[Anonymous]

Hello, I have been lurking around this forum for the past several months. There seems to be a lot of people with solid advice on this site, so I thought I would ask a few questions.

My background: I have been in the industry for almost 5 years working in all sorts of accounting rules for a large company. I received an accounting degree in 2008, an MBA shortly after, and should have the CPA done in July or August. I have been very interested in starting my own CPA firm. I am ok with taking a substantial pay cut to pursue this dream.

The obvious problem may be that I have only an internships worth of public accounting experience. Does anyone believe I can start a CPA firm without public accounting experience? Here are some thoughts on how I could achieve this goal:

1. Work for someone locally who has a cpa firm to “learn the ropes”. Then move onto my own deal when I have enough side clients. (most desirable option for me)

2. Partner with someone in the area who has Big 4 experience and leverage each others strengths (1 big problem, I don’t know of anyone I could really partner with at the moment).

3. Go get a public accounting job (I want to avoid this at all costs).

Here are some services I would like to try and market:

1. Excel report automation and consulting/training services (I have major experience here with tangible/valuable skills that I’ve seen few others have in my career. I’ve noticed my company in particular needs a report automation consultant and trainer, I could do this on the cheap for them to start.)

2. Tax, but I have really zero tax experience (I am very interested in it though and could learn this field to do individual tax returns)

3. Bookkeeping (no experience here, but again, I’ll have to train myself/learn this from a small cpa firm??)

4. My best friend is a lawyer and started his own firm. Any way I could leverage his firm with my goals without getting too involved in the finances of his practice? He doesn’t want me knowing how much he makes or doesn’t make, yeah i know its weird to me too…. but it is what it is.

Can anyone in a similar situation give me some advice? I am nervous to ask this question because I feel like I’m going to be told my dream is not possible without real big four public accounting experience. But if there’s a will, there’s a way!! I am definitely motivated to make this goal tangible. I’ve calculated that I need $2500/month to survive and I have about 2 years worth of cash savings to get by while I start this venture. I have no problem working 70 hours a week and quitting my day job, I am just not sure how to get the ball rolling here. Thanks for the advice and help I am hoping for some positive responses.

[jelly]

What kind of clients are you trying to target? Small, medium or large size? Publicly traded or private? What industry? Are you interested in corporate accounting and taxation or individuals' accounting and taxation? Are you interested in high net worth individuals?

1. If you want to work as an independent consultant for your current company, you could be a sole proprietor or set up a corporate entity. You'll want to see how the worker classification laws work in your state, as it can get sticky with independent contractor and W2's, especially with unemployment insurance, workers' comp, disability, and general liability insurance.

You could also incorporate as an accounting firm to offer all of the services you suggested in 1-4, but will need to check licensing requirements, as some states require the major owners to be CPA holders. If you decide to offer review/audit services, there's additional peer-review that may be required.

2.-3. If you don't want to work in public accounting, then the clients you work on will likely be privately owned, or you will need to find someone who can deal with the rules surrounding publicly traded clients, especially SEC filing. A lot of small private clients need mostly bookkeeping/compilation and tax preparation services, as many do not have the capacity or cannot afford a full time accountant.

4. What does your lawyer friend do that you could leverage from? Is he/she a tax lawyer? What kind of clients, i.e small, medium, public/private, industry, corporate or individuals?

My daytime gig is at a small accounting firm that deals with small private companies that have some overseas subsidiaries, in mostly retail, wholesale, and some real estate. We do all the bookkeeping, compilations and tax returns. We have a few publicly traded clients, but not involved in the SEC filings; we do some compilation and tax filing work. We also have a handful of simple and complex individual tax returns, including high net worth individuals, most of whom we are going to shed b/c it is not worth it.

My post-daytime gig is bookkeeping and tax returns for small nonprofits, small 1-person businesses, and a few personal tax returns. I've incorporated an entity to handle all of this.

Couldn't pass again!

[Allergic2CPA]

@AZCPA2013…you may want to visit another forum and post a similar question. I have provided the link.

https://www.taxalmanac.org/index.php/Discussion_Forum_-_Business_Growth_Community

FAR 46*, 77
AUD 70, 79
BEC 67, 82
REG 75

Texas License July 2013

Used Yaeger lectures based on Wiley textbooks

*Studied less than two weeks, forgot I had purchased NTS.

[Author]

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