Marcus Dillon

5 KPIs That Separate Million-Dollar Firms From Expensive Jobs

Earmark Team · February 2, 2026 ·

What if the difference between building a million-dollar asset and simply having a job came down to tracking just five numbers?

In this episode of Who’s Really the Boss?, Marcus and Rachel Dillon share the exact metrics that helped them grow DBA from $400,000 to nearly $6 million in revenue. These are the same KPIs they presented to over 200 accounting professionals at Intuit Connect and their Gather conference, backed by real benchmark data from firms ranging from $500,000 to well over $5 million in revenue.

Most accounting firm owners can rattle off their revenue figure without hesitation. It’s the go-to metric when someone asks about the size of your practice. But as the Dillons explain, revenue alone won’t tell you whether you’re building something valuable or just running faster on a hamster wheel.

While you could track dozens of KPIs (Dillon Business Advisors tracks over 20), five metrics form the essential dashboard for any accounting firm owner serious about building value. These numbers measure your business and determine whether you’ll have options when it’s time to step away.

The Five Essential KPIs That Form Your Firm’s Dashboard

Think about the dashboard in your car. As Marcus explains, you could scroll through dozens of gauges showing everything imaginable, but the instruments front and center are the ones critical to getting where you’re going safely. The same principle applies to running an accounting firm.

These five metrics create what Marcus calls a “level playing field” for understanding firm health and value. Let’s break down each one and see how firms in Collective by DBA benchmark data perform.

Gross Revenue (Trailing 12 Months)

This is your speedometer. It’s big, central, and impossible to ignore. The collective average sits at just under $2 million, representing a 10% increase from Spring of 2024.

But Marcus recommends tracking the trailing 12 months, not calendar year. Why? Because that trailing 12 months removes seasonality and shows what investors actually evaluate. “Think about how much has happened at DBA in the last 11 months,” he notes. “We’ve done two acquisitions. We’ve continued to grow Collective. We’ve added different people. It would be very deceiving to only focus on that last calendar year.”

That 10% growth could come from price increases, culling the client list, or organic growth. Revenue alone doesn’t tell you which, but it confirms movement.

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) as a Percentage of Gross

The Collective average now sits at 47% MRR, up 2% from Spring. DBA operates at 70% MRR.

“It’s very unlikely that 70% of our business or revenue is not going to show back up next month,” Marcus explains. “That just helps us run a more stable business. It helps cover payroll, rent, technology subscriptions, and all those other expenses.”

A panel at Intuit Connect featuring firm owners who had completed acquisitions delivered a sobering insight. Matthew May from Sorren; Chris Williams, founder of System Six; and Becky Munson, Partner at EisnerAmper confirmed acquirers will buy firms without MRR, but they won’t pay as much for them.

“Would you rather get a better valuation? Would you rather run a better business by moving them over to monthly recurring? Or would you rather somebody else do that after you sell the firm?” Marcus asks.

Revenue Per FTE

This efficiency metric shows how much revenue each full-time equivalent team member generates. The Collective average is $194,000 per FTE, up 1% from Spring. That means your typical $2 million firm operates with about ten people.

“It’s not so much about finding ways to cut people out of your business,” Rachel says, emphasizing an important point. “It’s more about not having to find that next person when you bring on two more clients or three more clients.”

The goal is moving toward $200,000, then $250,000, and eventually $300,000 as technology enables greater efficiency. But context matters. A firm heavy on bookkeeping won’t look the same as one staffed with tax attorneys billing $500 per hour.

Earnings Before Owner Compensation (EBOC)

This is where profitability gets real. EBOC equals your net profit plus owner salaries and benefits. It creates a true comparison between firms regardless of how owners structure their compensation.

The Collective average sits at 40%, down 1% from spring. For potential buyers, Marcus notes the attractive range is between 35% and 50%.

Why not use EBITDA?

“EBITDA typically has a value in there for the owner’s role,” Marcus explains. “And if you have a succession event, they will look at EBITDA and beat you up based on the amount you pay yourself.” With a $2 million firm at 40% EBOC generating $800,000, an acquirer might value the owner’s role at $250,000 and calculate EBITDA at $550,000 for valuation purposes.

