How Accounting Firms Unlock 2–5X More Revenue From Existing Clients

Welcome to the Growth Minded Accountant podcast where our experts will share best practices on running your firm in the digital age. This podcast is brought to you by Counting Works Pro. Let's get started. Welcome back to another episode of The Growth Minded Accountant. My name is Lee Rees. I am the founder and CEO of County Works and our sister company Tax Buzz. So today's I call this kind of a flagship for what I think 2026 should be all about for tax and accounting firms and it is how to unlock more revenue from clients you already have. So everyone is super busy. Staffing is a problem. Workload is a problem and you know everyone wants to grow and the question is well how do I do that? And you know how do I get new clients? How do I get more referrals? But perhaps if you kind of step back and do a an audit of your own firm, you're going to be able to unlock a ton of different opportunities that you may have been missing. And you know, whether that is two times, you know, what someone a current client is spending with you or five times, there's a lot of different opportunities that can surface if you have the right systems in place. So today, Rebecca, our chief visibility officer, and I are going to break this down in, a bunch of different examples, the ROI behind it, and kind of almost like a basically a road map for you to do this on your own. So, Rebecca, if you can say hello.

Yes. Hello, everybody. This is going to be a good one. We're going to get into a lot of fun stuff, but I'm going to start with something everyone usually hates, and that's a trip to the dentist. so yesterday I had to go to a new dentist. my old dentist stopped taking the insurance policy that I picked just because that dentist took it and I gave it to my entire company and suddenly they're like, "Oh, we're not taking it anymore." So, instead of spending the whatever $2,000 a year in extra because I already have insurance and my company has insurance, I switched Dennis. And I want to kind of explain kind of the the process that I went through and how I think it applies to compliance and advisory work in a tax and accounting firm. So, you know, every 6 months, you know, you go in for a cleaning, right? That's maintenance. that's compliance. Okay? and that's your version of tax prep. And I'm just going to give this example. So, the way they look at it and the way my new dentist ran this was really, really good. So, I come in, I go through my entire, you know, touch points with the dentist, I get my cleaning, and then afterwards, they put me into a side room. I'm going to call it the upsell room. and this is where they start what I'll call the upsell process. So, you know, and this could be everything from Invisalign or bonding or cosmetic work or gum procedures, you know, long-term treatment plans, who knows? But what stood out to me is they don't hesitate to bring these things up. they don't feel weird about it. They don't apologize because they don't see it as selling. All right? They see it as improving outcomes. And I think that's really important. They're not necessarily selling dentistry. They're showing possibilities of what my mouth could look like, right? What my teeth could look like. And then something else happened that I thought was I think the best part of this. They moved me into a completely different room. It was like the closer room, you know? It's like you're you're a a criminal and you're in your you're being challenged in a room with no windows, right? But it wasn't the cleaning area. It was a consultation room, okay? It was a nice padded seats and a nice, you know, like kind of formal looking place. and someone walked new to me that came in and said, "Hey, this is what we think, you know, based on your initial consultation, you know, we can improve on your teeth." And they actually had a detailed line by line u breakdown of what they recommended for me. And it was something I realized almost instantly. Most accounting firms, tax firms, you've never built that second room. You know, everything stays inside your compliance conversation. So, maintenance and optimization are two different businesses. And if you think about it, like this dental office and how they did it is a machine. And I've seen this at my orthodontist as well. They do it even better. They're like so high-end that, you know, I have no idea how much money they make, but it makes total sense. Okay, the cleaning keeps things current. That's compliance. But the real opportunity is when they say, "Hey, this is what we're seeing. You know, here's what could change or this is what could happen if nothing changes. Here's an area we can improve. here's how things could look if we move, you know, if you move forward. And that's exactly what I think advisory should feel like. So, it wasn't necessarily pressure. They did make me sign the quote, though, which I thought was very interesting. And again, there's a psychology behind it. They're like, "Oh, they're pre-elling me." And then I'm sitting there going, "Oh, do I need to do this? Do do I need to bond that one tooth?" You know, but it wasn't a pitch, but it was a clear conversation about what a better outcome could look like. So, I'm going to layer this on top right now. And I like to have some statistics. I I did some research when we when I developed this content and this topic. And you know, this is kind of basic stuff, but I just like to report it. I always like to find like a Harvest Business School or Stanford or something. But Harvard had a a study that basically said a new customer can cost five times more than keeping a current one. I think as an accountant, everyone could understand that. They see their own clients, right? and then the same study also cited a Bane and Company research report that said increasing customer retention by just 5% can increase profits by 25 to 95%. You're like, "Oh, okay. Well, let's start thinking how this can apply to your current existing client base, right?" So, you know, most firms spend, you know, a lot of their time chasing new clients instead of perhaps expanding the relationships they already have. And that's obviously what we're going to talk about. So if you zoom out even further, this opportunity just doesn't lie inside your firm. It's happening across the entire economy right now. And I think this is the biggest statistic. I saw this on CNBC. I think it was two days ago. And I went and researched it and found some actual numbers. And I think I'm going to cite them. I want to give them I think is Cerulean Associates projects $124 trillion in wealth will transfer through 2048 and 105 trillion going to heirs and 18 trillion going to charity right so they also project that 100 trillion will come from baby boomers and older generations representing 81% of all these transfers so this is not necessarily this isn't a small trend this is a monumental this is an earthquake right this is a generational shift shift of wealth. And obviously I think that the you know you all are aware of this but maybe you haven't broken it down and looked at it and said wait a second here. this isn't just high net worth individuals anymore. This is people who own businesses. This is people who own their own homes that have appreciated in value, right? People with retirement accounts, people with families that obviously are inheriting these assets. Clients selling their businesses. clients perhaps dropping the business down to their heirs or you know some cousins or family members, right? Clients retiring, clients downsizing, clients and grandparents helping adult children, helping their grandchildren, right? With education expenses or even buying a first home, right? So, clients moving money between these generations. So all of these create taxable events. They create planning decisions. There's timing strategies behind these. There's entity decisions behind these. Obviously with the large portion going to charity, there's charitable giving giving questions, estate coordination, Roth conversions, capital gain decisions. I social security timing and planning, right? Require RMDs, inherited IRAs, you know, I can go on and on. Business exit planning, they can go on and on. So advisory is not just a niche opportunity anymore. So let's think about that. The biggest shift ever, most of these people are clients of yours today, right? so what is that? That becomes a core part of how firms create value. And some of the most valuable work you will ever do for a client may happen in a single year. And this is one thing that I think a lot of people they get into this, oh I need to sell subscriptions. I need to sell a quarterly or a monthly subscription when they think of advisory services. and that maybe is the industry fault, but not every client wants to do that, you know, but they 100% could