Firm Acquisition

The $450,000 Worth of Clients DBA Walked Away From on Purpose

Earmark Team · May 15, 2026 ·

In 2010, Marcus Dillon sat down to hand-write more than 50 letters to retiring CPAs, asking if they’d be willing to sell their practices. One of those letters launched Dillon Business Advisors, a firm that grew from a $400,000 acquisition into a multi-million-dollar advisory practice by strategically reinventing itself every five years.

On a recent episode of the Who’s Really the Boss? podcast, Marcus and Rachel Dillon celebrated the firm’s 15th anniversary by sharing its origin story and the evolution of DBA. In the first of a two-part series, they walked through specific revenue numbers, margin targets, acquisition details, and the personal sacrifices behind each phase of growth.

The Foundation: High School Sweethearts to Business Partners

Marcus and Rachel’s story started long before DBA. They met in driver’s ed at 15 and 16 and have been together ever since. By their first wedding anniversary, they had a one-and-a-half-month-old daughter, Kinley. That young family shaped every business decision that followed.

Marcus came out of Ernst & Young’s audit practice, where travel demands didn’t work for family life. He landed at a smaller Houston-area firm with around 15 employees and under $2 million in revenue. The owner took a chance on a 23-year-old kid to build an audit practice from scratch.

“I was able to get paid 45% of my effective billings, including write-ups,” Marcus said. “So I learned really early on how to price things so it was acceptable to clients.”

At his peak, he was billing close to $400,000 a year and taking home up to $180,000. But Rachel noticed a problem. Marcus had to match the owner’s hours, and he would stay at the office until 11 p.m., midnight, or sometimes 1 a.m.

“I didn’t want to be a single mom,” Rachel explained. “I was a teacher getting off at 4 p.m. and wondering, where is my husband and the father of my kids?”

DBA 1.0: Building Through Acquisition (2011-2016)

The Dillons prepared carefully for acquiring a firm. They paid off every debt except their mortgage. Rachel kept teaching for a steady income and benefits. Then Marcus wrote those letters.

One landed with Bob, a CPA in his 70s or 80s, who recently had a health scare. First Command Bank financed about $320,000 of the $400,000 purchase price. There was a 10% seller note, and Marcus brought 10% cash to closing.

Unexpectedly, clients followed Marcus, despite his non-compete agreement with his old firm. He fully honored the agreement, paying a third of the collections back to his former employer for three years. But the client migration pushed DBA from $400,000 to about $700,000 almost immediately.

The first office wasn’t glamorous. Marcus inherited a lease in what he calls a Class D building right off a major Houston interstate. “It had the old school atrium, and it just smelled like crap whenever they brought new mulch and plants into that atrium,” he recalled. He worked alone until 9 or 10 p.m., and his was often the only car in the parking lot.

Rachel’s first day at DBA in 2013 was moving day. “I remember doing a couple of collection calls on the floor as we were packing up,” she said. “I was not coming to work with you at the other place regularly.”

By then, they’d built their own 2,500-square-foot standalone office, figuring, if they were paying rent, they might as well pay it to themselves.

From the start, the Dillons prioritized same-day invoicing. Returns would flow to Rachel for client delivery, then straight to Marcus for billing that same day. “That’s something that was always a priority to get done immediately,” Rachel noted. “I hear some people spend days doing billing and invoicing, sometimes months after the fact.”

That diligence paid off. By 2016, DBA reached $1.5 million in revenue. The Dillons had paid off the acquisition loan and bought a lake house. They were successful, but as Marcus observed, “Every time someone wished me success, it was because I had just gone into debt.”

DBA 2.0: The Merger That Taught Them to Let Go (2016-2020)

In 2016, Marcus had breakfast with his mentor, Tom, who was winding down his practice. Marcus asked a question he now admits was the wrong way to evaluate an acquisition: “How would we be worse off by coming together?”

Tom brought about $400,000 of work, pushing DBA past $2 million. On paper, it looked perfect. In practice, it was a disaster.

“Tom’s clients loved Tom,” Rachel said bluntly. “Tom’s clients hated us.”

These weren’t just any clients. They were survivors of three or four rounds of exits, and they stayed for Tom personally. Plus, Tom’s service model was completely different. He offered every client two in-person meetings during tax season. DBA didn’t operate that way.

Meanwhile, the Dillons built a 12,000-square-foot office building: 7,000 for DBA, 5,000 to lease out. Marcus describes it as having “an attorney feel with wood wainscoting and leather-bound books.” It was supposed to be their forever office.

