Selling your accounting firm is a major life transition and that often comes with an emotional tax that proper strategy can mitigate.
Lisa Handziak, who covers much of the Northeast and Midwest for Poe Group Advisors, has guided firm owners through successful exits. She’s learned that the sellers who thrive during this transition aren’t the ones who avoid emotions, they’re the ones who understand how to channel them productively. Take confidentiality, for example. Sellers often feel guilty keeping the sale from their staff, but Lisa reframes it completely: You’re not keeping a secret. You’re creating stability. When you protect your team from premature anxiety, you’re actually protecting them, not betraying them.
This episode reveals how the best exits happen: with preparation, clear vision, and a strategic mindset that turns your final tax season into proof of how valuable your firm really is.
The conversation covers:
- How to reframe confidentiality from guilt-inducing “secret” to team-protecting stability (and why telling staff early actually hurts them, not helps them)
- The readiness markers that predict successful exits: knowing how you’ll celebrate, what you’ll do next, and having something pulling you forward (not just pushing you out)
- The inspiring story of a seller who got seriously ill during tax season, missed weeks of work, and discovered his team could thrive without him, resulting in four full-price, all-cash offers
- How to transform your final tax season from something you’re dreading into a showcase of your firm’s value and systems
- The success story of a young buyer who started with a sub-$1M Georgia firm, built a strategic roll-up, and exited in his early 40s with a transformational payday
- Why strategic buyers understand that meeting staff before closing creates more risk than it solves (and what works better instead)
Lisa shares how firms that get the best offers are rarely desperate to sell. They’ve prepared thoughtfully, built proof during their final year, and created genuine readiness by knowing what comes next. She walks through her three-bucket approach for final-year preparation (pricing, clients, staffing), explains why firing “culture vampires” before you sell protects your sale price, and demonstrates how working with advisors, whether through Poe Group or APA Academy, accelerates your path to a successful exit.
The sellers Lisa works with don’t just get good deals, they get ready for what’s next. They sell from a position of strength, not burnout. And they protect both their legacy and their people by handling the transition strategically.
This episode is for firm owners who want to sell on their terms, leaders who care deeply about their staff and want to do right by them, anyone who wants to turn their final tax season into an asset (not a burden), and buyers who want to understand how the best deals actually get done.
Is your accounting practice prepped to entice prospective buyers? It’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture when buried in the finer details. Maximize the value of your practice, and make it easier to own. Learn how to prep your firm for a sale.
BOOK RECOMMENDED IN THIS EPISODE:
Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect
Key Timestamps: 00:00 – Introduction
02:04 – Understanding the emotional journey of selling (and why it’s normal)
06:41 – The readiness test: what are you going to do next?
08:19 – How one seller rediscovered what matters after exiting
10:01 – The seller who got re-excited about her firm and built even more value over 3 years
13:27 – The seller who got sick during tax season and proved the firm was buyer-ready
15:16 – “You’re not keeping a secret, you’re creating stability” the confidentiality reframe
19:25 – The attitude reset that transforms your final tax season
22:38 – How starting earlier eliminates seller regrets
25:08 – Accelerating profitable firms to their goals through strategic planning
28:39 – The inspiring buyer success story: from $1M to a major exit
30:12 – Why strategic buyers protect their investment by waiting to meet staff 33:41 – What happens when transition communication goes wrong (and how to avoid it)
35:39 – Bringing the human element back to M&A
36:22 – Book recommendations
TRANSCRIPT
Disclaimer: The following is an unedited transcription of the episode and has not been combed for errors.
00:00:00:00 – 00:00:20:20
Unknown
in M&A, we have to bring the humans back to the conversation. And remember, this is risky on both sides. And it’s okay to be emotional about this big thing we’re doing. And let’s just talk about it for a minute. Yeah. Just work through it. And it’s not always intuitive. Like a lot of this stuff is not know does it?
00:00:20:20 – 00:00:24:01
Unknown
Intuition doesn’t always lead you to the right conclusion.
00:00:24:03 – 00:00:37:20
Unknown
I’m Brandon Poe, and this is the county’s Flight Plan podcast, where you can enjoy engaging conversations about mergers and acquisitions in accounting, practice management. Listen in on strategies to build a more fun and valuable accounting firm.
00:00:37:22 – 00:00:40:04
Unknown
Welcome to the Accountants Flight Plan podcast.
