private equity

Are You Overlooking These 36 Consulting Services?

By

business meeting of a woman and two men

Watch for the 38 events that trigger those needs.

By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great

In today’s business world, the greatest growth and margin opportunities for a CPA firm are in the consulting area, as clients outsource specialized skills to deal with business challenges that they cannot handle internally.

MORE by Domenick J. Esposito
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Presented below is a summary of the most typical CPA firm service offerings, together with opportunity triggers and market trends.
READ MORE →

Meihaus: The Courage to Say “Enough” at the Top | Gear Up For Growth

By

Partners who cap their own comp can solve staffing, retention, and motivation in one bold move.

This is a preview. The complete episode is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Originally published Sept. 4, 2025.
Sponsored by The Small Office / Home Office Cyber Protection Plan – Learn more here

Click to subscribe anywhere: Apple, Google/Youtube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music and Audible, Player FM, Audacy, Gaana (India), Boomplay (Africa), or RSS.

Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines

When public accounting firms talk about “leadership challenges,” the conversation often turns into a soft focus on communication styles or vague culture issues.

Michael Meihaus goes straight for the hard truths.

On Gear Up for Growth, hosted by Capstone Marketing president Jean Caragher, Meihaus—owner of Meihaus CPA in Escondido, California—lays out the structural leadership failings he sees across the profession: outdated ownership models, harmful work expectations, broken incentives, and leaders who resist change because the current system works for them, even as it burns everyone else out.

More Gear Up for Growth here. | More Jean Caragher here |
Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More CPA Trendlines videos and podcasts here

“It’s simply that we don’t change unless we have to,” he tells Caragher. In a profession that’s been “stable, profitable, successful” for decades, too many people at the top have little incentive to transform how firms actually operate.

READ MORE →

Maksymiw: Kick the “Should” Out of Your Career | Big 4 Transparency

By

“Being efficient got me more work, not more money. So I left.” 

This is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Poe Group Advisors: Helping accountants buy, build, and sell exceptional firms. See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS
Poe Group Advisors consistently excels in helping our clients find the right accounting practice sales opportunity.
.

Big 4 Transparency
By Dominic Piscopo, CPA
For CPA Trendlines

When Mike Maksymiw first joined the Big 4 Transparency podcast, listeners were struck by his candor, clarity, and willingness to challenge the profession’s long-standing norms. Now, as host Dominic Piscopo welcomes him back as the show’s first repeat guest, Maksymiw brings even more insight—this time shaped by Aprio’s rapid growth, his own unconventional career path, and a message for accountants who feel stuck in roles that no longer fit.

MORE Dominic Piscopo | MORE Private Equity | MORE Pay & Compensation

Maksymiw currently serves as executive director of the Aprio Firm Alliance, a national network of nearly 100 firms that share resources, expertise, and support across specialties and geographies. And—thanks to Aprio’s recent acquisition of the PS Plus Alliance from RSM—the Alliance has nearly doubled in size.

“It broadens how we can go find answers,” he explains. “Now there are a hundred people you can ask, and maybe fifty have done what you’re trying to do. Maybe there are seven different ways to make it work.”

READ MORE →

Majchrzak: Marketer-Turned-CEO Redesigns the Modern CPA Firm | Gear Up For Growth

By

Collaboration, transparency, and independence drive BeachFleischman’s growth.

This is a preview. The complete episode is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Tax Season Readiness: Practical Steps for a Smoother Busy Season  | See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS
Is your firm truly ready for tax season—or just hoping to survive it? Join this 90-minute webinar featuring an Accounting ARC Live panel with thought leaders who know what it takes to optimize performance under pressure. 
.

Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines

When most people picture a CPA firm CEO, they don’t envision a former marketing director in the big chair.

That’s exactly what makes Eric Majchrzak worth listening to.

Majchrzak, CEO and Principal of BeachFleischman—Arizona’s largest locally owned CPA firm and a Top 200 firm in the U.S.—has been named multiple times to Accounting Today’s “Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting” and is an Association for Accounting Marketing Hall of Fame inductee.

More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More Gear Up for Growth

More CPA Trendlines videos and podcasts here

On Gear Up for Growth, hosted by Capstone Marketing president Jean Caragher, Majchrzak pulls back the curtain on how his growth-minded, marketing-first lens is reshaping BeachFleischman’s strategy, culture, and business model—and what other firms can steal from that playbook.

READ MORE →

Revenue Multiples Vs. EBITDA Multiples

By

Plus how to factor in RIAs.

By Rory Henry
The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management

Why are accounting firms measured in revenue multiples while most other businesses are measured in EBITDA multiples?

According to Allan Koltin, accounting industry transaction guru, there is no better reason than because that’s how we’ve always done it in the accounting profession.

MORE Rory Henry and The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

“Accounting firms have zero EBITDA; they clear out the register every year,” noted Koltin. “When I talk to firms about private equity, I have to walk them back and explain how you’re going to create your own EBITDA. And the biggest piece of it is what we call the ‘scrape of partner compensation.’ You’re making $1.2 million. Can you live on $800,000 if we move that extra $400,000 into an EBITDA category and put a multiple of 7x to 11x on that and get capital gain?” asked Koltin.

“Partners 55 and older love it. Partners who are 35 are not so sure.”
READ MORE →