see a oneoff fee. a oneoff or a short period of time or perhaps quarterly or every six months or or yearly, right? Because they understand advisory is not going is not always going to be ongoing. Okay? sometimes advisory is just a moment in time. but it's still a serious opportunity, right? So, you know, and I'll give you examples. Sometimes if a client is selling a rental property, that that might be a oneoff. If a business owner is preparing for an exit, that could be a one-off. a couple retiring, they they may not want to spend, you know, the $2,000 a month that a CFO advisory client would, but they would spend $3500 to come in and optimize this sale or or more, right? and they see the value there. They see, oh my god, what is the tax liability here? What if we do this correct? You know, what is the delta between me doing nothing and just doing a a transaction versus me actually planning? So, not every client then needs a monthly advisory retainer. but I believe almost every client will hit a moment where this strategy matters. and I think if you properly communicate it, if you have your room, then you don't necessarily think about this. You don't need every single client to do a monthly advisory for your growth this year. And you might have 10% of your client base has some sort of significant life event. That could be your lift. That is your opportunity. so you know what if this is the fastest way to increase your revenue was it's actually sitting inside your current existing client list and I I like to make things real. I like to give examples. So let's pretend you're a solo firm. You have 300 400 clients, right? So I think our average is 350 for a solo. and then so what happens if just 20% of them say they they move from basic compliance into higher value work? And I'll go back to that dental firm. So, let's say that dentist has 3,000 patients. What do they need out of that 3,000 every year to do that cosmetic process that's 5,000, 10,000 in dollars? So, if it's 10%, they got 300 clients doing times 10,000 or 20,000, whatever it is, there is their growth. There is their super high margin, right? So, from a tax accounting point of view, let's just do tax prep. Let's say your average client is $1,500. Let's take 70 of those clients, move them to $4,000 relationships for that particular year. That's $3500. No, actually that's 2500. that's $2,500 more. which is $175,000 in additional revenue, right? Without adding a single new client. Now, think about that. I mean, so I and again, I know accountants are all, you know, analytical and they're looking at, okay, so let's zoom out here. Let's look at a bigger firm, you know, two to five partners, 800 to a,000 clients, you know, a million plus in revenue and you upgrade 20 to 30%. you're not just talking about little tiny growth anymore. You're talking about transformation, more revenue, perhaps you can kind of narrow down the clients, right? Fewer clients, perhaps better clients, better work, better margins. I think that is kind of the what we're trying to get after today. And we're going to go into some more examples of what the shift is. Some examples of how to implement this in your own firm. So, I think most firms are far more valuable than their current revenues reflect because clients don't fully understand everything the firm can help them with. We've been talking about this for years in this is why you should create your own narrative. This is why you should talk about advisory work in your client newsletter, on social media, on your blog, right? this is why you need to have a process or a system to surface these opportunities from your existing client database and the data inside the tax returns, the context, the conversations you're having, that Zoom meeting, right? It's already inside your firm. So, today we're going to we're not going to talk about finding new leads. We're not going to be talking about Rebecca's favorite topic, SEO or GEO. We're not talking about chasing growth. We're just talking about how to unlock, you know, two times, five times more revenue from clients that you already have. And once you see this, hopefully you will not unsee it. So, I'm going to go into I break these down as usual into different sections and I'm going to talk about the shift first. and then Rebecca, I promise you, you're not just going to listen to me preach the whole time. So, I'm going to bring you in for some fun stuff. So, provide some facial reactions. Yeah. Well, I hope you are. I mean, you know, and I I got to watch and make sure you're still awake. So, all right. So, let's go let's go about this. So, most firms think growth looks like this. And I kind of talked about this. More leads, more clients, more revenue. but a lot of times I think that is maybe the hardest path. So, if I were saying, what is the lowhanging fruit? Existing client base, right? So, what are the two ways to grow? I can get more referrals from my existing clients, separate podcast, or I can get more revenue from my existing clients, which in reality will drive more referrals because they'll have better financial outcomes. Right? So now, while you're chasing new clients the old way, you're offer often sitting on a a base that is massively underdeveloped. and this is something that you can harvest every year because I gave you that example. Not everyone is going to sign up for that monthly type of relationship. they're going to you're going to have to surface that 10% 20% of life events whatever is happening in your client base that there is your opportunity for additional revenue. so the problem here is you know clients many of them only see you once a year. Clients sometimes don't understand what else you do. there's clients who don't know what's possible. Okay. there's clients who have changed financially and you need to make sure you're on top of those life events, right? but whose relationship with your firm has not changed at all, right? And then what happens often is that's when that client leaves you. They were probably just a compliance client. They were getting their cleaning. Suddenly they inherited money or you know whatever life event occurred. They have a tremendous need now for tax planning advisory work. But you never you never were in front of them talking about that you know what you do. you never had that room to say to see them say, "Hey, you could do this and this is what it costs. Hey, if you're not ready now, that's great, but when you are, this is the quote. We're going to save it in your in your file and then when you're ready, just let us know. Let's get it going." So, that's the big shift. So, growth doesn't just come from more clients. Growth comes from more value per client. So, once you understand that, everything changes. how how you communicate changes how you structure services and that and then that's even how you do your proposals for example how you run your firm changes you know because the question is no longer how do I get more people into the firm the better question is how do we create more value for the people that already trust us and that's the beauty if you're doing your job right if you're communicating correctly you're responsive to clients most likely they really trust you. There's a reason this profession is rated the highest most trusted relationship of any professional. and you need to really utilize the power of that. So, that's a different business model than perhaps a lot of people are working on right now and it's a much healthier one. And I I'll when you start feeling like you're just an assembly line of compliance, that's when you miss this opportunity. And I don't want you to feel, you know, trying to get growth as new clients. You're basically a hamster on a treadmill, right? you're just freaking hamster wheel with you're just going and going and going. More intake, try to find more clients, more onboarding, more deadlines, more admin, right? More low margin work. but you know, if you can expand these existing relationships, there's real leverage there. So, you already have a trust factor, right? You already have their data and you have lots of their data. and you already know the pattern. So, you know, this is where you can start surfacing. So this is not necessarily op a marketing thing. It's recognition. So it's seeing where the client's life is, where their business or financial reality has changed and then having the right conversation at the right time. I'm going to talk about a little more about technology and how that's changed this model where your system tools that we've created for example we we can add we enrich client data for example. So, if we have a client database, we can put it into a kind of a an AI tool that lets us kind of create a clear picture of what a client looks like. And what I mean by that is really their age, you know, dial in exactly where their their