00:00:40:04 – 00:01:11:07
Unknown
Today I have one of our very own Lisa Hanseatic and Lisa is the regional market leader in basically the Northeast and Midwest. Maybe you can just share with our audience. So stick. Sure. Absolutely. I cover a wide range of states, starting with Rhode Island, Connecticut, drop down to Massachusetts, over to New York, new Jersey, Pennsylvania, then go over to Ohio, go down to Indiana, and then up to Illinois.
00:01:11:09 – 00:01:37:02
Unknown
That’s my region. Okay. Yes, yes. And my people are we mapped it that way. That’s okay. It works. Yeah. It works. So I’m really glad to have you on because we’re going to talk about, just various stuff around deals. Yeah. And I think people love to hear kind of the behind the scenes on how these deals get made.
00:01:37:04 – 00:02:04:00
Unknown
And that’s what I’m hoping that, we can share today. So I’ll get right into it. And one of the things, kind of a pain point for people who are selling, I think, you know, I’ve been selling firms for, gosh, it’s going on 23 years now. And one of the crazy things is we have to relearn lessons.
00:02:04:02 – 00:02:50:16
Unknown
It’s like. It’s like it works so well, we quit doing it, or we just just have to relearn lessons with mistakes over again. And one of the things that, you know, I think people underestimate how challenging it is emotionally sometimes to sell. And I think it’s not only because it’s your business and it’s kind of your baby that you’ve built, but it’s also sometimes, coincides with retirement or that sort of that sort of fourth quarter, if you will, of your life and all of the emotional, aspects of, of that whole major life transition.
00:02:50:18 – 00:03:13:15
Unknown
So, yeah, what are your thoughts on kind of the stress? I’ll put this under the stress of selling your. Well, I think it’s something that our sellers aren’t prepared for. I bring it up early in our conversations, and sometimes they’ll laugh and say, oh, no, no, I’m ready. But then it definitely shows itself during the deal and in different ways.
00:03:13:19 – 00:03:40:09
Unknown
So I like to talk about it often and early and even do check ins. Say, hi, how are you? Oh, fine. How are you? How are you? How is it really going? Because I don’t think they’re ready for the identity crisis that comes sometimes. If they don’t have a clear plan, what’s coming afterwards, I don’t think they’re ready for the deep emotional grief that they experience with letting go of their staff and their clients.
00:03:40:11 – 00:04:03:18
Unknown
Some of these people, they have served for years, and I’m a firm believer that this industry attracts great people. These sellers, they’re just good people. They’re likable people. They’re helpers. They’re people that are being entrusted with someone’s money. And you know what? You can’t hide from your accountant. They know. They know what you spend money on. They know what you care about.
00:04:03:23 – 00:04:31:11
Unknown
So these are deep relationships. Often in their life. So one of the things I like to tell my clients is be prepared for it. Even when we’re scheduling something as simple as how many buyer calls we’re doing. And one day plus their normal load once they’ve chosen their buyer. Talking about due diligence, talking about transition planning, now is not the time to prove that you can do a 14 hour day.
00:04:31:15 – 00:04:54:20
Unknown
We’re going to do as much transition planning as possible, right? We’re going to bang this out in one day. I remind them, this is a big list emotionally. So let’s be kind to yourself. Those simple things like eat right, go to bed, sleep. Be mindful that you may be more irritable, right? You may be a little touchy. You may be a little defensive.
00:04:55:02 – 00:05:25:20
Unknown
I think there’s also the element of feeling evaluated. Because these are leaders and they’re used to being at the top. They’re used to people coming to them, and suddenly buyers are evaluating their life’s work and putting a price on that. And that can be hard to swallow. Yeah. So we try to prepare them for that. And the earlier these conversations start, I think also mentally the earlier they start talking to us, the earlier we start building a plan.
00:05:25:22 – 00:05:47:01
Unknown
There are something to be said for feeling safe. Yeah. And having a plan that brings stability to anyone. And, you know, I think sometimes you can just when someone’s really ready to sell em out, sometimes get off of a meeting and go, wow, they are ready. Yeah. They’re right. They are ready. They know what they want to do.
00:05:47:03 – 00:06:16:04
Unknown
They’ve got something sort of pulling them out of the business. Right. They’re looking forward to whatever that next chapter is. And, I think this year in particular, one thing that I’ve seen, just because we’re, you know, we’re in this consolidation period here, with private equity, and we’ve had some younger sellers who are in their 40s or even early 50s.
00:06:16:06 – 00:06:41:21
Unknown
And really, what sort of intriguing them is. Oh, man, I can I’ve heard of these these higher multiples. Yeah. You know, I can do some rollover equity and I can get a big payday. And that’s true. But I’ve had a lot of sellers literally go all the way up to the, the edge of the closing line and go, I’m out.
