CPA Success Stories

Paul Crabtree, CPA

Paul Crabtree did not want to end up working 12-hour days for the next ten years. This is what drove him to seek management help, ultimately ending up at Sterling in Glendale, CA.

"Two years out of school, I went to work as a CPA in my father’s accounting firm. Eighteen years later, I became sole owner and practitioner while my father went on the payroll as a part-time CPA who worked tax seasons only.

Rick Beam, CPA

Rick Beam, CPA, needed to know how to successfully run his practice in order to get his own practice going in the right direction. Sterling in Glendale, CA gave him that direction.

"My partner and I opened our own CPA practice in 2003. We had both been working at a larger "old school" firm which had fallen behind on technology and education. Convinced we could do better, we decided to strike out on our own.

Rochelle Chandler, CPA

I started my CPA practice in 1995 with a home office and a Yellow Pages ad. Business was slow the first two years and then doubled over the next four years. However, after moving into an office space and hiring too many staff who did too little, my expenses outpaced my revenues.

During tax season, I would come home, make dinner, put the kids to bed, and go back to work till 2 am. The next day, I would get up at 6 a.m. to do it all over again.

Carlos Tanner, CPA

In 2002, I made partner at the CPA firm where I had been working. By 2003, I was burned out. The practice was disorganized and inefficient. All instructions between the staff were verbal which caused mistakes and added to the confusion. Additionally, everything had to be reviewed by my partner which slowed our turnaround time. Although we did quality work, we acquired fewer clients as time went on. Working 80 hours per week, the stress was enormous. I had a baby at home whom I never saw and a very unhappy wife.

Dwain Smith, CPA

When my partner in our CPA practice passed away in 1999, I was forced to take the reins of the firm. He was 25 years older than I and had always managed the practice. I had been the firm’s top producer and was now its chief executive, too, like it or not. I was completely unprepared for the role.

Rob Foncannon, CPA

I had been running my own CPA firm for three years and was experiencing levels of stress I had never before imagined. Prior to this, I had been working as a CFO in the corporate world but was tired of working for others; I wanted to run my own business. In 2005, I bought an existing CPA practice and for the first time in my life, I was in business for myself. At first, I was elated that I had made this dream come true. That feeling quickly dissipated when the reality of running a practice hit me squarely in the face.

Jennifer Walkup, CPA

When my brother, my sister and myself—all of us CPAs—bought out my father from our CPA firm, he joked that it took three people to replace him. My father had started the practice from scratch in 1979 with me as his first employee. I answered the phones, scheduled appointments and handled the daily routines in the practice. Several years later, I decided to become a CPA.

Donald Franty, CPA

I started my CPA firm in 1996. After eight years, I felt I had to either do something or close the doors because the practice was killing me. During tax season, I would work until 3 a.m. and be back in the office by 9 a.m. the next morning—seven days a week. I was putting out fires all the time. My wife was afraid I would work myself into an early grave.

Gerald G. Kepner, CPA

I’ve had a full-service accounting firm in Dallas since 1987, but I got to being a practice owner in a roundabout way. First I sold computer hardware and services for IBM’s Service Bureau Corporation. Then I joined a regional CPA firm, Alford Meroney & Company, where I rose to partner in charge of their Management Consulting Practice. In 1980, when Alford Meroney merged into Arthur Young, I became an Arthur Young Management Consulting Partner, a position I held until 1985 when I left to raise venture capital to acquire a company that had a new technology for building bank buildings.

Henry Varga, CPA

Back in the 1990s, my CPA practice had taken over my life. Although there were just three of us, the practice was running me instead of me running the practice.