current income is, how close are they to retirement, how many children do they have, you know, what their house might be worth. There's all kinds of different things that we can do. And once you have all this data and you add the tax returns, their financial statements, bank statements, whatever, and all that data is scraped and you have it in one kind of secure AI portal, per se, your system itself can start finding these opportunities. It can read a transcript that you had an interview in Zoom and the client mentioned two or three things. It can surface that and retain that and say, "Hey, red, you know, red alert. Here's an opportunity." and I think that's where you really need to start utilizing these AI tools that are coming out there. And whether you would rather just say tech enabled or AI tools, the reality it is AI. AI is able to take huge amounts of data in the background, surface opportunities that you may not even have thought of and present them to you, the human to now say, hey, do you want to act on this or not? so if customer loyalty can you know be summarized as as one idea? Small improvements in retention can create outsized profitability gains because loyal clients tend to buy more services over time. They cost less to serve. And what did I say earlier? They refer more. So there is your new growth in clients. So tax accounting firms have one of the most trusted based customer relationships in the world. So if there's any profession who needs that room and can expand value from existing relationships, it's yours, right? It's ours. So only if clients understand what's happening. So let's step back and kind of look at, okay, where is this hidden revenue? And Rebecca, I swear I'm coming up to you, but let's talk about an expansion audit. So where is this hidden revenue? And and it's already in the book. So I talked about scraping data and things, right? What is we almost call it? I want to give it a name. Let's call it an expansion audit. So, if you open your client list today and ask, okay, where is the growth already happening and where are we not acting on it? You'll find it fast because advisory opportunities usually don't arrive with a flashing sign that says sell advisory here, but it does today. It does today, but they show up as signals, right? They show up as changes. They show up as friction perhaps. They show up as stress. They show up as a client say, "Hey, I made more money this year, but I don't know where it went because the government took it all." Right? My business is growing, but cash still feels tight. Well, you're spending money on expanding. you know, your business is growing, revenue is growing, but your expenses are also growing. Your margins even might be getting smaller. You know, I'm thinking of selling a property advisory opportunity. My parents are getting older. We need to figure some things out. I think that is one of the biggest opportunities out there. you know I hired a few more people this year. These are not just comments, they are advisory entry points, right? So these are kind of those red flags that you should be looking for. So I'm going to give you five signals that are sitting inside most firms right now. and I'm going to go through them, you know, and again I'm just trying to give you like practical, okay, I can relate. I see this, right? So revenue spikes. that usually means there's going to be more tax, right? the client is earning more, but if you don't change anything, you know, so let's say the client went from 150 to 275, 300, whatever. Maybe a business owner had their best year ever. Maybe a client received a large bonus stock options, right? Or had a major income event. And these are the things where again I'm I'm saying these might not be clients who would buy the monthly or quarterly advisory, but they will buy the one-off. So the old relationship is still operating. If nothing changes, that's where people overpay on their taxes. That's where estimated payments are wrong. Or more importantly, you might be giving this advice away for free in the tax appointment versus making it into an advisory opportunity. So, that's where retirement contributions aren't optimized. That's where entity structures start to matter. you know, QSPS stock if they're going to sell within 5 to 10 years, right? that's where charitable planning might matter and that's where the timing matters. So, a simple way to to say it to a client is, "Hey, you've made more, but we haven't adjusted your strategy yet." That's where people overpay. And that's not you selling anything. That's just a responsible observation. That's something that you should be doing and you probably are doing, but you might not be monetizing it yet. I'll give you another one. Payroll growth. A structural shift. The client is hiring. one employee becomes three. Are they independent contractors? Are they employees? Are they structuring this correctly? Three becomes eight, eight becomes 15, right? And at that point, the business is no longer the same business that you started working with. So payroll changes everything, right? Compensation strategies change, cash flow changes, entity structure matters more, benefits come into play, owner compensation matters, compliant risk increases, margins can get squeezed, so on and so on, right? So the conversation becomes, hey, as your team grows, your structure matters even more. There are decisions here that you can either ignore, but if you do, they could cost you money or they could save you money. And that's the classic advisory moment. So, a lot of firms miss this because they see payroll growth as an admin detail and it's not. It's just another signal. So, I'm going to keep this going. Strong revenue, tight cash. So, there's some sort of visibility gap of what's going on here, right? And this is the one one of the most common, I think, issues business owners face. They look at, hey, I'm I I'm killing it right now. I'm up 25%. Why do I feel broke? Why is it that I'm sitting there look at my, you know, my checking account when payroll is due and I'm like, what is happening? My revenue is up, my sales are up, my business is bigger, and all a sudden cash is tighter, the owner is more stressed out, right? They don't understand why the business feels harder as it grows. you know, it's like, oh my god, you know, this is what's going on. And then each growth stage takes investment, right? and it's a bigger bet on their business. U but the issue is here this is a visibility problem. This is where your accountant, your CPA, your EA should really just come in and start helping out, right? This is not necessarily a bookkeeping problem. It's not necessarily a tax problem. It's a visibility problem where hey, you know, this is where my firm can help my client understand what margins are, understand what owner draws are, understand profitability profit first mentality, right? what debt is, timing, tax reserves, payroll burden, cash flow forecasting. So, the line I want you to start thinking about is you don't have a revenue problem, you have a visibility problem. And that line that lands much more than again a revenue problem. It's like, no, let's so what I'm getting at is the client looks at their problems differently and it it just it automatically feels like a better outcome. Okay? So, you're not necessarily selling anymore. I'm going to keep going because I think these are important. entity mismatches. you know, same structure, new reality. A client may have started as a desk corp. They may started as a a schedule C. Then revenue grows, profit grows, obviously payroll changes. More importantly, liability may change. there's more risk there. so, you know, or they add other partners or other contractors and the structure is staying the same. So you have, you know, what might have worked as a $50,000 business doesn't work anymore when you're at 500,000. Okay? so what worked when they were solo, now that they have staff, you got to adjust, right? So this is where you say, "Hey, what worked before may not work now." And this is where the opportunity is. Again, you're not selling. You're identifying a gap between who the client was and who they want to become or have become, I guess, is a better way to say it. I'll go to the last one. Life and business events. This is a big one and this is the most obvious one. and then Rebecca, I'm going to actually bring you in here. We at Counting Works, one of our most successful products is still the client newsletter. And why is it so successful? Because we talk about life events, business events all the time. And we create content about that. But just give like a general overview of you know once a year meeting versus year round surfacing of opportunities that all sort apply. So that the difference between a client calling oh in July I did X and you're like March I can't do anything about that now.