00:06:42:02 – 00:07:04:05
Unknown
Right. Like, because ultimately the way if you’re just looking at this from a numbers perspective, even if the numbers are attractive or if you stay in a couple more years and assuming the market’s the same in a couple of years, it’s going to be an even more attractive. Right. And so I think every seller is going to do that math.
00:07:04:05 – 00:07:36:04
Unknown
So and this is why I say we had to relearn this lesson because, if someone doesn’t have a good reason to sell, right, it typically won’t sell right. Exactly, exactly. Tell me what you’re going to do. How? One of the questions I like to ask is, how are you going to celebrate? And if they can’t say, I’m going to the beach with my partner, or, oh, man, I want to teach my grandson to fish.
00:07:36:06 – 00:07:58:20
Unknown
Whatever it is, I have a new hobby. I’m going to learn this. It makes me a little nervous for them. Yeah. And so again, having the conversation early and talking about it and being honest with yourself, am I ready? What am I going to do with my time? What’s that going to look like? Just an honest conversation with yourself and if you need to work it out, call us and we’ll talk you through it.
00:07:59:01 – 00:08:19:19
Unknown
Yeah. And we hope we’ll help coach you on, what you can do to make your practice more attractive when you’re ready. Right. And maybe make it more attractive for you to own. And so you can really think about Excel. A lot of accountants are over. They over work. Yeah, right. They think they’re too busy and burnout is real.
00:08:19:21 – 00:08:31:07
Unknown
And so sometimes people think, hey, I want to sell just because they’re burned out and they’re kind of running away from that burnout, which is understandable, right? I had this,
00:08:31:07 – 00:08:47:01
Unknown
conversation with an EO or someone in Entrepreneur’s Organization who sold his company. He was a younger guy, probably in his 40s. And he, sold his company from it in Atlanta, Georgia, for quite a bit of money.
00:08:47:01 – 00:09:08:21
Unknown
Enough money to live on the rest of his life. And he moved to, I think he moved to Northern California for a recall. And I said, you know, how where were you happy with your exit that you exited? He said, actually, I thought I was going to be really happy. Oh, I thought, I want to sell this business.
00:09:08:21 – 00:09:34:09
Unknown
That was all I could think about. And I wanted to get in shape, and I want to start focusing on my health and he was bicycling, and he. He was, doing that every day. And he’s like, one day he was on his bike and he’s like, this is not fulfilling. Like, I’m bored. I can ride my bike every day, but this is not fulfilling.
00:09:34:09 – 00:10:01:06
Unknown
I’m getting in shape, but this is not what I thought it was. He missed his staff. He said that was the thing that he missed the most, was all the relationships with the people. And, he got depressed and he started another business. Okay. So, hey, it is a really it is quite a transition. It is. And, you know, I’m thinking specifically of a seller who’s going to sell with us this year.
00:10:01:08 – 00:10:22:23
Unknown
I talked to her three years ago, and by the end of the call, she said, you kind of have me excited about my firm again. And we talk through some of these tweaks, these things she could do to make it more sellable. And as we talk through it, reengage the leadership in her it reengage the excitement. You know what?
00:10:22:23 – 00:10:56:23
Unknown
You’re right. Kind of had a bad attitude. I’m kind of slugging through this. Looking forward to retirement. I’ve lost some pep and some momentum. I think I’m excited about this again. And she’s like, this is supposed to be a sales call. And you’ve talked me out of selling and that’s okay. You will come back. That’s right. We’ve talked every year and she’s put into place some of those things that we always we tell people at the time, it was almost this time of year when we talked for the first time and she was dreading tax season.
00:10:57:01 – 00:11:18:21
Unknown
And I told her, it doesn’t have to be this way, right? Yeah. Look at it as a window of opportunity to create proof for your buyer. What a great firm you have. Be your own investor. Invest your time. Invest your talent into creating an even better product. So we start talking about things she could do to make it a little better.
00:11:19:00 – 00:11:42:14
Unknown
And then she got excited and decided not to sell. But that’s okay. It’s okay. It’s their life. It’s their life’s work often, and we want them to be ready. And I’ve had a great time helping her prep for three years, and she’ll fly right off the shelf this summer. Yeah. That’s right. That’s the thing is, if you if you can focus, a three year time window is plenty time to really transform a firm.
