There’s Always Money in the Banana Stand

We’re going for a different feel on this newsletter - let me know how you feel about this type of content and if you’d like to see more opinion piece type articles.

This whole newsletter is largely based on a saying from Arrested Development (A TV show). In the show you’ll realize they were always having business problems. A small piece of me wants to believe that at least SOME of those problems would have been solved if they used a best-in-class practice management tool like Canopy.

Canopy is the practice management solution for making sure the folks at your firm can be on top of their game and everything is as it should be when it comes to firm administration. Unclunk your firm - check out Canopy.

One of the most commonly asked questions I get running Big 4 Transparency is if I would still recommend going into the accounting profession or if I would go back and change what I decided to specialize in. And the answer is that I continue to strongly recommend accounting as a great avenue for folks, and the more I learn about the industry the more I double down on that statement. And yet, my “career” in actual accounting was incredibly short lived with around 3 years in Big 4 and a miserable controller job afterwards. So why such a glowing recommendation for the field of accounting?

In the simplest sense, having my CPA and the background in accounting I do has felt like this incredible safety net allowing me to spread my wings. I invested a lot of time into building and maintaining great relationships in the field to where I always felt like I could go back without having missed out on too much progression. So feeling like I always had a very solid fallback to a large firm working in tax, or even doing some tax work on the side to supplement my income has allowed me to take risks with my career. I pivoted from tax to industry accounting to FP&A to full-time entrepreneurship without ever feeling like I’d be in any kind of financial trouble should things not pan out for me in those fields. If the proverbial shit ever hit the fan, I could always go do tax work.

In my mid-twenties I really wanted to buy a rental property while working in industry on a set salary - I turned to picking up some tax clients on the side and made it happen quite quickly. Most recently, I fundraised less than I had wanted to initially raise as a runway to get Big 4 Transparency to a place where it could replace my previous 6-figure salary - but if cash reserves ever run too low I know I could pick up some accounting or tax clients to supplement my income.

Once you have the knowledge that comes with the CPA designation, you have access to this service with minimal barriers to entry where the demand greatly exceeds the supply, and with just a little bit of networking and just a little bit of know-how you can always make it work. Now do the jobs usually have some downsides like long hours - yes. But with the freedom you’ve awarded yourself by having this safety net, you can boldly go forward and try new things without finding yourself lost down the road with no way to support yourself.

So you take some comfort in knowing that like George Bluth said from Arrested Development - there’s always money in the banana stand.

I’m a little late to the punch on announcing this, but The Big 4 Transparency Podcast is now being distributed on CPA Trendlines! Nothing will really change in terms of the podcast or newsletter content, but I really just want to thank you all for being a part of this journey! With the additional reach, I really think we can start to make more of a difference in the accounting industry.

I’d love to hear from you on topics you’d want to hear more about or that you feel strongly need to be discussed more in the industry. Shoot me an email over at [email protected]