Yeah. So there's a massive difference and one of the things that covering life events in a newsletter does is it keeps you top of mind right all year long for your clients. So rather than calling you in April about something that happened last July, you're likely to be on their mind. They're reading articles. They're things are happening in their head and they're like, "Oh, wait. We just did this or this just happened or my parents just experienced this. We just moved them into a retirement home." Whatever it may be, they're going to call you then. So, newsletters covering these things all year, staying top of mind, staying in the top of your client's inboxes, it's a massive difference in mindset for the clients. totally different than, you know, the tax companies that you see only start advertising in January and then they disappear after the first week of April and you don't hear from them again until the following January. That's not going to help when you're trying to do advisory work and it's certainly not going to keep you top of mind in the client's brain to the point that they are then proactively reaching out like, "Hey, we just experienced this. What can we do?" Yeah. And these are the trigger events. I think everyone understands this. Someone decides to retire, inheritance, a child going to college, a baby being born, a parent needing care. I can go on and on. a client turning 59 and a half, client turning 73, you know, client inheriting in Ira, there's all kinds of things, right? They're all tax events. They're all planning events. They're all advisory events. And I'm going to circle this all back to the boomer opportunity. This is why it matches. So, if we have 120 trillion plus transferring through 2050 or 2048, whatever it is, that's not just a wealth management issue. That is a tax planning story, right? That's a family planning story. That's where grandparents, children, grandchildren, they are all affected. There's all sorts of different things that you can do here. That is an opportunity, a relationship opportunity for firms that already serve these clients. And I believe there's a huge opportunity with revenue as well. So the line is here. this is where planning matters most. Not after the life event, it's before. Right? So that's the expansion audit. You don't need more leads. You just need pattern recognition. Here at Accounting Works, we're just we're not just talking about kind of what these triggers are that you're as a human looking for. We're actually building systems that are identifying these things and that's I think hugely powerful and makes this even easier to offer. but that's what we're seeing already. So this all is great. We've said what are the triggers? What are the opportunities? It's obvious that it's a mindset change. I need to have that second room like my dental office. But Rebecca, it doesn't matter without narrative. And you got to explain what narrative positioning, the words you use are so important. That newsletter, that communication, u those outbound talking points, why they're so important to actually successfully add advisory to your compliance site.

Yeah. So, we're going to run with this for a minute. So, there is a reason that most of these trigger opportunities never actually turn into revenue for you. They're happening. Your clients are living life. Things are happening to them every single day and you're not getting right now advisory opportunities every day. And a big part of that is because you're not communicating these opportunities in a way that's going to land with the clients. Accountants often, this is what you do every day, and we do the same thing in tech. We'll use terminology that doesn't necessarily land with people outside of our wheelhouse. But you've got to change your mindset there and start speaking in a way that lands with your client's lived experience. So rather than saying things like we offer tax planning, we have advisory services or we offer business consulting, those might be accurate terms, but they're not creating any sense of urgency or emotion or really something the clients can point to and say, "I understand that." What your clients wake up thinking are things like, "Why do I owe so much money this year? Why is my business growing, but I'm so stressed out? Am I making the right decision about selling this rental property? Should I hang on to it? These are the things that people can't answer on their own. They're the questions that you can answer, but you've got to help your clients understand that you can answer those questions. So, for example, instead of saying something like, "Hey, we do tax planning," consider something like, "If your income's gone up, but you haven't changed anything, you're probably overpaying." That's the type of sentence that a client is going to latch on to, and that's going to get you that email in your inbox, that phone call, that person walking in your door to actually discuss advisory work. Another example would be something like rather than we provide advisory which kind of falls flat. You could say if April keeps surprising you, you're making decisions too late in the year. So those are the kinds of things that get the cogs turning in people's minds and that's where conversions actually happen. So that's really the difference here is all in your positioning. And we talk a lot about it, but I hope these examples kind of help you see the difference between saying something that's true and legitimate and saying something that's actually going to land with your clients, right? I think that's good use of what the the just the words mean, right? So tax planning, for example, is abstract. you may be overpaying is immediate. That's like pain, right? If I say the word advisory, that's kind of vague. your decisions are happening too late. I mean, how how many people can appreciate that? How many of your tax clients can appreciate that? you know, if you say the word consulting, I don't need consulting. What's consulting? It sounds optional, right? but hey, you don't have visibility. That name's the problem. That is the actual thing. And and you know, I'll give a couple examples here. So, here's a before. We offer tax and advisory services for individual and businesses. That sounds fine, but Rebecca, what would be a So, just run off of that. So, that is what we see on, you know, every cookie cutter website I've ever analyzed. We offer tax and accounting services for individuals, right? You know, and it sounds fine and everyone's saying it, so we must say it. It must be working. But the reality is, you know, what how would you position that differently in an advisory tone? It's not differentiating you, right? There's nothing wrong with it, and it is what you do. It's not like you're lying or saying something untrue, but you're not saying it in a way that's going to really land with the right kinds of clients. So consider something like if you're only thinking about your taxes in March, you're already behind. We're going to help clients make decisions earlier so they're not reacting after the fact or reacting too late. You've got to create a story. And I hope you can see the difference between just saying we provide tax and accounting services and saying hey if you don't start thinking about this until March, you're way behind. That's a story. That's someone putting themselves in the shoes of that person that you're talking to and saying, "Oh, wow. I do that every year. Maybe I need to make a change." It's creating a scenario that is realistic and it's creating a scenario that people can actually see themselves in. And I there's also a shift between saying we offer tax and accounting services and saying if you're only thinking about taxes. Talking to the client is significantly different than talking about yourself. And that's something that I talk about a lot with our clients is that you need to position yourself as basically you're going to solve their problems rather than talking about what you can do because no one really cares what you can do. They care how you're going to help them in the long run. And it's the same thing, but it's all in how you say it. No, it it reminds me that the whole you Joanna Webe, one of my favorite copywriters, I took some of her training and that was one of the first sessions we talked about. because narrative that connects what you do as a CPA to what they feel, that is going to be the key, right? If the client can't feel the problem personally, they won't value the solution that you're offering. And this is where I think most firms miss the opportunity. They they think of the client as a, you know, needs a service menu, right? And but the reality is the client needs a mirror. They need to see themselves in the message. They need to recognize, hey, that's me. So that's me either at a pain point where I'm spinning my wheels, my, you know, my my books are piled up, my desk is full of all kinds of stuff, or more importantly, you know, they're on the beach because this is the outcome because they did better planning, right? they want to recognize that's me. I have a problem. I do wait too long. I am surprised every year. My business is growing, but I don't feel I'm in control. And that's when advisory stops sounding like an upsell, which I think everyone feels uncomfortable doing, and starts sounding like help. And Rebecca, kind of how does that work? Let's do a simple narrative exercise if you could, just to kind of walk people through so there's a real takeaway that they could they put into their own practice.

