Barbara Agerton flunked retirement. After selling her California CPA practice, she thought she’d ride off into the sunset with her husband. Instead, she got bored, picked up the phone, and asked if she could come work for the company that sold her firm.
Now she’s an intermediary at Poe Group Advisors, which means she gets to help other firm owners navigate the exact journey she just completed. Barbara knows what it feels like to let go of the practice you built, to wonder if you’re doing the right thing, and to discover that the transition you were dreading turned out easier than expected.
Barbara sold her practice after running it remotely from Texas for eight years. She transitioned to the cloud back in 2013, before that was the standard playbook, and built systems that allowed her team to run everything without her in the room. When it came time to sell, her buyer barely called during the transition. Barbara’s feelings were a little hurt, but that’s actually when she knew she’d done everything right.
THE CONVERSATION COVERS:
- How losing two key team members to relocations forced a pivot to cloud-based practice in 2013, and why the trust challenge of going remote was harder than expected
- The emotional reality of selling: “It’s like cutting your arms off” when you stop interacting daily with people you’ve worked with for years
- Why her buyer barely called during transition (which hurt her feelings but proved she’d built systems that didn’t need her)
- The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey approach: stop solving every problem yourself and teach your team to find their own answers
- Why she wishes she’d sold sooner instead of waiting, and how most sellers wait until illness or family situations force the decision
Barbara’s biggest lesson? Most sellers wait too late. They wait until illness, family situations, or burnout force the sale. The best exits happen when you’re selling from a position of strength, not desperation. The firms that sell the easiest are the ones where the owner has already slowly, gradually let go over years of building systems and empowering their team.
The irony? Barbara prepared so well for retirement that she got bored and came back to work. But now she gets to use everything she learned to help other firm owners prepare for their own exits, whether they actually retire or, like her, discover they’re not quite done yet.
This episode is for firm owners wondering when to start preparing for an exit, leaders trying to figure out how to let go without losing control, anyone considering a move to a remote or cloud-based accounting practice, and sellers who think their practice isn’t “perfect enough” to take to market yet.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Introduction to Barbara Agerton
01:34 Preparing for the Sale of a CPA Practice
03:39 Transitioning to a Cloud-Based Accounting Practice
07:00 Client Experience During a CPA Firm Transition
08:50 Deciding to Sell Your CPA Firm: Personal Motivations
09:58 Emotional Challenges of Selling a Tax Practice
11:01 The Importance of Team Dynamics
13:30 Preparing Your Team for a Sale
16:03 Reflections on Timing and Selling any bookkeeping, CPA, or CAS practice
18:30 Book Recommendations and Closing Thoughts
BOOK RECOMMENDATION:
Unreasonable Hospitality
TRANSCRIPT
Brannon Poe (00:14)
Welcome to the Accountants Flight Plan podcast. We have a special repeat guest on today and welcome Barbara Agerton. Hi, Barbara. Barbara, ⁓ for you that don’t know her, she works for PO Group Advisors. She is one of our very special intermediaries. And we came to know Barbara because she was a client. She had a CPA practice.
Barbara (00:24)
Hey, Brandon.
Brannon Poe (00:39)
in California that she sold, that we sold on her behalf. And she liked it so much and she didn’t like not working so much that she wanted to come and work with us. And so it was really cool to get a phone call from her and say, hey, I’m getting bored. I want to do something. so it’s been.
Barbara (01:00)
Yeah, you laughed, you said you flunked, so you flunked retirement.
Brannon Poe (01:06)
Yeah. And yeah, she’s been with us for gosh, how long now Barbara it’s been a it’s been a few years now.
Barbara (01:15)
It’s been, it’s going on three years now.
Brannon Poe (01:18)
three years and Barbara had one of the very first firms transition to the cloud. She transitioned her firm from a traditional practice to a cloud firm before that was much of a thing. So you’re on the front edge of that. Well, welcome. Glad to have you back on.
So today we’re gonna talk about, kind of go back to some of your CPA practice owner experience. We’re gonna focus on sort of ⁓ preparing and kind of put you back into that spot where you were getting ready for a sale. What did you do to prepare your firm for a sale?
