a team member, and I was sharing with her my, you know, the ten year vision that we're going to be talking about a strategic planning. And she said something that I got insight from.

She said, if you've got the vision, you've already determined the direction that we are going. I don't feel like you need us anymore. And I had to stop her and I had to say, look, I'm setting the vision for the company. I am setting the direction that we are going to head in.

I cannot get there without the team. The team needs to be doing their job. They need to not just do it like a cog. They need to be adding their own critical thinking, their own judgment, their own decision making to their role within the company, or else we're never going to get in that direction.

You know, I've been using this analogy of a captain with a ship, and it's like land is I think land is that direction we're going to sail that direction. I have the context. I have the charts, the stars, the, you know, the nautical training, all of that kind of stuff to make the decisions for the direction that the ship is heading in. But I need every single person waking up every single day doing their post to the best of their abilities, making the small decisions, the judgment that's necessary that can't wait for the, you know, the captain to wake up to make the decision.

There's responsibility there, you know, talk about AI. I have no idea what, ten years from now about how accounting is going to change. I just know it is going to be changed. And so I need the entire team at the best of their abilities with the roles that they have, the judgment that they've been developing to help us build a firm that is ready for that new world ten years from now.

I can't do this by myself, Sam. And I can't do this. Just the two of us. I can't even do it with, like, pick two of the team members.

And, you know, the four of us do it, and the rest of everybody just comes along for the ride. If you are on this bus, we need you on this bus to work in the direction that this bus is going. If you are on the ship, you're not a passenger, you are a crewman. You are working in this direction.

It's still my responsibility to say, this is the direction we are going, and the captain goes down with the ship, but that is ultimately I need everybody doing the work in order to get us there. And in order to prepare our firm for what it looks like ten years from now, I have ideas. I have, you know, insight. I have all this different perspective that I'm bringing together on a regular basis.

But when it comes down to the day to day, and how does this impact that type of client? What are the decisions that need to be made over here on this type of service that we do? I need all hands for that. And so there's tons of room here for you to be creative, for you to be at your best, to be the professional that you want to be for your career, for the future of the company.

And so there's tons of need for that. Even if I have said, this is where we're going, the direction we're going ten years from now, that's to give a vision that's not to designate every single step along the way. I can't I don't have those skills. I don't have the capacity to be able to handle all those decisions.

That's what I need. People who are trained and who agree with that vision to say, this is what we're going to work to together to get the company there. So, all right, this is been a long episode already. I didn't cover everything that I wanted to cover, but I'm going to talk about quarter two.

So some of the big changes, some of the big things we're testing in quarter two, quarter two is about that strategic vision, strategic retreat, sharing that ten year plan with the entire team, breaking it down into what it looks like for our next three year picture. Strategic retreat 2029. These are the things that we need to accomplish in order to move us in that direction. I'm not going to share any of those ten year vision things on this episode.

I'll share those in the second quarter update because I need to share them with my team before I share them publicly on the podcast. But, you know, that's our focus on quarter two is sharing that and coming back from Rehoboth Beach, hitting the ground running, excited about that and figuring out how we break that down into a year from now and our quarterly rocks along the way. My focus in quarter two is on sales, conversions, and building strategic relationships. So I'm working with a couple people financial advisors, attorneys around succession planning around CPA, exit planning, working on strategic, you know, strategic partnerships.

What could we do for that community to bring business in to GW, CPA they have the relationship. How do we augment that relationship and fill our specific seat within that conversation. You know, sales, conversions. I've been doing marketing a lot for the past three years.

It needs to lead to specific conversions. And so working on this, then this, then this, like that, that pipeline, that customer journey, that's going to be a big focus, probably starting in quarter two and continuing over the course of the next year, possibly bringing in a sales coach, working on business development across the team, teaching them how to, you know, identify an ideal client and have those conversations as well. That might be, you know, a Q3 or Q4 goal along the same lines.

And then quarter two, like I said, my daughter is graduating from high school this year. She'll be 18. Know this will air a couple days before her 18th birthday. Um, and my son's going to be 16 two days later, so they're two years and two days apart from each other.

