Breaking Tradition and Going Modern with Joy Lutz

Joy Lutz, founder and CEO of Aligned CPA, is dedicated to helping business owners keep more of their hard-earned money, understand their financials, and become the entrepreneurs they’ve always aspired to be. Hailing from a family of entrepreneurs, Joy has experienced both the struggles and successes of building a business from the ground up. Aligned CPA is now a seven-figure firm and Joy seeks to help others achieve similar success.

Joy learned through trial and error, endless testing, and constant adjustments exactly how to run her firm, figuring it out over time, and she now uses those lessons to help other entrepreneurs, particularly law firm owners, build their dream businesses. Joy’s mission is simple: to help business owners create companies they love—not the ones they think they should have, but the ones they are excited to lead.

Joy was named a Top 40 Under 40 CPA in the US by CPA Practice Advisor, was recognized as the 2016 Small Business of the Year, and the 2023 Employer of the Year by the Lake City-Columbia County Chamber of Commerce, and Aligned was named the Top Small Accounting Firm of 2025 by PASBA.

Transcript:

Hey everybody. We are back with another episode of the CPA Life Podcast, the podcast that takes the time to dig into really what some of the current trends are that firm leaders are really leaning into, to build more people-centric CPA firms in today’s modern-minded culture and world. Firms where you’re not required to sacrifice your life and your family at the altar of your job to build a career in public accounting. And today, I’m excited to spend some time talking with a firm leader who has been pretty passionate and pretty vocal about the importance of building a firm just like that. We’re talking to Joy Lutz today, who is the founder and CEO of Aligned CPA, which is a firm based out of Lake City, Florida—a firm that really focuses on helping service-based businesses simplify their financials, optimize tax strategies, and develop actionable plans for sustainable growth. Joy, welcome to the show.

Thanks so much. I’m excited to be here. I mean, any chance I get to talk about the firm, I’m always happy to do it.

Yeah. It’s one of those things that, you know, it’s kind of like your kids and your job or your business, those, get me started and it’s not going to stop, right?

Right.

So before we jump into kind of what you guys are doing at Aligned, where you’ve come from, where you sit today, what the future looks like—I always like to dig into folks’ background to get a better understanding of how they’ve ended up on the path where you are today. You had a pretty traditional start in public accounting, correct?

Yeah, definitely. I started as a bookkeeper the summer after high school in a CPA firm, so I really learned from the ground up. I mean, I had no experience walking into that job at all. But oddly, I knew I always wanted to be an accountant. Being and getting to have a CPA license, that was always my goal. I don’t really know necessarily how I came across that, other than I have a mom who’s an artist, and so she said that God gave them me to keep her organized, which you know, if any of you work with artists, that’s impossible.

Yep!

So, you know, just a family full of creatives and artists, and then I’m kind of the oddball out, so kind of fun.

So you grew up in a family with a bunch of right-brain people?

Oh yeah, definitely. Which I’ve got a little creativity to me, so, you know, but that’s in there somewhere, I just have to, that’s how I pull that out when I’m ready to unwind from the firm.

Absolutely. So you started in high school and then kind of how did that path evolve to where you are today?

Yeah, so I worked at that firm through college, through getting my CPA license, stayed there a couple of years afterwards, and then really decided to start my own firm. That, I probably wasn’t ready to do, and I wasn’t really looking to leave the firm that I was with. I was very lucky to have a really good mentor and, you know, he really believed in me and was super flexible through that time in my life. I had a baby really young, and so I was going to college and I was working and had a baby, was married, and so he was just very flexible with me and in wanting me to excel and get better at my job. So I wasn’t necessarily looking to start my own firm.

But what was happening around that time, which this was probably about 13 years ago, was, you know, everything was kind of going paperless and we had QBO was kind of coming on the scene, and what was happening is the firm that I was in was just very traditional and he did not—it was a one CPA firm—he did not even have a computer on his desk. And so I knew that I was kind of at a crossroads that if I wanted to build a career, I probably couldn’t do it there because although that worked really well for him and his firm, you know, he was aging and those clients were aging too. So if I wanted longevity in my career, I really had to kind of create that myself.

And so you made the decision at that point to step out on your own?

