Rachel Dillon

This Accounting Firm Finally Turned “We Should Give Back” Into a Measurable System

Earmark Team · February 5, 2026 ·

Most accounting firm owners consider themselves generous people. They write checks to local charities, sponsor community events, and encourage employees to volunteer. But ask them to quantify their firm’s charitable impact over the past three years, and most would struggle to produce meaningful numbers.

The irony is, professionals who build careers on measurement and accountability often treat their own charitable giving as an unmeasured afterthought.

Marcus and Rachel Dillon faced this same challenge. As co-leaders of Dillon Business Advisors, they listed “giving back locally and internationally” as part of their vision, along with concrete, measurable goals. However, it became a reminder of good intentions that hadn’t yet become systematic action.

In this 2026 New Year episode of Who’s Really the Boss?, the Dillons skip the typical resolution-setting advice. Instead, they share how they live out their rally cry for the year: “lead change, create impact.” For them, IMPACT actually spells out their firm’s values. And they’ve finally found a way to measure it.

The Control That Creates Commitment

The Dillons knew what they wanted to accomplish. The challenge was finding a mechanism for accountability.

A separate bank account seemed obvious. It would be easy and fast. But Marcus saw the flaw immediately. “We wanted that control mechanism in place as opposed to just setting up an additional bank account that we could redistribute or transfer money back into,” he explains.

Their solution was The DBA Impact Fund, established through the National Christian Foundation in 2025. With a donor-advised fund, once money goes in, it can’t come back out. Those dollars are committed to charitable purposes forever.

This constraint is exactly the point. For firm owners who want to build charitable giving into their operations, a donor-advised fund provides accountability that willpower alone can’t.

The practical benefits extend beyond commitment. Funds can be invested and earn returns while accumulating for larger initiatives. The account works like a checking account when distributing money to approved charities. And because it generates standalone statements, the Dillons can share their giving transparently with their team.

Creating the fund was simple. “It literally took five minutes. I went to NCF’s website to create the fund, connected a bank account, and started transferring money,” Marcus notes. Five minutes to solve a problem that had lingered for years.

The Power of Simple Math

With the fund established, the leadership team, which includes Marcus and Rachel, and their directors, Amy McCarty, MBA, and Lezlie Reeves, CPA, decided how much to give.

They came up with a simple formula: 1% of every dollar invoiced, deposited the first week of each month based on the previous month’s revenue. The formula doesn’t consider collections, net income, or profit after expenses. Just invoice revenue.

“There’s direct accountability and no creative accounting or math involved,” Rachel emphasizes. “There’s no ‘it depends.’ Or I have to wait until I run the calculations.”

Anyone can look at the monthly invoice total, calculate 1%, and know exactly what to deposit. No waiting to close books or opportunity for excuses when margins feel tight.

They chose revenue over a fixed dollar amount for a specific reason. “We tied it to revenue because we believe in growth,” Marcus explains. As the firm grows, so does the giving. The charitable impact scales automatically with business success.

“We started with 1% because it’s easy,” Marcus admitted. They can always give more during strong periods, but the baseline stays constant and predictable.

When they created the fund in mid-2025, they made an initial deposit to “true up” all the invoices from earlier in the year. By 2026, they had a solid foundation ready to deploy.

Making Water Flow: The Team Experience

The Dillons wanted their team to experience generosity firsthand.

For their signature initiative, they selected Living Water International, an organization that drills water wells across Latin America and Africa. Both Marcus and Rachel have participated in Living Water trips. They know people on the board and have seen how it operates.

“We know it is a well-run organization,” Marcus explains. “If we were going to choose any one large charity to use this first season of the DBA Impact Fund, we wanted to go with a safe bet.”

The project spans two years. In 2026, The Impact Fund will purchase a well location in Latin America. In 2027, around 20 people, including team members, spouses, clients, and Collective member firms, will travel to install the well.

The Impact Fund covers all costs, removing financial barriers. “The purchase of the well is not voluntary,” Rachel explains. “That’s happening for the whole team. Going on the trip will be voluntary.”

Marcus calls Living Water trips “entry-level” mission experiences. They have structured itineraries with backup plans, safe accommodations, good food, and often a fun activity on the final day. Her first trip included ziplining on the way to the airport.

Birthday Wishes That Matter

While the well project creates a collective experience, the DBA Impact Birthday Gifts program gives individual team members a voice in the firm’s giving.

On each employee’s birthday, they direct the Impact Fund to donate $1,000 to any approved charity of their choice. The program costs employees nothing and adds to their existing birthday recognition.

