Experience Required!

This week marked the debut of the New York Accounting and Finance Show, the 2018 iteration of the former New York Accounting & Technology confab, a repetitive annual debacle that convened in a hotel venue that by some miracle had city health and safety inspectors somehow looking the other way.

After spending several hours there it would not have been impractical for those who are certified germaphobes to undergo a complete physical and receive a tetanus shot for good measure.

It attracted legions of sole practitioners whose firms generated an average of $100k a year and aside from getting their required CPE it was a matter of how many pens and other free giveaways they could stuff in their canvas conference bags.

Simply put, it was hardly our target audience. It was a show that had technically died somewhere circa 2005 but no one bothered to tell the management.

Under new directorate now, the two-day event took place in New York City’s cavernous Javits Center instead of the Bates Motel. It appeared that the vendor showcase had increased exponentially as did attendance.

I was fortunate enough to be asked to present a session on the 7-steps to closing an M&A deal and when done, I was greeted by several of the attendees who asked the usual questions, “where can I find a good young CPA? and “when do you think I should begin succession planning?”

By coincidence I was on my way home when a man approached me at Grand Central Terminal. He told me he attended my session and was interested in acquiring a practice. He had spent his entire career in the private sector and was now interested in acquiring a CPA firm. He was, without admitting it entirely, undergoing a mid-life job crisis and felt it was time for a change.

But to his credit he asked me point blank about his credibility as a buyer without ever owning a firm.

Our policy here is honesty, we don’t sell you a used car and tell you that an elderly woman used it only to drive to church on Sundays – colloquially or otherwise.

I told him in all honesty he’d have a very hard time. Even if he had the capital, he has no track record of running a public practice and someone nearing retirement would be hesitant to go with someone that inexperienced. Any seller firm would have very real concerns about their buyout and of course client transition.

He thanked me but added that he’d continue to keep looking. I wished him luck and said that I’d probably see him at the event next year. And for the record I’ll predict right here that he’ll still be looking.