| EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY |
 CPAs CAN USE THEIR
UNDERSTANDING of business
structures, familiarity with financial
reports and disciplined, analytic thinking
to succeed at other endeavors. Those who
have launched alternative or auxiliary
careers emphasize the resources being a
CPA can offer.
A SELDOM-TOUTED ASSET OF
BEING A CPA, particularly in
public practice, is that accountants
have a window into diverse client
companies. They’re aware of the most
profitable ones, those that are
interesting and those whose owners want
to sell.
DUE DILIGENCE FOR
CONSIDERING a new enterprise
should include not only looking at the
financials but also within yourself.
Professionals who are considering a big
change should consult advisers, family
and perhaps a business coach and
carefully think through their goals
before making a decision.
CPAs CAN USE THEIR SKILLS
as a foundation for preparing a
company’s business plan, streamlining
management, organizing finances more
effectively, ramping up marketing
efforts and initiating other steps that
will optimize productivity and
profitability.
PRACTITIONERS SHOULDN’T
UNDERTAKE a big change
without researching the market, having
capital for the long haul, having a
network of professional and personal
support and caring about what they
propose to do.
CPAs WHO ARE SATISFIED
doing what they do can relax
and enjoy the fact that they have an
even wider range of professional options
than they thought. |
| ELIZABETH DANZIGER is
president of WorkTalk, a Los Angeles-based
company offering writing training and
consulting services to financial
professionals. She writes frequently on
communication skills. Her e-mail address
is
lizd@worktalk.com .
|
 n this faster, leaner, meaner modern
world, many professionals—by choice or
necessity—will have more than one career before
they reach retirement (and perhaps even another
one after). Fortunately, the skills that make for
being a successful CPA are an excellent foundation
for a segue into another enterprise if the
economic winds or your heart changes. Young
practitioners can capitalize on the field’s
broad-based financial knowledge to seize an
entrepreneurial opportunity, and all CPAs can use
their understanding of business structures,
familiarity with financial reports, exposure to
management styles and disciplined, analytical
thinking to succeed at other endeavors. This
article will help you answer key questions such
as: What are my goals? What are my choices? Should
I buy a business or start a new one? What pitfalls
should I be aware of? It also profiles a few
practitioners who have launched alternative or
auxiliary careers. Their experiences show some of
the opportunities available to CPAs and point out
skills they found useful. |
Job Satisfaction
Almost three-quarters of
entrepreneurial America—those who
classify themselves as self-employed
or as the owners of small
businesses—say that being
self-employed is their dream job.
Source: Monthly Hudson
Employment Index,
www.hudson-index.com .
|
DECIDE WHAT MOTIVATES YOU
One seldom-touted asset of being
a CPA, particularly in public practice, is that
you have a window into diverse client companies.
You’re aware of the most profitable ones, those
that interest you and those whose owners want to
sell. Sometimes a good opportunity just comes your
way—perhaps a client asks you to work for or buy
into his or her company or a spin-off, a former
colleague mentions an interesting business is for
sale or you hear about a lead at a chamber of
commerce meeting. Due diligence should include
looking not only at the financials but also at
yourself. Consult your advisers, family and
perhaps a business coach and think through your
goals. Answer questions such as
 What would I accomplish by making
a career change? If your aim is to broaden
your professional scope, starting your own firm or
adding a business valuation, technology consulting
or personal financial planning niche may bring new
depth to your career (see
AICPA Resources ). If it’s to pursue
deferred dreams, another kind of change may be
right for you.
Is my job likely to be downsized?
If the answer is yes, develop a fallback
plan.
What would I enjoy doing—and
where? When you visualize the answer to
this, pay attention to what you’re most excited
about. Is it spending more time with people,
earning more money, working in a new occupation,
serving the public good, seeing direct results
from your work, having more time to pursue special
interests or something else?
What would I like to be doing in
five years? Imagine yourself five years
after a career change and five years after you
retire.
Do I want an entrepreneurial
retirement? If you think work will keep you
alert, active and engaged, it is possible you do.
How can I use my strengths as a
CPA to create success in a new field? List
all your professional assets and strengths, both
intangible (what you know) and tangible (your
credentials and contacts). What skills prepare you
to be a manager or owner? Analyze the full set of
aptitudes you can bring to a new business.
A business opportunity already may be present
for you within your network of associates.
