The off-season is when this CPA does her best work

Many accounting firm owners look forward to the slower months after tax season, but that time can disappear quickly. How do you prioritize what to work on during the off-season to make the biggest impact on your firm?

The off-season is actually one of my favorite times of the year because it's when I have the most time for innovation. I use that time to develop new products and services, explore new ideas and work on projects that I simply don't have the capacity for during tax season.

For example, I created my “I'm Self-Employed... Now What?” course during the off-season. I also wrote almost my entire book, “No More 24/7: Entrepreneurs, Take Your Life Back”, during the off-season. In fact, I originally started writing a book because I suddenly had so much available time after tax season!

I also use that time to evaluate what worked and what didn't during the previous busy season. I want to make sure we're improving our processes while also making room for new opportunities.

What are some of the most valuable process improvements you've made during the off-season?

One of the biggest things for us has been standardizing how we communicate with clients and collect information. We're a paperless firm, and having clients use our portal rather than sending documents through email has made a big difference.

We've also focused heavily on documenting procedures, creating consistent workflows and making sure tasks don't depend on one person knowing what needs to happen next.

I'm also constantly looking for ways technology and automation can help us. I don't believe technology should replace professional judgment, but I absolutely believe we should be using it to eliminate repetitive administrative work wherever possible.

The off-season is also an opportunity to evaluate pricing and profitability. How do you approach reviewing your firm's pricing, and what factors help you decide when it's time to make changes?

I look at pricing throughout the year, but the off-season gives me an opportunity to really evaluate it. I review the time we're spending on clients, the complexity of their work, how much communication and follow-up is required and whether the engagement is still profitable.

Scope creep is a big one. A client may have started with relatively simple needs, but over time their business grows, or their accounting becomes more complicated. If our pricing doesn't change along with that, we're essentially absorbing the additional work.

I've learned that pricing needs to reflect the actual work involved, not just what we originally quoted. I also don't believe in keeping an unprofitable engagement simply because we've had the client for years.

You're currently on maternity leave after welcoming your second child. How did you prepare your team and systems to keep the firm running in your absence?

I've always believed that a business needs to be prepared for absences, whether they're planned or unexpected. You never know when someone might need to step away, and the business shouldn't come to a halt because of it.

That's why documenting our processes and systems has always been a high priority at our firm. We want responsibilities to be easily picked up by other team members without having to figure everything out from scratch.

Preparing for maternity leave was really an extension of what we've already been doing. We made sure responsibilities were clear, deadlines were accounted for and the team had what they needed to continue serving clients.

Has taking maternity leave revealed any unexpected strengths or gaps in your firm's operations? What have you learned about building a business that doesn't depend on the owner being involved in every decision?

One thing that makes my situation a little different is that running my CPA firm is only one of the many things I do. I also write and record music, teach undergraduate accounting, speak at events, develop and present courses and trainings, and I'm working toward my Ph.D.

When I prepared for maternity leave, I didn't want the firm's operations to suffer. Instead, I made the decision to scale back in other areas of my life. I'm still writing music when inspiration strikes, but I'm not actively spending time in the studio recording. I also decided to take most of the year off from my Ph.D. program.

The firm was able to continue operating because we already had systems and a team in place to support it. That has reinforced something I've believed for years and wrote about in “No More 24/7”: owning a business shouldn't mean that your entire life revolves around it.

For me, building a sustainable business isn't just about being able to take a vacation or maternity leave. It's about having the freedom to pursue other interests, spend time with family and enjoy life outside of work. That's ultimately what I want entrepreneurship to provide.

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