Even if you plan to give your firm away, “you want to give something other people want. You don’t want the receiver to say thanks, but no thanks,” Rachel points out.

Owner Production Hours

The final metric addresses what many firm owners care about most: their time. The Collective average is 1,152 production hours annually out of a standard 2,080, and that number dropped 12% from Spring.

“That’s not skewed by tax season,” Marcus clarifies. “This is all being pulled trailing 12 months.”

Owners successfully delegated over 10% of their production work while other metrics improved. As Marcus notes, “I know most owners would welcome that decrease in EBOC to work 10% to 12% less year over year.”

How KPIs Influence Each Other

Understanding these metrics is just the beginning. The real insight comes from recognizing how they push and pull against one another.

The Collective data reveals healthy, balanced growth: Revenue up 10%. MRR up 2%. Revenue per FTE up 1%. Owner hours down 12%. EBOC down just 1%.

But Marcus warns about the dangers of optimizing one metric at the expense of others. “What does revenue growth at all costs look like? It’s accepting anything that comes in the door. Probably your owner hours go up, or your costs go up because you have to employ people to do this work that may not be the best work.”

Similarly, you could improve revenue per FTE through mass layoffs. “My revenue per FTE would shoot up because I just have less FTEs,” Marcus explains. “Sure, my EBOC will increase, but my quality of life will probably go down.”

The key is finding balance. Revenue growth while owner hours decrease or hold steady, maintaining EBOC without burning out the team, and MRR creeping upward for predictable cash flow.

A Real-World Example of Pulling the Levers

The Dillons advocate for backward mapping. Start with where you want to go, identify the lever most likely to get you there, estimate costs and risks, then pressure-test results.

DBA tested several levers over the years: price increases, automation, hiring an operations manager, evaluating their client list, monthly recurring packages, and specialized hiring at the director level.

The Price Increase Lever at DBA

In 2024, DBA tackled pricing that had slipped on legacy clients. With an average monthly client at $2,100, they still had several below $1,000, which was unprofitable given their team structure.

They targeted a 14% increase, higher than typical because they’d delayed too long.

“We knew some people were on the bubble, “Marcus says, sharing his thought process. “We knew this would either move them to churn or invest and go deeper with our team.”

The messaging was crucial. “Don’t make the price increase about yourself,” Marcus advises. “No client wants to hear that. You have to have a better value perspective than your costs are increasing.”

Rachel adds that peer networks prove invaluable here. “You can talk yourself out of doing price increases. But in a peer group, you see what other people charge and what other people plan to do for their price increases. You think, ‘Well, I’m doing the same work as they are. Why am I still charging so little?’”

At the Gather event, when asked about planned increases for 2026, most firms indicated 10%, with some going up to 20-25%.

The Results

DBA lost $12,000 in monthly recurring revenue from churned clients but gained a net 4% in total billings while serving fewer clients. Revenue went up. EBOC went up. MRR percentage went up. Revenue per FTE improved. Owner hours decreased.

“You could improve all five of those metrics more than likely by price increases alone,” Marcus concludes.

Rachel emphasizes this wasn’t about pricing out clients. “The goal was to continue to serve them at a price that made sense for the business.” For truly problematic clients, she recommends direct action. “Just have the conversation and help them find a new provider. Don’t keep serving them because they’re paying you.”

Your Next Steps

The Dillons follow an Improvement Season framework:

April 16 – August 15: Assess progress and implement changes
September – October: Pressure test during higher volume
November – December: Reevaluate and adjust
January: Launch with refined plan

Some changes show results quickly. For example, price increases make a mark within a quarter. Others, like absorbing a director-level hire, might take a full year.

Marcus emphasizes involving your team. “Do it with your leadership team. Do it with somebody beyond yourself. And then invite others to improve that KPI and celebrate it with others. The cool thing about having a team is to be on a mission together.”