00:11:42:14 – 00:12:11:08
Unknown
Yeah. For something much more desirable and even a year I mean I’ve seen I’ve seen some pretty big improvements in a year. So. Yeah, it’s it’s good. It’s good to, realize that this might be a long term journey for people. I think so. And, you know, and I know this might push it a little bit, but I would even say one tax season with minor changes can make an improvement.
00:12:11:10 – 00:12:35:21
Unknown
Yeah. They’re selling price later and on the overall quality. And I think, you know, things like systems documenting systems, it’s something that I feel like my sellers are resistant towards. If they haven’t done it yet or they haven’t done it in a long time, and I think it’s because they feel like it’s like they have this pressure on themselves that they have to create a textbook.
00:12:35:23 – 00:12:58:14
Unknown
They don’t need to write a textbook. They need to make a map. Yeah, just a map showing the work flow, a map showing the communication plan. A map is a lot easier, right, to come up with than a textbook. And plus there’s AI tools. There’s all kind of things now that they can use, you know, to capture these things and to create systems.
00:12:58:16 – 00:13:27:08
Unknown
But when as we talk to buyers, when a buyer sees that there’s been a thought put in to that final tax season, it speaks loudly to small tweaks thought put into captioning system, stop put into handing off a client some of your best clients, bringing staff in, lowering the dependency on you. In fact. Okay, I have a good story.
00:13:27:10 – 00:13:57:03
Unknown
So one of my favorite sellers a few years ago, I just he and his wife, fantastic. Great people, likable, fantastic. Firm. In his last tax season, he got really ill. He had, this unexpected illness popped up. He missed the bulk of tax season. However, the good side of this is when he’s fine two his team completely kicked in.
00:13:57:05 – 00:14:21:14
Unknown
He was more profitable. They did just fine without him. And it gave me the ability to tell buyers this firm that you’re looking at this profile I put it in the profile. He was out during tax season for weeks. They were more profitable. Here’s the numbers. They don’t lie increase here here here. Staff didn’t miss a beat. They were fine.
00:14:21:16 – 00:14:47:17
Unknown
He closed with full price for cash at close. Yeah. And he had four offers. Nice. You know what sold it. Him being sick and not being there. Yeah. For weeks it was like no questions. Ask how. How can I get on this list. How can I meet with them? I want to meet with the seller instantly. Yeah. Now it’s a rough way to do it being sick, but it still still proves my point of blessing in disguise.
00:14:47:17 – 00:15:16:20
Unknown
Yes, yes, but he did great. Yeah. Who? I want to talk to you. You know, one of the concerns, I guess, common concerns people have when they start the idea of selling is confidentiality. It’s, Yeah. And I do, you know, and I think sometimes, it’s common for people to get someone to call them or someone to approach them.
00:15:16:20 – 00:15:37:22
Unknown
Maybe somebody they know approaches them and think, well, you know, I can keep this very confidential if I keep it down to one buyer or two buyers or whatever. And, yeah. You want to speak a little bit about your at home. Yeah. This is and feel free to cut me off because this is a hill that I die on with, with my clients.
00:15:38:04 – 00:16:01:02
Unknown
We talk about it early sometimes on our very first call. Because when I have clients, have regrets. This is one of them. This is probably one of the biggest ones. They don’t regret selling. If anything, they don’t even regret. I wouldn’t put most of the things in the category of mistakes. It’s usually a regret of a delayed decision, right?
00:16:01:02 – 00:16:25:01
Unknown
Delay decision making, is usually up there. But as far as mistakes, the reason why I bring it up so early is because, again, this industry attracts good people. So we’re talking about leaders that care deeply for their staff. They care deeply for their clients. And every single one of my I I’m just going to role play. I’m just going to do it.
00:16:25:03 – 00:16:27:15
Unknown
They come to me and it’s the same conversation.
00:16:27:17 – 00:16:52:06
Unknown
They say, Lisa, I can’t keep a secret from my staff. I feel so guilty. Their guilt gets in their way. It’s misguided. I feel so guilty to keep something from my staff. They’ve been with me for years. They’re good to me. We have this great culture, and then they talk for 3 to 5 minutes, all about their staff and how much they love them, and then they use the word secret.
00:16:52:08 – 00:17:19:01
Unknown
I feel so bad to keep a secret from them, and I don’t want to hurt them, and I don’t want them mad at me. So I let them finish. And then I tell them, you are not keeping a secret. You are creating stability. Yeah, it’s a great way to reframe and it is unkind to burden someone that has no control of the situation with your burden.
00:17:19:05 – 00:17:39:20
Unknown
Because, and I say this and I know it sounds strong but they get it. I let them know as soon as you tell them the only person that’s going to feel better in that room is you. Yep. You’re going to feel relief because you feel guilt over a secret. They are going to feel immediate anxiety. Yeah.
