Carter-Gray: Poor Review Strengthens Firm | The Disruptors

Client conflict became a catalyst for clearer boundaries, better processes, and a more scalable virtual practice.

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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

When Nayo Carter-Gray, founder of 1st Step Accounting, received a one-star Google review from a challenging client, she realized the crucial value of the boundaries she had established for clients. An email issue on the client’s end made the client think the firm was ignoring him when the reality was that he simply wasn’t receiving the firm’s correspondence.  

CPA TRENDLINES CELEBRATES:The 100th Episode of The Disruptors

MORE STREAMING: Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 YearsTelka: Transform Fear into Fuel | Woodard: Move Past Reports; Deliver Results | Baker: Find True Purpose to End BurnoutBrolin: The W.I.N. Leadership FormulaGertrudes: How EOS & “Unreasonable Hospitality” Reshaped GrowthLab | Vilms: The Power of People in a Tech-Driven World | Dickerson: From Diagnosis to Disruption | Kapilovich: Treat People Like People | Martha Yasso: From Wall Street to Main Street | Jackie Meyer: Tax Plans in 90 Seconds? Believe It Erica Goode: Build a $200K Firm in 15hrs/WeekRandy Crabtree: Live at the Intersection of Passion & Skill |McClelland and Telka: Women Ready to Rewrite the Rules of Accounting | Jacob Schroeder: AI Won’t Replace Accountants—But It Will Reveal Who’s ReplaceableDitching Corporate America: The Bold Story Behind PBS Accounting’s Rapid Rise | Jean Zick: Happy Team = Happy Clients | Breslin & Greathead: Be a Client Advocate |

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A happy ending came when the client took that one-star review down after Carter-Gray laid out a timeline of events of how he didn’t follow the process from start to finish,she recalls. “It just led to us realizing that we put these boundaries in place for a reason, and now I’m looking at the entire process that we have to make sure that our existing clients know these boundaries and why they’re important.” 

Carter-Gray’s firm uses a framework of three core elements to establish boundaries with clients.

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Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 Years | The Disruptors

Celerity’s founder turned a side-hustle into a fast-growing success.

This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
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Get peace of mind with the right policy, technology, and strategy at an affordable price.

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Tailor Hartman didn’t start Celerity Accounting with a grand plan. The initial goal was to make enough from an accounting side gig to pay down his student loans while he worked full-time as an assistant controller. He found his first clients in an unorthodox place – Upwork.

“I started going on [Upwork] to find cleanup gigs, you know, quick cleanup gigs for like 30, 40 bucks an hour in QuickBooks or maybe even NetSuite,” he shares.  

CPA TRENDLINES CELEBRATES:The 100th Episode of The Disruptors

MORE STREAMING: Telka: Transform Fear into Fuel | Woodard: Move Past Reports; Deliver Results | Baker: Find True Purpose to End BurnoutBrolin: The W.I.N. Leadership FormulaGertrudes: How EOS & “Unreasonable Hospitality” Reshaped GrowthLab | Vilms: The Power of People in a Tech-Driven World | Dickerson: From Diagnosis to Disruption | Kapilovich: Treat People Like People | Martha Yasso: From Wall Street to Main Street | Jackie Meyer: Tax Plans in 90 Seconds? Believe It Erica Goode: Build a $200K Firm in 15hrs/WeekRandy Crabtree: Live at the Intersection of Passion & Skill |McClelland and Telka: Women Ready to Rewrite the Rules of Accounting | Jacob Schroeder: AI Won’t Replace Accountants—But It Will Reveal Who’s ReplaceableDitching Corporate America: The Bold Story Behind PBS Accounting’s Rapid Rise | Jean Zick: Happy Team = Happy Clients | Breslin & Greathead: Be a Client Advocate |

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Those cleanup gigs turned into monthly accounting. “I ended up getting enough clients where I could quit my job within three months… which is pretty crazy. As a testament to Celerity’s excellent service, those early clients remain loyal today.

“We still have all of my existing Upwork clients, which is crazy.  

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Telka: Transform Fear into Fuel | The Disruptors

Mindset shifts, gut instincts, and the right mentors matter most when starting your own firm.

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Not Your Headcount

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Making the shift from employee to entrepreneur isn’t always easy, as Questian Telka, founder of ReQoncile Financials and co-host of the She Counts podcast, discovered. Besides the obvious pieces of getting business licenses and opening a business bank account, Telka believes it’s essential to keep your reason for starting your business – your why – firmly in focus.

If I lose sight of that why, then I am continually getting away from what it is that I enjoy about it, why I’m doing it in the first place,” she explains. 