Yeah. I stepped out on my own and I rented an office in a shared office space with a shared conference room, shared secretary, just kind of really bootstrapped that from day one. You know, a couple of years later I was able to rent an entire office, I think it had three offices in it, but it was standalone and it was mine. I didn’t own it though. So I rented that for a couple years until I was able to buy an office. And then, thankfully, about two years ago, we bought the office that I’m in now, which is downtown Lake City on a lake, it’s beautiful, I love it, it’s really big, so I am trying to fill it up.

So 14 years, if I’m not mistaken, that you’ve been doing this, getting ready to celebrate your 15th year in a few months of doing your own thing. Was there ever any thought in that process? Because, I mean, that takes a lot of courage to take that step. And also, you know, even though growing up in a house with a bunch of right-brain people that probably threw caution to the wind constantly, being an accountant, stereotypically, that left brain is going to kick in and analyze everything before that step is taken. Did you ever consider going to work for another firm? Not doing that?

I did. I actually, I considered that, well, let me say, and this was very brave of the CPA that I did work for. When I got my bachelor’s degree—no, when I got my CPA license, I think it was one or the other—he had me interview at every firm in town that would talk to me because he said, “I don’t want you always thinking the grass is greener on the other side,” And imagine, can you imagine being that person telling your staff, go interview everywhere else? That means you have something good.

Yeah.

And he really did. He had something good for what he had built—it was just kind of different than what I knew the industry was going to go in.

You know, I’ve got to believe that a mindset like that working for somebody that early in your career, that has a mindset like that, does a lot for your confidence, as well as does a lot for laying the foundation of how you address things in your firm today from a people standpoint.

Yeah. You know, I think we definitely learn from what we’ve experienced, whether we’re learning from good experience or we’re learning from bad. There was some bad roped in there. You know, it was just that mentality that he was from. He taught me very early on that quality is first, and so I learned to be a great CPA from him, and then picked up tips on how to lead a firm as well, and tips on how not to lead a firm. That’s kind of the fun part of business is you get to decide. But I will say like early on, I had very much what I’ve always called a lifestyle firm that probably up until 2021, it was very much like “a job.” You know, it was just like, I want to make enough money just to kind of work a little bit, but not too much, you know, and just have a paycheck really. And then in 2021, I just kind of decided like, alright, I’m ready. Like, let’s just, if we’re going to do this, let’s do this. And so that’s really when we started operating it more as a business than as a CPA firm.

And those are two very distinctively different mindsets.

Absolutely, yeah.

There are people that we talk to constantly that have their own firm and do their own thing, but it’s really what you just described. It is, you’re controlling your paycheck. It’s a job, you’re in control of it, but there gets to be a point where you have to ask yourself, is this what I want? And there’s nothing wrong with it if that’s what somebody wants, but if it’s not what you want, and there’s a different path you want to take, like you guys have taken, there’s a mindset shift that has to go on within your head. Talk a little bit about that.

Yeah, that was tricky. That’s still even tricky. So you mentioned confidence earlier, and I think that’s really why I started in 2021—maybe that was the time that I had built up enough confidence to say like, “Hey, I think I could really do this.” You start hearing enough stories about other firms, and you’re like, “Wait a minute, like, I could do that.” And you see other firms, their success, and I don’t mean this in a negative way or anything, but it’s like, you look at firm owners and you’re like, “Wait a minute, they don’t have anything special or anything different than what I have. Like, I could do this. Like, okay, I’m ready. Let’s go.” And I think it was just making that decision of I’m ready to have a business. Like for me, it too, it was like, I want to develop something that I could potentially sell. You know, I don’t want to do all of this for nothing. I want to create something really great. And so I get rewarded for that, you know, when the time comes.

Absolutely. And I think that you kind of hit the nail on the head. Sometimes you have to surround yourself with people that you’re looking at, and maybe they don’t even know that they are providing the motivation or the impetus for you to take that step and, you know, have the courage to do whatever it is that you’re talking about. In this case, we’re talking about starting your own firm. But, and again, as you said, it’s not a slight, it’s not a negative, but you look at people and we tend to put people on a pedestal and have ourselves deal with imposter syndrome. “There’s no way I can do that. No way that could be me.” And then you start to sit in a room and you go, “Wait a minute.”