But the cultural problems didn’t solve themselves. So DBA started strategically shedding clients.

They spun off about $100,000 to their friend Julie, who mentioned she wasn’t as busy as she’d like. “She made that mistake of telling us that,” Marcus joked. Another $100,000 went to a CPA closer to Tom’s office. The next year, they went bigger, spinning off $250,000 along with Tom’s office location.

In total, DBA shed about $450,000 in client work. Yet they never dipped below $2 million in revenue. “That was definitely a consideration,” Rachel explained. “We never wanted to dip below $2 million.”

By 2019, things had stabilized. The team was mostly part-time working parents who arrived at 9:30 and left by 2:30 to match school schedules. All work happened in the office.

Then came January 2020. At their annual team retreat, Marcus asked, “If you could do anything in this life and not fail, what would you do?”

The leader of their audit practice answered, “I would be a stay-at-home mom.”

“When you have a leader in the firm respond that way,” Marcus reflected, “it’s like, okay, this is likely not going to be the person to help lead that aspect of the business.”

By March, the COVID-19 pandemic sent the team home, and they never came back. DBA funded home office setups and kept the physical office available. Nobody used it.

The audit practice spun off during 2020. Tom pursued receivership work full-time. And DBA hit $1 million to the bottom line for the first time, maintaining 40-45% margins before officer compensation. That’s a target Marcus has carried since his days at his old firm.

But remote work didn’t mean balance. “We did the kids’ routine of dinner, activities, bath, and bedtime,” Rachel said. “And then we just went straight back to work again for the next three or four hours.”

The Hard-Earned Wisdom of 15 Years

Looking back, Marcus is clear about what drove their early success. “We were successful because we put the hours in. We weren’t necessarily working smarter. We just worked more than others around us and said yes to others around us, which doesn’t work anymore.”

Other firm owners likely recognize patterns in the Dillons’ journey:

Financial preparation matters. They eliminated personal debt and kept Rachel’s steady income before taking the acquisition risk.
Invoice immediately. Same-day billing became a cornerstone cash flow practice. You have to send out the invoice to get paid.
Not all acquisitions are equal. When clients survive multiple rounds of exits, they’re bonded to a person rather than a firm. Tom’s clients proved that.
Set a revenue floor and defend it. DBA shed $450,000 in work but never went below $2 million because organic growth and price increases filled the gaps.
Listen when people tell you who they are. One honest answer at a team retreat revealed the future of an entire service line.
Hours aren’t everything. The model that built a $1 million firm through sheer effort won’t build the next phase.

Growth isn’t just about what you build. It’s about what you’re willing to walk away from, whether that’s clients who don’t fit, service lines that aren’t growing, office space you no longer need, or the version of your firm that got you here but can’t take you further.

This is just the first half of DBA’s 15-year story. In part two, Marcus and Rachel will share how the firm evolved after the pandemic, what they’re seeing in today’s market, and where they believe the profession is headed. For now, listen to their full conversation in Part 1, including all the specific numbers, deal structures, and decision points.

Rachel and Marcus Dillon, CPA, own a Texas-based, remote client accounting and advisory services firm, Dillon Business Advisors, with a team of 15 professionals. Their latest organization, Collective by DBA, supports and guides accounting firm owners and leaders with firm resources, education, and operational strategy through community, groups, and one-on-one advisory.

The 90 Days After Closing That Most Firm Buyers Never Talk About

Earmark Team · February 17, 2026 ·

When an accounting firm announces an acquisition, the industry responds with congratulations and LinkedIn likes before quickly moving on. But for the acquiring firm, that’s when the real work begins and when most deals quietly succeed or fail.

In a recent episode of Who’s Really the BOSS?, Marcus and Rachel Dillon sit down with Amy McCarty, MBA, to discuss what actually happens after signing on the dotted line. Having completed two acquisitions in 2025—one in January and another on October 1—the Dillon Business Advisors (DBA) team shares the specific decisions, timelines, and hard-won lessons that transformed signed deals into a unified firm.

When “Growth, Not Comfort” Means More Than You Bargained For

At the start of 2025, Marcus proposed “growth, not comfort” as DBA’s rally cry for the year. Rachel and Amy thought he meant leadership development and personal growth. They discovered later he had something else in mind entirely.

“You totally tricked us,” Rachel tells Marcus during the podcast. “You said it was completely about leadership growth and personal and professional development. You never let on that this was really about revenue, team size, acquisitions.”

