Firm Ownership and Personality

I'm a CPA with 5 years in tax and I would like to explore the idea of one day owning my own firm.

Something holding me back and preventing me from pursuing this goal more aggressively is my personality: I am a naturally shy person, and I have high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (a.k.a. Asperger's Syndrome). This makes any deviation from "social scripts" an enormous challenge for me. I can be quite awkward, and it is a challenge to initiate conversations with new people spontaneously in a way that makes me question whether I have the networking and business development capacity to get new client.

On the other hand, my current employer seems reasonably well-pleased with me, and as it is a regional firm with a wide variety of returns, I feel that I bring a certain amount of skill and analytical ability to the table. I would love to be the owner of my work product in a way that will never be possible as a W-2 employee.

My question: from your collective experience, is there a necessary personality profile for firm ownership? Do you know anyone personally who was in my shoes? Am I dreaming here?

Thanks,
Diego

One's personality does play a big factor in the success of the business especially in our profession where we are the face of the business and the chief salesperson to bring in business. Having said that until you try you will never know. Perhaps the pressure of making a business succeed will bring about some changes to your personality and make you more outgoing.

I know people who have other medical condition or handicap and they are running businesses with some adjustment to overcome the challenges. A friend of mine about my age has Parkinson's disease and runs a successful business with some help from his family and knows what his limitations are.

Good luck if you decide to give it a try.

Diego, mucho gusto, first off. It's good that you're thinking about all this. While most folks don't expect accountants to have personalities at all, lol,...the truth is that one of the primary jobs we have is communicating. So that will be trouble until folks get to know and like you. I wonder if it makes sense to consider some sort of partnership arrangement where you hook up with someone who does have that bright, shiny sparkle...while you run the paperwork end more. At least until you can establish yourself. Or if not an actual partner, perhaps hire a salesperson/inexperienced accountant to get you going.

Agree with Atsman. Another option is creating a partnership with someone with more people skills. Don't sell your dreams short. If you have a passion for tax prep there are ways to make it work. We need more dedicated tax preparers!

I see JR posted the same idea first. Also agree with his points.

If you decide to get a partner, please make sure the roles are clearly defined so that you both don't get in each others way.

First, welcome!

As a very shy person who tried firm ownership, I will say, with that type of personality, it is a challenge selling yourself. If you have any issues with self-doubt, they can also be hindrances to your success. EZTAX and ATSMAN have great suggestions with a partnership. I found that when I brought a competent assistant (who was working towards their CPA license) on board, I felt more at ease. Feel free to PM me with any specific questions as I'm just letting you know I'm someone who probably understands a lot of your challenges. Which leads me to my third and last point, I have a child on the spectrum so I think I can understand on another level some of your challenges.

I'm a CPA with 5 years in tax and I would like to explore the idea of one day owning my own firm.

Something holding me back and preventing me from pursuing this goal more aggressively is my personality: I am a naturally shy person, and I have high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (a.k.a. Asperger's Syndrome). This makes any deviation from "social scripts" an enormous challenge for me. I can be quite awkward, and it is a challenge to initiate conversations with new people spontaneously in a way that makes me question whether I have the networking and business development capacity to get new client.

On the other hand, my current employer seems reasonably well-pleased with me, and as it is a regional firm with a wide variety of returns, I feel that I bring a certain amount of skill and analytical ability to the table. I would love to be the owner of my work product in a way that will never be possible as a W-2 employee.

My question: from your collective experience, is there a necessary personality profile for firm ownership? Do you know anyone personally who was in my shoes? Am I dreaming here?

Thanks,
Diego

Can you bring in business now? Bring in a few clients to see if you can. If you can bring in business, then you can probably do your own firm. If you can't that's a sign that you need to change something.

A 5 year CPA should be able to attract clients, even as an employee.

You should assume that your new job will be half sales, half accounting.

The people who succeed with their own practice, who aren't big extraverts (and there are plenty of people in that category) do so because they have a deep expertise in a hot field, or they have strategic relationships with bigger firms who feed them work. I have also seen them succeed i small towns.