Firms with the highest revenue growth over the last year anticipate a whole host of opportunities on the horizon.
One of those areas that is ripe for continued growth is advisory services, reported the
"We're just seeing incredible growth in our advisory services," shared Jeanne Bernick, chief client officer at Top 100 Firm Pinion. "So while our compliance, tax and audit are still strong, our advisory services are just growing gangbusters. And so that just shows, as a firm, that the balance out of both sides of the house really need to be working in tandem and cross-selling to each other."
Citrin Cooperman has also identified these services as key to the New York City-based firm's ongoing success.
"Our firm has made a large focus on expanding our service offerings to additional advisory services that really can provide additional value to our clients," explained Jason Krueger, a partner in the Top 100 Firm's business process outsourcing practice. "And in addition to our investment in technology is the investment in the services that we provide and ensuring that we can provide those value-added services to our clients. We've seen a lot of growth there. The firm is still investing in the core services of assurance and tax, but they're also investing heavily through organic and inorganic growth strategies to drive those additional services that are value-add to our clients that allow us to really be a full-service provider for our clients."
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The trend is not specific to the Fastest-Growing Firms — this year's honorees forecast it to be a professionwide imperative.
"For the profession, I think it'll continue to see the advisory platform try to be built out — client accounting services, family office services, other services that could yield perhaps a higher rate per hour and not be as traditional as … tax, for firms that don't have those services, to try to replicate what some of the larger firms have," explained Andrew Gragnani, former president and now chief operating officer of Cleveland-based Top 10 Firm CBIZ / CBIZ CPAs.
Continuing CAS
CAS or client accounting/advisory services were often mentioned in the same breath as more general advisory work by the Fastest-Growing Firms, as was the necessary technology to support this burgeoning service area.
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"For the accounting profession at large, there's some really exciting service lines that are coming into play," said Maureen Dillmore, vice president of partnerships at Arlington, Virginia-based Top 100 Firm Ascend, which provides a private equity-backed platform for firms. "So CAS and wealth management and all these different arms that accounting firms weren't typically kind of getting their arms around before. There's a lot of room; I think most firms are seeing fastest growth in their CAS practices. So that's exciting."
Omaha, Nebraska-based Bland & Associates also anticipates more growth in CAS.
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"So opportunities in our firm, playing in all of our arenas right now — I think about our client accounting and advisory services, a big hot topic," said managing partner Jeremy Vokt. "If we had more people, experienced people, in that, we could grow even more there. I think there's a lot of opportunity there and a lot of opportunity to be even more efficient with that practice as well. Tax, I mean, you hear firms firing clients … because of tax and not [having] enough people. I think there's a lot of opportunity there of, 'OK, why can't we do more of that work? How do we get better at outsourcing? How do we get better at our processes?' So I think there's a lot of opportunity there to grow internally. It's the same with our audit practice. We have got a lot of opportunities there."
Technology will also be essential, as will the growing need for outsourcing, offshoring and onshoring talent, according to Alberto Guzman, partner at Coral Gables, Florida-based AbitOs.
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"I think technology is going to be the subject for a while now," he said. "I think it's going to be, as far as opportunities, technology and offshoring or onshoring, however you want to go to get help abroad, whether it's from the east or from South America or whether it's India, Pakistan or South Africa or Mexico or Argentina, Uruguay — I think there's great talent everywhere in the world … So I think you can scale a lot when you start outsourcing, if you will, or onshoring, offshoring, however, people have different names for it. So I think that's going to be an opportunity as well as a challenge because it's not easy. It's easy to say, but it's hard to implement technology."
AI: Will not fade away
No conversation about the future of technology is complete without the mention of artificial intelligence.
"I've been doing this a long time, so I've seen a lot of things come and [they] say, 'This is the next big thing,' and then it kind of fades away and [AI] is the next big thing — but I don't think AI is going to fade away," shared Ed Davis, senior partner at San Jose, California-based PP&Co., a member of Ascend. "I think the technology change is going to continue to advance at a pretty quick pace. And so we need to be prepared for that. All firms need to be prepared for that. And prior to joining Ascend, we invested a lot of money every year in technology and advancing those services. We just couldn't invest enough as a hundred-person firm. So when Ascend came on board and the things that they're doing in technology just blow us away. And so from an industry perspective, everybody's got to be on board. Even an old guy like me who doesn't change, you have got to be on board with the changes that are coming to be able to serve your clients because [they're] changing too, and we need to be able to serve them better."
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Tampa, Florida-based Top 100 Firm Crete Professionals Alliance, like Ascend, has the perspective of overseeing technology integration within all of its member firms.
"I think the biggest opportunity for us is to really help our firm solve this pioneer tax of trying to figure out how to solve the steep curve of adopting new technologies," explained Crete CEO Steve Stagner. "I think it's a global challenge. I think every human is faced with it, but especially in the accounting space where a lot of that mundane kind of work can be done in a very efficient and effective way. So it's really helping with not just the latest fads, but really getting the right technology stack that will actually unlock and enable good workflows and quality work. And so I think that's a huge opportunity for us."
Jeremy Dubow, CEO of Chicago-based Prosperity Partners, issued a similar warning about blindly chasing trends.
"I think technology is, obviously, the buzzword that everybody's talking about, but on the technology side, it's a little bit more complicated than 'I'm going to go buy the next shiny object,'" he advised. "It's how do you build the right tech stack that fits into your ecosystem and that evolves over time as technology continues to change. As a firm, we are spending a ton of professional time trying to figure out, for example, practice management."
"The accounting industry as a whole is going to have to figure out how to take all of this technology and put it in their firm in a way that it works, versus constantly adopting new technologies because you're chasing new shiny objects," Dubow continued. "So if the accounting profession can figure that out, we're in for a really good run, but it's going to be tough to get there."