“I think I can do this.”

“I’m just as smart as these people,” you know? Or you look at it and go, “Wait a minute. I may not be as smart as that guy, but I know darn sure that I would work as hard, if not harder, than that guy.” And it does give you the courage to take a step out there. So, when that light bulb went on for you, what were some of the things that you look back now that you had to say, okay, we’re going to start doing some things different and these two or three things are going to be critical to our success if we want to be successful?

It definitely started with like, we had to have another like tax manager in the firm. Like, we needed to add other managers, everything couldn’t just rest on my shoulders. And then we really stopped doing tax-only work. So I joined PASBA, and I’m a huge fan of PASBA—I’m actually on their board now. Fun fact, and we can talk about this too. I just won the “Small firm, accounting firm of the year.” So that was super fun.

Congratulations!

Yeah, super fun to get. But joining PASBA really kind of showed me a clear business model and that was really too, of seeing how other people were running their firms and they were doing it successfully. So we switched to a monthly model, where we’re doing bookkeeping and tax in a monthly package for our clients. And that has done so much for the firm across the board, because we’re serving clients better, and we’re kind of maintaining or I almost hate the term “work-life balance,” but we’re maintaining our work throughout the year instead of this huge rush, working crazy hours a third of your year, like I just didn’t want to do that anymore.

So switching to that model where we’re not doing a lot of like 1040-only work or end of the year work, we’re handling it year-round, that made a huge difference, putting that into a monthly package. And so now we have recurring revenue and that’s just really helped me, you know, have the cashflow to build the next position.

A couple of years ago too, we hired a salesperson and so really kind of built out our marketing and sales department, you know, just realizing you can’t always wait on leads to come to you, like, you have to be proactive. That’s the funniest thing about CPA firms. Like, if they thought and switched their mindset of running it like a business, it makes so much sense to have a sales and marketing department. But if you’re running it like a traditional CPA, that just seems like craziness. But it’s really worked, and so having that in place has really helped with our growth as well.

I’m assuming that gives you a little bit more consistency in that pipeline versus, you know, we’re chugging along, we’re chugging along, we’re chugging along, things are going great, oh my gosh, we just lost two clients, now what do we do?

Yeah, and it really provides that consistency and the quality control of who you’re letting in. You know, we have a very clearly defined ideal client, and so our sales is able to say immediately, yes, this is a good fit or no, it’s not. So we’re not wasting a lot of our resources on bad clients, or I should say, non-ideal clients.

Right. And, you know, one of the things that you touched on in regards to transitioning to business was moving to a full-service monthly recurring revenue model. One of the things that whenever we talk to candidates, whether we’re working with your firm and we’re talking to candidates, or we’re working with any firm that’s got any type of a model that is bookkeeping and tax aligned, it still amazes me—and it’s maybe because we swim in this pond constantly—but it truly still amazes me how many times we’ll talk to candidates that in effect what they’ll say whenever we explain that to them is, “Wait, pump the brakes, I’m not going to get somebody’s books in January and February and spend the next six to eight weeks doing adjusting journal entries? Sign me up.”

Yeah. And not only that, it’s also the fact of like you’re saying, so the way that we work is we have an accounting and tax manager and then we have a staff accountant. So our staff accountant does all of the bookkeeping, payroll, sales tax—that bookkeeping goes to the manager to review—and then the manager has a relationship with the client. And so as a manager in our firm, you have so much more ability to play the role to help our clients be more successful because you can advise them more timely on accurate data. And so you can be impactful to them, which is what we ultimately want. And that’s really one of our core values that our success is in your success, whether we’re talking about our employees or our clients, because I can’t have a successful CPA firm without successful clients. And the same thing goes for our employees—we have to have great employees that can continue to serve the clients we have. So it really just kind of all snowballs that all of our pieces have to fit together to work, and that starts around building the right team.

Let’s talk a little bit about that team. Back in ’21, when you made the decision of, you know, hey, we’re going to start to feed the engine a little bit and grow this thing into a business, where were you from an FTE headcount perspective then? Where are you today? And what does vision look like the next 12, 24, 36 months for you guys?