Answering questions such as those above will help
you to evaluate possibilities as they come your
way. As the French philosopher Blaise Pascal said,
“Chance favors the prepared mind.”
THIS IS WHAT YOU KNOW
You can use your CPA skills for preparing a
company’s business plan, streamlining management,
organizing finances more effectively, ramping up
marketing efforts and optimizing productivity.
Here’s what being a CPA has equipped you with:
You can analyze financial statements.
This mainstay of CPA work lets you
review and understand the financial health of any
enterprise that interests you.
You know how to structure a business.
While some would-be entrepreneurs
are dithering over C corporations, S corporations
and limited partnerships, you already know the
business model that will serve you best.
You know how to market your skills.
Every successful CPA is an adept
self-promoter.
You know how to manage the financial
side of a business. Whether you
have hands-on experience in financial management
or vicarious experience through clients, your CPA
skills are a strength in any enterprise.
You have helped businesses grow.
If you have worked in finance or
consulting, you can apply such knowledge to your
own business.
THINK IT THROUGH
Experience has shown you the risky side of
business, too, so proceed cautiously. The basic
choices are to buy a company, buy a franchise or
start a new business. Buying an existing company
often has the advantage of offering a guaranteed
income stream from day one, a physical plant
and—if you’re satisfied with the way the business
is run—trustworthy management. But a potential
drawback of buying an entity is that it may have
entrenched problems. Still, sources say it is
easier to work with an existing business.
While starting a business gives you maximum
control over the structure and focus of the
enterprise, it is riskier than buying an existing
one. If you think you might want to make the leap
into something new, organize an approach:
Make a plan. If you have
an idea for a business, start writing a business
plan. The process will make your ideas more
concrete.
Look for new possibilities.
Watch for opportunities in and out
of the field. Do you have a client who is looking
to sell his or her business? Do you see a market
for a spin-off business? Perhaps your client will
want to be part of the new enterprise.
Tell friends and colleagues you are
looking for a business to invest in.
Go to chamber of commerce meetings
and other places where you will meet
businesspeople. The best opportunities often come
from friends and their circle of acquaintances.
Research carefully. For
example, if you are interested in purchasing a
franchise, research the market and the company
carefully. Study the financial statements of the
target company. Speak to several current franchise
owners, and get a solid estimate of how much the
franchise will cost you.
Work with a business broker.
A good one can match you up with a
business that won’t break your budget and will fit
your interests. For instance, one of the largest
national brokerage services is Sunbelt Business
Advisors at
www.sunbeltnetwork.com . Don’t
undertake a big change without analyzing the
market, having capital for the long haul, having a
network of professional and personal support and
caring about what you propose to do. The choice to
reinvent yourself involves trade-offs. For some,
the risk-taking element of starting a business can
be exhilarating, while others will find it
terrifying. Here are some people who are finding
pleasure and success in using their CPA knowledge
as the underpinning of other careers.
Kick-Starting a New Trade
Brian Cardozo, CPA, was a partner
at BDO Seidman where he specialized in helping
midsize companies grow. When he decided to buy a
Harley-Davidson dealership in San Jose,
California, he was able to apply all he had
learned about effective business practices to
gearing up his franchise. By focusing on customer
satisfaction, offering excellent repair service
and expanding the sales of ancillary
Harley-Davidson products, Cardozo increased the
business by 50% in two years, transforming a small
local shop into a leading dealership in the San
Francisco Bay area. “We applied the lessons of the
’90s to a business that hadn’t changed since the
’60s,” Cardozo says. “I wrote a business plan,
which I update every year. I’ve also established a
marketing plan and set specific goals for our
return on investment. My ability to analyze the
company’s financial data has been enormously
helpful. The emphasis on customer service also has
yielded big results.”
From Accountant to High School Teacher
Greg DeVito, CPA, always loved
coaching soccer and working with kids. After seven
years at an accounting firm in West Hartford,
Connecticut, he decided to reduce his hours as a
CPA so he could take a second job teaching
accounting at a local high school. His firm was
flexible enough to allow him to work evenings and
weekends on tax returns while he spent his daytime
hours teaching and coaching. As his teaching
position increased from part-time to full-time, he
gave up his accounting firm position.