Rachel adds two key questions for listeners:

Which KPI do you need to move to increase your firm value?
What KPI are you not tracking yet, but you should be?

Whether you plan to sell, pass on, or simply run a better business, these five metrics determine your options. “You will have a succession event in your lifetime because you’re just not going to live forever,” Marcus says. “You’re either going to sell, give it away, or shut it down.”

The choice is yours. But it starts with measuring what matters.

Listen to the full episode for the complete conversation, including more details on implementing these strategies in your firm.

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.

Planning a Firm Retreat That Keeps Your Team Aligned All Year

Earmark Team · January 28, 2026 ·

Team retreats can easily become forgettable obligations. People spend a few hours in a conference room, have some general discussion about “next year,” and everyone returns to their desks unchanged. But Marcus and Rachel Dillon have spent nearly a decade figuring out how to make their twice-yearly retreats count for something more.

In this episode of Who’s Really the Boss?, recorded just after a successful year-end team retreat, the Dillons share exactly how they plan and execute gatherings that keep their remote team aligned all year long. This retreat was particularly significant, as it was the first time their entire team came together after two acquisitions that grew their firm from $3 million to $6.5 million in revenue.

Starting with Leadership Alignment

The work that made this retreat effective started in late September. Their leadership team, including Marcus, Rachel, Director of Operations Amy McCarthy, and Director of Accounting and Advisory Lezlie Reeves, met in Saint Louis, Missouri.

They were already there for a meet-and-greet related to their recent acquisition, so they carved out a full day specifically for 2026 planning. The change of location helped them focus beyond daily operations.

“We were out of our normal element, which was great because it changed the pace and place and allowed us to focus better,” Marcus explains.

The team uses a framework originally developed by C12, an organization of Christian business owners, which they’ve adapted for their accounting firm. The framework breaks planning into five key areas:

Revenue Generation. Setting targets and monitoring progress, with flexibility to adjust client onboarding based on team capacity
Operations Management. The steady force that keeps the firm grounded when new opportunities arise
Organizational Development. Team structure, hiring, roles, and succession planning three to five years out
Financial Management. KPIs and reporting—the self-accountability accountants sometimes neglect for their own firms
Ministry. How the firm gives back and serves as good stewards

What emerges is a one-page document with a matrix showing each goal area, the strategic objective, success metrics, who’s responsible (including first and second chair assignments), and deadlines.

“If there’s no timeline, you just keep kicking the can down the road,” Marcus notes. “And those goals never get touched again.”

The leadership conversations extend beyond immediate goals. They discuss where each person sees themselves in three to five years, and what they want to see happen. These discussions require openness from everyone involved.

“As a leader, you have to be prepared for whatever your fellow leaders’ answers may be,” Marcus says. “You have to be open to hearing that.”

Finding the Right Time

The Dillons learned through trial and error that when you hold a retreat matters as much as what you cover. Their timing has evolved over the years.

Initially, they held retreats in January, capturing the new year, fresh goals energy. But that created immediate conflicts. “Taking a day and a half or two days right when you come back from the holidays is tough,” Rachel explains, especially with year-end financials due by the 15th and 1099 work piling up.

They tried pushing it to after January 20th, but that still felt rushed with the January 31st deadline approaching. Moving it any later meant they were already more than a month into the year before rolling out goals.

Their current approach places the retreat in mid-November, the week before Thanksgiving. This timing works because teams have just finished the November 15th deadline for month-end financials. Leadership has ten and a half months of data to review, enough to project year-end performance and celebrate achievements without waiting for perfect December numbers.

“If people are busy and have deadlines and clients waiting and asking for things, they cannot be fully focused and engaged in the retreat,” Rachel emphasizes.

For a remote firm where more than half the team flies in, the schedule runs Sunday arrival, full day Monday, half day Tuesday, with people heading home Tuesday afternoon. This prevents taking up too much of people’s weekend and avoids the stress of same-day travel.

The Logistics That Matter

Every detail either helps team members focus or creates distraction. The Dillons have learned which investments pay off.