“It’s significant enough that it does make an impact,” Marcus explains. “If we were only to do $100, they may not feel that it was as much of an impact.”

The program also helps with recruiting. When future team members ask how the firm celebrates birthdays, the answer now includes something more meaningful than cake in the breakroom.

Your Turn to Measure What Matters

The DBA Impact Fund is unusual in that it approaches charitable giving with the same discipline that firm owners bring to client work.

The framework has three parts:

A donor-advised fund that creates real accountability
A simple 1% revenue calculation that eliminates debate
Team involvement through collective projects and individual choice

“As accountants, dollars are an easy way to measure things,” Marcus observes. “And if you want to put dollars to what you care about, this is one small way to do it.”

The Dillons are transparent about their experiment. “We’re entering into the second calendar year of the funds being there, so it’s still an early experiment,” Marcus acknowledges. “If it fails, we won’t hold back from speaking to the failures.”

For other firm owners considering something similar, you don’t need a perfect plan. You need a mechanism that creates accountability and a calculation simple enough to execute consistently.

What would 1% of your firm’s revenue look like directed toward charitable purposes? How might involving your team—not just as contributors, but as participants—change your firm’s relationship with generosity?

For the full conversation, including more of Marcus’s mission trip stories and the team’s approach to capturing impact, listen to the complete episode.

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.

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.

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.

This CPA Firm Grew to $1 Million by Saying No to Most Clients

Earmark Team · January 24, 2026 ·

When Nick Liguori, CPA started his accounting firm at the beginning of 2020, he had modest goals. “I figured if I can add a few more clients and build it up a little bit, that would work fine,” he tells Rachel Dillon, host of Who’s Really the Boss? podcast. “I’d hopefully make enough money to pay the mortgage and make ends meet.”

Five years later, his New Hampshire-based firm, Liguori Accounting, has seven employees and just under $1 million in annual revenue. The transformation didn’t come from working longer hours or taking on every client who walked through the door. Instead, Nick discovered the power of focusing on one specific industry: medical aesthetics and med spas.

From Side Hustle to Specialized Practice

Nick’s path to firm ownership wasn’t typical. After starting his career at a mid-size regional firm and then moving to a smaller practice focused on small businesses, he spent time in industry working for a publicly traded company. During those corporate years, he began taking on tax and bookkeeping clients on the side.

“After a little while of doing that, it got to the point where I couldn’t balance both things anymore,” Nick explains. He made the leap to full-time practice right as 2020 began, just before the pandemic changed everything. In some ways, the timing worked in his favor. “I was setting everything up virtually and remote anyway,” he says. “So COVID-19 obviously forced that on everybody. In some ways I got a little bit of a head start.”

For over a year, Nick worked solo. Then, about two years in, a referral changed everything. A local med spa needed help with outsourced accounting, tax, and advisory work. The fit was perfect.

Discovering the Perfect Niche

“A lot of the med spa owners that we work with are obviously medical professionals. That’s their area of expertise,” Nick explains. “But they’re not necessarily financially minded or that’s not their strength. So we provide a lot of value there, helping them navigate the financial aspect of their business.”

That first med spa client led to referrals, which led to more referrals. The firm got involved with local associations. “That was the first stepping stone into taking it to a much bigger audience—more med spas across the country,” Nick says.

Two years ago, the firm decided to focus exclusively on med spas. It wasn’t easy. “We had an existing client base that were not all med spas,” Nick admits. “So it was a little scary to say, okay, now we’re only going to focus on med spas.”

The transition meant letting go of clients who no longer fit. “We’ve definitely lost a lot of those clients. Some have just churned out naturally and some we’ve let go because they really weren’t a good fit for the services we provide now.” But Nick sees it as progress. “Each year when I look back, we’re a step forward in the right direction.”

Marketing Where Your Clients Already Are

Once the firm committed to the med spa niche, marketing became much more targeted and measurable. “What’s been most successful is getting in the industry spaces where the owners are hanging out,” Nick says.

Conferences became a primary strategy, though the investment felt risky at first. “Getting into it for the first time was a little bit scary because it’s a big investment,” Nick admits. Conference booths typically cost between $3,000 and $5,000, with some running as high as $10,000.

But the returns justified the expense. “We went to one last November and came away with two or three new clients,” Nick reports. “When you think about it from an ROI standpoint, if you’re getting a monthly client for an event that costs you $5,000, it pays for itself.”

