Your replies to "The REAL REASON You Started Your Accounting Practice"
Thanks so much to everyone who replied to my recent message asking about the real reasons you started your accounting practice.
I normally request explicit permission to share replies but in this particular case, I made an exception because there were too many for that to be practical.
(If you see your answer below and feel overexposed, just let me know and I’ll remove it from the web version of this post.)
With all that said...
Here’s what folks here on the daily list and on LinkedIn had to say about why they started their business (lightly edited for brevity, clarity, and anonymity):
I wanted to help small business owners and didn't want to take advantage of them.
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Freedom - mostly with time and deciding how to spend it.
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It just made sense as a working mom to be able to control my schedule and be home to raise my two kids. It worked well for me at the time and gave me the life and work balance I needed during those years.
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I love having the flexibility to be able to be super involved with my kids and still work and be a professional. I LOVE that I can contribute to our community in this way because I have my own practice and get to make my own rules. 😊
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For the income and lifestyle I want while being able to serve those I feel uniquely talented to help.
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The triangle of freedom - time, location, and financial
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I enjoy systems and processes, and I wanted to get my hands dirty creating something. I wanted to have full accountability and control for the service I provide.
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Time and location freedom. No commute, no office politics, no a** kissing, no waiting till year end to figure out if I am going to get the 10% bonus and more?
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I do this to help people and make a living. It’s also nice to not have to be “green” on teams because my manager or partner is online.
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I thought I knew better than the leaders who led the firm I worked for. I was partially right, partially wrong, which is probably exactly as I should have expected. I would never go back to having a boss.
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To seek independence and a chance to build own legacy. Pursuing a vision beyond the confines of a job.
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The freedom of time was a huge thing for me. Getting to set your schedule and dictate how every aspect of your day goes was huge! Also, more hours of work = more $. If I work more in my small practice … I make more. If I worked 65+ hours at a firm … I did not necessarily earn more in salary/bonus.
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To add value to the client's business I work for was the main reason.....
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Because life’s too short to work like an accountant! To be able to provide better advice to my business clients, while trying to save our industry by creating a better and more fulfilling way to work as an accountant.
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I was fired in a particularly damaging way. I didn’t want anyone to have that sort of power over my life again.
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A mix of both and all of the above, we now live in the age of the entrepreneur where it's super easy to do your own things and so many available resources often for free to help you on this journey
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1) To build the accounting job I could never find and build the team that I could never build when working for someone else and not having as much meaningful control over these things. This means, control over providing real work-LIFE balance & meaningful pay, types of clients, culture, employee buy-in to new engagements, etc.
2) To have the autonomy to be able to make system and process changes to impact how we work, but also to make our client's lives better along the way.
3) Knowing that the work our firm does is needed by the types of clients we work for, and the positive feelings that come from being someone who comes in and solves problems and makes accounting information useful and actionable for clients.
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I wanted to build something all my own, increase my income, and gain more flexibility in my work life (not tied to 9-5 M-F unless I want to).
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Time and again, I hear business owners talk about wanting:
- Freedom
- Flexibility
- Control
- To make a difference.
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When it comes to money, the sentiment leans more toward, “I want to be able to generate the revenue I need to live comfortably,” than “I want to be a gabillionaire.”
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So the question becomes:
If you are generating the revenue you need, do you have the freedom, flexibility, and control you had hoped for?
And if not, what’s your plan to get it?
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