They provide hotel rooms for everyone who needs one, including local team members. “Some people took us up on that because they didn’t want to wake up super early, commute, and get ready. That’s just not their normal routine,” Marcus explains.

Food is available throughout both days. Hotel catering costs more than bringing things in, but it simplifies coordination dramatically. The team eats lunch off-site both days, providing mental breaks from the meeting room.

When everyone’s together, they maximize the opportunity. A photographer comes in for professional headshots, and team members cycle through during sessions without disrupting the flow. Only Monday requires professional dress; Tuesday is comfortable.

The Monday evening Christmas party happens at a nearby Brazilian steakhouse, with spouses invited. But first, the team went to Great Big Game Show, a venue where groups compete in TV-style game show formats.

“It was less than $40 per person. It was an hour and a half event,” Rachel notes. “So it was fairly cost effective but very memorable for the team.”

“It doesn’t have to be expensive to be memorable,” Marcus says.

Building Trust Through Transparency

What happens in the room determines whether the retreat creates lasting change or fades by the following week. The Dillons’ approach centers on transparency about the firm’s actual performance.

They share real revenue data, including year-to-date numbers, projections, where the firm stands against goals. Many firm owners hesitate at this level of openness, but the Dillons have only seen positive results.

“There has never been an instance where someone has come to us and said that we are unfair based on a revenue number,” Rachel says. “The only things that have come from us sharing more has been positive response and feedback.”

This transparency extends to the firm’s direction. In 2021, during their pivot to remote work, they created “Future Direction” statements, which are clear commitments:

Monitor, monetize, or refer annual tax clients outside core services
Operate within a fully connected tech stack
Share industry best practices with peers
Be the model firm in small business accounting
Attract highly qualified, highly motivated team members
Implement travel retreats
Create initiatives to give back locally and abroad

Four years later, they still reference these statements at every retreat. “We can go through and put a check mark next to every single one and point back directly to exactly how we achieved those things,” Rachel explains.

The continuity matters when firms undergo major changes. “When they look back at this, they see it’s not any different than what we said we were going to do,” she notes. “Maybe how we get there or what we use to do it changes, but the overall direction definitely aligns.”

Celebrating Before Charging Forward

The Dillons organize both achievements and initiatives into four categories: Growth (clients and team), Process (procedures and technology), Team Development, and Collective by DBA (their peer network offering). This structure ensures nothing gets forgotten between retreats.

For 2025, there was plenty to celebrate:

Securing 12 out of 15 targeted new organic clients
Two successful firm acquisitions
Multiple director-level additions including Operations, Accounting and Advisory, Technology, and Tax and Financial Planning
Implementing of Double for improved client reporting
Launching monthly role-specific training programs
Growing the team from 15 to 25 people

“I don’t do a great job of stopping to celebrate,” Marcus admits. “So I made sure that it was built in.”

Each year gets a theme. For 2025, it was “Growth, not comfort.” For 2026, they’ve chosen “Lead change, create impact,” reflecting their shift from a growth phase to refinement as they integrate everything they built.

The firm also shares specific quarterly goals and hiring plans. “When we started opening up more transparently with the financials and the overall plan of the business, we could actually invite people who are smarter and better than us in given areas,” Marcus explains.

Even the closing gifts reflect practical thinking. The Dillons receive quite a bit of vendor swag throughout the year, including high-end items from Canopy, Intuit, QuickBooks, ADP, and Double. Rather than letting these accumulate, they share them with the team.

“If you don’t have stuff like that laying around, I’m sure you can reach out to your partners, your technology partners, and they’ll send you some stuff to share with your team,” Marcus suggests.

Making It Work for Your Firm

The difference between retreats that drain resources and those that create momentum is intentional planning that starts months ahead, timing that respects your team’s reality, logistics that remove friction rather than create it, and transparency that turns information sharing into trust building.

Listen to the full episode of Who’s Really the Boss? for more advice for running a successful team retreat. Plus, Rachel offers to share DBA’s actual retreat agendas and planning templates with any firm owner or team member who reaches out. “Don’t feel like you have to reinvent the wheel,” she says. Email her at rachel@collective.com or use the contact form on their website.

