General Accounting

How to Pay Yourself as a Consulting Firm Owner A client came to me generating $2.2 million in annual revenue. She was paying herself an $85,000 salary and pulling the rest as distributions, with no formal documentation to back the split. Her CPA had reviewed the returns and told her she was “fine.” She wasn’t

I have a client with $25 million in sales and $5 million in EBITDA. For a manufacturer, those numbers tend to attract attention from potential buyers. And this year, that’s exactly what happened — we found ourselves in the middle of a due diligence process for a potential transaction. The process went smoothly throughout. In

Most small business owners spend years obsessing over growth, margins, hiring, and customer retention. Very few spend the same amount of time thinking about how — or when — they will eventually step away. That blind spot is no longer anecdotal. A recent Gallup poll sheds light on a quiet but serious issue facing the

Consulting firms rarely struggle because they lack expertise. More often, they struggle because the business beneath that expertise never fully matures. Client demand exists. Teams stay busy. Revenue grows. Yet cash remains tight, margins fluctuate, and the owner feels more pressure with each passing year instead of more control. This isn’t a talent problem. It’s

No one wakes up excited to track their time. It’s tedious, often imperfect, and feels like an administrative burden. When I left public accounting, I remember thinking, “I will never track my time again.” Oh how things change! For agencies and consulting firms, time tracking isn’t just a task — it’s the foundation of profitability,

In December 2015, I sat in my car in silence—equal parts shocked, scared, and excited. I had just bought a business. For a $900,000 purchase price, I had invested less than $25,000 of my own cash. The rest came from a mix of seller and bank financing. The business was called Monkey Bizness, an indoor

Most business partnerships start with optimism and big dreams. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard two partners insist they don’t need a formal agreement—after all, the business will be wildly successful. There will be more than enough to share. In those early days, it’s easy to believe nothing could go wrong. But what

Introduction: A Tidal Wave of Changes—Are You Ready? If you’re a small business owner who relies on outsourced CFO services or handles your own tax strategy, you can’t afford to ignore the potential impact of this sweeping new legislation. The proposed bill, dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” may still be winding its way through

The dream of entrepreneurship is alive and well in the U.S., but the journey from a great idea to a thriving business remains steep. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, fewer than 10% of small businesses ever reach more than $1 million in annual revenue. And while nearly half of Americans have considered starting a

Accounting might not be the most exciting part of running a small business—but it’s one of the most important. In fact, your ability to stay on top of your books, cash flow, and the accounting process can often mean the difference between barely surviving and scaling with confidence. Whether you’re still tracking expenses in Excel