Barbara (02:00)
Yeah, that’s a good question. ⁓ think originally when I started the practice, that was my intent was to sell. ⁓ So that helped me a lot. ⁓ You you begin with the end in mind. So that’s kind of where I started. I always knew that I would want to sell it. ⁓
Barbara (02:21)
But still, then you get into the day to day and you’re operating it and you’re interacting with the clients and you’re just enjoying what you do, right? And so it grows and grows and you don’t think about that part, the selling, because it’s too far away, right?
But I guess the, when I really started getting serious about selling, I had to look at the practice as a whole and realize that I had to take myself out of it a little bit. You know, we get kind of caught up with our ego. Well, you know, I have this great practice and I’m so proud of it and you are and you should be. You’ve worked hard to get to where you are, but ⁓
Brannon Poe (02:50)
Mm-hmm.
Barbara (03:03)
eventually you don’t want to be the person that does everything that you do you need to trust that to your team so i guess the thing i would say is i started turning things over to the team and let them do it and did they do it perfect no and did i get upset well not at them but i knew they were going to make mistakes and not do it the way i would do it
Brannon Poe (03:11)
Mmm. Well, did that transition coincide with the time that you move your firm to a virtual practice? that a big part of that letting go and almost necessitated by the fact that you physically were going to be somewhere else? that helpful?
Barbara (03:48)
Yeah, it was kind of forced on us because two of my key people, both of their husbands got jobs in a different city within a month of each other. And it was like, oh my word, that’s like half my team is going to be gone. What am I going to do? And so that was the pivoting point where we said, well, we’re just going to go ahead and take it to the cloud. It was a big learning curve to get to the cloud. Yeah, you don’t realize like I can sit here and look at a piece of paper or open a file and when you go to the cloud all that’s invisible. Anything that you’ve got on your desk is invisible.
Brannon Poe (04:17)
Was that a harder transition than you thought it would be?
Barbara (04:36)
Yeah.
Brannon Poe (04:38)
Was it more tedious, more work? Tell us what was the most difficult part of it?
Barbara (04:43)
Well, trust, think is the first thing. You’ve got to trust your people. And I was fortunate that I knew these ladies that worked for me. They were awesome. So I had no doubt that they would do what needed to be done, even though they weren’t in the same room with me, right? So trust, I think, was a big thing. ⁓ The other thing, they were the ones that were dealing with being remote first and so they would try and tell me you know what they needed but they couldn’t really articulate it well enough for me to understand what they were saying and then in 2015 my husband and I moved to Texas from California so I ran that firm remotely for gosh eight years
Brannon Poe (05:38)
Wow. Wow.
Barbara (05:39)
I know and I did and it wasn’t until I was remote that I understood what my team members were telling me about being remote.
Brannon Poe (05:48)
Do you have any examples of some things that were challenging? Going from that brick and mortar to the cloud, specifically challenging.
Barbara (05:56)
Thanks getting the team members to put everything in the cloud. You know, they still wanted that paper file. They still wanted to put things on their desktop ⁓ computers. And I said, well, you know, if you put it there, I can’t see it. So you need to put it on the cloud. I can remember getting frustrated with them and a little angry. Because it’s like, you’ve got to put it on the cloud.
Brannon Poe (06:24)
Yeah. Well, I guess the tools are probably not nearly as good as they are now for…
Barbara (06:30)
they’re so much better now than they were. ⁓ But I did have a cloud-based server, and that’s where everything lived.
Brannon Poe (06:32)
Yeah. Yeah. Wow. How did it affect clients as you were, you know, preparing for the sale? I’m assuming they probably didn’t know anything was brewing in that regard. You kept it quiet.
Barbara (06:55)
Yeah, no, they didn’t know. ⁓ We were always trying to be on the cutting edge of technology. So during that time when we were taking everything to the cloud, we were doing online, we had an online organizer, you know, we had a, where people could just drag and drop their 1099s and W-2s. I mean, it was, it was awesome. It was all through Intuit. A little plug for Intuit, I really…
That was my platform that I used for everything. ⁓ And I was pleasantly surprised at the people that embraced that and did it. we we were still operating during COVID right and that’s when I sold the practice was right near the end of COVID but I can remember some of my elderly clients saying thank you so much that you’ve done this because I don’t have to get out now I can just do all of this from home and they really appreciated it and these were people that were not techie yeah
Brannon Poe (08:04)
Yeah. Well, so what prompted the decision to sell? What was the thing where you knew, okay, it’s time. I’m ready. I’m ready to do something different or I’m ready to retire.