As the Dillons have learned through nearly a decade of refinement, when you invest in getting retreats right, a two-day gathering can align and energize your team for the entire year ahead.

How a Small-Town CPA Practice Transformed Into a Million-Dollar Firm

Earmark Team · January 28, 2026 ·

James Buss decided to open a CPA firm on April 1, 2005. Yes, April Fool’s Day, which he now admits was “a bad day to open a CPA firm.” That first year, he had about 50 clients and ended with just $50,000 in revenue. Today, nearly 20 years later, he and his wife Cindy run Buss CPA, a $1.1 million practice from Hartford, South Dakota, a town of 3,000 people just outside Sioux Falls.

In a recent episode of Who’s Really the Boss?, hosts Marcus and Rachel Dillon sat down with James and Cindy to talk about what it’s really like when married couples run accounting firms together. They shared stories of making tough decisions during crises, building systems that take emotion out of business choices, and finding a community of peers who actually share what works.

From Law Enforcement to Million-Dollar Firm

James worked in law enforcement before he became a CPA. He went to school for criminal justice and worked for Minnehaha County for about four years before, as he puts it, he “saw the light.” He’s still an EMT basic and has been a volunteer firefighter since 1995—longer than he’s been a CPA.

This background shapes how he approaches business. Growing up in a family that owned a plumbing and heating business since 1978, James has been around construction his whole life. That’s why today, 70% of his clients are construction companies. He understands their world because he lived in it.

When James opened his firm at 35, he’d already worked in public accounting for about five years and spent two years with a Fortune 500 construction company. But starting from scratch meant building everything from the ground up. About two or three years in, he brought Cindy into the business. As she explains it, she got some advice not to marry a CPA—advice she obviously didn’t take. “Sometimes advice isn’t taken well,” she laughs, “but I think one of the best pieces of advice beyond that is to treat people as you would like to be treated.”

Today, they’re a blended family with six adult children, including one who just graduated with a master’s in social work and another getting married next year who has a master’s in accounting. Between volleyball games and football seasons with the grandkids, they run a firm with four hybrid employees and one remote team member in the Philippines.

When Crisis Forces Change

The 2008 financial crisis changed everything for Buss CPA. James is clear that it was harder than COVID. “In 2008, it was a bumpy ride for companies,” he explains. “We were advising on whether companies should keep their employees, keep a line of business, keep their location, or if they should even stay open.”

During COVID, it was about navigating Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) programs and rules that changed every weekend. In 2008, it was about survival.

After joining a peer group in 2009, James made a radical decision: fire half the clients, let the staff go, and drop back to just himself. The firm was doing a little over $200,000 at the time, which was solid growth from that first $50,000, but the mix wasn’t working.

“We kept what we call now CAS,” James says, noting that the term might be new but the concept isn’t. They also went virtual after their server died, which turned out to be perfect preparation for COVID a decade later. “Going virtual during COVID was nothing new for us. We had been virtual for years.”

The crisis also pushed James to rethink pricing. He remembers pitching his first fixed-fee client around 2009, offering monthly accounting for about $900 instead of a $2,000 to $3,000 spring cleanup bill. The client’s response was, “So my wife won’t have to do this on the weekends?” Deal closed.

James had to abandon hourly billing simply because, “as the software got better, the hours went down. So in theory I’d be doing $50 tax returns now.” When clients push back on fixed pricing, he uses an analogy they understand. “When you bought your truck, did you ask them how many hours it took to put the truck together?”

Today, about 75 of their clients are on fixed-fee contracts, representing 70% to 75% of revenue. They’ve cut their tax-only work from nearly 1,000 returns to about 450, with more staff to handle them.

Taking Emotion Out of the Equation

One smart move Buss CPA made was creating systems that remove owner emotion from critical decisions. James no longer decides which clients to accept. Instead, a committee of two client managers and Cindy makes those calls.