Absolutely. So, identify a problem. That's the first step here. And then you're going to want to think about what the client feels when they have that problem. Turn that into a trigger event and then attach an outcome to it that you can provide. So, it's basically like sentence mapping. You're going to have kind of like a little Mad Lib here. Problem, what the client feels, trigger event, better outcome. So, instead of saying something like, "We do entity planning," which frankly doesn't mean anything to most people, you're going to say something like, "When your business grows but your entity structure stays the same, the structure that helped you get started can cost you money." That's something that people get. So, you've got when your business grows, that's the situation. your entity structure stays the same. That's how they're feeling it. Everything is status quo. It's stagnant. Then the trigger is the structure that helped you get started. And then your solution is that it's costing them money and you're going to help them solve that. You're going to save them money by revamping that entity structure into something that makes sense for them now. So just kind of use that formula, right? And that's going to help you to create nearly any form of messaging you would need for any kind of service. You can kind of use this model. Yeah. I'll do one more example and then we'll move on because I think we've kind of told it. So instead of offering retirement tax planning, you say, "Hey, the years before and after retirement was some of the most most important tax planning years of your life." Okay? You know, you following it the same kind of method here and it really helps. So narrative connects what you do to what you feel. So now let's go into the conversation. Let's go into the room. Right? So that's that's the real barrier here. So you see the opportunity. Perhaps you're using a tool like Counting Works that surfaces the opportunity in your daily brief and it says, "Hey Lee, you have six opportunities that we've identified. Do you want to review them?" But the issue is okay, you you you see the opportunity, but you don't say anything. you don't want to feel like you're selling, right? And I think that that is where tax professionals, accountants get stuck. Not all of you. We know some of you it will be pushy and and sell all day long, but a lot of you it's like that's not my nature, right? I don't want to sound pushy. they don't want the client the client to feel like they're being pitched or you know there's clickbait here. They want it they don't want it to be an awkward moment. But here's the reframe. And again, the whole goal here is you're providing real value here. there is a better financial outcome. We would all agree, I hope, that if you charge a client five grand for advice that saves them 50, that's a pretty good financial outcome. I don't think you should feel weird about offering that opportunity. You're protecting them. Okay? And if you see the risk and you don't say anything, I don't think that's restraint. I think that's avoidance. And I'm going to go back to my dentist. And, you know, if my dentist sees something that could become a problem, you expect them to bring it up, right? Hey, that gum on tooth 20 or whatever they're talking about is a three and you know it's getting borderline. We may need to look at that, right? You know, if a if a doctor sees a pattern in your labs, you accept you expect them to bring something up. If if a a financial adviser, for example, sees concentration risk, you expect them to bring it up. So, you know, why is it different when an accountant sees a tax risk, a planning opportunity, for example, a structure issue or a timing problem? Why would you not bring it up to them? Because that's not selling. That's your job. Okay. So, the bridge conversation might sound something like this. So, I was reviewing your numbers and notice your situation has changed. or something like this. Last year, you paid $15,000. If nothing changes, that could increase to 30. So, at this point, you're not just doing tax prep, you're doing strategy, right? This is the strategy actually matters. So, let's look at moving into a more proactive approach. So, let's do this. you know something that's simple that's professional that isn't high pressure no one likes the high pressure side and e even more important and Rebecca I'll even bring this into you it it becomes almost if done correctly it becomes a natural extension of the work and you know kind of how would you play that out and the objection a lot of firms worry about so kind of go into the little detail if you could right so if you're fearful of people thinking or saying something like well why weren't you offering me this before that's a good question by the It is a good question. that's where you need to reframe things a little bit, right? You need to become a little bit of a spin master. Not not in a bad way or a negative way, but say something to the effect of, you know, your situation has changed, so now this opportunity is more meaningful or before this year this change might not have had the same impact or, you know, now this matters, so our job is to help you act on it proactively. that reframes you as not only providing them with with new value, but with the fact that you are proactively looking at their finances and you're going to be there for them when things shift, even if they haven't realized it shifted. That provides peace of mind. that kind of thing makes clients feel cared for. It makes them feel like you're on top of things. It makes them feel like their situation really matters to you and that you're going to be there for them to help them through these changes and these shifts that maybe they didn't even realize they needed advisory services for. But now that you're saying it and showing them how that outcome can improve, they're going to be all in. Right? So again, it's all in how you phrase things. narrative matters even in these cases. How you frame the service is really critical to helping people understand why you're offering it now and how it's going to help them not only now but down the road. So you're not saying, "Hey, I forgot to tell you. Hey, I forgot to mention this two years ago." You're saying, "Hey, your situation has changed and now the strategy matters more than ever." You could say the big, you know, the beautiful bill act created new opportunities. Okay? And this is where again you're not trying to upsell. This is all about timing. You know, it's when you see this opportunity. you mentioned it, the whole energy changes. And I'll go back to my dental appointment. New dentist opportunity. Let's kind of audit where the patient is, where I think they are, and what my recommendations are. They don't have to necessarily take it right now, but over time, you know, probably break me down. Break me down. Okay, I should do this. Right? So you're not trying to convince something or someone to buy something they don't need. That's the main point. So you should be very confident. You know, you're helping them understand that the relationship needs to evolve because their life, income, business or assets have evolved. And that's kind of the bridge. So we're going to go into we're already to section five. I know this is a long one. I think this is really important and I believe this is transformational for firms. And now we're going to talk about packaging. and I think most firms have two gears and you see it tax prep or full advisory. but that's too big of a leap for a lot of people and kind of what we're hinting about is, you know, think about it. A lot of firms, if a client goes from $1,500 tax return to 10 or $15,000 advisory relationship, that's not a ladder. That's like a cliff, man. That's a huge ask. And most clients just won't make that jump. Okay? They'll be afraid. That's like, whoa. They're going to look over the edge and they're going to go, "No, I'm not going to do this." And not because they don't need help and not because they don't trust you. It's just it feels too big of an ask right now. It's too vague. I can't feel the financial outcome or the the ROI on that investment. In some respects, it might be even a little too sudden. So, I'm going to tell you what high performance firms need. And they need a middle layer. Something structured, approachable, clear, easy to understand, a step into proactive work that is not a complete overhaul. So that middle layer and I mentioned that earlier it could be going to quarterly or perhaps a tax roadmap package that is an annual package. you know and I'll give you common ideas right so let's say you do the tax roadmap package that include four quarterly meetings estimated tax planning income timing entity check-ins retirement contribution review you know cash flow visibility I'm just giving things right email access basic forecasting perhaps a year-end planning session so you might price that 2 to 5,000 per year dependent on the client complexity and I know accountants like some ROI so let's make the math real Let's say you move 25 clients into a $3,000 annual strategy relationship. That's 75,000. Let's make let's say if you had 50 clients to move, there's 150. 