Marcus’s real motivation was building the budget to hire director-level talent. The firm brought on Angel Sabino as Director of Technology in January and Arin Neucks, CPA, CFP, as Director of Tax and Financial Planning in August. Supporting these hires required top-line growth, and acquisitions offered the fastest path to it.

“To have the budget to do great things, the top line had to grow a little bit,” Marcus admits with characteristic understatement.

The first acquisition closed in January with a longtime friend from a consulting organization. It was intentionally small, what Marcus calls a “dip your toes in the water acquisition.” They retained most of the revenue and one excellent team member who now has a clear career path at DBA.

After news of the January acquisition spread through their St. Louis market, other firm owners approached them directly, asking to be considered for future acquisitions. By Q2, DBA was in serious discussions about a second acquisition that would be three times the size of the first.

The First 30 Days: Change Nothing (Except Communication)

The October 1 acquisition created an immediate challenge because it closed just two weeks before the October 15 tax deadline. DBA’s response was counterintuitive but crucial: they changed almost nothing.

“The biggest changes for them are the name of the company that they worked for changed, and where they’re getting their paycheck from changed,” Amy explains. “But otherwise, same clients, same daily functions.”

This restraint matters because acquired team members arrive in a fundamentally different situation than new hires. A new employee has time to learn systems and absorb culture. An acquired team member comes with a full client roster and deadlines that can’t wait. DBA’s standard two-week onboarding stretched to four to six weeks for acquired teams, with the timeline threaded between ongoing client work.

The single exception to the “change nothing” rule was communication infrastructure. Getting the acquired team into Microsoft Teams became the only day-one priority, even though the acquired firm ran on Google and Slack. Angel worked his technical magic to make it happen.

“That is where we live from an internal communication standpoint,” Amy notes. Without unified communication, the teams coordinated work via email, creating delays and missed context they couldn’t afford during the integration.

This stability was possible because they laid the groundwork long before closing. In late September, DBA visited the acquired team in person to present job offers and handbooks. Rachel initially thought this pre-close access seemed risky. She learned it’s actually common practice. Some private-equity-backed firms even begin data migration before deals close.

Days 31-60: Methodical Technology Migration

After maintaining stability through the October deadline, DBA began the complex work of technology consolidation. The preparation made all the difference.

When Angel joined as Director of Technology, he knew acquisitions were coming. Within 30 days—while tax season was underway—he built an enterprise-level Azure environment from scratch. This meant when October’s acquisition arrived, DBA had infrastructure ready to absorb new users rather than scrambling to build it during integration.

Similar tech stacks between firms simplified everything. Both acquired firms used Thomson Reuters UltraTax and QuickBooks Online, matching DBA’s setup. This synergy was a factor in acquisition decisions.

Where systems differed, results varied. Intuit’s realm consolidation tool worked beautifully. Marcus migrated all the acquired firm’s QuickBooks accounts from his phone’s hotspot while driving to his child’s swim meet. ADP proved more challenging because they wanted to re-onboard clients with new signatures. Rather than confuse clients, DBA maintained two separate ADP logins and will migrate opportunistically over time.

Client communication platforms required careful handling. Both acquired firms used Liscio, while DBA uses Canopy. For the January acquisition, DBA kept Liscio running through tax season before transitioning. The October firm had already been planning its own Canopy migration.

“We told them, ‘We love that you’re going to be on Canopy. Why don’t you hold off on that migration for now?”‘ Marcus recalls. “Because we’re going to have to migrate everything into DBA anyway.”

For systems they couldn’t immediately eliminate, Amy reduced subscriptions to the minimum level rather than canceling them completely. “It’s like when you clean your closet, and you turn the hanger the other way,” she explains. “If you don’t ever use it, then you need to get rid of it.”

Protecting the Cash Flow You Bought

“From a business owner standpoint, I would much rather talk about getting paid and sales and receipts and deposits over tax returns and general ledgers,” Marcus says bluntly.

The revenue structure of the October acquisition required immediate attention. Two-thirds was monthly recurring revenue with auto-drafted payments. Without intervention, that money would continue to flow into the previous owners’ bank accounts.

Rather than rushing clients onto new systems during integration chaos, DBA kept the acquired firm’s payment processor running for three months. The previous owners were a husband-and-wife team, with the husband joining DBA. They agreed to reconcile deposits and forward funds within days. This required an enormous amount of trust, built during 90 days of pre-close due diligence.