Being a dad of teenagers has been awesome. I absolutely love it. I'm super proud of the of the adults that they are becoming, the judgment they are making, the decisions that they are making. Some of them make me cringe.

Some of them make me very nervous for the future and for, you know, how those things are going to pan out. But I'm also like holding myself back and saying, you need to let them, you know, you need to let them make decisions and fail the same way. I needed to learn how to do that safely. Fail.

They're only 18 and 16, so they're not ready for bankruptcy just yet. But you know, watching them develop that way, that's my big personal focus for quarter two. Another thing that's come up since our last update, I've actually been nominated to the executive committee of our State Association of CPAs. So I had served on the board about 10 to 11 years ago as a board member for a two year stint on that, but I've actually am joining the executive committee, and that vote will happen in June, and then I will be a four year term moving from secretary treasurer up to chair all the way to past chair over the four year term.

I'm really excited about serving my association. I have loved working with the CPA. They've been there for me my entire career. I met Samantha through the CPA.

We we were connected and interacted a lot through that before I ever became her partner. So I have nothing but good things to say about my state association, and I'm excited to give back through the executive committee and then ultimately be chair of the CPA. That would be 28 and 29 fiscal year. So very excited about that.

And then another thing, you know, building a business that can survive without me, you know, that doesn't rise or fall without with me in that seat, with that, with Sam in that seat. Something personal. I'm going on a missions trip in August with my pastor. This is not a big team missions trip.

This is a small trip to go in support missionaries of ours across the globe, and it's something my pastor wants to revisit on an annual basis. I'm the treasurer at the church. I'm interested in travel. I'm also interested in supporting those missionaries, encouraging them, praying for them, finding out how we can support them best through our church.

You know, helping them build a well or buying a vehicle for them, or, you know, constructing a school, whatever project best suits them in that context. So this is kind of kind of like being exploratory trips and to support our missionaries around the world. And so we're starting off with our first one in August, most likely going to Spain for, you know, 7 to 10 days. So I'm excited to get that started.

We are already we're going to Nairobi next summer. He's already been planning that one as well. And so this is like my little mini test of how this all works I can't be there present there if I'm also worried about what's going on back at GW. And so making sure that one, the company obviously isn't going to fall apart without me, but that it doesn't all fall on Sam's shoulders to to bear that weight, but that the entire team knows what's going on.

I'm not the linchpin that it's all rotating around. You know, we're testing that out here. I can't believe I'm making justification for something as small as taking less than two weeks off. But, you know, that's been my reality for a very long time here.

Sam and I don't take large vacations. We don't step away for extended periods of time. And in the past, when I have, it's only survived by working like a dog leading up to it and then trying to pick up all the pieces coming back. And so that's not sustainable.

That's not enjoyable. And so this is a test. This is one of the little pieces in that like a quarterly rock in the direction of where we want the entire company to go, to remove us from the center of the business so that making money is not killing us or our business. That we are building businesses that are sustainable.

Modeling that for our clients and preaching the same message to them. Bringing them along for the journey as well. So that's what quarter two has for me on the business side, a little bit on the personal side as well. Have been enjoying these updates if you do, to leave a comment down below.

Um, we're going to be back to our normal interviews in April. Looking forward to those guests. I've got guests booked up all the way through the spring, and at the time that this airs, probably within the next month, we'll be opening up guest interviews for the fall. That's something else I've got in quarter two.

I'm excited to be doing, you know, as part of the strategic relationships, the sales and everything like that. I'm guesting on a lot more podcasts, and then I'm actually teaching at a couple of conferences in May and in June and taking my operations guy with me. We're going to be talking about AI in June at one of the CPA conferences, so I'm really excited about that too. So there's going to be plenty of opportunities on the internet to hear from me.

I'm excited to teach conferences in person to my peers here in the States, to call them to the same, you know, trajectory, the same innovation within their own companies so that we can start to do the work that matters. We can start to have better relationships with our clients because we're not drowning under the volume. We are working with the technology to, you know, to get the returns out the door so we can focus on fewer relationships and go deeper with those for the benefit of our clients.

So that's what I hope to continue bringing you in these quarterly updates. Again, if you've enjoyed this, leave a comment down below and I will see you on the next one. I want to thank you for watching the Art of succession.