Alex Dawes spent 2 and a half years on her fully remote cloud firm Virtual CFO Solutions and took it from $0-$750K. Wow…that’s fast!
In 2021, she sold through Poe Group Advisors to pursue her passion in real estate and we reconnected to chat about what that rapid growth and cloud experience was like.
In this podcast, we cover a lot of ground so instead of writing paragraphs upon paragraphs to tell you about it here’s a bulleted list of topics we covered:
- Cloud Firm Growth – Managing Extreme Scaling
- Tech Stack
- Schedule Flexibility (Lower Owner Hours)
- Pricing Model
- Client Profile – Filtering as a Cloud Firm
- Employee Profile – Staffing Timeline
- Planning to start a Cloud Firm
- Being Selective on Services/Niche
- What Alex would have done differently as a Cloud Firm Owner
If any of these pique your interest give this 22 minute podcast a listen.
Time Stamps:
3:18 – What’s your Background?
5:06 – You gravitated toward the cloud/virtual model…What was so attractive about it to you?
6:05 – Were you surprised with how well clients worked with the virtual model vs the traditional model?
7:00 – How were the clients different?
8:07 – Did you do any particular strategic planning before you started your cloud firm?
9:30 – Once you started growing do you remember making key pricing decisions?
10:30 – What was your tech stack setup like?
11:45 – How did you learn to say No?
13:30 – Growth – What do you remember about your extreme scaling from $0-$750K in 2.5 years.
15:30 – What were your biggest challenges?
16:30 – Any advice on the hiring process for a cloud firm?
18:00 – Knowing then what you know now, what would you do differently?
19:20 – At what point did you think, “I’m ready to sell”?
20:40 – Any advice for people thinking about starting a cloud firm, or transitioning to a cloud firm?
P.S. – Whenever you’re ready, here are 4 other ways we can help:
- Seller FAQ: Answers to the questions sellers are asking. From practice value, to timing, we’ve got you covered.
- Strategic Guide to Selling your CPA Practice Video: The how-to of selling a CPA firm.
- Accounting Practice Academy: If you’re looking for benchmarks, our 8-week workshop has a community of established firm owners that will help you get perspective, reduce your owner hours, and raise your bottom line. email ibrennan@poegroupadvisors.com with “APA” and we will fill you in on the details.
- If you want to chat about your exit strategy, email bball@poegroupadvisors.com with “strategy call” or request a call here.
