I see the appeal. You study and work your tail off to never get paid or live the life you want. Public accounting or the corporate grind runs its course.. and you think.. There has to be a better way. I can create a firm to serve my life rather than the other way around. I can set my own hours and design my own life. I won’t get rich, but I will be full. I’m going to hang a shingle.
Sounds good in theory but a very unfulfilling experience in reality; based on my 30 years consulting to the profession lifecycle firms create less life and more work.
You may be asking.. why is that?
Let’s start with mindset. If your goal is to have a life, the irony is the more you try to prioritize life over your firm the less life you will have. One of the great ironies in being a firm owner.
Firstly, you take on any client at any price for any service with a number on it as long as it fits your “lifestyle.” Many of the people you will take on (clients) are small tax clients, friends or small bookkeeping clients. You end up with clients that need help (but can’t afford it), that you want to do favors for, feel uncomfortable setting boundaries with, not pricing appropriately and ultimately it’s bad business.
At Renew we call many of these F clients (Friends and Family) or Insanity Zone clients. Ultimately these clients don’t value what you do, it’s hard to set boundaries and price appropriately. The lower you price and less the boundaries you have, the more you work e.g. less life. You make up for crappy pricing by working more hours (but I thought the whole reason for creating a lifestyle firm was to work less?).
(Word to the wise: most firms have more F clients than they think. Sometimes 5X more.)
Compare this approach to a firm that sets out to make the firm the #1 client, dictates the terms of the client relationship, has minimum/target pricing, minimum/target clients and a defined service offering, not a transactional relationship where you end up with scope creep (otherwise known as unpaid overtime) and working for free.
In summary, if you want a great lifestyle, with less stress, create a firm that pursues the right clients at the right price for the right services. In short, a firm that sets out with a commercial purpose to maximize value for all key stakeholders.
That’s what we help accountants do. Interested? Book a call and let’s talk.