“I don’t know if I can ever get out of this mindset that every client’s a new client. It might be my last one,” James admits. The committee asks questions prospects won’t answer honestly to the owner. They can find out if someone hasn’t filed taxes for four years or doesn’t believe in paying taxes—things they might not tell James directly.

The same approach works for pricing. Their current average monthly fee is about $900, with new clients coming in at $1,000 to $1,500. James is planning a 5% to 7% increase for January 1st, pushed through systematically using Ignition. One client who initially rejected their pricing came back after trying another firm. His comment? “My wife is really mad at me for not taking your fixed-fee contract.” He’ll now pay more than the original quote because, as James notes, “we have something called inflation.”

They also charge onboarding fees of about $1,500, sometimes quoting $2,500 initially then “negotiating” down. “It gives you that buffer for them to feel like when they walked out that they did some negotiation,” James explains, while still covering the 20 minutes it takes staff to set up a sales tax license and other setup work.

Even succession planning gets the emotion-free treatment. Back in 2021, Cindy announced she’d retire in December 2024. Now she’s taking Wednesdays off and edging toward the door more gradually. “When we get tired, we don’t have to quit. We can rest,” Rachel observed during the conversation. Cindy might stay two more years part-time while they search for the right operations manager. It’s hard to find someone you trust with the books, invoicing, and “all those things near and dear to us that we don’t necessarily want everybody in the world to know.”

Finding Your People

Perhaps the biggest accelerator for the Buss firm’s growth has been community, specifically Collective by DBA, a group of accounting firm owners who share what actually works in their practices.

“I can’t get five accounting firm owners from Sioux Falls together in a room to talk about how we run our businesses,” James says. “Everything’s top secret.”

But in Collective by DBA, he has a Rolodex of people to call with specific questions. Should we use a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) now that we have seven employees? How did you implement fixed-fee pricing? Why is my tech stack so expensive? He couldn’t ask his old firm these questions because they’re still in suits and ties with everyone in the office—not dealing with hybrid teams and virtual infrastructure.

James participates in forums where ten firms take turns being the “focus,” sharing deep challenges and getting candid feedback. When it was his turn, they gave him nine different perspectives on hiring challenges.

He compares it to a military obstacle course. “The community lifts one person up so they can reach to the top of the wall and pull themselves up. Then they can reach down and grab you and pull you up over the wall.”

The results are concrete. James wouldn’t have his team member in the Philippines without community. He wouldn’t charge onboarding fees. “I don’t think we’d be at $1.1 million in revenue if we didn’t have this.”

For Cindy, it’s about more than tactics. “It’s the safe spot to go to. We’ve made great friends through community. Nobody makes you feel bad if you ask kind of a dumb question.”

The Real Secret: Communication

The importance of communication is a recurring theme throughout the conversation. “People don’t remember what you did for them. They remember how they felt,” James says, paraphrasing the poet Maya Angelou.

This belief drives everything from client service to team management. CPAs are notorious for not returning phone calls, but James and Cindy make communication a priority. “All you have to do is communicate with your clients and you’re 80% or more ahead of the game,” James says.

He shared a recent example where he got double-scheduled and missed a call. His message to the team member who made the mistake was clear. “You gotta remember that this person’s not going to remember how I took care of their IRS issue. They’re going to remember that we skipped their telephone call.”

Building Together, Growing Together

After nearly 20 years of working together, James and Cindy have built something remarkable from that risky April Fool’s Day start. They’ve weathered the 2008 crisis, adapted to virtual work before it was necessary, and built systems that let them make better decisions than either could alone.

Their story shows that you don’t need to be in a major market or acquire other firms to build a million-dollar practice. You need the courage to make hard decisions during a crisis, systems that remove emotion from business choices, and a community of peers who’ll share what actually works.

As they look toward the future, with Cindy gradually transitioning toward retirement and James continuing to grow the firm, they’re proof that working with your spouse can work, even in the demanding world of public accounting.

Want to hear more about how James and Cindy navigate working together, including the jokes about age differences and one-room schoolhouses? Listen to the full episode of Who’s Really the Boss? for all the stories, laughs, and wisdom these two couples share about building successful firms with the person you married.