The arrangement had a natural endpoint. Monthly clients’ annual agreements expired with their January payment, creating a perfect transition moment. DBA sent new engagement letters with updated payment information to all DBA clients, using the acquisition as a catalyst for firm-wide standardization.

Alison Sharp, the operations and administrative professional who came over from the acquired firm, proved invaluable during this transition. She handled client communications about payment changes, maintaining continuity for clients who knew and trusted her.

Looking Ahead to Tax Season and Beyond

As 2026 begins, DBA faces its first full tax season serving both acquired client bases. The January-acquisition clients are returning for their second year, while the October clients will experience DBA’s processes for the first time.

“It’s going to be a fun tax season,” Amy says with a laugh that suggests “fun” might be understating the challenge.

The integration work continues, but with infrastructure in place and teams unified in communication and technology, DBA has transformed two separate acquisitions into growth that actually supports their expanded director team, even if that wasn’t quite what Rachel and Amy thought they were signing up for with “growth, not comfort.”

For accounting firms considering acquisitions, the DBA team’s experience shows how crucial it is to invest as much in planning the 90 days after closing as you do in the months before. The deal terms matter, but integration execution determines whether you build something lasting or buy an expensive headache. Listen to the full episode for all the details.

This CPA Spent Five Years Modernizing His Firm Before Making a Move to Buy It

Earmark Team · November 16, 2025 ·

In 2012, Tim Abbott walked into a Chicago accounting firm that still tracked tax returns on a clipboard. No electronic filing, no digital documents, just alphabetical lists checked off by hand. Eight years and one pandemic later, he owned that practice and another 40-year-old firm, and had transformed both into a thriving $2.4 million modern business while keeping nearly all their legacy clients.

In this episode of “Who’s Really the Boss?”, hosts Rachel and Marcus Dillon get Abbott’s story about acquiring and modernizing two multi-generational accounting firms in the Chicago suburbs. The journey involved a delicate balance between honoring tradition and driving innovation.

Starting With “No Is a Complete Sentence”

Abbott’s path to firm ownership began with an unexpected philosophy. “The best piece of advice I received,” Abbott shares, “is that no is a complete sentence.” This mantra guided his transformation of M.J. Vandenbroucke from a clipboard-based operation into a modern firm serving law offices, financial planners, and medical practices across the Chicago suburbs.

Abbott brought a fresh perspective to a firm frozen in time. With three daughters at home and a wife working as an elementary school nurse, he understood the importance of setting personal and professional boundaries. That discipline proved essential when navigating the complexities of modernizing practices that had operated the same way for decades.

The firm he joined in 2012 wasn’t broken; it was just stuck. With ten employees, many boasting 20 to 35 years of tenure, M.J. Vandenbroucke had successfully served clients since 1970. But success had bred complacency. The firm ran entity returns through UltraTax while processing individual returns in ProSeries, losing K-1 import capabilities. When Marcus Dillon learned about this setup, lost efficiencies immediately came to mind.

The Art of Incremental Change

Rather than shocking the system with sweeping reforms, Abbott orchestrated a deliberate five-year modernization plan. Each year from 2012 to 2017 brought one major improvement. Electronic filing replaced paper submissions. Digital file cabinets eliminated physical storage. Client portals opened new communication channels. Direct deposit streamlined payments.

“When you’ve been doing things largely the same way for 30 years, it can be challenging to change,” Abbott observed. His measured approach respected the staff’s experience and the clients’ expectations. This patience wasn’t passive; it was strategic.

Abbott received some invaluable advice about acquisitions: “Unless something is functioning horribly, don’t change anything you don’t have to” during the first year. By observing existing workflows and understanding why certain processes existed, he could distinguish between outdated habits and practices that genuinely served clients well.

This incremental approach delivered measurable results. Staff gradually embraced new technologies without feeling overwhelmed. Clients experienced improvements as enhancements rather than disruptions. Most importantly, the firm maintained its operational stability while building capacity for future growth. By 2017, Abbott was ready to acquire the practice, having proven that modernization didn’t require revolution.

When Coffee Leads to Acquisitions

Abbott’s second acquisition offers a lesson in professional serendipity. At a conference, he sat next to a CPA from New Jersey who mentioned knowing someone near Abbott’s Chicago office. “That casual breakfast conversation led to coffee meetings,” Abbott recalls, which evolved over two years into an acquisition agreement finalized in 2020, during the pandemic.

The 75-year-old owner of this second firm had no succession plan. Like M.J. Vandenbroucke, this practice had operated for nearly 40 years with established processes and long-term client relationships. Abbott acquired the business and moved the entire operation to their larger office space, merging two firms with a combined 90 years of history.