00:17:39:23 – 00:18:09:16
Unknown
And it will destabilize. Yes it does stabilize. Oh I have to, I have to. And so not only are they’re putting their their asset at risk. Right. It’s a financially a poor decision. But also emotionally. It’s not a kind decision either because now that staff is carrying that weight. And unfortunately humans do what humans do. And we try to control the controllable.
00:18:09:18 – 00:18:35:14
Unknown
So and I’ve seen when clients haven’t listened, I’ve seen them lose good people. Yep. Take lower paying jobs, more entry level positions just for the known. Yeah. And I’ve seen I’ve seen it negatively affect the buyer too. So maybe maybe that person doesn’t leave prior to close. But they put up, they put resumes out prior to close or they start that search.
00:18:35:16 – 00:19:01:08
Unknown
Yeah. And then it hits the buyer, you know, two, three, four weeks in after close and then they lose a person. So, and the only thing that makes buyers comfortable, I mean, staff comfortable with the new owner is to spend time with the new owner and the new entity. So it’s, Yeah, that’s that’s a really good way to frame it.
00:19:01:08 – 00:19:25:18
Unknown
I like that things. So it’s it’s just it’s a restructuring. And I think going into the last tax season when someone knows they want to sell, even this year, I know brand. This is supposed to be our slow season. I’m still talking to people. People are calling, they’re talking about selling. And I talked to someone the other day and he said, you know, I’m ready to sell.
00:19:25:18 – 00:19:47:20
Unknown
And he was very, he had strong feelings about it. I said that and I let him talk, but then I real demand a little bit and said, shout it from the mountaintops to me, not to staff, not to clients. And we just talked about it for a minute because he was going into the season like, oh, I just can’t wait to sell this thing.
00:19:47:20 – 00:20:08:15
Unknown
And even though he’s he’s made a lot of money and he’s highly profitable, he’s burnout and he’s tired. Yeah. So we talked about let’s reset. Let’s reset our attitude. And I know this is cheesy, but he he did reset his attitude and he laughed. And I remember those posters in fourth grade that had the little kitty on the way.
00:20:08:17 – 00:20:35:16
Unknown
You know, hang in there. Attitude is everything. I’m like, we remember those posters because it’s true. Attitude is everything. And if you go into this sales season begrudgingly, your staff is going to follow. You’re the leader. Whatever you do in moderation. Followers. We’re will do an excess. They will follow their leader. So come in and think, this is my last tax season.
00:20:35:18 – 00:21:00:18
Unknown
What can I do to prove how great this thing is to my buyer? I’m going to make a scorecard. Where’s the bottlenecks? It’s probably you seller. If you’re listening to this later, it’s probably you. You’re spoiling yourself. So where’s my bottlenecks? Can I I’m going to increase prices. I’m going to prove my clients are loyal. I’m going to look at my client list right.
00:21:00:21 – 00:21:27:12
Unknown
Break up with those. I call them culture vampires, right? They just suck the life out of your culture, and they suck the life out of your profits. They create emergencies that don’t exist, and they take up your time. So you’re ignoring those good clients. So let’s make three buckets. Pricing clients, staffing. Look at those things. He also needed a little bit of system work, but I showed him an AI tool he could use.
00:21:27:14 – 00:21:44:02
Unknown
Let’s get a good attitude. You’re going to sell later. And so we worked on the attitude a little bit. He was smiling at the end and we had a little bit. He said, I feel like I’ve been called to the principal’s office a little bit. You of sat me straight. I was like, no, it’s for your own good.
00:21:44:02 – 00:22:05:12
Unknown
It’s because we care. We want you to be successful in this. Yeah. And staff can pick up on that. Clients can pick up on it and later for still grumpy buyers will pick up on it. Yeah, yeah. And it goes it goes back to that readiness I think buyers, buyers also pick up on someone who’s not ready. They pay.
00:22:05:14 – 00:22:38:09
Unknown
And, absolutely. It’s, Well, what other regrets? Can you think of any other big buckets? Yeah, I would say starting earlier. Starting earlier, just having someone to talk through it and think about little things. Talk to me about this. Talk to me about that. Systems are a big one. Not documenting systems, cleaning house, a little, tidying up, cleaning up the books.
00:22:38:11 – 00:23:01:23
Unknown
I just. Yeah. I told someone the other day, I said, don’t wait for due diligence for your buyer to discover something. You tell the story. You want to do the work now and you present your story. Don’t wait for discovery. There shouldn’t be any discovery, right? Tell the story you want to tell. You can you can control that, right?