Then, we were two full-time employees and that was me and a part-time bookkeeper and a part-time admin. Today we’re at eight employees. So that’s been a lot of growth over that time. Over the next 12 months, we’re definitely looking to bring on an accounting and tax manager—over the next month, I shouldn’t even say over the next 12. That’s our top priority right now. And then within the next 12 months, we’re also going to be bringing on a staff accountant and a payroll processor. We’ve got some things changing in the firm, and then we just really have a lot of growth opportunity that I’ve kind of had to put a little bit on pause until we get these positions filled because I don’t want our team to be over capacity, and I want the clients to be served well. So that’s really on our radar. So lots going on.

When you look at the whole issue of capacity planning, you know, the entire gamut of, you know, chicken, egg, cart, horse, what do we do, how do we do it? What are some of the things that you look at to ensure that one, the business is being delivered on that we have, two, the business is potentially still growing, and three, our people are being taken care of and we’re not working stereotypical, crazy, ridiculous hours. What are the components that you look at as a firm leader to make sure that those things are balanced the way they should be?

So, the way that our firm is set up is it’s set up in what we’d call sections. And so, the manager has a section of clients, and we know volume-wise what they should be able to handle. And so I can judge that capacity level on an individual basis. Now, although I’m a firm owner, I am still a CPA and definitely super analytical, so guess what? I have lots of spreadsheets that help with that. But I’ve kind of built out a tool to help with capacity planning to see, you know, I have to align the capacity to work with the new leads, as well as the price we’re charging. So you kind of get to pull all those levers during all of this. But I can pinpoint, you know, when we hire someone based on their particular salary and the rate that we bring on new clients, when are we going to break even, when are we going to start making money in production off of this position, and when can that position get to production bonus level. So all of those things kind of come into play with capacity. And the other side of that is new clients. So that’s the lever I get to pull of, okay, we could take three new clients this month or we could take one new client this month. And that, you know, comes down to our sales and marketing department of kind of what’s going on there.

As you’re looking at that, and again, there’s got to be, as a business owner, there’s got to be a balance between growing the business, taking care of our people, the things we just talked about. But you know, there are some firm owners that we talk to and they’ll get to a point of, “Hey, we’re at capacity and regardless of what knocks on our door, the answer is no until we get to a certain level.” And then there’s other firm members that we talk to and their mindset is, “It’s not that we say no, but if we’re going to say yes, we do a deep dive look at who our current client base is. And is there somebody that’s been causing us to pull our hair out? Is there somebody that isn’t a good fit right now, that if we do say yes, right now, because of capacity, it’s a zero sum game. We’re going to say yes here, but we’re going to let this client go.” What camp do you fall in when you start looking at your business?

Both. So, we have a very clear vision of where we’re headed, and where I want to be in the next year, three years, ten years. But we’re also small enough in growing that when we do have changes and employees that can have a really big effect on us. You know, there’s a difference when you lose an employee, when you’re at seven or eight versus when you’re at 50. And so I think it kind of depends on that and what had happened when we set our ’25 goals, we had really high goals and we set those, I think, in November. Well, in December, we had a manager leave. We had one coming in at the same week that one was leaving, but the one that was coming in was hired for growth. Thankfully, we were able to kind of put her in the position to step into the other manager’s role, but that made us pause our growth until we got through tax season.

But it’s exactly what you said. What we’ve done over the past five months is, I said, okay, here’s what we’re doing with sales: It’s either a hell yes, or it’s a no. And if it does not fit over here, then it’s just not right for us right now. Or what you’ve said, if we had like just a unicorn of an ideal client come in, it was like, what are we going to prune so we can staff this and not have chaos in the firm? So, I don’t think that there’s a strategy that you pick and you always stick to—I think you have to react. And what I’ve learned in running a firm is the sooner you react, the better. So, you know, pulling or pushing levers is what you’re going to continue to do no matter what size firm you’re in.

Well, and I think a lot of that comes down to, you know, you joked a little bit ago about spreadsheets.

Yeah. It’s a numbers game.

