the essential data needed for a sound merger evaluation process.
by marc rosenberg, cpa
start with…
1. financial statements for the last three years and the most current financial statements for current year.
then add: read more →
learning how to to ask all the right questions.
accounting firms combine for a reason, or not at all. in fact, firms may need many reasons to merge. making sure the merger discussions end in a successful deal requires hard work, some compromise and not a small amount of luck. according to marc rosenberg in how to negotiate a cpa firm merger, it shouldn’t start with “love at first sight.” but it must start with at least 13 ingredients necessary for success. read more →
what’s the first sign a deal won’t work? you can’t agree on the name of the new firm.
marc rosenberg, author of how to negotiate a cpa firm merger, sees negotiations unravel for too many reason. some of the reasons are serious, others just seem ridiculous. for example, rosenberg recalls one deal failed when one side insisted on “requiring a positive attitude toward employees.” in most cases, one firm wants something, the other firm doesn’t, and the two can’t agree on how to resolve the conflict. sounds simple. it isn’t. here are 15 ways to make something that should be simple into something way too complicated. read more →
the 15 good signs and 17 warning flags to look for.
for some reason, cpa firms seem to find it much more daunting to evaluate a merger involving their own firm than that of a client’s. but the same methods and procedures you’d use to advise a client can be put to use in considering your firm’s next merger or acquisition. here, marc rosenberg, in how to negotiate a cpa firm merger, lays out the pluses and minuses to look for in a deal… 15 pluses and 17 minuses, to be exact. read more →
four checklists for thinking through the process, picking the right candidate and making it work.
by august aquila
creating the effective partnership
it seems that you can’t pick up a newspaper today without reading about a merger of national, regional or local firms.
if you are a partner in a cpa firm that is contemplating a merger, you are about to enter into an extremely risky venture. this article will help you to lessen your risk and give you a better chance of having a successful merger. read more →
and the difference between smaller firms and larger firms.
by marc rosenberg
author of how to bring in new partners
maybe you’ve noticed this too: many midsize and larger firms retire partners at one times annual fees or less, while smaller firms are often sold for well over that.
how can you reconcile those two very different valuations? the answer, of course, is in the math.
here are the nine essential calculations… read more →
by ed mendlowitz
“tax season opportunity guide“
question: what do you ask for when considering a merger?
response: this is a “you show me yours and i’ll show you mine.” you should have this
information fairly well organized.
also, look at it critically and try to imagine what a prospective partner would say, and how you would react if this were someone else’s information that were being presented to you.
here’s a 23-item list: read more →
the eight most important facts in settling on a multiple.
with the merger-and-acquisitions frenzy showing no signs of slowing down, practice owners seem to be checking almost daily: what’s my practice worth?
“one thing is for sure,” says gary adamson, former ceo of brady ware, a top 200 firm, now providing advisory services for firms across the country, “baby boomers are selling at a rate that the profession has never seen before.”
it’s still a sellers’ market, he says. but that could change soon, he says, citing “the demographics and the thousands of practices that will soon come onto the market.”
in this report, adamson addresses:
a seven-step process to confront the questions raised by lease renewals.
question: i signed up with a broker who introduces buyers and sellers of cpa practices, to find someone who would buy my practice when i want to retire. i don’t want to retire yet, but am starting to think about it. the broker suggested a merger now combined with a buyout deal when i am ready to retire. am i going about this in the right way? read more →
by ed mendlowitz
author of “implementing fee increases“
i received two related questions, which i’ll answer together.
first question: i am nearing retirement and want to sell my practice to two longtime staff people, but they don’t get along, and i’m afraid to sell to them. what should i do?
second question: i have a large individual tax practice, but also have an audit practice that is handled by different staff in my firm. how do i sell this practice? none of the larger buyers want the tax clients and none of the smaller buyers want the audit clients. read more →
plus: key considerations in evaluating a practice continuation agreement
by ed mendlowitz
question: what i should do about merging? i need a specific answer.
answer: i can’t give you an easy answer. i can give you a process to follow that should provide an answer. actually, this works pretty well and i’ve gotten good feedback from many colleagues. i’ve also rethought it many times, and still think this is the way to go about it.
and what to do about it if you want to buy their practice. what is it about the sole practitioner that prevents them from doing something that seems to make so much sense? they need to do something soon about … continued
how to brace yourself for the “baby boomer bubble.”
by gary adamson, cpa
i think about the bbb a lot. no, this bbb is not the better business bureau; it is the baby boomer bubble. there is constant reference by the news media about the aging of the baby boomers but i for one did not know exactly what it meant. until i googled it.
related: how to create a no-equity partner position in your firm | what a coach can do for you – and your firm | how to balance the six jobs of managing partner | planning a partner retreat for real results | the partner compensation checklist | how cpa firms make money in turbulent times
what i found is not good news for the accounting profession. the bbb is 76 million of us born in the united states between 1946 and 1964 and we are fairly evenly spread through those 19 years. that means the oldest of this huge bubble are 4 million folks who turned 65 last year. and, we have another 18 years to go! read more →