Beyond conferences, the firm appears on industry podcasts and webinars targeted at med spa owners. They work with the New Hampshire Association for med spas, which started just a few years ago. “We’ve worked with them from the beginning,” Nick says. “There’s a much lower cost of entry when it’s local.”

The firm now focuses on getting speaking opportunities at conferences rather than just booth space. “That’s where you get the most exposure and probably the best opportunities,” Nick explains. “People can come and go. And depending on where you’re set up in the conference center, you may not get great activity.”

Building Systems That Scale

Specializing in one industry created unexpected operational benefits. “Once you learn a few med spa clients, now you sort of know where the potential issues lie,” Nick says. “It’s probably inventory. Are their sales broken out properly? Is there equipment broken out on the balance sheet? We know where the problems tend to be.”

This predictability transformed their onboarding process. What originally had no timeline became a 60-day process, then shortened to just 30 days. The firm built templates in Keeper (now Double), its practice management software, sends comprehensive checklists to clients, and schedules three strategic meetings throughout the onboarding period.

“We always try to schedule the next meeting before the end of the current meeting,” Nick shares. “So it’s on the calendar. They’ve committed to a time that works in their schedule.”

The firm adopted the Team of Three structure about a year ago. With three bookkeepers, two managers, and Nick as the CFO, everyone has clear responsibilities. “There’s no confusion,” Nick says. “Everyone knows what they’re responsible for.”

Training new team members became easier too. “Once you’ve worked on this client, the next client is going to be very similar,” Nick explains. The firm relies on shadowing and screen recordings for training. As Rachel notes, “When people are limited on capacity or availability, shadowing is always great. We just always try to record.”

The Price of Expertise

Perhaps the most dramatic change has been in pricing. “My original packages were $200 a month for bookkeeping and $500 for CFO support,” Nick recalls. Today, the firm offers three tiers:

Bronze (bookkeeping only): $800/month
Silver (bookkeeping + quarterly tax planning/CFO): $1,200-1,500/month
Gold (bookkeeping + monthly tax planning/CFO): $2,000+/month

Most clients choose the silver tier. “That’s where we have the most interest, especially with med spas, because that tax planning piece is really beneficial,” Nick explains.

The firm also charges substantial onboarding fees: $3,000 for bronze tier, $5,000 for silver or gold. When prospects push back, they might offer to split the fee into two or three payments, but rarely discount.

Higher prices actually improved client quality. “You avoid some of the clients that are just price shopping and really don’t value what you’re doing,” Nick notes. The clients who seek out industry specialists understand they’re paying for expertise.

Lessons from the Journey

Looking back, Nick wishes he’d been more intentional from the start. “I started my firm without a big picture plan in mind,” he admits. “I wish I had set up processes, set up our service offerings at the beginning before starting, rather than trying to figure it out on the fly.”

Pricing confidence took time to develop. “We really didn’t get our pricing to a place that was solid for probably a couple of years,” Nick says. “Knowing the value you provide and being confident as you’re selling—that was a big thing for me.”

The past year has been one of regrouping after team and client transitions. “We’ve put a lot of effort into building the team, getting our processes down really well, and streamlining onboarding,” Nick explains. “We’re doing our best to set ourselves up for that next phase of growth.”

Working with an advisor through Collective by DBA has helped navigate these changes. “Having that sounding board and someone who has seen a lot of different firms at a lot of different stages has given us a really good perspective,” Nick shares. “It’s easy to feel a little bit isolated, especially with these bigger picture decisions.”

The Power of Focus

Nick’s journey demonstrates that specialization doesn’t limit opportunity—it creates it. By focusing exclusively on med spas, his firm can:

Market directly to a defined audience with measurable ROI
Onboard clients in half the time it used to take
Train team members more efficiently
Command premium pricing for specialized expertise
Better plan capacity

“Having that industry focus makes it a lot easier to say no to the clients that are not ideal,” Nick says. “And a lot easier to identify clients that are going to be a good fit.”

For accounting professionals considering specialization, Nick’s advice echoes what his father taught him in the family conveyor belt business: “Measure twice, cut once.” Think through the decision from multiple angles. Research your chosen niche thoroughly. But once you commit, the benefits compound with each new client you serve.

The firm now limits itself to onboarding just two new clients per month—not because they can’t handle more, but because they know exactly what it takes to deliver exceptional service. That’s the confidence that comes from knowing your niche inside and out.

Want to hear more about Nick’s journey and get detailed insights into building a specialized accounting practice? Listen to the full episode of Who’s Really the Boss?, where Rachel and Nick dive deeper into the specific strategies, challenges, and victories of transitioning from generalist to specialist.