June is one of our favorite times of the year. It’s Pareto season at Renew.
Every year, every firm we work with submits their numbers. Revenue. Profit. Team costs. Client numbers. Pricing. Everything that matters. Think of it as the annual weigh-in for your accounting firm.
No hiding. No guesswork. No “I think we’re doing okay.” Just the numbers.
For many firm owners joining Renew, this is the first time they’ve looked objectively at their business. It’s often confronting (that’s the point; emotion = action).
Take Azure Tax and Accounting, a two-partner firm in Bend, Oregon, led by Linda Saliu and Adam Groves with a team of six. They joined Renew in late 2024. Like many firms, they'd built a successful business but were carrying too many of the wrong clients, working too hard, and feeling the strain that comes from trying to be all things to all people.
Before 2025 tax season, they made some relatively simple changes. They increased prices, removed a small number of clients that they should never have had and, very importantly, became more intentional about who they served and the terms under which they would do that. None of that is comfortable — but subtraction is stronger than addition, and the firms that move fastest are usually the ones brave enough to take something away.
Just as importantly, they used our Pareto for Profit™ Scenario Planner to set clear targets for the year ahead. Not vague goals, but specific numbers. Average Client Revenue, Number of Clients $1K, Revenue Per FTE, Target Client Revenue.
The reason we are so focused on numbers is simple: everything you do in your firm should have a measurable outcome. That way, you can be held accountable:
At Renew, every commitment links back to a number. Otherwise, it’s just a good intention. We do not trade in fluff is another popular Renewism.
Fast forward to this year’s Pareto for the firm we’re discussing here for the 12 months ended April 30, 2026. This firm didn’t just hit their goals. They exceeded them.
Revenue and profit are great. But the number of hours is the one we celebrate hardest — because you can always make more money. You can't make more time.
That’s not an accident. That’s what happens when you intentionally redesign your firm’s operating model and start treating your firm as your #1 client, instead of the last thing you get to once everyone else has been served.
Perhaps the most important point is this. They didn’t do it alone.
They had guidance from Renew and accountability from their Growth Club group (a small group of Renew firms of similar size and stage of development, with other firm owners asking tough questions and giving no-holds-barred feedback).
That’s one of the unique things about Renew. Everything is on the table. Every firm gets to see your numbers. Transparency creates accountability.
When you share your numbers openly, you give other members permission to challenge you. To point out blind spots and question your assumptions.
Put simply, they tell you what they see and help you understand that you’re not alone, and that others have dealt with the issues you are facing and successfully transformed their firms.
Over three decades of working with accounting firms, we’ve found that the firms that see the biggest changes are rarely the ones with the most technical knowledge. They’re the ones willing to be honest about where they are today and committed to improving where they want to be tomorrow.
The other thing we see every year? The numbers improve across the group. When you measure something, discuss it regularly and hold yourself accountable to it, progress becomes much more likely.
The firms that transform are the ones who decide to step out of the Insanity Zone — doing the same things, the same way, and somehow expecting a different result. Do you really want next tax season to look exactly like the last one? Do you really want next tax season to be the same as the last one?
If this resonates and you're serious about changing the way your firm operates, take a look at the Renew Transformation Program — the structured path behind the kind of numbers above.
👉🏼 Explore the Transformation Program