00:23:02:01 – 00:23:30:08
Unknown
So I know this is perfect, right? No, no. Perfect. Right. Exactly. It kind of ties in. Know what you’re talking about. They feel evaluated. And it is you know what I’m surprised by Lisa is like, we send out information to gather so that we can market the firms. And, you know, people don’t know their own. I mean, like, they’re they’re discovering what their business looks like.
00:23:30:08 – 00:23:58:22
Unknown
Yeah, that’s a given us the right, right. Do an internal audit on yourself. Yeah. More I mean I think that’s a great like, you know, that’s something we can do too if, if, if you want to start getting an evaluation early, that’s. Yeah. We do it every day. It can be I think for for or it can and sometimes it’s easier than what people think.
00:23:58:22 – 00:24:20:01
Unknown
It can be little things. Right. It’s not even a major remodel. It’s a tidy up. Right. And you look at that, it’s like, oh, we’re just tidying up this and tidying up that. No one’s asking for a major remodel, right? And some people do need a major remodel now. Some people do. And I send them to you when they do.
00:24:20:03 – 00:24:45:09
Unknown
We need a go to APA. We need to work on this. But, you know, lately, though, I feel like I’m sending people to APA that don’t need a remodel, right? They just want to get to their big goal quicker. Yeah. I mean, I’m talking to friends that are 2 million in revenue, 3 million in revenue. And they say, okay, they’re building a beach house, they’re ready to retire.
00:24:45:12 – 00:25:08:18
Unknown
They have all these things. They have a plan, but they haven’t hit their goal yet. They want to be at 4 million, 5 million, whatever that next marker is. And those are the people I’ve been sending to APA because they don’t need a remodel, but we can get them there quicker, right? You can look under the hood and help them work through maybe some client purging, some system reevaluation.
00:25:09:00 – 00:25:30:08
Unknown
Here’s how to get here. Lower your hours. Hey, what about this person? Bring them over in this role and they’re going to hit their mark quicker. Those people are ready to retire. Let’s get them there. Get them to their marker and let them get. So yeah yeah, none of the stuff is really difficult conceptually. It’s all easy to understand now.
00:25:30:08 – 00:26:00:13
Unknown
It’s not easy necessarily to implement all of it like it takes now. It does take work. Yeah it does. But you know, if, if, if exiting is your goal, you can’t you’re highly motivated to do that work. Exactly. But I think having peers or whether you’re working with us or you’re in APA, whatever it is, it’s like working out if I have accountability and a third party.
00:26:00:15 – 00:26:19:12
Unknown
Right, I show up. Yeah. And if you have someone I talked to someone this morning. Quick check in. How are you doing? How did this go? How did that go? They had a big retreat in the fall, right? How is your retreat? How is your staffing? Did you fill your hole? He said, I knew you were going to call and ask that and ask about the staff.
00:26:19:18 – 00:26:41:05
Unknown
So we talked about it a little bit. It was an 11 minute call, but he knew that 11 minute call was coming from me this month. And it’s just that like an accountability partner, right? Like let’s talk. Let’s get ready. I know you’re on track to sell. How are you working the plan and I need high accountability in my life.
00:26:41:05 – 00:27:01:08
Unknown
Or I’m going to eat the donut and not work out and, you know, not do any of the things I’m supposed to do. Yeah. So it’s it’s, it’s interesting. And then, you know, you think about the other side of the transaction, right? The buy side. And, I feel like they have a whole, you know, it’s it’s.
00:27:01:10 – 00:27:24:16
Unknown
Yeah, a different set of concerns. Such a, you know, it can be I mean, it depends on the buyer, some buyers or, very large entities and they’re making acquisitions and it’s no big deal, whereas others are individuals. And this is life changing. Absolutely. And other buyers or little couples with two kids and soccer and this is their life savings.
00:27:24:16 – 00:27:48:08
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah, it’s a big deal. It is a big deal. Yeah, absolutely. I’m always, sometimes really honored to be working with people that have the courage to me to take that leap. You know, it’s a big entrepreneurial leap. Leap of faith it is. I’m glad they choose us. I’m glad they come in. It’s really fun for me.
00:27:48:08 – 00:28:11:00
Unknown
I’ve had a few buyers that kind of stick around. I they buy, we go through the transition and in those follow up calls it’s hey, you know, in the transition, we talked about, oh, if I was buying this, I’d add on to the online bookkeeping. Right. You’re the clients are asking for it. Why are you why are we outsourcing this.
