About Michael

Like I said, I’m Michael. I’m an accountant, have a bit of a resting business face, and am best known for yapping on LinkedIn.

I’ve also been quoted by dozens of websites, guested on podcasts, was named on CPA Practice Advisor’s ’40 under 40′ accountants list, am the treasurer of a local non-profit, blah blah blah, other very impressive brags, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐, etc. You get it.

My solo-practice is a modern, good-humored accounting consultancy. All the same money math you know and love, but with a lil more levity and few wisecracks, because saving taxes and improving cash flow may be serious, but the rest of this doesn’t need to be.

And, it may just be me behind the screen, but I’ll meet you where you are on your accounting journey and get you where you need to be. 

• Just getting started? Perfect.
  
• Struggling with messy books and back taxes? Perfect.
• Already running and in need of a change? Perfect.

We’ll get you right as rain, without the shame 😉

🤓 Enrolled Agent: I’m an Enrolled Agent, which is an IRS license that allows me to defend clients against tax audits. It’s different from the CPA, but that’s okay. Both licenses are more than enough (and, what’s really important is the professional behind the letters).

🤔 Fractional CFO: I’m not a fractional CFO tho. I can help with forecasting, taxes, and accounting. But, won’t be involved in other traditional CFO tasks, like risk management, board meetings, loan applications, or deeper financial analysis. 

While there’s no velvet rope or strict dresscode, my clients tend to have a few things in common. Obviously, they’re marketing agencies and consultants. You’ve figured that bit out by now, but they’re also:

Lean teams: My clients are usually smaller agencies, ranging from a single consultant to around 10-ish employees and under $2,500,000 annual revenue.

Boutique specialists: They’re experts in their domain. That could be – demand gen, Storybrand, fractional CMO, SEO strategy, messaging consultants, public relations, outsourced MOps, etc. They’re great at what they do.

Growing intentionally: Clients tend to have lifestyle businesses and a strong work/life balance. They care about their team, clients, and creative work product.

By the book: They don’t comingle funds, won’t take sketchy tax interpretations, don’t inflate expenses, definitely don’t wink wink nudge nudge, and would never commit tax fraud.

🎀 Business & personal tax returns: Tax returns are more complicated than just typing numbers into the computer. You want the right numbers in the right places, so you pay the right tax (and not a penny more). I’ll review your accounting, ask more questions than your last accountant ever did, pay close attention to multi-state issues, and check for last-minute opportunities.

(💸 available à la carte. S-corp & partnership fees start at $2,000, personal at $1,000 💸)

💊 S-Corporation eligibility assessment: If you Google, “I own a business and taxes make me sad,” the internet will tell you to form an S-corp. But, taxes aren’t that simple and S-corps don’t alwaysss save money. We’ll check and make sure they do before helping you make the S-corp election.

👷 Reasonable compensation & payroll (S-corps only): S-corp owners need to pay themselves payroll. The IRS left how much open to debate tho. We’ll run a reasonable compensation study, optimize your payroll to save tax without adding audit risk, and get payroll set up.

👷 Capture and categorize every transaction: Everything starts with your bookkeeping – your business tax return, cash flow forecasting, tax planning, financial decision-making, quarterly estimates – everything. We’ll capture and categorize every transaction for more accurate books, and more importantly, a more accurate everything else.

👷 Managed bookkeeping: Bookkeeping is an energy vampire. Let me do it. I’ll tame the accounting software, categorize the transactions, reconcile the accounts, and track down any annoying errors. You’ll just have to update the bank connection (I’ll remind you 😉), send me the statements, and answer a few questions. I got the rest.

☎️ Regular consulting calls: They didn’t teach you about finances or taxes in college. That’s okay tho, because they taught me all about it. Our calls will be an opportunity to discuss major decisions, chronic problems, and get an outside financially-minded perspective, from yours truly. (Note: I’ll probably give you homework)

😓 Crisis days: Running an agency can feel like you’re constantly making big decisions and putting out fires. Next time you need help, request a crisis day and we’ll spend four hours solving your issue. We’ll start with a crisis and end with an action plan and next steps. 

☎️ Onboarding tax & finance calls: You probably have lotsss of questions that previous accountants ignored. We’ll start your Deep Dive with two calls about taxes & finances, to teach you the best practices and give you a chance to finally ask all those questions.

🤐 Confidentiality: It should go without saying, but everything we discuss is just between you, me, and the IRS. I don’t share client names, my client list, or any details about them with anyone. And, while you may inspire a LinkedIn post, I’d absolutely never bully you via LinkedIn (I cannot believe I need to point that out, but people have asked 😅).

💸 Flat-fee subscription pricing: No hourly. No surprises. No ‘the tax return costs extra.’ One monthly price, everything included, and revisited yearly.

🙏 Please & thank you: My mom would say I don’t have manners. But, I know how to say please, thank you, and send a polite email. And, nowadays, that’s saying something 😅

😂 Jokes & stories: I may not be a comedian and you won’t see my jokes on TikTok any time soon. But, I’ll crack a few jokes, tell a few stories, and we’ll have a few laughs. At the very least, you won’t dread our meetings.

🥼 Industry expertise: They say marketing has too much jargon and too many acronyms. Go ahead and use it. I’ll know what you mean, because you aren’t the only agency I work with.

What factors affect your pricing?

‘Tax Essentials’ pricing depends on:

• your gross revenue
• number of partners
• number of states
• entity type (ie, sole prop, SMLLC, S-corp, partnership)
• general complexity

‘Finance Partner’ pricing also depends on:

• how frequently we meet (you can choose monthly, quarterly, or something in between)
• the number of financial transactions
• how many bank & credit card accounts you have

Step 1. Vibe Check: Everyone jumps right into sales and discovery. But, what happened to hello? how are you? my name is?

Before we jump in, let’s take some time to chat, get to know each other, and discuss your business. 

Step 2. Discovery Phase: If we mesh and you’d like to pursue working together, we’ll start the deep dive.

I’ll review your tax returns, poke around your books, and we’ll schedule two calls to dive deep into all your questions that previous accountants ignored.

Then, at the end, we’ll discuss my findings, send you the call recordings, and forward my proposal.

Step 3. Catch up & Clean up: Once you’ve signed on the dotted line (and paid my first invoice), we’ll get started by cleaning up any messiness, like inaccurate books, unfiled taxes, or audits.

Step 4. Smooth Sailing: Finally, we’ll get into an annual rhythm of filing returns, paying estimates, reconciling your bookkeeping, updating forecasts, and discussing your agency’s finances. Before you know it, you won’t even remember the time finances stressed you out.