100 clients, that's 300,000. Same client database, same client relationships, just different positioning, different narrative, different value. And I think the beauty here is this does not require every client to become a full advisory client. So think about it. Compliance, your maintenance, that's your dental, you know, every 6 months there's my teeth cleaning. And then when you see opportunities, then there's the side room, right? So let's not make the mistake some clients they just need a one-time tax planning project, right? Some need quarterly check-ins, some don't. Some need ongoing advisories, some need a tax roadmap, some just need an entity review, some need a retirement transition plan. What I'm trying to get is each client is different. and that also makes your opportunities different. So, I'm going to give you kind of an example of a ladder. So, level one is your compliance level. Okay? That's your base. And perhaps that is where all your opportunities come from, right? That's where you surface your opportunities. So, level two then would be that one-time advisory. So, that could be a focus planning project. Maybe we talk about when someone has children, tax planning, education, savings, fiduciary accounts, whatever. That is an an advisory opportunity, but it might be just a one time. But think about it. Over the course of the life of this client, you might have five or six of these different opportunities. So, they may be a level one client who's generating level two opportunities. And again, you just need 10 20% of your clients doing that every year. That is significant growth. Then you'll have your level three, which is your quarterly strategy, proactive planning throughout the year. And then you'll have what I'll call the deep CFO like advisory. So that's the ongoing advisory. That's the $2,000 plus a month. So that's deeper recurring relationships. But now that's how you step clients up. So you don't jump them. You don't push them over the gap that that huge. You step them. Okay. Okay. I get more used to it. And a level two may become a level three. a level three may become a level four. so advisory is not just one product, it's a progression. Okay? And this is where I'm going to go back because I I tied this in just from yesterday's dental meeting to this podcast. comes back. They don't say, "Hey, you came in for a cleaning. Now, here's your 20,000 treatment plan, right? Take it or leave it." No, they introduce options. They show the path. They make the next staff visible. They're like, "Hey, we know you may not want to do this. just sign this that you we reviewed this. We're going to save it. So, if you are ready in the future to circle back to this, perhaps you have a higher income year and you're like, "Okay, I'll spend $5,000 on this procedure, right?" accounting firms need to do the same thing. Build that second room. Build this service ladder. Show your clients what's possible. So, Rebecca, this is where nurturing, we're not a narrative, but now we're into nurturing. That's where most firms break down. They assume if the client needs something, they'll reach out. But rarely does that happen. Most clients don't know what they're missing. You don't know what you don't know. they don't know what their decisions matter, how they matter until worst problem is they made it in again July and then you see them in March and you're like, "Oh, I wish you had called me." they don't know that timing matters. They don't know when a tax planning strategy may have worked or is forming or is opportunity for them. they don't know when a life event has planning consequences. and more importantly, I think a lot of firms unintentionally train the wrong behavior. You know, they if you're a one time a year firm, you disappear for 11 and you show up in March asking for documents, you know, what does that client associate you with? Everything bad about the business, right? It's deadlines. Oh my god, I hate tax time. It's stress. It's surprises. It's, you know, it's uncertain. Oh my god, I owe this much money. where am I going to get this money from? Right? It's forms, it's penalties, it's interest, there's no strategy, there's no clarity, there's no better outcomes. it feels just like my money is being siphoned from me, right? So, if the only time clients hear from you is when you owe they owe money, for example, you've trained the relationship incorrectly. So, we're going to want you to flip the bottle. and Rebecca, if you can kind of show what this looks like from a a nurture standpoint, kind of go month by month and kind of some ideas of what people should think about when they start this nurture approach.

Absolutely. So, this kind of goes back to what we were talking about with the newsletter to a certain extent that really in reality is a monthly nurture where you're saying, "Hey, here's some valuable information. Maybe this will trigger something in you. Here's something helpful that you can apply to your life." Same principle kind of applies here. You're going to want to really create content, whether it's email campaigns or social media posts or reals or whatever it is that works for your firm. And you're going to want to nurture your clients throughout the year. So, a six-month approach could look something like in month one, maybe you're sending an email a month. if your income increased this year, here's where people typically overpay. Maybe that links to a blog post. Maybe it's just an email that kind of gives some examples, something that may trigger something in their minds. Oh, wait. Maybe I should reach out. And always include a call to action. Does this sound like you? Book a meeting here. Are you experiencing this? Schedule a free appointment. you know, whatever the case may be for you. Month two, maybe something like, "Here's what happens when your entity structure starts working against you." That's the type of thing a business owner is going to click on because they might be like, "Oh, wow. What if I have the wrong entity structure and I don't even know it? Month three, why profitable businesses still feel cashstrapped? 10 examples. Something like that. You want these to be clickable. You want them to be relatable. You want them to be things that your clients are currently dealing with. Month four could be something like this is the tax planning window most people miss before the end of the year. Boom. Super clickable. something people really want to understand and something they're very likely to contact you about so that they too can experience the benefits of planning before year end. Month five could be something like what you should think about before you sell real estate. Again, very relatable, something many people deal with. A lot of your clients are probably having these thoughts. And month six could be something to the effect of here's the retirement transition decisions that can create tax surprises. Anyone near retirement age is going to be likely to click on that have interest in it. So in this case you're no longer selling you're educating and you're providing value. And that is where the shift happens. Advisory work does not have to feel like an upsell campaign. What you want is your clients to think wow they see these things before I do. They know what I need before I know that I need them. And that's where an advisory relationship turns into a a relationship that they feel like they can't live without. They feel like you are helping them have better outcomes in their finances, better outcomes in their life. And that's where Lee, that referral pipeline that you talked about earlier is going to start to grow as well naturally as you provide these valuable outcomes for your clients. And you've done it all without making anyone feel like you're a salesperson because it's all happened naturally. It's all happened organically and it's all happened through you providing genuinely valuable information and content. You're diagnosing. I'm going I keep going back to my dentist. U but more importantly, you're making the invisible visible. And I think over time the client begins to think, hey, they see things before I do. They help me avoid