Barbara (08:15)
Well, my husband was ready to retire and so our goal was to retire. You know, the kids are moving out, right? They’re going to college. It’s time to enjoy ourselves a little bit more and not be so tied down. So that was that was my my pivoting point was his retirement.
Brannon Poe (08:33)
Okay, that makes sense. A lot of times it’s a life circumstance that prompts these kinds of changes because it’s a big change, Contemplating a sale. Was there any, you ever, ⁓ did you ever question the decision as you’re going through the sale? it occur to you like, maybe I’m not doing the right thing? Was there some of that?
Barbara (08:59)
It’s very scary to let go. It’s very scary. And I tell the sellers now, know, the people, you know, my sellers that I’m working with now, I tell them it’s such an emotional thing. It’s like…cutting your arms off. mean, you’re just, you know, it’s like you’re go, go, go, go, go. You’re talking to these people every day. You’re interacting with, you know, people that you know and that you love. And then poof, you’re not. It’s a big change.
Brannon Poe (09:34)
Big change.
Barbara (09:36)
So that was hard. And the other thing too that’s kind of funny is, you know, during transition, you’re supposed to be available for, you know, the new owner to introduce the clients and to do those client notifications, introduce your team, make sure that everything gets transferred over and just be available for questions and calls. And they hardly ever called me. I was like, you know.
Brannon Poe (09:37)
Yeah.
Barbara (10:02)
My feelings were a little bit hurt.
Brannon Poe (10:06)
Yeah, I think a lot of people, if you get the right buyer, transition can actually be pretty easy on the seller.
Barbara (10:14)
That is so true. The buyer that bought mine, she was awesome. She was as qualified, more than qualified, I should say, than I was ⁓ to do the work that needed to be done. And she’d managed teams before, so that was no problem. But the other thing, the other thing was my team was doing most of the work and they were client facing. I only saw them clients maybe once or twice a year, but they were interacting with them on a daily basis, monthly, whatever. They’re the ones that really kept it.
Brannon Poe (10:46)
And so that’s that prior letting that prior letting go had already occurred before you started to transfer the practice or was it that even happened? When did that happen before you sold? Like how much time between you started letting go of the more and more responsibility of the practice up until the time you sold? Like how much time would you say that took or you took?
Barbara (11:11)
It was an ongoing thing, like I said, probably from the time we went to the cloud in 2013. That’s when it kind of started. You know, it was an evolution. didn’t just let go. You have to…
Brannon Poe (11:28)
It was a slow, gradual,
yeah.
Barbara (11:31)
It was gradual, but you know, we had systems in place and the systems that we had in place allowed my team members to be better at what they were doing. For example, we had, ⁓ we called it two sets of eyes. So nothing went out the door without having somebody else look at it before it went out the door. So it was our review process. And if something went out the door with an error on it, we’re like,
Brannon Poe (11:35)
Mm-hmm.
Barbara (11:56)
I didn’t get upset about that. I was like, there’s something not right with our system. Something in the system either, you know, didn’t get followed or maybe something’s wrong with what we’re trying to do. I didn’t ever blame it on the people. We all make mistakes. And I would laugh when somebody would come to me and say, Barbara, I made this mistake. I would laugh and I’d say, you know, I’ve made them all.
Brannon Poe (12:01)
Mm-hmm.
you
Barbara (12:21)
So don’t ever feel bad about making a mistake, because I’ve already been there and done that. And we just, you know, we will make it right.
Brannon Poe (12:22)
If you own a business, you’re going to make mistakes and you’re going to make more mistakes, right? ⁓ What can people do to prepare for a sale or, you know, just to, if they’re starting to think about it, what would, what would you recommend people do to maybe start taking some steps?
Barbara (12:49)
Well, the first thing I would do is work on your team. If you’ve got a team, ⁓ give them more responsibilities. one of the things that we did that was so good and it made my life so much easier.
