Business Strategy for CPA's

Afraid your clients will bolt if you raise your prices? They won’t. Switching CPAs is a royal pain, good ones are booked solid, and your clients have better things to do than start over with someone new.  This episode breaks down five reasons your best​​​​ clients stay when you raise prices, and why the real dollar increase is so small it’s a no-brainer for them. You have way more room to increase...

Bonnie grinds out 70-hour weeks every tax season, telling herself next year has to be different. She chases clients for documents, everything piles up before the deadline, and afterward she's totally fried. The problem isn't effort. The problem is that she’s made incorrect assumptions about variables and constraints. In this episode, you’ll see how to change up your variables and constraints, so y...

Do you make good decisions, one by one, but somehow you've ended up with a firm where stuff is flying everywhere?\ The problem isn't the decisions. It's that there's no clear strategy underneath them. Without one, you drift toward a vague idea of success that often just means more money and more clients. This episode gives you a way to choose: pick the two kinds of freedom that matter most, build...

When you say you want more freedom, could you actually say what you mean by it?  Turns out "freedom" isn't one thing — and chasing it in general is how to end up with none of it.  This episode lays out 7 different kinds of freedom a CPA can build a firm around: time, money, location, people, headspace, emotional wellness, and the work itself.  … Link to full shownotes:  https://www.businessstrateg...

Started your firm to be your own boss? So why does it feel like your firm bosses you around now? More clients, more revenue, more growth may not set you free. Often, it just builds a nicer cage. This episode maps the slow slide from freedom to feeling trapped, and hands you one question that changes everything downstream. Stop asking how to grow your firm. Start asking how to become a high-freedom...

How do you start getting paid for advice you've always given away for free? You give it a name, a price, and a deliverable, and make it a thing. Kathy Hayden did exactly that, then went further and built a digital product that's now for sale straight off her website. In this episode, hear how "making it a thing" works, why the ancillary benefits matter more than any sale, and how niching into reti...

Working harder than ever, but the money still isn't following? Here's the uncomfortable truth: the worst thing you can do to make more money is work more. The money was never in the hours — it's in your packages. This episode breaks down the duo-pricing shift that lets you charge two to four times more, shed the clients who drain you, and finally build a firm you actually like again. Summer's the...

And can you do it without tanking your revenue? There's a consistent, counterintuitive theme from the clients I work with in the VIP Lounge: the more clients they disengage, the more money they make. Wendy Norman cut her roster in half, tripled her prices, and crossed a million dollars working 25 hours a week outside tax season. She also...  5x'd her take-home.  Yeah. Four years of real numbers, a...

What if your business problem isn't actually a business problem? Most coaching skips the part that matters most. Strategy and tactics only take you so far. At some point, the thing standing between you and a better firm isn't a framework you're missing – it's what's happening in your head. In this episode, I get into why mindset coaching belongs in every business coaching program, and where to fin...

Are your prices too low because raising them feels unnerving? Most CPAs don’t have a pricing problem. They have a confidence problem. In this episode, we dig into why pricing isn’t math - it’s psychology - and how underpricing steals your time, energy, and freedom. You’ll hear practical ways to test higher prices, simplify your services, stop saying yes to everything, and build a firm that feels l...

Why do discovery calls eat your time and still end with “let me think about it”? In this episode, you’ll hear how Meagan Bukowski stopped relying on follow-up sales calls and built a product ladder that does the qualifying and selling for her. Instead of pushing a “$1,000/mo offer,” she solved one small, urgent problem first – paid. That first yes led naturally to the next step, and then ongoing w...

What if the reason your firm feels so heavy isn’t your workload — it’s that too much of it lives in your head? Most CPAs don’t need more hustle, better memory, or another piece of software. They need simpler systems that stop the chaos from depending on them personally. This episode breaks down how small operational shifts reduce mental load, calm the constant spinning, and make firms dramatically...

Many accountants will say, “I don’t have time to work ON my business.” That thought feels true – but it’s often the biggest thing keeping firm owners stuck.  In this episode, Peak Freedom mindset coach Natalie Hunt and I break down what’s really hiding underneath it: overwhelm, fear, people-pleasing, default yes, and the accounting industry’s unhealthy norms.  Once you see what’s actually going on...

Feel like your firm is scattered and you have to say yes to everything? It might be niching problem. In this episode, I walk through why staying broad makes everything harder, and what actually happens when you narrow your focus. You’ll hear why the fear is normal, what changes on the other side, and how niching leads to better clients, easier work, and more confidence.  If your firm feels chaotic...

Does your firm feel harder than it should? If so, pricing is often the reason. It’s the lever behind your workload, your capacity, and your revenue – even if it doesn’t look like it on the surface. But sitting down to “learn pricing” from scratch isn’t realistic. My job is to take the best thinking on pricing – from people like Ron Baker and others – and distill it into something straightforward,...

Are you working too many hours and not sure what to fix first? It’s not your time management. It’s your packages. There’s a new private podcast feed inside Peak Freedom , entirely dedicated to packaging for CPAs, plus the Creating Packages Toolkit to help you actually build them.  If your scope is messy, your pricing feels like guessing, or your hours are out of control, come inside.  Start fixing...

Wondering if this could work for you – or if your situation is just different enough that it won’t? You’re probably more similar to other successful firms than you think. This episode pulls together 57 real client interviews and the patterns that consistently show up when CPAs change their pricing, narrow their focus, and protect their capacity. If you want steady proof and practical clarity, this...

Hey podcast listener – quick update. I’m taking an intentional pause from producing new episodes for the main podcast, and I’m genuinely excited about what’s coming next. Behind the scenes , I’m working on several big projects designed to help Peak Freedom members get better results, faster – with far less second-guessing, worry, and uncertainty. And here’s what’s exciting: the results members are...

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast :  https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/ 👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆 Feeling too overwhelmed to “work on the business” – but you still want things to get easier? Progress doesn’t always come from pushing harder.  In this episode, we talk about the invisible power of “marination” – how being in the right environment...

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast :  https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/ 👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆 Still running your firm out of your Inbox? In this episode, a CPA who spent 20 years living in her Inbox shares how she got down to Inbox Zero, shredded the paper piles, stopped the late-night deadline sprints, and finally knew what to work on next...

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast :  https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/ 👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆 Do you ever feel like you’re doing everything right – solid clients, fair prices, full days – and yet the hours and money still aren’t quite where you want them? That tension usually isn’t about missing one thing. It’s the accumulation of small lea...

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast :  https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/ 👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆 Ever catch yourself comparing your firm to someone else’s after picture and wondering what you’re doing wrong? Here’s a different perspective – you’re not behind, you’re just still in it. This Work in Progress episode is for anyone mid-messy change...

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast :  https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/ 👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆 Ever look at your client list and think, “There’s no way I can cut this in half and still make the same money”…? Turns out, that belief is backwards. Hunter Bracey walks through how he went from 105 clients to roughly 40 without losing revenue, cut...

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast :  https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/ 👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆 Does running your firm have to feel this uncertain to be working? Most CPAs assume uncertainty, discomfort, and the unknown are signs of risk – but they’re often just signs you’re doing something new. This episode breaks down six practical truths t...

Announcing the *NEW* Client Success Stories podcast :  https://business-strategy-for-cpas-success-stories.transistor.fm/ 👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆 Is your firm one bad decision away from falling apart? Probably not – even though it sometimes feels that way. This episode reframes what actually puts an accounting firm at risk, and what just hurts in the moment. You’ll hear why most firms are fa...