DeVito went to night school to get his teaching
certificate and got his first job through a client
when the firm audited the school district. He
mentioned his plans to a clerk in the
superintendent’s office, and she told him there
was an opening in business education coming up
soon. “Through the audit work, I knew the
superintendent and principal at E.O. Smith high
school in Storrs, Connecticut, so they felt
comfortable hiring me,” he says. He now is in his
fifth year. When he began teaching, there were 15
accounting students in the school. Today there are
75. Besides bringing in an FBI agent guest
lecturer to talk to his class about financial
fraud, terrorism and forensic accounting, here is
what else he does to generate excitement:
To teach students about the power of money, one
class project is a variation on the game of
Monopoly. Students play for four periods, each of
which represents a fiscal quarter. They manually
record entries in a general journal on the cash
basis every time cash changes hands, with the
option to record receivables if they choose to
extend credit. They make entries for depreciation
and interest on any loans and closing entries at
the end of the game. Each quarter students
update an Excel spreadsheet that organizes journal
entries and serves as their general ledger, giving
them balances and ensuring they remain in balance
after each entry. They create financial statements
(balance sheet, income statement and statement of
changes) and track their return on investments by
properly showing the amount they invested in land
and houses vs. what they collected or earned in
the trade or sale of each individual property.
They also perform simple ratio
analysis—current, debt to equity, working capital
and return on sales—and summarize this information
in relation to their business and to other
businesses in the industry (their classmates).
Finally, they prepare a simple “annual report”;
summarize their strategies, successes,
difficulties and results of operations; and look
at the future based on where they leave off in the
game. DeVito, who also coaches two boys’
club teams, year-round and one of the school’s
girls’ varsity teams, says, “I earn less than I
would have as an accountant but I love going to
work every day and that makes it worthwhile.” His
advice: “Decide what is really important to you.
Life’s too short not to do something you want to
do.”
Auto Racing Is Lucrative Fun
Before he became the owner of a
car-racing track, Patrick Joffrion, CPA,
of Belle Rose, Louisiana, was in a
family-run accounting firm for 25 years. He
ultimately became sole owner of the firm and also
was financial officer for the local government.
Although he needed to spend more time on
administering the business rather than on
day-to-day accounting, Joffrion found his clients
valued his input and kept asking for his help with
their businesses. “I was stressed,” he says. He
decided to sell the firm to his employees but
chose not to leave abruptly. “It’s about an
eight-year transition to get out of your own
firm.” During his years as an accountant,
Joffrion had traveled throughout the South,
learning about his clients’ companies and
analyzing ways to make them more successful. He
also bought and sold a variety of businesses and
used his imagination in developing some new ones.
Although he enjoys starting new enterprises, he
does not recommend it for all practitioners. “If
you’ve been displaced because of downsizing,
starting your own business is kind of tough. It’s
easier to buy an existing business,” he says. “A
CPA can analyze a business to see how it can make
more money. I’ve seen accountants go into service
stations, convenience stores and other fields.”
Understanding the financial side is easier
for trained accountants than for non-CPAs, but “if
you don’t get out with your customers, see how
their businesses work and find out what they’re
doing right, you just know how to add one and
one.” Joffrion feels an entrepreneur has to bring
more than financial skills to the table; he or she
has to know how to “get the business in the door.”
He says, “The best thing I can recommend is to be
observant. Leave town and see what’s happening in
other places. Open your eyes, take notes, then go
back to your own area, identify the need and try
to fill it.” When Joffrion left his
accounting firm, he took his own advice. A
motor-sports enthusiast, he knew people had to
travel to northern Louisiana or as far as Texas to
find a place to race their cars. “There was no
top-notch racing strip in Louisiana,” he says.
With the help of a few friends, he built a
car-racing course and a road course. (A
drag-racing strip is an oval such as the kind one
would see in the Indy 500; a road course has 14
turns and requires a different kind of driving.)
“We invested $6 million, but now we can gross as
much as $300,000 in a single weekend,” he says
with pride. Joffrion keeps close watch on
the financial side of the business. He still does
his own general ledger and personally enters data
for every paycheck, expense check and deposit. He
now has 12 full-time employees; the staff
increases to 40 or 50 helpers during weekends when
there are races. “It was a big risk to take, but
along with big risks often come big rewards,” he
says. The appraised value of the racing business
is up $2 million from its actual cost in the past
two years. He already has received several
overtures from people who want to buy it.
“I might just accept an offer and head to the
Caribbean with my lovely wife,” Joffrion says.