surprises. They're not just preparing my return. they're helping me make better decisions and this is what that expansion infrastructure looks like even just with changing kind of the expectations and being more proactive right and I hear it all the time I don't need marketing well okay we'll call this not marketing it is right it's just not marketing it's how to build demand before the moment of needs and trust isn't built once it's built repeatedly right and when you nurture your clients you're reminding your clients what you can do with them without ever having an interaction feel like a sales pitch, right? You're just reinforcing the value of of the advisory services. Okay? so you don't need every email to sell a package. You know, sometime the job is just surface it, right? You know, make the client notice this is the opportunity and once they recognize the problem, they're far more likely to try to solve it. So you know this goes back to what we've been talking about customer loyalty you know retention is powerful because the economics are obvious right so when a relationship actually gets deeper the client is more likely to buy again stay longer pay more trust the provider with higher value work and of course natural extension means more referrals. So my last section here is about systems and execution. Okay. So, a lot of what we talked about it can fall apart without processes, systems I call them. So, if advisory depends on you remembering, oh, I should follow up with that client there. You have 20 post-it notes in your room. You know, I think they had a big income jump. I wonder if they had any you know, changed any entities or did they hire a bunch of people? I should probably reach out before you're in. And this will break, right? This is not You don't have a room for this. you don't have a process to guide people to the room and advisory fails if it depends on your memory. So what replaces memory? So there's a lot of ways if you have a CRM, you could use triggers. If you have a tool like ours that surfaces signals, right? You could have workflows that kind of maybe your process when you're in a compliance meeting naturally ask these questions. You can start segmenting your client base. We find it almost daily. one database, no segments. I never get it. I'm like, at least put your individual clients and your business clients and nonprofits in their own silos. But no, most accountants don't. They just throw it all in one and every message is the same for the entire group. Segmentation, spend a day, do it manually. I don't know, you could do it with AI now, you know, and and we're doing that's what I said when we have tools that will go into our clients database and actually add the segmentation on top of their database. And now we can say, okay, who are all the clients that are in the 55 to 65 range that are nearing retirement, right? And now we can have a campaign or messaging that goes to them. If you can include the client data, so you're now your your your portal is scraping the client data from uploads. So you now have this as context that your tech stack can now use. that makes a big difference, right? So inside a firm these signals are happening every day. So clients income for example jumps from 150 to 300. If you're just a complianceonly mindset and you only you may see oh in March your income went up you should have surfaced that because you were seeing other signals inside your portal inside your database right. so a schedule C business becomes an escort candidate. I can go on and on. Payroll jumps from 2 to 10. These are signals, right? A client turns 59 and a half and now can access retirement funds. You know, what do I do? We kind of went through this before. A client inherits assets. the client cross the threshold. This is what you want your tech stack to do. The client belongs in an entity review campaign. This client should receive a retirement transition conversation. This client needs a cash flow visibility check-in. This is where you can become proactive. This is where AI and technology is going and is really valuable. So, I'm not saying AI is replacing you. I'm saying your system can surface more opportunities that you or your staff were never able to do before. That makes you more proactive. And that doesn't mean you're working 20 more hours. You're actually working less. All you're doing is the these opportunities are being surfaced. You then review them. Oh, yeah. This makes sense. No, that doesn't make sense. If you have a system like ours, oh, I'm gonna now send a proposal out there, right? And what's happening is your firm is actually seeing more so scaling advisory becomes much easier, not harder work. Okay? So, you know, if you're using this, if you have a system, you're seeing more visibility replaces guesswork, right? again, this is where AI and automation become incredibly important, not to replace you, but to surface these opportunities. So your professional insight that still brings the judgment, right? You still bring the trust. You're the one that then is executing on this opportunity or communicating what the options are. But the system makes sure that nothing gets missed. And that's the difference between a firm that talks about advisory and a firm that operates is an operationally doing it. Okay? You're actually delivering it. I kind of lied. We did have one last section. And Rebecca, I want you to take this over. It's we're talking about pricing because now we've put in where are the opportunities. We've given you the language. We've given you the narrative. We've given you the nurture campaign. We're now talked about systems and how to surface this. But how do you price it?

Yeah. So again, like I've been saying, I feel like I'm beating a dead horse a little, but this all comes down to how you say it, just like with everything else. So the if you know the client needs help, you know your work is valuable, you know your relationship with them should shift and evolve, but then you're uncomfortable with the number. clients don't resist price though really. They resist confusion. They resist uncertainty. They resist all of these different issues. So if a client hears you'll pay $3,000 for advisory, they don't understand what it does, what it prevents, what it changes, or why they're paying it. And that's when they hesitate. So again, if you reframe your pricing as a narrative, as something they can understand, you're not going to get that same level of push back. For instance, try something like, "Last year you paid $18,000 in taxes. Based on what's happening, if we don't change anything, that could be $25,000 this year. Here's how we intervene before that happens." Now that's completely shifted the conversation because all of a sudden they are hearing real numbers that impact their real life and how you can prevent that from happening. Right? So perhaps also say something like you're hiring, your revenue is growing, your structure hasn't changed before that cost you extra money. Let's look at your entity structure and make sure it still fits. If you frame things as situations they can understand, the money becomes secondary. The value you're providing and the positive outcome you're providing, that becomes the primary driver. And that's where you start to see very little push back. So, if the value is clear, the client isn't going to compare. They're going to commit to you. They're going to commit to working with you, and they're going to understand that the fee connects to the outcome, and they're not paying money for no reason. They're paying money for an improved outcome that will ultimately improve their life or their business. Yeah. And I'm gonna say this is exactly the problem because clients lose money every single year from poor timing, misductions, bad entity decisions, lack of planning. You know, it's not unusual for these to be cost them 10 grand, 20, 50, 100. I mean, and you know, but you say, hey, those same clients may hesitate to spend two, three, 5,000 to prevent the problem. And that's not a pricing problem. That is what I call a clarity problem. So the firm's job is to make the value visible. And this is where you can say, "Hey, the engagement is designed to help you make decisions earlier, avoid surprises, and understand the tax impact before the year is already over, right? Because you can't go back in time. U this is not about adding, you know, meetings. It's about helping you avoid expensive blind spots, taking that risk out of decisions, right? And, you know, or even something like this. This is the difference between reacting in March and making decisions while you still have options. And that's how pricing becomes