CPA TRENDLINES CELEBRATES:The 100th Episode of The Disruptors

MORE STREAMING: Woodard: Move Past Reports; Deliver Results | Baker: Find True Purpose to End BurnoutBrolin: The W.I.N. Leadership FormulaGertrudes: How EOS & “Unreasonable Hospitality” Reshaped GrowthLab | Vilms: The Power of People in a Tech-Driven World | Dickerson: From Diagnosis to Disruption | Kapilovich: Treat People Like People | Martha Yasso: From Wall Street to Main Street | Jackie Meyer: Tax Plans in 90 Seconds? Believe It Erica Goode: Build a $200K Firm in 15hrs/WeekRandy Crabtree: Live at the Intersection of Passion & Skill |McClelland and Telka: Women Ready to Rewrite the Rules of Accounting | Jacob Schroeder: AI Won’t Replace Accountants—But It Will Reveal Who’s ReplaceableDitching Corporate America: The Bold Story Behind PBS Accounting’s Rapid Rise | Jean Zick: Happy Team = Happy Clients | Breslin & Greathead: Be a Client AdvocateDominic Piscopo: Clear Pay=Bargaining PowerDebbie Kilsheimer: Stop Thinking Small |

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For Telka, her why centered around “having a little bit more freedom and flexibility to spend time with family, being able to take on my ideal clients. Without the centering influence of a strong why, entrepreneurs may risk working with clients who don’t fit their ideal client profile.  

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Woodard: Move Past Reports; Deliver Results | The Disruptors

Dashboards and statements aren’t enough—accountants must help clients turn data into action.

This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by 4impactdata: Start delivering scalable advisory in weeks–not months: See Today’s Special Offer

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4ImpactData: 10X Your Advisory.
Not Your Headcount

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Joe Woodard sees a disconnect between what accountants think they’re selling and what clients want to buy. Many accountants still believe they are selling time, but as Woodard points out with a vivid analogy, that’s not what clients care about.

CPA TRENDLINES CELEBRATES:The 100th Episode of The Disruptors

MORE STREAMING: Baker: Find True Purpose to End BurnoutBrolin: The W.I.N. Leadership FormulaGertrudes: How EOS & “Unreasonable Hospitality” Reshaped GrowthLab | Vilms: The Power of People in a Tech-Driven World | Dickerson: From Diagnosis to Disruption | Kapilovich: Treat People Like People | Martha Yasso: From Wall Street to Main Street | Jackie Meyer: Tax Plans in 90 Seconds? Believe It Erica Goode: Build a $200K Firm in 15hrs/WeekRandy Crabtree: Live at the Intersection of Passion & Skill |McClelland and Telka: Women Ready to Rewrite the Rules of Accounting | Jacob Schroeder: AI Won’t Replace Accountants—But It Will Reveal Who’s ReplaceableDitching Corporate America: The Bold Story Behind PBS Accounting’s Rapid Rise | Jean Zick: Happy Team = Happy Clients | Breslin & Greathead: Be a Client AdvocateDominic Piscopo: Clear Pay=Bargaining PowerDebbie Kilsheimer: Stop Thinking Small |

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“If I’m going into CVS and I need Tums,” he explains, imagine if CVS charged you more because “I hung around in their store for twice as long to buy the Tums as I needed to, I took a circuitous path. Maybe I looked at some of the kids’ toys for an upcoming birthday party where they’re going to charge me twice as much for the Tums.”

This absurd scenario mirrors what accounting firms do to clients when the cost of delivering the service depends on the time it takes to do the work, so “the value of the product changes based on some arbitrary time metric,” Woodard says. “As long as that’s the case, there’s always going to be a resistance to the billing for selling the wrong product.”

However, even among firms that have adopted value pricing, a disconnect remains because the focus is on deliverables rather than outcomes.

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Baker: Find True Purpose to End Burnout | The Disruptors

CPAs can help guide four types of client transformation – and break through their own listlessness.

This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by the Center for Accounting Transformation’s Small Office/Home Office Cybersecurity Protection Package
See Today’s Special Offer

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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Ron Baker has been pushing accountants to change how they think and how they operate their businesses for decades, starting more than 20 years ago by ditching the timesheet, and followed recently by adopting a subscription approach to services. Now that more than half of CAS firms have abandoned hourly billing, according to the latest CPA.com CAS benchmark survey, it’s time for accountants to move from providing services to guiding transformations.    

CPA TRENDLINES CELEBRATES:The 100th Episode of The Disruptors

MORE STREAMING: Brolin: The W.I.N. Leadership FormulaGertrudes: How EOS & “Unreasonable Hospitality” Reshaped GrowthLab | Vilms: The Power of People in a Tech-Driven World | Dickerson: From Diagnosis to Disruption | Kapilovich: Treat People Like People | Martha Yasso: From Wall Street to Main Street | Jackie Meyer: Tax Plans in 90 Seconds? Believe It Erica Goode: Build a $200K Firm in 15hrs/WeekRandy Crabtree: Live at the Intersection of Passion & Skill |McClelland and Telka: Women Ready to Rewrite the Rules of Accounting | Jacob Schroeder: AI Won’t Replace Accountants—But It Will Reveal Who’s ReplaceableDitching Corporate America: The Bold Story Behind PBS Accounting’s Rapid Rise | Jean Zick: Happy Team = Happy Clients | Breslin & Greathead: Be a Client AdvocateDominic Piscopo: Clear Pay=Bargaining PowerDebbie Kilsheimer: Stop Thinking Small |

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Baker’s latest endeavor with co-founder Ed Kless, Threshold, aims to support accountants and other professionals in moving into the transformation economy. Threshold is a membership community where professionals can receive guidance, attend meetings and webinars, and learn from each other.  

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