Personal Passion Into “Healthy” Profits
Heather Johnson-Moreno, CPA, who
in 1996 founded PeopleFit USA, a California-based
telephone-coaching fitness company, developed her
business from an activity she loved. A former
manager at KPMG, Johnson-Moreno gave it all up to
devote herself to helping busy professionals
include exercise and good dietary practices in
their lives (see “
To Your Health, ” JofA , Sep.03,
page 65). She uses her accounting experience to
help organize and market her services to
corporations that want to provide fitness coaching
to their employees. Johnson-Moreno
recommends that potential entrepreneurs get advice
from the Small Business Administration about
starting and funding a business and that they join
a support group with whom they can brainstorm
ideas. Informal groups and business groups such as
the National Association of Women Business Owners
(NAWBO), chambers of commerce and other
professional organizations are important sources
of information, she says. Entrepreneurship
seminars and motivational audiotapes also can help
you keep your eye on the goal.
Renaissance Entrepreneur
Terry Nolan, CPA, owner of
Standard Printing Co. in Canton, Ohio, has bought
10 different companies over the past 20 years.
“Each time I was able to step into the business
and learn about it as I went along,” he says.
Nolan had his CPA credential and an MBA by the
time he was 23. He was working for a regional CPA
firm when an auto-dealership client who admired
his expertise offered him a job. He agreed on the
condition that he be able to invest in the
company. It was a family-owned enterprise so they
became business partners in an auto franchise
instead. Since then he has manufactured large
signs (including a life-size neon car) for
companies, constructed aircraft hangars, made
brick molds and developed a start-up company that
manufactures church-collection envelopes. His
training as a CPA helped him every step of the
way. “Business is about people and taking
care of them and knowing how to use money. Every
business has people and money,” he says. “A CPA
learns to manage money, which helps in becoming an
entrepreneur.” What’s so great about being an
accountant is that you can take the CPA
designation and use it to make a transition into
almost any industry. “Take chances while you’re
young,” Nolan says. “If you’re a hard worker,
there’s always another opportunity around the
corner.”
Leveraging a Switch
Randy Lane, CPA, served as an
investment officer with Ford Motor Credit Co./U.S.
Leasing and then as a partner at Arthur Andersen,
specializing in utilities and capital leasing. He
says: “When Andersen laid off most of its
employees, I decided not to go back into
accounting. I grew up in the firm and I wasn’t
ready to switch cultures or loyalties.” Instead,
he applied his knowledge of identifying,
evaluating, structuring and executing leveraged
lease investments to become head of a company that
provides finance solutions for capital equipment,
facilities and real estate assets. His
knowledge of lease accounting has helped him to
structure a company, understand business controls
and market to customers according to their tax
position. This financial expertise enabled him to
become president and CEO of Fort Street Capital in
Detroit. “I went into accounting to understand how
successful businesses are organized and run,” he
says. It worked.
Transcription Benefits
John Langley, CPA, of Med-Scribe
in Jacksonville, Florida, developed his medical
transcribing company by following up on
opportunities that presented themselves in his
accounting practice. As a CPA he worked with many
physicians. He began his transition to the medical
transcription business when the wife of a client
developed a service that helped physicians put the
correct diagnostic codes on their insurance
claims. Langley advised her in the start-up
process, and she ultimately offered him a 20%
interest in return for his help in expanding the
business. Soon he saw the need for a medical
transcription service and they started his present
business, of which he was 50% owner and CEO.
Eventually he bought her out by “trading up” until
it was his own enterprise. “I was always looking
for opportunities,” he says. His Internet-based
business currently has 350 employees worldwide,
most of whom work from home. Med-Scribe serves
physicians throughout the United States. Its
outside auditor is his CPA firm from his first job
after college—and he still is a practicing CPA.
Family Time…Priceless
Some CPAs look beyond traditional accounting
because they seek more family time or an
opportunity to work in a more relaxed environment.
Scott Riley, CPA, of Easy Way
Electronics in Elizabeth, New Jersey, gave up his
career as a high-ranking finance executive for the
independence and flexibility of owning a small
business. After years as a practicing CPA, he
became controller of a $500 million division of a
large conglomerate and, subsequently, an assistant
vice-president of finance for a top pharmaceutical
company. Riley found his electronics repair
business through personal networking. When he
heard about it being for sale, “I recognized I had
the knowledge to build a client base,” he says.