I agree with you, and I firmly believe the more data that you have, the more things that you can measure, the more things that we can look at, the better we can make some of those decisions. Now, of course, you may get to a point of paralysis by analysis, but I think that you have to look at that data constantly to understand where the business is. One of the things that we’ll hear a lot of times whenever we talk to candidates is, “Hey, I understand that they’re at a great place now and I understand my life may be great, but what’s to keep them from, you know, growing so fast that I get back to where I’m working 60, 70, 80 hours a week.” And that’s one of the things that, you know, a lot of times we’ll hear from candidates that are really seeking, as you said, I’m not a fan of the phrase, but seeking a work-life balance situation. Where do you believe the line is, as a firm owner, between enough versus too much? Or I guess really the question boils down to, as I was talking to another firm leader about this once, when is enough enough?

When I decide. Isn’t that the beauty of being the business owner? And what I mean by that is like, so in our firm, we have very clear expectations. I know what production value I need a manager to be at, and that manager knows that number too, and we do pay production bonuses. So if that person based off their life and their needs, if they want to, you know, really add on a ton of work so that they’re getting higher bonuses, they’re more welcome to do that. Or if they just say, “Hey, look, I do want to meet expectations and I want to grow as well, but I’m not looking to be the rock star in the firm,” that’s okay too. I think it just comes down to being really clear on what those expectations are and then sticking to it.

You know, like your comment about candidates saying like, who’s to say that they won’t, you know, go back on their word? And what we’ve done in the past is had candidates talk to my employees, like I will walk out of the room, you know, and you can sit with all of them and ask them questions about the leadership and how the firm’s run, because, you know, we’re not hiding secrets. And I take it just as serious when we bring an employee in, like, I feel a responsibility, not to their livelihood, but to make sure I’m giving them the opportunity to succeed here. And I think that all of my employees would say that as well.

And I think that those are huge values in the marketplace that I think if firm leaders would lean into those things a little bit more, they’d have a little bit easier time talking to people about the opportunities that exist within their organization. Because there’s been enough in the world that’s occurred over the last five to six years that the story that people have to get past is the, you know, horrific stories from large national firms that they’re continually seeing over and over again, and those opportunities, yes, they’re there. Those environments are still there, they’re not going to change, but I think the narrative that firms like you are trying to deliver into the marketplace is, “Hey, there is a better way. Let us show you what that looks like.”

Yes, exactly. That’s definitely my goal, because as we’ve grown and I’ve interviewed so many people over the years, you really do start to see like, toxicity in other firms and, you know, things that candidates have gone through or are living through in their job. And that’s just kind of amazed me, I guess, because I don’t have a lot of experience working for other firms. And so, when I hear these stories, I’m just blown away. But what I’ve really kind of started to believe is I think that there’s great candidates out there in these really bad firms, but they think that all firms are bad. So they’re like, let me just stick with what I know, instead of going to the market. So I really just want to show them like, there is a better way. Like you really can be happy at your job again and make good money.

Yep. I think that there’s this mindset that either one, if I love public accounting—if I enjoy what I do—I am relegated to a life of servitude, if you will, to the firm that’s going to require me to work 70 to 80 hours. And as I start to grow up the chain of command, because it’s an up or out mentality, I’m going to have to also continue to sacrifice my family because I’ve got to go to every Rotary Club and Lions Club meeting and hang out at happy hours and golf tournaments to grow my business. And if I’m not managing a half million dollar book of business in three to four years from being promoted to director and working a ton of hours—if I’m not doing those things—I’m not going to grow my career. That’s my lot in life. Or I leave this and as we were talking before we started recording, I leave this and I go to work for a corporation where, you know, it’s not just same as last year, it’s same as yesterday.

Yeah, you’re bored to tears.

Yep. And I think trying to show people, no, these aren’t your only options, there’s some amazing options like you guys in the marketplace—when you talk to candidates, what are the things that you try to convey to them to get them to see, hey, it’s different here and here’s why?

One of the things we do when we talk to candidates is we have what we call a culture guide, and we’ll send that out to them either before or after we’re interviewing with them, depending on the information that we have. And that culture guide to me really just sets the tone, because it tells them about our core values, there’s a message from me, it tells you about our history as well as things about the firm. So for instance, one of our other core values is commitment to community. So I’m a huge believer that we need to give back to the communities that we’re in, and so we try and do a nonprofit event every quarter. And so we talk about that in the culture guide. I feel like I’m selling the firm to you as much as you’re selling yourself to me to be in the firm. And that’s really the firm I want to be. I want to be where it’s like, no, I have the pick of the market because we are so great at what we’re doing, that you want to be a piece of this. And so having those conversations and talking to candidates about what they’re looking for, you know, do they just want to be plugged in and do the work? Or are they looking for a growth path and what that could potentially look like in the firm? I think it’s my job to kind of sell that future to them based on what they want.