00:28:11:00 – 00:28:39:09
Unknown
Right. Let’s do this. Let’s do that. And they come back and you see that they’ve grown. And I think most buyers they’re not buying to hold on to that. That number, whatever it is they bought right. That revenue they are buying to grow. Yeah we have it’s exciting to watch. We had one buyer who this is probably one of the biggest, successes I’ve seen in my career.
00:28:39:11 – 00:29:10:04
Unknown
And this young man, had a very young family. Bought his first practice from us out of, Georgia. And I think it was just under a million. It was a fairly, you know, it was a it was a decent size, solo type practice. And he bought this practice and I found out he has exited. So he, he kind of participated in his own roll up strategy.
00:29:10:06 – 00:29:45:14
Unknown
So he acquired a number of firms from us. And now he has sold to a bigger entity good for him. And he just, exited like a month ago or so, and he really had quite the payday. I don’t want to disclose his right here, but. Right. You know, I don’t know how many firms he acquired, but it was, you know, multiple firms and, you know, he took that risk and he took that on and got very well rewarded for it.
00:29:45:14 – 00:30:12:14
Unknown
And it’s just kind of fun to see. And he’s still young. He’s probably, I think, in his forward early 40s maybe. You know, I, it’s interesting working with the buyers. I have a buyer currently and they’re about to close, and the buyers wanted to meet the staff beforehand. I was almost a deal breaker for them, and it’s a little bit of a larger firm.
00:30:12:15 – 00:30:37:19
Unknown
Full staff, robust staff. Complicated work that they’re doing. And they said, no, we have to meet the staff, we have to meet the staff. And I explained the deal breaker for us. And really, it’s not in your best interest either. Let me just explain why. So we had a few conversations about it. I also explained part of what we do isn’t just introducing someone to the buyer.
00:30:37:19 – 00:30:59:04
Unknown
It’s building that transition plan, making sure everyone’s doing what they’re supposed to be doing and checking in. So I talked about the transition plan. I talked about how successful that that is and how it’s a part of my job that I really enjoy. So we so we talked about this three times and I finally had to tell the buyers, this is a no go for the seller.
00:30:59:06 – 00:31:17:19
Unknown
It’s too much risk. And really it’s not in your best interest either. So I mean they’re going to have turned down your offer. If this is something you’re insistent on. And so they thought about it and they came back and the seller ended up going with this buyer. And they’re a great fit. But at the end of the day, they said you gave us a different way to think about it.
00:31:17:21 – 00:31:21:13
Unknown
And you do this every day and we don’t.
00:31:21:15 – 00:31:46:07
Unknown
We have no reason not to trust you. And then as you explained it, we talked about it and it made sense. So, okay, they had their attorney edit the purchase agreement and we’re about to close. Yeah. And and you know, sometimes we think, oh that’s a bad buyer. Oh that’s right. We have to have this. We have to have that.
00:31:46:07 – 00:31:48:08
Unknown
I think in
00:31:48:08 – 00:32:09:04
Unknown
in M&A, we have to bring the humans back to the conversation. And remember, this is risky on both sides. And it’s okay to be emotional about this big thing we’re doing. And let’s just talk about it for a minute. Yeah. Just work through it. And it’s not always intuitive. Like a lot of this stuff is not know does it?
00:32:09:04 – 00:32:12:09
Unknown
Intuition doesn’t always lead you to the right conclusion.
00:32:12:11 – 00:32:32:12
Unknown
And we’ve got a lot of experience. We’ve seen these things happen. We’ve seen these things. We’ve seen deals collapse, you know, and crash and burn. How did you what did you say about the, I guess how did you convince them that this was going to be okay or.
00:32:32:14 – 00:32:52:01
Unknown
Well, I talked about basically the same conversation that we have with sellers, and I was talking to the buyers. I’m like, okay, let’s play this through. You come, you meet the staff, you feel great. They have, you know, they have brilliant resumes. You know, they’re doing the work. You know, all of this already, but you meet them and now you also like them.
00:32:52:02 – 00:33:13:04
Unknown
You feel settled. What’s the rest of them feel like? What’s going to happen? Is my job going to change? We’re going to change. Yes. You’re going to change all of that because you walk away feeling like you’ve reduced your risk, but you’ve actually increased your risk because now you’re ready to lay down the money and buy this thing.