From Stuck to Strategic: How Top CPA Firms Break Free from Endless Problem Loops

Earmark Team · January 15, 2026 ·

Picture a CPA firm owner sitting across from the same colleague at the same conference, one year later, complaining about the exact same problems: the same staffing issues, same client complaints, and same technology frustrations. Marcus Dillon sees this scene too often, and it breaks his heart. “One of the most disappointing things to me,” he shares on the latest episode of Who’s Really the Boss?, “is whenever you have a conversation with somebody a year later and they’re in the same exact place they were when you previously talked to them.”

But in a packed ballroom at Hotel Vin in Grapevine, Texas, 105 accounting professionals gathered this October to make sure they’d never be that person stuck in an endless loop of unaddressed challenges. Over two and a half days in October 2025, firm owners, leaders, and carefully selected team members came together for Gather 2025, an event that offered CPE credits but delivered something far more valuable than continuing education.

About two-thirds of attendees were firm owners and leaders, while the remaining third were team members positioned to create ripple effects back in their firms. “You want to bring a team member who can learn and take part in table discussions, but then also take what they’ve heard and learned back to others on your team,” Marcus explained.

From Growth to Excellence: A New Chapter in Leadership

After a year focused on “the goal is growth, not comfort,” Marcus introduced a new rally cry for 2026 that signals a shift in how successful firms approach leadership: “Lead Change, Create Impact.” This evolution is more than a tagline change; it marks a maturity in thinking about what drives firm success.

“We’ve had a very large growth year,” Marcus reflects. “We added a couple of director level positions, did a couple of acquisitions, and continue to grow Collective by DBA very intentionally. So now we’re going into a season of refinement and then excellence.”

This natural progression, from growth to refinement and excellence, mirrors a cycle that successful firms navigate intentionally. But growth isn’t just about numbers. As Rachel emphasizes, when they adopted their previous rally cry, “We’re really thinking about growth personally and professionally, of what does it look like to delegate to someone else? What does it look like to upskill and learn that next new thing, or say yes to something we don’t feel we have the skill set for?”

Rachel shares a particularly striking insight she heard recently from author Ruth Chou Simons, “You don’t have to be blooming to be growing.” Sometimes the most critical development happens underground, in the roots and foundation of a firm’s culture. These invisible victories, such as saying no to wrong opportunities, developing team members’ skills, or refining internal processes, often matter more than year-end revenue numbers.

The data from Gather 2025 validates this approach. While participating firms showed revenue increases, the standout statistic was a 10% decrease in owner production hours. For an industry where firm owners routinely work 2,000+ hours annually in production, this reduction shows genuine progress. As Marcus points out, this matters enormously for succession planning. “If there was a firm owner working over 2000 hours per year, as a buyer, you probably have to hire two people to replace that outgoing owner.”

The Four P’s Framework: Your Roadmap Through Change

Change doesn’t fail because people resist it, but because leaders haven’t provided the clarity teams need to embrace it. The Four P’s Framework, which Marcus discovered through his C12 leadership group, transforms vague announcements into actionable roadmaps.

“We used to talk about change and how we communicate change to the team,” Marcus recalls. The standard three questions (What’s changing? What’s staying the same? How does this impact me?) weren’t enough. The Four P’s provide a complete structure:

Purpose answers “Why are we changing?” But “the lens that you answer that question through should be your mission, vision and values,” Marcus emphasizes. “You’re not changing your mission vision values based on a change. You’re seeing the change through the lens of those mission vision values.”
Picture addresses “What does success look like?” Marcus admits this is his personal weakness. “You have to paint a great picture of what it looks like on the other side of this change and what it looks like going through this change.” Teams need to visualize both the journey and the destination.
Plan tackles “How do we get there?” This includes specific milestones. “You’ll know when you’re 20%, 50%, or 80% there and you can celebrate and then maybe push or sprint to that next threshold,” Marcus explains.
Part clarifies “What is my role?” This component “helps foster ownership, provide clarity” by making it crystal clear how each person contributes.

