Editor's Note: This is the first in a new ongoing series by Insightful Accountant by Karen Dellaripa and Rich Strait of Beyond Your Books. Each month, Karen and Rich will show you how to go from solo practitioner to building a practice and document how their year is progressing.
Operation Zero Month: In this instance, that's the getting past the fear part. It's where the story of Karen Dellaripa and Rich Strait and Beyond Your Books begins.
Beyond Your Books is a small accounting firm located in northern New Jersey. In 2016, its founder, Karen Dellaripa, set out to reinvent her solo practice. In one year, she and her partner, Rich Strait, have built a firm that doubled its revenue, transitioned to a firm-of-the-future-trusted-advisor model, and now supports six employees, two interns, two dogs and two cats who all work from home, often in pajamas.
Here, Karen and Rich share the initial steps for moving an idea from entrepreneurship to enterprise:
Karen: If you’re anything like me, you often daydream of what it would be like to not be buried by client commitments, to have some help doing stuff you hate and, to maybe even take a vacation. Well, I can’t promise you any of that. But I can try to share how I successfully started moving toward that vision.
Let’s face it. Moving from a solo practitioner to building a company is a scary proposition. It’s also the bravest, most ambitious and smartest thing I’ve ever done. But it took me three years (okay, maybe more) just to summon the courage to take that first step.
Leaving a high salary corporate position for a new entrepreneurial journey is a scary proposition. It’s also the best thing I’ve ever done. – Rich Strait
But first you must asses all the reasons you can’t move forward. You’re too busy to take the time to hire someone. You certainly can’t afford it. And it will just be a waste of time trying to find help as good as you. There's no way you have the time to train a new hire. Oh, and you hear that tiny, nagging, little voice saying, “What if I fail?”
I’m ringing the bull sheets alarm right now. Like you, I had carefully crafted every obstacle and potential pitfall in a litany of excuses I could toss out with confidence whenever the conversation came up.
Yes, fear of change prevents forward motion.
Rich: If you’re like me, you’ve felt quite secure and accomplished as you piloted the dangerous waters of your corporate environment. Meetings are a chance to share ideas. Policies keep you on a straight path. And those daily political challenges are merely hurdles to enjoy as you navigate the obstacle training course that is your domain.
The fat paycheck and awesome benefits richly reward you for putting your personal values aside to adopt those being dictated to you. If you’re like me, you think you love your job. The six-figure salary proves you’re a success. And inside you know that is all delusion.
Let’s face it, leaving a high salary corporate position for a new entrepreneurial journey is a scary proposition. It’s also the best thing I’ve ever done.
I know, I know – you’ve heard it before. I can only tell you it’s true, now that I’ve taken the leap of faith.
Karen: So, after three-plus years of carefully considered procrastination and botched cloning, I mean hiring, I saw through it all and had a defining moment.
Actually, it was an Oprah moment. During Oprah’s keynote at QuickBooks Connect 2015, I had a feeling of tremendous inspiration. It wasn’t just her presentation on living your life with intention, and her story of her own defining moments (although it was awesome). I don’t know what exactly triggered it, but I felt the change. Like an electric charge of divine inspiration, I had the one defining moment of clarity where I saw it was all within reach.
I could do this. It’s going to be great.
I’d had that defining moment before. If you’re like me, you have too. You already know the feeling. You also know it’s fleeting. Slowly drowned by the little voices of rehearsed doubts. The one thing I did differently this time was to move. Literally. I left the conference, went to my hotel room and dove into getting as many thoughts as possible down on digital paper.
Moving from a solo practitioner to building a company is a scary proposition. It’s also the bravest, most ambitious and smartest thing I’ve ever done. – Karen Dellaripa
Rich: A 2 a.m. phone call has a way of getting your attention. So when Karen called and said, “We’re going to build a company,” I had no doubt. I mean, she was in San Jose, obviously having a great time, and maybe a few too many margaritas.
So I humored her, made sure she seemed safe and went back to sleep confident she’d sleep it off and no harm would come of it.
I woke up to find her outline of a business plan and an offer in my Inbox. I simply wrote her back and said, “Yes,” and never looked back.
Karen Dellaripa
Founded in April 2003, Beyond Your Books is an accounting consulting firm for small and mid-size profit and non-profit organizations. Karen Dellaripa and Rich Strait work mainly with professional service companies such as legal, financial, engineering, real estate and executive search firms, as well as those who specialize in light manufacturing, retail and franchises.
Beyond Your Books focuses on providing its clients with accurate, real time meaningful financial information to assist them in making important business decisions that will positively impact their business and help them grow. Done using a nearly paperless process, it offers standardized workflow processes and an ongoing commitment to technology and staff development.
For more information on Karen, click here. For Rich, click here.