Riley earns less than he would have if he’d
stayed in the corporate world, but the benefits of
having more time with his family far outweigh the
costs. “I didn’t want to be a stranger in my own
home,” he says. Although owning your own business
doesn’t always mean you’ll have more time with
family, his wife says she has never seen him “work
so hard or be home so much.” In fact, he now works
about 50 hours a week vs. 60 but is able to take
five or six weeks of vacation each year and a
couple of days “here and there” to fish and play
golf. Riley says his CPA training has
helped him “view the business as a business, not a
mom-and-pop operation.” It helps him to be
cognizant of current and future costs and to
evaluate changes in the market that affect
development. He has quadrupled the number of
employees and quintupled the size of his company
by buying and merging with two more businesses of
the same type.
 |
PRACTICAL TIPS TO
REMEMBER
| |
|
 Inventory your
strengths and weaknesses.
Assess your
degree of comfort with taking
risks. Decide what is really
important to you.
Write up a
business plan. Putting it in
black and white will make your
idea more concrete.
Look for new
possibilities—for example,
through your network you might
hear about a client who wants
to sell his or her business.
Go other places
to see what’s happening—be
observant, take notes, then go
back to your area, identify
the need and try to fill it.
|
Get advice from
the Small Business
Administration about starting
and funding a small business.
Join a support
group of entrepreneurial
people with whom to brainstorm
ideas. Informal groups and
business groups are important
sources of information and
support.
Stop billing by
the hour and restructure
pricing for more job
satisfaction and to discover
more time to pursue other
interests.
Maintain a
part-time practice to stay
current and to supplement your
new enterprise.
| |
Comedian “Debitman” Has Serious Ideas
Frank Page, CPA, who bills
himself as “Florida’s Funniest CPA,” says, “Life
is too short and you’re dead too long, so have fun
right now.” A certified public accountant for more
than 20 years, Page is president of his own firm,
Business Development Partners Inc. in Orlando,
Florida. For the past 13 years, he also has worked
as a stand-up comic, spoofing the accounting
profession in comedy clubs and business
conventions nationwide. He recently wrote his
first book, Exercise From a Lawn Chair.
Page (his performance persona is “DebitMan”)
is out to shatter the myth of the humorless
accountant with his comedy routine. He takes the
stage and proclaims himself the “Champion of the
World Accounting Federation” and proceeds to poke
fun at virtually all of the profession’s
stereotypes. Page reorganized his firm
completely to create the time to pursue his
passion for comedy. He is a champion of value
pricing. He says: “I used to do hundreds of
returns for individuals and corporations. Then I
fired a bunch of customers and raised my rates.”
The biggest change he made in his business was to
stop billing by the hour. “We do not sell hours,”
he says. “We sell deliverables.” He advises other
practitioners to consider restructuring their
pricing if they are looking for more job
satisfaction and more time to pursue other
interests. “You work fewer hours per week and earn
more money,” he says. Because he has fewer, more
profitable clients, he is able to nurture
long-term business relationships with his most
valuable ones (and that’s no joke).
From Practitioner to Professor
Joanie Sompayrac, CPA, spent a
year as a tax accountant at Arthur Andersen before
deciding to study law in Cincinnati. During law
school and for two years after getting her JD she
worked for Coopers & Lybrand. From there she
moved to Ernst & Young and, after a brief
stint, decided education was her passion. So she
took the leap into academia. “While I
always enjoyed the work in tax, I felt I was using
my skills for the wrong causes,” says Sompayrac,
who admits to being an altruist by nature. “My
clients gave little to charity, and that bothered
me. So my first job at the university was working
as director of planned giving.” She held this
position for five years while teaching in the
business college part-time. When a full-time job
opened up, the dean of the college asked her to
apply, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Sompayrac has been teaching accounting, tax and
business law full-time for six years. “I love it,”
she says. “I try to impress on my students that
being a CPA will let them do anything. It has
opened doors for me.” She still maintains a tax
practice with about 30 clients to help her stay
current and to supplement her university salary.
“The transition has been challenging in many
ways,” she says. “But I cannot imagine doing
anything differently.”
ENJOY YOUR OPTIONS
These stories suggest how the range of
analytical, financial and marketing skills CPA
training and experience provide can be used to
follow your dreams in many fields. Focusing on
your personal values and passions may enable you
to see how you can use your CPA training as a
basis for new career opportunities if that’s what
you want. But if it turns out you’re happy doing
what you do—well, relax and enjoy the fact that
you have options. | 
Leases standard: Tackling implementation — and beyond