‍The Mindset Shift: From Technician to Business Owner

Most firm owners start because they’re great at what they do—bookkeeping, tax prep, advisory. But growing past the first million means stepping out of that role and into leadership.

“Your job, if you own a practice, your job is to lead teams and manage your business. It is not to produce your product. That mindset will be everything.”

For many accountants, the hardest part of scaling isn’t finding clients or doing the work—it’s letting go. But as Joe explains, holding on too tightly keeps firms from reaching their full potential.

“You’re going to have to lay down your core passion because you got into many of you tax preparation and bookkeeping and financial reporting because you love it. And you’re going to have to give up what you love in order to scale your vision.”

The Three Keys to Scaling: Client, Service, Price

Getting to seven figures isn’t about taking on more clients—it’s about taking on the right clients, offering high-value services, and pricing them accordingly.

“If you do not have a defined client profile, and I don’t just mean by niche... I mean, what’s the minimum sized company we’re going to take? We only take companies maybe of a certain employee count, certain complexity. Create that profile of the kind of businesses you know that intersect your skill sets and your vision.”

Many firm owners think they need hundreds of clients to hit seven figures, but the math tells a different story.

“How many clients does it take to get to a million? Not every client will be 2,500. Some will be more, some will be less. But if your average monthly recurring revenue per client in your portfolio is 2,500, it takes 32 clients per million.”

Instead of chasing volume, firms should focus on offering higher-value services—starting with controllership.

“Instead of you just recording what happened, you get to protect the client’s journey, and that’s a radical value proposition difference.”

The Pricing Problem: Getting Paid What You’re Worth

One of the biggest hurdles for accountants is pricing. Many undercharge because they’re stuck thinking in terms of effort, not outcomes.

“Price is not a component of my effort. It is a component of my outcomes. The intersection of the services to the right kind of client creates the outcomes I can price.”

Joe warns that competing on quality alone won’t cut it.

“Everybody tries to counter commoditization with quality. Quality is a way to elevate yourself to sort of the top of the pile of the commodity... But at the end of the day, the person who’s shopping on price is going to still go to the lower priced option even if they endure a lower quality.”

Instead, firms need to differentiate by offering services that actively improve the client’s business.

“If you were to go to these business owners and say, I’m putting myself here, I’ve discovered your unaddressed need... The business owner is going to see that as germane to your role. They’re not going to question why you’re coming to them with this. It’s a natural upsell.”

Leveraging Technology and Offshoring to Scale

To grow profitably, firms need to balance automation, offshoring, and high-value work.

“The artificial intelligence is going to increasingly displace the need for this offshoring... If you’re the business owner, [AI] doesn’t replace you. It replaces how much you would need to go to the offshoring to get the work done.”

That doesn’t mean offshoring is going away—it just means firms need to be strategic about it.

“You’ve got to get that legwork into the hands of people who are capable of handling it and manage that.”

For firms that embrace both AI and offshoring, the path to profitability is clear.

“You can have 32 clients with a couple of people or yourself, the right technology, and a few outsourced folks, and you could be a million-dollar practice.”

The Bottom Line

Accounting firms that scale past the first million do three things well:

• They define and target the right clients.
• They package and price services based on value, not effort.
• They leverage technology and offshoring to maximize efficiency.

“This is the brightest day for you as a practice. Ignore it, and it’s going to be your darkest day.”

Want to hear more? Listen to my full conversation with Joe Woodard on After the First Million.

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