100% of Business Owners Exit – Here’s How to Best Prepare for Yours

Nobody goes into business just to file an extra tax return — not even accountants! They’re just not that much fun. 

And so, as professionals who chose to enter the business of filing tax returns (thousands of them), there must have been another goal in mind. For most, it’s a big exit when it comes time to sell your firm. 

But to get to that valuation you deserve, you need to be deliberate about how you scale and grow. 

Selling tax compliance is no longer enough to build a thriving CPA firm

The IRS is a fantastic advertisement for our services. Few businesses get a marketing boost quite like the government saying, “You have to do this.”

Unfortunately, selling tax filings alone won’t drive sufficient revenue to make your dreams come true. You must offer and deliver more.

To build a scalable firm, you need to put your ‘investor’ hat on and solve the puzzle of growing your business objectively as an owner and not a technician. This means collecting more for the value you provide, investing in processes, empowering your team, and creating systems that give you freedom. Freedom to build the professional life you want now and to exit on your terms later – be it in 2 years or 20.

The Vision

What if your firm could operate independently – without needing you?

You help clients achieve this. To scale, build operational redundancy, and maximize their exit value. Why not do the same for your own business? You already have the knowledge and skills to succeed.

Your life’s work and investment are worth more than 1x revenue at retirement. The first step towards increasing that payout is to start envisioning a new future for your firm. One where:

• You are not “the only one who can do it.”
• You rely not on employee knowledge but current, documented processes
• Teams run on standardized operations
• Predictable revenue is collected up front, before you do the work

Once you capture that vision, here are three key strategies for moving the needle.

Implement value pricing

Creating space and freedom in your firm starts with billing for the value you provide – not the number of minutes you spend delivering that value. Your worth to clients is not your time, it’s the knowledge you have accumulated with years of experience and education.

Answering a question quickly doesn’t mean that the question was easy. Bill for the value of the answer, not the fraction of an hour you spent sending the email.

Key steps to implementing value pricing include:

• Review every client engagement during engagement season to get a firm grasp of the scope of your arrangement. The only way to know what services are out of scope later is to clarify what is in scope up front.
• Analyze the scope of all new task requests or questions before performing the service or answering. Always ask yourself, “Does our signed engagement allow me to reply to this?” Developing this muscle is critical, as it leads to charging for tax planning meetings you used to give away and makes change-order conversations less stressful.
• Once you have determined the full scope of your engagement and a reasonable rate for the value you will deliver, combine everything into a single fixed fee. Your clients will appreciate a predictable expense while your firm benefits from steady cash flow and the ability to improve efficiencies without penalizing your bottom line. Plus, your billing team will be eternally grateful. 

Retiring traditional hourly billing takes time and consistency to transition, but value pricing is crucial for building a business where revenue reflects the impact you make, not the hours you work.

Get people in the right seats

Building your most effective team takes more than finding the best people with the right skills. Just because someone has the technical know-how doesn’t mean they’re the right fit for the job. Through two acquisitions and a merger we’ve seen incredible talent, but getting people into the right seats has been instrumental in scaling our firm.

You need unicorns. A team that has it all - experience, passion, deskside manner, efficiency, revenue production, etc. And I truly believe that setting any passionate employee up for success will allow them to excel in their role and be nurtured into a unicorn.

Try asking your team:

• What do you look forward to in the day? (Technical work? Talking to clients? Research? Presentations? Mentoring the team? Workflow management?)
• What comes easily to you?
• What makes you feel accomplished?

Once you’ve taken an inventory of their answers, cross-check it with your managerial view of their skills. Then, triage for mentorship and adjustments required to best align and grow their strengths with the role. This allows you to grow from within, scale, and build your next round of leadership.

Get Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in place

Clearly documented processes are the backbone of any growing firm – and your team will never be able to perform these processes without you until two things are true:

1. Someone else knows the process or policy

2. That same person can teach it to someone else

Documenting key processes, workflows, and even client interaction creates operational redundancy – effectively meaning fewer people need to review, approve, or search for a course of action. This clarity sets your team up for success. It creates guardrails for employees to take initiative, work autonomously, and self-manage without risking their decisions falling out of line with company values.

SOPs are an essential step toward building an independent business where each client’s experience is consistent and high-quality, no matter who handles their account.

The time to change your mindset is now

You spend at least half your life growing your team, helping clients reach their goals, and building your brand. Why discount the value you provide through outdated billing practices, poor organizational development, and a lack of SOPs?

By targeting value pricing, putting your team in the right seats, and developing SOPs you will be well on your way to increasing your firm’s value in today’s landscape of consolidation. 

100% of business owners exit – it’s how you leave that truly makes the difference.