Growing Your Firm | Strategies for Accountants, CPA's, Bookkeepers , and Tax Professionals

John is the president of JEnsley Financial, a fiduciary financial planning firm based out of Vancouver, WA. John started his firm in 2012 after a U-turn move from corporate America to financial services. After obtaining a copy of "The 4-Hour Work Week" by Tim Ferriss, John began to understand that the technologies existed to build a life that allowed him to control his time, and ultimately his life. From here, he built a firm that allowed him to do just that. He comments how winters in Washington can provide a somewhat gloomy ambiance, so why not take business to Mexico? John will spend a portion of his time in Mexico averaging 10-20 hours a week working on his business, while sharing the joys of teaching others about sailing and cruising. On this Growing Your Firm Podcast episode, jump on with John Ensley as we discover the world of controlling time and income, experiencing your money, and building strategic partnerships in the fiduciary financial planning model. Resources JEnsley Financial Cash Value Life Insurance Double Your Accounting Firm  

Today we welcome Breanne Mode on the podcast. Breanne is the Director of Client Accounting and Advisory Services (CAAS) at Cbiz. After a visit to a QuickBooks Connect conference in San Jose, CA, Breanne decided that her flight back was a networking opportunity, instead of her typical relaxation time. Of course, this happened to be the plane ride where taking out her headphones led to a great opportunity for her and her business. As she sat next to Greg Landers, Managing Director of Cbiz, they built a business relationship that ultimately led Greg to ask Breanne to be his right hand person. Brennane had built a very foundational practice in the interim with 3 employees and approximately $500k in revenue. After ironing out some M&A-like details, Brenanne joined the Cbiz team as their Director of CAAS and set the table for our conversation today.

Today we sat down with a special guest, Don Emery. Don is the General Manager of Doc.It and has been with them for over 10 years. Doc.It was acquired by Iris in 2021. On our show we’ll cover:  Transition of going from a paper-based to paperless practice  Consolidation and build outs across the industry  Talent, team management, retention & much more

Brannon is the founder of Poe Group Advisors & Accounting Practice Academy. He is also a returning guest on the show! Poe Group Advisors is based out of Charleston, SC. The group is known for their processes surrounding facilitating the buying and selling of CPA firms. We enjoy an annual conversation with Brannon about M&A and his expertise in the buyers and sellers market of accounting firms. Join us for the 2023 version as we talk with Brannon on how he sees the market reacting to a post-COVID era and trends associated with the world we all live in today.

Today we talk through how to think about your own wealth. The listener should be asking themselves a simple question: How are you thinking about the wealth YOU are creating? We welcome Colleen, a Certified Financial Planner, at IG Wealth Management on today’s show. Colleen shares a wealth of knowledge (literally) about her experiences in the financial planning realm. She shares an outside approach to planning, especially for firm owners. The conversation today is less focused on partnerships, referrals, or adding wealth management to a practice, and more focused on those running the practice and how their wealth management is on a personal level. Colleen kicks us off by saying: ‘Every wealth [management] person wants to partner with them [firm owners], but no one asks how they are doing.’

Today we welcome back guest Jeff Jacobs where we talk through some interpersonal conversation that dives much deeper than the accounting business itself. Jeff and David cover momentum, self assessment, breaking chains, and much more. Jeff is a returning guest on our podcast where we previously covered client acquisition, retention, and expansion. Jeff is the Director of Development at  Wilkins Miller, where he will tell you he does everything except accounting. Jeff is active in his firm, daily life, and an exciting guest that we’re excited to have back on the show.

Shauna is a returning guest on our show. She is the owner of Tax Goddess Business Services ® and a certified tax coach. Shauna also acts as an author, speaker, and investor. Skilled in many and all things, learn more about Shauna’s career here. Today we welcome back a well thought and experienced guest, Shauna Wekherlien, CPA and founder of Tax Goddess Business Services. This is part 2 of our interview with Shauna. Check out Part 1 here. In the summary and podcast Jetpack covers Shanua’s inside look at team building and recruiting.

James has experience in all things accounting. He has 20 professional years of experience working within firms including serving as a director of Ernst & Young in Sydney, Australia. He has 5 years of senior finances roles under his belt as well.  Prior to COVID, James started his own firm, JD Scott & Co. Here, lies the interesting part of James’ story. His firm focuses on hiring part-time employees, does not utilize administrative personnel, and doesn’t own a printer.  Wait a minute, James… How does he do it? We’ll cover more in this episode.  

Join us today as we talk with Mark Stovel and his proven systems that help accountants take home $250k annually. We’ll talk through equity positions, win-wins, and much more. Simply put, Mark helps accountants take home $250k annually. After launching his firm in 2017, Gyroscope Accounting was acquired in 2021. Now, Mark helps clients through coaching. Mark’s experience began by obtaining bookkeeping clients during the early stages of his career. After leaving the corporate firm, Mark joined a manufacturing company as its controller. Three years later,, he moved across the country to start his CPA firm.

Shauna Wekherlien is the owner of Tax Goddess Business Services, a CPA firm located in Scottsdale, AZ. Tax Goddess is a firm that focuses on tax strategy and planning to help lower and minimize taxes for business owners and investors.  At the time this was written, her firm had saved their clients over $740,264,635. Talk about lowering and minimizing taxes!  Shauna earned the name ‘tax goddess’ after needing to market herself at a networking event, and 60 seconds to do it. Quickly, she decided ‘tax goddess’ was an eye catching and head spinning name, so she went for it. A marketing friend at the same event loved how it sounded, and 17 years ago, Shauna the Tax Goddess was born.