[say]

I wanted to know from others that may already have a PLLC or consult on their own how I should start? I will give some background. I am 36. I did public accounting for 4 years, 5 years of IA for a fortune 500 company. Then I had my son in 2014, and I guess I just hit a wall with my life and decided to quit working so that I could enjoy those first few years. When my son turned 2 (2016) I had an old colleague of mine reach out to me. She offered me a job to work in a part time capacity; at that time I didn’t want to work full time. I essentially was the Controller. It was a start up company. The owner and I ran the Company. I did this for 3 years. Unfortunately, the company never scaled and the owner didn’t want to accept the defeat so he kept it going for another 18 months. I was there through most of it all until this summer when we parted ways and Company ended. It was probably my biggest heartburn of my career but I learned a great deal – I would’ve never had this type of exposure had I kept working at the large corporation. I started looking for a job earlier in the year since I knew it was going out of business. I was astonished at the market. I was not getting anything. I am getting my CPA because whatever hits I was getting were in the 80k range. I felt like those deals were too low with the experience I have. I really don’t know if I can go back to the Corporate setting again and I wanted to do my own thing as a consultant. Any tips on how to start? I will have my CPA exams complete by the end of the year. If I can nail down my arch nemesis BEC, I should be done. I’d appreciate any advice on this. I feel in some senses I’m back to square 1.

[Adam]

You realize you have to have a licensed cpa with an active license sign your papers before you get it?

And hard to say depending on where you live that 80k is underpaid.

The sad hard truth about self employment is you learn as you go, generally its easier to scale a consulting business when youre still employed so you have income coming in in order to live off while you transition.

[Silent]

@Adam i know many people that have EA and are self employed and doing extremely good so CPA is not really needed.

[say]

I am getting my CPA no matter what. However, what you say is not entirely true. I know you can still do it without the CPA. I do think having a full time job coupled with side consulting job is the probably the best way to do it.

[Orpheus]

Say, I am in a very similar shoes. The fact is: if you are NOT planning to be involved in auditing services, the CPA is not required. You can work rendering bookkeeping, payroll, tax related, incorporating, consulting services without CPA. EA (Enrolled Agent) status will grant you all the rights related to the Tax related services (I have it); so you can get your EA (reasonable tests and no tons of redundant info; I did all 3 in 2 month) and run your own taxation+bookkeeping+payroll+consulting business…
The issue is: you will miss some valuable clients since many of your potential clients will begin the conversation with the question:”Are you CPA?”. And the answer “No” will turn them away…
In addition, with CPA designation you will be able (may be…) to charge some higher rates than without CPA. So, if you are planning to work for yourself and do not plan to be engaged in the corp. auditing, the value of CPA will be limited to the increased level of the public recognition. NOTHING MORE!!!

[Silent]

@Orpheus My boss gets around that question if you are CPA by answering instead that our employees are licensed by the IRS. Most people are fine with that.

[Author]

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