Robert Naugler was ready to throw in the towel and leave public accounting. But he decided to give it one more try and reached out to Sterling in Glendale, CA.

"As far back as junior high school, I knew I would work in the accounting field. I thought accounting was fun and exciting and I wanted to help people. But after 12 exhausting years running my own CPA practice, I was ready to close my doors and exit the profession.

Ruth Pierce, CPA, had been in practice for over 20 years when she found out about Sterling in Glendale, CA. At the time, she was overloaded in an overstaffed practice.

"I was a partner at a regional accounting firm, where I had worked for 22 years. I was tired of the long hours and increasingly nasty office politics. As more partners came up through the ranks, followed by junior partners, the climate of the company changed.

My father had been a pharmacist who was tied to his store from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. He had nine children and wanted us to become doctors, but that was not my game. Instead, I became a CPA. I was working hard to make partner at a regional CPA practice when the firm hit hard times. They lost a major client, pulled in a partner to do my job and let me go. I liked public accounting so I opened my own practice in 1986.

CPA Mark Granger connected up with Sterling in Glendale, CA when he found himself doing his staff's jobs for them.

"Dissatisfied with the CPA practice in which I was a partner, I decided to open a practice of my own. I struck a deal with the firm and, for a fee, was able to leave with my own client book. In January 2000, I opened my own accounting practice. My wife, also a CPA, came on board six months later.