easier because you're not necessarily charging for your time. That's really important specifically with AI just bringing the entire model down, right? It means better visibility, better decisions, better outcome. And when the client understands that, I think the fee feels a lot different. So, I'm going to start wrapping this up. Let's bring it back to the math again. this is where it gets real for firms. So, you upgrade 25 clients, 3,000 annual strategy relationship. That's 75,000. Think about 50 clients, 150,000. Upgrade 100 clients, 300,000. Same client base. Different conversations, different packaging, different positioning. now compare that to acquisition. So, you're trying to chase and find new clients. To generate 150,000 in new revenue through tax prep alone, if your average client is 1,500, you're adding a 100 new clients. So, what comes with 100 new clients? Rebecca, this is important, right? More onboarding, more check-ins, more admin. You got to get to know them. More organizers, more follow-up, more returns, more extensions, more email. I think you're getting the picture, right? you know, even more seasonal compression. All my revenue exists. So, you know, or you could just deepen these 50 existing relationships. And that is why revenue per client matters so much. That is the whole concept we've talked about today. That is the topic I wanted to resonate with you. So the goal is not maximum clients, it's maximum relationship value because growth without operation and control I think becomes a punishment on your time your psyche really you know your life it's a lot. so a lot of firms say they want to grow but what they really mean is they want more revenue more control better clients better margins more importantly less chaos. So and this doesn't happen from just adding you know indiscriminately adding new clients, new volume. you know that comes from improving your business model and that's what we talked about today. So let's serve fewer lowv value clients. Let's expand more highlevel trust relationships. Let's package our advisory clearly. Use language and narrative they understand. Let's use systems to services opportunities. I think that's the biggest tech stack thing you need to think about. I want you to communicate the value before the moment of need. That's what we do here at CounterWorks Pro. We already have playbooks that automatically do that for our clients. That is really working. Okay? That's how you increase revenue without simply increasing your workload. this is where also your client experience improves because you have fewer, better, deeper relationships. You can be more proactive. I think you serve better. You communicate better. And more importantly, these create better financial outcomes. I think that's really important and that's the real opportunity. So, this is the reality here. You know, it's 2026. We got the AI disruption. what is the risk here? And you know what if a client doesn't upgrade? Well, that's not really the risk. The risk is building a firm that depends on low value compliance, high volume work forever, right? You're that hamster on the wheel. that that model requires more clients, more hours, more staff, more stress and more seasonal compression. That model is under pressure today both from automation, new software, from AI, from DIY, from pricing compress compression. You know, clients expect faster responses. you know, and think about it, younger firm owners building more modern service models. If you're older and you're still kind of stuck in the old way of doing things, they're going to run circles around you, right? And even all the big firms, they're they're investing billions of dollars in this technology. You know, you really need to understand this. And there's going to be new competitors coming out. You know, you're seeing it now even in I I see a tool that's sold through accountants. They're they're advertising. Hey, your CPA doesn't respond, you know, use instead to get a a tax strategy right now. And that's kind of an interesting thing there. It's like, whoa, wait a second. I can use those same tools. I don't need someone to be offloaded to some nameless text tool, right? I they clients, trust me, real judgment here. so the risk isn't that clients don't need advisory. The risk is that someone else will provide it first. They're seeing all this messaging. They're going to chat GBT asking questions. You don't want them to get bad advice and make a decision based on it. Okay. So, what's important? The strategic relationship needs to be sticky and stickier than the compliance relationship. And that's what happens. So if you have this advisory strategic type of messaging, you're going to have much more loyalty, less churn, right? More referrals. So the firm that helps the client make decisions becomes harder to replace than the firm that only I just file a return. So it's a commodity to them versus a real kind of a service business. And that's the difference. So if you stay reactive, you're easier to compare. If you stay compliance only, you're more importantly, you're easier to replace. So, if your value only shows up once a year, you're easier to forget. so the risk here isn't just losing cheap clients. The risk is building a firm around them, right? And then you're stuck in a model that requires volume to survive. So, I hope I have opened your eyes here. you know, the the risk is not the opportunity. is not that opportunity isn't there. The risk is not seeing it and not jumping on it. Okay? And that's where firms that win, they're not necessarily chasing growth. They unlock it from their existing client base. So, this was a long one, Rebecca. I know it was a longwinded. I think this is one of the most important podcasts we've done in the last year or so. I really hope firms, there's multiple takeaways here. I know this is a lot. We tried to give you like real life examples. but even if you take just 10% of what we talked about, you're going to see a definite difference in the way you run your business. So remember, stop chasing new clients before you unlock the ones you already have, right? You've already earned their trust. You already have that relationship. Perhaps you should improve that relationship. I believe that's going to be your moat in the AI age. You already have their data. You already have these signals, these triggers, right? now you need the system, the positioning, that narrative, the conversations to activate it. So, Rebecca, why don't you close us up kind of what you know what you think the the opportunity is and and how to get it from your firm.

So, I think you've got to stop chasing new clients before you've unlocked the ones you already have. You've earned their trust. You've earned the relationship. You have the data. Like you were saying, Lee, the opportunity is inside of your firm. It's inside of the client who had a big income year. It's inside the business owner who's growing, but they're stressed and they don't know how to deal with the changes. It's inside the retiree who needs help understanding how they're going to make it through their retirement years and have income. It's inside the client who has no idea what they should even be asking you, but you can tell them where their opportunities lie. So really, once you build these systems, firms that don't chase growth are the ones who are going to win. They're unlocking growth with what's already sitting right in front of them. And I'll wrap this up because we're going to circle back the arc of our story. my dentist thing. The firms that win over the next decade won't be locked in maintenance and cleaning, right? Hygiene. They're going to build that second room. They're going to create the space and the processes where clients can see what's possible. They're going to move beyond the maintenance, the lower commodity like and they're going to look into optimization, right? Because compliance keeps the relationship current, but advisory expands the, you know, really what the relationship is worth. So once you see that, you can't unsee it. I think so. The the firms that win don't necessarily chase growth. So, that is a wrap of this edition of the Growth Minded accountant podcast. I'm hoping we our messaging resonates with you. obviously, there's a lot here and we'll continue to break down subjects like this in the near future. Again, being a thank you for being a listener. please subscribe to the Growth Minded Accountant podcast if you're watching this on YouTube. We appreciate it. but go ahead and have a wonderful post tax season break. I hope you're enjoying it and we'll talk to you guys next week.

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