00:33:13:06 – 00:33:41:21
Unknown
But all you’ve done is create stress and anxiety. And the staff feel better. They feel anxiety. They believe. I have a perfect example that’s similar to this. So when I worked for Ernst and Young, they, were going through some restructuring because I worked in the Greenville, South Carolina office and they were about to close the Columbia, South Carolina office.
00:33:41:23 – 00:34:07:12
Unknown
For whatever reason, I can’t remember. So they were making some staff cuts in Greenville so that they could make offers for some of the top people in Columbia. Okay. Nobody knew what was going on. The way they did these cuts is they would do them incrementally. So they’d bring a couple of people in on a Friday and cut them, and then they’d be they’d bring a couple people in on the next Friday and cut those people.
00:34:07:14 – 00:34:31:08
Unknown
And so there was this long, like, everybody starts to wonder, oh, the good people are going to go find jobs for my next round. Why am I doing this? And the rest of my guys went out. And then finally so they, they I think their intention was to make 10 or 12 cuts, they lost 28 people, of course, because created anxiety.
00:34:31:10 – 00:34:52:01
Unknown
Well, and then they even had a meeting and they said, hey, we’re not going to make any more cuts. We’re not going to make any more cuts. But by then the damage had been done and the resumes were out there. Yeah, people are interviewing by then, they’re interviewing and they’re getting great offers and, and and so they it really hurt the firm.
00:34:52:01 – 00:35:10:22
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I just exactly what you just explained is what I talked to them about. And they got it. When I think sometimes we need a visual, explain to me what you’re going to do. Oh, I’m going to meet the staff. I want to see if we like each other. Great. You walk out of the room. How do you feel?
00:35:11:00 – 00:35:39:10
Unknown
Fantastic. How do they feel? Yeah. Yeah. Right. And now what if gets hung up in underwriting for a minute? What if. Wait, what if the government shuts down and SBA’s on hold because those people are all going to wait around. That’s right. Oh, that this year. Yeah we did. So I think just coming back to human emotion and saying it’s okay to feel how you feel.
00:35:39:12 – 00:36:00:14
Unknown
Yeah, right. That’s okay. It’s okay to be scared. This is a lot of money. This is a big deal. But let’s play it all the way through. Yeah. And there’s no loss for me. We have other offers. Yeah, right. I’m just going to talk you through this for a minute and, you know, see where we land. Right. All right.
00:36:00:16 – 00:36:22:14
Unknown
We have gone. Oh, shoot. Right now. This is awesome. Yeah. I think, hopefully people are still listening at this point. Yeah, I think they will be because it’s. This has been good, Lisa. Good one. I want to wrap up, but I’d love to get a couple of book recommendations. Sure, sure, sure. Okay. I have things on my desk.
00:36:22:15 – 00:36:44:22
Unknown
One. Unreasonable hospitality. Don’t judge me. It looks for all you people that love and care for your books. It looks rough, but it’s because I’ve read it a few times. And then I took it to Cancun with me and read it on the beach. So it’s a little bit waterlogged, but it has all my notes. Oh, wow. And so for any industry, this translates.
00:36:45:00 – 00:37:10:19
Unknown
Yeah, I can’t stress this enough. What else is on my desk first? Ladies, I love history. This is great if you are a female leader. There’s just good stories in here about leadership. What real influence looks like when you compare the culture in this book with, like, TikTok influencers and things like that. The lives these women lead, it’s pretty remarkable.
00:37:10:21 – 00:37:31:13
Unknown
I’m also reading, for the second time, the Art thief. It’s. You need to read it. It’s so good. True story. Greatest art heist in history. And it’s pretty fascinating. It’s fun. I might have to read that. I’ve got a vacation coming up. I think that sounds like. Yeah. Is that a good. It’s a plane. Yeah. Read it on the plane.
00:37:31:15 – 00:37:53:18
Unknown
It’s quick, it’s easy, a bet. It’s fun. All right, Lisa, what’s the what’s the best way for people to connect with you online? Okay. Go to our website and reach out to Sharon. Don’t reach out to me. She’ll. She manages my schedule. Reach out to Sharon Wood and she’ll she’ll get John. Get you on the schedule. Yeah, absolutely.
00:37:53:20 – 00:37:57:02
Unknown
Thank you. Thanks. Appreciate it. This was fun. I.
00:37:57:04 – 00:42:55:00
Unknown
Thanks for listening to the Accountant’s Flight Plan podcast. You can keep the momentum going by subscribing and sharing your thoughts with us. Visit our website at poegroupadvisors.com for more resources and tune in next time for more exciting conversations like this one. This podcast was produced and edited by Liesl Eppes of her group advisors. Thanks for listening.