One of the things that we hear a lot from candidates, again, just engaging with people in the marketplace constantly is just the continual mindset where they work today, stereotypically at a larger firm, or a more traditional firm, is “Man, the bane of my existence is time tracking. The bane of my life is every 6 minutes or 15 minutes I have to justify my existence in this organization.” With you guys being a monthly recurring revenue, fixed-priced firm, do you guys do time tracking? And if so, is it more just to understand from a capacity standpoint, from a workflow standpoint, what are we doing and did we price this right? Or is time tracking even on the radar with you guys?

Yep. So we do track time. We don’t require a specific billable hour. We really are tracking time to figure out the capacity aspects, and just like you said, like, I want to know, did we price this right? Because we know where it should be as far as time. But that also tells me, like, did we price this right? Does this employee need additional training, or are our processes not clear on what we’re doing? Like, that time function gives me a lot of information even though we’re not billing off of it. So that’s why we track time. And it does help me with capacity to know where I can add new clients to employees.

Well, and I think in understanding engaging with candidates, they completely get the fact that if we’re not tracking time, we have a tough time understanding what we’re putting into this and what we are getting out of it. I think most people that we talk to, the biggest frustration, like you talk about, is that time and billing being adjoined together, therefore, that drives a lot of the mindset of leadership of what’s the expectation of the people. But I think that people get the fact that this is something we budgeted 15 hours a month for and it’s taken us 22. Is the issue us?

Yeah, then it’s like, what’s going on?

Yeah. Is the issue us? Is the issue them? Where’s the breakdown in this? Or is this something that, you know, maybe in your case, is this something that’s been a client that we’ve had since 2021, and in 2021, they were a million-dollar business, in 2025, they’re a 9-million-dollar business, but we haven’t raised prices, and their work has gotten more complex.

Yeah. And our staff does get incentive pay. And so it is in our team’s best interest to track that time. And they’ll come to me, you know, a bookkeeper will come to me and say, hey, this is why it’s taken me so long. Like they already kind of know because they want me to increase the fee if the scope has changed, because that’s going to impact their paycheck. And so now I have people in the business looking out for the business, so, you know, that’s fantastic.

Yeah. It helps when you have an extra sets of eyes as you start to grow and multiply because you can’t keep an eye on everything or keep a pulse on everything.

Yeah, so the team helps in that, and like I said, all of our interests are aligned, you know, as far as they want to be paid fairly for what they’re doing, and we want to charge clients for the value we’re delivering. And so it aligns, like the firm name, you know, that really kind of comes into play.

So tell me about the recent PASBA recognition and award that you guys got.

Yeah! So PASBA recognizes a small, medium, and large firm every year, for really their achievements of what they’ve done in their firm, as well as being a part of PASBA. So, their motto is really “teach, share, learn,” and I think I do a lot of that because I always speak at conferences or I’ll be a moderator on a panel. I am on the board as well. But really recognizing, we probably tripled in growth from the past three years, so from ’21 to ’24, and a lot of that was due to just implementing some of the things that the PASBA model believes in doing like incentive pay and like monthly billing, you know. Before I had always been told that you can’t make a lot of money in bookkeeping, and so that was never on my radar and we really kind of switched our whole model to that.

I’m just a big believer in helping however I can. And so I have a lot of conversations with other firm owners, you know, if they have questions and stuff like that, not that I have all the answers, but what happens is when you try a lot of different things, you get experience and can give advice because you’ve tried the things and some of them work and some of them don’t.

Yep. Well, it’s kind of like you and I were talking about the other day in a phone call that there is somebody that’s probably blazed this trail before.

Yeah, let’s just see how that worked for them before we start blazing the trail. And that’s kind of what I said to you, is like, I don’t want to be an innovator, I want to be right behind the innovator, you know, let them take all the risk and have more failure, and I can learn from what they’ve done.