A deeper investment in talent
Getting there also depends on securing the best talent, separate of the tech supporting them. The Fastest-Growing Firms
"I think there's a huge opportunity on the talent side of our business," explained Tim Brackney, CEO of Top 100 Firm Springline Advisory. "And this is a people business. And I think the opportunity to create what we're trying to build is a big, small firm: big in terms of capability and opportunity, but small in terms of how we treat our clients and our colleagues, our two biggest stakeholders. So for talent coming in, they'll have the opportunity to be part of a build and into something that gives them opportunity for a career, but isn't going to give them some of the downsides of what many people worry about in our profession, which is burnout and lack of opportunity."
Fellow PE-backed firm Crete is also bullish on the people part of the puzzle, particularly when they are offered a tangible stake in the firm's success.
"I think that the other opportunity is the next generation," Stagner said. "I'm very passionate about deeply investing in leadership and development for our next generation, and creating a new currency, a currency where — in so many other professions there's a currency — where as liquidity events occur, you don't have to wait until you're at retirement age to actually receive some sort of a liquidity event. And I think that we have an opportunity to change some lives in a meaningful way with upskilling education development and as we create value creating some value for them as well."
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Private equity also adds financial incentive to employees of New York City-based LMC Advisors, a member firm of Ascend.
"The profession's definitely changing," said LMC CEO and managing partner Lee Cohen. "And I think that with the opportunities for the younger staff and people to have shares in a firm like ours or others, it's at a much earlier stage in their life — much different than ever before. And I think that the boring accounting stigma may be being changed over over a period of time, and it'll be exciting for younger people to join and grow."
Firms can also find opportunity in different professional backgrounds, as Vokt recommended.
"An opportunity that's out there from a profession standpoint would just be trying to attract other types of talent," he said, "because I feel like at least within our firm, we could take an intern, you can train them how to do that job pretty quickly. And they're really, really smart when it comes to technology, too. So how can we take some other majors or backgrounds and maybe get those people in our firm and train them how to do the work that we're doing?"
More M&A & PE
People, and firm culture, are foundational elements to a popular growth strategy for many Fastest-Growing Firms — M&A and private equity funding.
"You've got to make a firm that allows people to be successful and elevate throughout the profession," said Dubow. "The same goes true for the acquisition strategy. We've got to be a place that people want to partner with. We have to have the right leadership, the right technology, and proof that we can keep our people and elevate them. If we're doing those things well, I think we have a competitive advantage in the industry."
PP&Co. also plans to continue reaping the benefits of new acquisitions.
"For the firm in particular, I would say it's M&A," Davis said when asked the greatest opportunity ahead for the firm. "We joined the Ascend platform a little close to a year and a half ago, and there is a good process in place for M&A. We've always looked at it and we were interested and wanted to do it, but we were always too busy. And now we have a team in place that can help us integrate firms into our firm and make it much more seamless, so that's in place. So we feel we can go out and get more firms and be a little bit more active in the M&A side of things, but then also the people getting the right resources, we're continually working on that."
Vancouver, Washington-based Opsahl Dawson will also keep capitalizing on the resources afforded it as a member firm of Ascend.
"We've perfected our M&A," reported CEO Aaron Dawson. "So we've got a perfected M&A playbook that allows us to easily integrate multiple firms under the Opsahl Dawson platform. So those are really great opportunities…. We're really ready more than we ever have been for the growth, not only organic growth… but M&A is very exciting to us, [and being] really good at merging in other firms and getting them onto our platform."
Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Top 100 Firm REDW also sees opportunity in M&A, but from a different angle.
"A lot of those big merged organizations and PE-backed firms and with investments, a lot of those are going to be super successful," predicted managing principal Steve Cogan. "And we're going to compete with them, and that's going to be good for us. And sometimes we benefit from when mergers don't go so smoothly or when a transaction isn't as successful as people hoped. And I think that's going to continue to support our growth when providing opportunities for us to attract excellent talent and clients."
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LMC's Cohen shares a similar outlook: "Where so many firms are merging up into these larger firms and the clients are just not happy with the service they're getting in these larger firms or the fee structure. And I think with the continued consolidation and the fact that we're able to stay independent, you know, under Ascend, is really giving us a big edge on the other firms to get new clients and continue growing."
Crete's Stagner also cautioned that all the transactional activity infusing large amounts of funding into the profession must be met with a degree of vigilance.
"I think that for the industry, we're going to have to really think deeply about the nuance of partnering with firms that are potentially private equity, or larger firms, to make sure that we're aligned on how we're going to create value for our clients," he said. "The client relationship is at risk of becoming very transactional when we really have an opportunity to add value for the client. And if we can do that, then I think that we unlock a tremendous amount of growth."
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Still, for Crete and the 11 other Fastest-Growing Firms backed by or partnered with private equity, the funds and resources that come with PE unlock a number of advantages.
"I think our industry has a great opportunity because of what private equity has brought to the landscape and how it's changed our industry," said Sean Taylor, CEO of Atlanta-based Top 100 Firm Smith + Howard, which r
Chad Anschuetz, CEO of Doeren Mayhew, similarly touted the Troy, Michigan-based Top 100 Firm's market status as the biggest harbinger for continued growth.
"Well, the profession has, what, over 40,000 CPA firms and is going through a consolidation phase, and has been for a number of years," he explained. "So acquisitions will play a significant role for Doeren Mayhew's growth journey in the coming years. We're actually looking to establish market position in various key geographical areas to elevate our national brand, augment our strengths, such as manufacturing, health care, banking and construction industries. It's a very intentional process and we court only firms that share like-minded client service philosophies in our cultures."