The framework came to life during DBA’s recent acquisitions. Purpose aligned with their mission of “impacting others and creating a great place to work.” Picture showed “a fully integrated team under one brand, serving very similar clients in very similar ways.” Plan mapped out specific 30-day and 90-day milestones. And each team member received a clearly defined part. Some continued with existing clients, others mentor new colleagues, and others take ownership of new relationships.

Rachel’s reflection provides crucial context. “We have not always done it this way. We communicated the change, but rarely thought through all four parts.” The difference is dramatic. “You as the leader will not be in it on your own, trying to drag people along,” she notes. “You will have people who step into their role and know what it looks like to be successful.”

Solving Problems Together: The Power of Collective Intelligence

While firm owners tackled KPIs and succession planning in one room, team members gathered in another for a revolutionary session called “Borrow a Brain, Share a Solution.” With over 24 anonymously-submitted real firm challenges, participants tackled everything from lead generation to remote team connectivity to AI adoption.

“Even staff members had great ideas for lead generation,” Rachel observes. “It’s not always up to the leader to solve every challenge in the firm.”

The structured approach went beyond brainstorming. Teams identified questions needing answers, developed solutions, assigned implementation responsibilities, and specified necessary tools. They documented all frameworks and made them available through the Collective Community Resource Center, creating a permanent library of tested solutions for the 300+ team members now on the platform.

Angel Sabino, Jr., Dillon Business Advisor’s Director of Technology, demonstrated exactly how firms could build their own AI agents using Microsoft Copilot. “He built this AI agent for internal DBA team members to ask questions,” Marcus explains. “What’s our PTO policy look like? What firm holidays exist? What do I need to do to get this approved?” The agent pulls answers from the firm’s knowledge base, providing instant, accurate responses.

“He can also break it down into simple enough terms and pictures,” Rachel notes. This wasn’t about showcasing technology for its own sake, but solving the real challenge of making standard operating procedures accessible and useful.

The case study sessions added another dimension. Firm owners could submit data anonymously and pose specific questions to peers. Marcus calculated the value. “I did quick math. It was about $20,000 per hour in that room.” But the true value transcended hourly rates. It was about getting honest feedback from people who “truly care about you without having a vested interest.”

Putting It All Into Practice

The event’s structure reinforced its practical focus. After sessions on everything from KPIs to AI implementation, the final afternoon wasn’t filled with more presentations. Instead, teams and firm friends gathered to process what they’d learned and create action plans. “What did you hear? What are you going to work on?” became the guiding questions as DBA and Collective team members wove through conversations offering support.

The result? As one attendee shared with Rachel, “This is the first time I’m leaving feeling confident about what I’m going to do and not feeling overwhelmed and defeated that I’m not doing enough.”

Even the venue contributed to the experience. The Hotel Vin’s European-style food hall offered variety without leaving the building, while The Baked Bear ice cream truck (featuring customizable cookie ice cream sandwiches) provided a sweet networking opportunity in perfect October Texas weather.

Your Next Step Forward

For Collective by DBA members ready to continue this journey, Recharge 2026 awaits in Mexico (April 22-25) at an all-inclusive, adults-only Marriott resort. “We’re going international,” Rachel announces, promising two days of CPE, karaoke, collaborative dinners, and the option to extend your stay. Given that the group will occupy over 50% of the boutique hotel, spaces are limited.

But you don’t need to wait for an event to start implementing these insights. The frameworks, tools, and collaborative approaches shared at Gather 2025 offer immediate value for any firm ready to move beyond the cycle of unsolved problems.

Listen to Rachel and Marcus Dillon’s full conversation to discover how two leaders who’ve “been in this game since 2011” learned to stop dragging people through change and started leading them toward impact.

As Marcus reminds us, when you look back at your biggest wins, you won’t remember the change itself. You’ll remember the people who journeyed alongside you. The question is, will you be remembered as someone who helped others navigate change, or as someone who kept showing up with the same unsolved problems? The choice (and the tools to succeed) are yours.

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.