Building a Firm to the Right Size with Keila Hill-Trawick, CPA

Keila Hill-Trawick joins Blake and David to discuss her philosophy on intentionally building a firm to the "right" size, rather than pursuing endless revenue growth. She also explains how her firm narrowed its service offerings to focus on core recurring services like tax planning and fractional CFO work. Blake and David examine research on how much money Americans think they need annually to be happy, with millennials citing much higher targets. They also talk about an accounting reference in the new Trolls movie and the need for more diverse and positive CPA portrayals in media. Sponsors LiveFlow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/liveflow Earmark - https://earmarkcpe.promo/EarmarkMediaKit Keeper - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/keeper Chapters (00:31) - Keila Hill-Trawick joins the show (07:38) - How did you decide to cut back on services your firm offered? (09:50) - What core services do you offer? (12:10) - Do you help clients set up the services you don't offer? (13:30) - What does your current team look like and how did you build it? (17:10) - What are you charging clients? (20:39) - How many clients does each employee handle and will that change with technology? (23:25) - What's the ultimate goal? (28:32) - Berkshire Hathaway lawsuit (38:58) - SmileDirectClub declares bankruptcy (45:44) - Thoughts on accountants doing IT audits (51:10) - How much money do Americans need to be happy? (01:04:31) - Accounting reference in the newest Trolls movie (01:07:38) - Wrap up and how to reach Keila Show Notes What’s Behind Warren Buffett’s Fight With a Truck-Stop Mogul – WSJ https://www.wsj.com/business/warren-buffett-berkshire-hathaway-jimmy-haslam-pilot-lawsuit-70ef0413 Trolls movie CPA https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jacob-g-5819b780_went-to-see-the-new-trolls-movie-with-my-activity-7134882587042320384-RC32 Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sued by Haslam family over Pilot truckstop chain takeover https://cdllife.com/2023/haslam-family-sues-pilot-majority-owner-berkshire-hathaway-over-accounting-practices/ Bankrupt SmileDirectClub shuts down, says its ‘Lifetime Smile Guarantee’ is canceled - but Smile Pay users are expected to keep paying https://fortune.com/2023/12/11/bankrupt-smiledirectclub-shutting-down/ Meet our Guest, Keila Hill-Trawick Website : http://www.littlefishaccounting.com/ LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/keilahilltrawick Twitter : https://twitter.com/littlefishcpa Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/littlefishaccounting/ Need CPE? Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.com Subscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.com Get in Touch Thanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary . Find us on Facebook and Instagram . If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser . Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040. Sponsorships Are you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus . Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.com Limited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessities TeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merch Subscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcast Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast Classifieds Royalwise - https://learn.royalwise.com/ Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/ Classifieds Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd Transcripts The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page