Yep. There’s a lot of people that love to be the person that has the machete in their hand going into the forest and cutting a path. There’s a lot of people that have no issue with that. And I agree with you, I have zero issue being the person standing right behind them and following that path as they’re continuing to cut it, and I don’t necessarily have to have a say or an opinion of what direction they’re heading in the jungle. I’ll just gladly follow.

And then I’ll ask them lots of questions.

Yes! Yeah. At night, when we stop, I can ask questions about, “Okay, why did you choose this path? Why did you choose this machete? Why didn’t you go this way? Why did you go that way?” And there’s a lot that can be learned when you’re surrounding yourself with people that are willing to do that, it sounds like you’ve done that, and PASBA has recognized that as well, not only being the person that absorbs that, but also the person that turns around and gives that out to other people that are coming behind you.

Yeah, you know, there’s no reason to gatekeep any information. There is plenty of business out there, so there’s lots of opportunity for firm owners to make changes in their firm and really improve. There’s plenty of clients to make us all successful.

Absolutely, there are. When you look at the growth that you guys are aspiring to over the next year to three years, what would you say are the biggest challenges that you believe—not just you, but in general—firms like yours are facing to achieve the numbers and the growth that you’re looking for over the next 12, 24, or 36-month timeframe?

I think it all comes down to the talent and the talent pool and what you can attract and what you can retain. That is really what I see as what is kind of in the way of—not in the way of the growth—but that’s going to have to be strategically placed in the firms in order for them to continue to grow. Because you look at supply and demand: I mean, the supply of managers is much lower than what it was even three, four years ago. And so just attracting the right candidates, I think. I think when I get in front of the right candidates, that’s when I can be successful at bringing them into a firm. And so it’s really just getting in front of that right candidate and showing them that, hey, we are different than what you’ve experienced before. Let’s have a conversation. I think that’s really our constraint in growth because I think the demand for firms, accountants, whether it’s bookkeepers, tax professionals, is out there, and there are businesses, you know, looking for firms like what you’re running, so the constraint’s really on the talent.

Yeah, I think that the growth of firms like yours is strictly limited right now on, hey, when can we get people in the door, and how quickly can they become a proven asset for our organization? Because like you said, everybody needs the talent, because everybody’s business is on the upswing.

Yeah. And the thing is, you know, I put our employees first and right behind them are our clients. And so I need to be very protective of who we do bring into the firm, because I’ve built this with a team over these years, but I take that so serious, like, I want these clients because I’ve built this with a team over these years, but I take that so seriously. Like, I want these clients to be served well, and I want them to get the best advice, whether that’s business advice or tax advice. And so I have to be particular about what I’m letting in and how I treat that client base. Like right now, you know, I am servicing a lot of clients, and I am looking for someone that I know I can hand those clients off to, and they’re going to continue to get that same level of service. So that’s really important too, that as much as I, you know, could probably get someone in the firm immediately, I have to slow down and be picky about who that is.

Yep, and it’s tough to have that patience, because you want to do it now.

Yeah, especially like, you know, I’ve been working really hard on being content and ambitious, and that is really hard!

I was listening to a podcast this morning during my workout, and they were talking about it doesn’t matter what season of life you’re in right now, it will end. Whether you’re on a mountaintop or you’re in a valley, it will end. And the phrase that the guy used that I really liked, which was a phrase that he said a mentor of his kind of sewed into him is, “Remember the things that you prayed for.”

Oh, I say all the time, I’m like, “This overwhelm is the blessings I’ve always prayed for.”

Yes.

Because it’s so true. I mean, I remember not making any money, being a bookkeeper working through college, just dreaming of the day, you know, that I had a firm, and it’s just, that’s so true. So you have to remind yourself, like, this is the path that you’re on that you have created for yourself. So if that’s a chaotic path, like, you’re still in charge, and you can change it.

Yep, you can absolutely change, and you don’t need to wait for, you know, a specific date on the calendar. You don’t have to wait for the beginning of the year. Again, I love podcasts—I host one and love listening to them, and I’m a huge functional fitness and functional health person. I was listening to a podcast the other day and this guy said, you know, the best time to start a diet was yesterday. The best, next best time is tomorrow. He said, in fact, “I tell our clients all the time, the best day to start getting healthy is the day that your hand is sitting in the middle of a bag of Doritos.” And you can do it right then. So you don’t have to wait until January 1 to make the changes in your firm.