You know, you’re in your office and your team member comes to you with this problem, whatever it is, doesn’t matter what the problem is, but they know that you know the answer and can answer it really quickly, right? And so they would do that to me. And so I’d spend all my time solving their problems, right? Whatever it is. And so I read this book by, what’s this name? Who wrote the One Minute Manager? ⁓
Brannon Poe (13:33)
⁓ I know who you’re talking about. Did he also write who moved my cheese? ⁓ gosh, I can’t remember his name.
Barbara (13:37)
I know the name just escaped me but there’s he wrote another book called the one minute manager meets the monkey and it’s about just that the your employees coming to you with the problem and handing it to you and you taking it because you you know everything right you’re the smartest person in the room so you can do it all and so instead of taking that turn it back around whoever brought you the problem
Barbara (14:09)
and say, okay, here’s where you go to find the answer. I want you to go and find the answer and then come back and tell me what you think needs to happen and make them do it. they both, both of my employees told me later, they said, I hated that. And they said, but I learned so much by doing that. And they really appreciated it.
Brannon Poe (14:19)
Mm-hmm.
Is there anything you would do differently now that you’ve sold your practice and now you’ve helped a lot of people sell their firms and your knowledge is greater than it was before you set out to sell your own? Would you do anything differently?
Barbara (14:53)
I have started, ⁓ I would have sold sooner. I would have. And I say that because I see so many sellers who wait too late. They wait until some event forces them to sell. Maybe it’s illness, maybe it’s some other family situation that they need to take care of.
Brannon Poe (15:00)
Really?
Barbara (15:21)
I wish I had sold sooner so that I could have been more available for my kids when they were still in the house. Once they’re out of the house, they’re out of the house. They’re not coming back. Yeah.
Brannon Poe (15:38)
Right. Right. Yeah. I heard a quote. think it was the one of the founders, the founder of Nike. said, it’s better to sell two years too soon than two years too late. And I did think that was a really, but I think the timing is one of the hardest, the hardest aspects of selling that people have to deal with. Like when to sell is maybe the toughest decision of them all.
It’s, it’s, and which is why we don’t pressure people. You know, it’s like, if they’re not ready, they’re not ready. And, ⁓ we can help them get ready, but we don’t want to push. Right.
Barbara (16:11)
No, but you were good with me. you, cause I was kind of on the fence, you know, you know, because I felt like my practice wasn’t perfect. You know, it wasn’t ready, right? And, and you kind of put me at ease with that. And you said something to the effect of, let’s just put it out there and see what happens. And so we did. And I was shocked.
I was so shocked at how many buyers you found for me. And my practice was out in middle of nowhere. 25,000 people was how big this little town was out in middle of the desert in California. Nobody’s gonna move there. So, but you just, I don’t know, y’all just did an amazing job.
Brannon Poe (16:57)
Wow. Awesome. Well, we’re going to wrap up. got a couple more questions for you. One is, I know you love to read. You’re always telling me about books and suggesting books. You have a good book recommendation for our audience.
Barbara (17:01)
Okay. Yeah, right, well, right now we’re…reading unreasonable hospitality and that’s kind of been a theme that you know we as a group as a team are looking at because we want to make sure that our sellers and our buyers both are having good experiences.
It’s hard to do sometimes.
Brannon Poe (17:37)
Yeah,
it’s a great book if you haven’t read that and you’re listening, pick it up. It’s about a ⁓ restaurateur in New York City who became one of the top restaurants in the country by doing…Unreasonable Hospitality. I mean, that’s it’s it’s a cool book. Great read. Good suggestion. What’s the best way to for people to reach you online?
Barbara (18:01)
to reach me online. ⁓ LinkedIn is good. I watch my LinkedIn messages, so that’s a good place to catch me.
Brannon Poe (18:11)
Great. Well, Barbara, thanks for sharing. Is there anything else you want to add before we go?
Barbara (18:16)
⁓ I don’t know-
Just doing great, enjoying what I’m doing. It’s always fun to go back and see what people are doing after the sale. So I love that part.
Brannon Poe (18:29)
Yeah. Well, thanks for joining us. think this is the second appearance. If you guys want to listen to our first one, it’s ⁓ I guess we recorded it a couple of years ago. So thanks for coming on.