Both transitions followed a similar pattern, with previous owners staying on for approximately three years. The first owner planned to work through the 2020 tax season, but when COVID extended deadlines indefinitely, he decided to leave on June 30th. “If we don’t just rip the Band-Aid off, I’m going to be here forever,” he told Abbott.

The second owner maintained his full role for the first year, with Abbott sitting in on client meetings but not directly involved in work. Years two and three saw gradual transitions until Abbott hired a replacement CPA. This extended handoff was crucial for client retention.

Building Trust Through Continuity

Abbott presented the second acquisition as a “merger” rather than a takeover, maintaining all existing staff to ensure continuity. The messaging mattered. “There was actually a pretty big sense of relief that we had a continuity plan in place,” Abbott notes. Clients who had watched their CPA age into his seventies welcomed the security of younger leadership backed by familiar faces.

The human element proved crucial. When a bookkeeper has been working with a client for 22 years and stays through the transition, “there’s a lot of comfort there,” Abbott observed. This continuity helped maintain exceptionally high client retention rates through both acquisitions.

Not all relationships transferred smoothly, though. Referral sources—particularly those with personal connections to previous owners—were harder to retain than clients. “The owner’s friend, people he grew up with, high school buddies, fraternity friends, some of those don’t transfer very well, no matter how hard you try,” Abbott acknowledged.

Marcus Dillon confirmed this challenge from his own experience. “The referral sources who referred clients to the firm while it was owned by another CPA, some of those loyalties go away.” This means firms must activate new business development strategies to replace lost lead sources.

Discovering Hidden Challenges and Strengths

Post-acquisition discoveries revealed problems and unexpected assets. Abbott uncovered situations like clients receiving May financials in September because “they’re always late and we have to call three times.” Marcus Dillon shared similar experiences, noting how sellers suddenly reveal after closing which clients are “awful to work with.”

But Abbott also discovered the firm’s employees had an exceptional ability to explain complex concepts without condescension. “We’ve received several referrals from prospects who said, ‘so and so told me to call you, I need help. And they said you wouldn’t make me feel dumb.’” This skill became a cornerstone of the firm’s value proposition.

The firm’s recent website redesign reflects this evolution. Rather than hiding behind traditional industry opacity, Abbott chose radical transparency with published pricing. “We’re not out here to compete with anybody on price, but you have no reason to hide it.” The new site at mjvcpa.com has already generated upsells from existing clients who discovered services they didn’t know the firm offered.

The Power of Peer Connections

Throughout these transitions, Abbott credits peer relationships as essential to survival. “COVID was brutal for everybody,” he reflects. “I don’t know that I would still be here running a firm without just some of those relationships that got me through the tough times.”

His involvement in mastermind groups and communities like Collective by DBA provided crucial support. “Having the resources of other firm owners that have literally walked in your shoes and faced the same challenges, getting their perspective, wisdom, and advice has always been hugely beneficial to me.”

These connections even facilitated acquisitions within the group. Marcus Dillon recalled how a conversation with one mastermind member led to another acquisition for his firm. The lesson? Professional relationships often yield unexpected opportunities.

Building for the Next 50 Years

Today, M.J. Vandenbroucke employs 13 team members in a hybrid environment, with staff in the office one to four days per week and two fully remote employees.

After years of integration work, they’ve finally standardized processes across both acquired firms. Goals have shifted from survival to optimization. The firm has the capacity to grow without adding headcount.

“When you take the right steps, generally the results follow,” Abbott reflects. His patient approach to building on established foundations while creating new value positions M.J. Vandenbroucke for another 50 years of service.

For accounting professionals considering acquisitions, Abbott’s experience offers valuable lessons. Respect the pace of change. Invest in extended transitions that transfer trust, not just client files. Honestly evaluate what deserves preservation versus transformation. And perhaps most importantly, remember that “no is a complete sentence,” because boundaries matter when managing complex transitions.

Listen to the full episode to discover Abbott’s specific strategies for managing resistant staff, navigating unexpected challenges, and building the critical peer relationships that make these transformations possible. With patience, respect, and strategic thinking, you can honor the past while building for the future.

Rachel and Marcus Dillon, CPA, own a Texas-based, remote client accounting and advisory services firm, Dillon Business Advisors, with a team of 20 professionals. Their latest organization, Collective by DBA, supports and guides accounting firm owners and leaders with firm resources, education, and operational strategy through community, groups, and one-on-one advisory.