I mean, what you and your team are building at Aligned is demonstrating to the rest of the marketplace that there absolutely is a better way to build a business in this space. If there are firm owners out there, firm leaders who would like to learn more from you, pick your brain a little bit, because maybe they are the person that is a step or two behind you on that path that you’ve been walking down behind another person, couple of steps. They may want to learn from you—what mistakes have you made? What have you done well? What’s worked? What hasn’t worked? Or on the flip side of that, if there are people out there that are possibly considering putting a toe in the water and considering a change from what they perceive as safety today, working at a big firm, but that’s just a perception, what is the best way for people to get a hold of you, find you, engage with you, pick your brain, talk to you about opportunities?

Yeah, so definitely on LinkedIn. I’m pretty active over there, and you can just find me, Joy Lutz, CPA. I’d love to have those conversations, you know, if you’re thinking of starting a firm, I’d love to have a conversation about how you could feel like a business owner inside of my firm and not have, you know, the stresses of a business owner. Or I’ll talk to you about, you know, things that maybe you need help with or are considering. But I do want people to think about that first. In fact, I made a LinkedIn post a couple of weeks ago that said, “Hey, did you finish tax season, and you realize you really love taxes, but you hated running a business? Like, I want to talk to you, because you can be really successful in my firm.” But if owning a firm is your dream, like I’d love to be a part of that and kind of, you know, help you. And I’ll also point people to PASBA because that’s been a huge help in building my firm as well.

It does take a village at times, and sometimes that village is there to affirm the path that you’re on or to talk to you about alternative paths, like the person that maybe thought, hey, running my own firm would be great. And two years into it, they realize, “Man, I am a great technician, but I don’t like the sales side of this. I don’t like the collection side of this. I don’t like the billing side of this, the admin side of this.”

We can handle all of that!

Absolutely.

And you can definitely find more info on the website. And then you mentioned podcasts earlier. So I was crazy enough to launch a podcast this year. And that’s been a lot of fun because it’s really aimed at our business clients. I wanted to find a way, like, how can I give them more value without a lot of time? And so really, this is that one-to-many. And I really have aimed the podcast to be short and sweet. It’s, you know, the one I launched last week was about five minutes. Usually, they’re like 10 to 15. But it’s just really tactical things that either firm owners or business owners of any kind can implement and start seeing traction in their improvement of their business.

I went and listened to some of them after you told me about it the other day and I think you’re exactly right: There are simple principles that people can put into place pretty quickly.

Yeah! I really struggled with growing my business of what does a CEO do? Like how am I supposed to know that? I’ve never done that. And so really kind of set out to say, and figure that out and figure out the logistic side of business and how it works and operates together. And so now it’s just like let’s just share these little things. Because even for our clients, if they can just implement these little things, they’re going to make more money. And that’s what I want for them.

Absolutely. Well, you’ve obviously had some success, done a lot of things right, you’ve probably done some things wrong along the way that taught you a lot more.

Oh yeah, lots of things wrong!

Yeah, I think we all have along the way, but I want to thank you again for spending some time with us and I’m going to make sure that down in the show notes will be a link to your LinkedIn profile, a link to your firm’s website so that if people want to reach out to you, learn more about you, they can easily do that without having to search a lot of different platforms.

Great. Yeah, this has been a lot of fun.

Well, if you enjoyed this episode, leave a comment below for us and make sure that you subscribe on the platform of your choice so that you don’t miss any future shows where we are going to be having conversations with firm leaders, firm owners, that are just like Joy that are putting a stake in the ground and saying, “Hey, something’s got to change, and we’re not going to wait for somebody else to do it.” These are leaders that aren’t just talking about the change, they are absolutely making the change and creating a more sustainable, exciting CPA Life. Until next time.

We hope you enjoyed today’s episode. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcasting app, leave a five star rating and visit our website for links and show notes at CPALifePodcast.com. We’ll see you next time on CPA Life.

Breaking Tradition and Going Modern with Joy Lutz

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