Can anyone on the boards speak to their experience starting a practice of their own while working in a small firm?
The firm I'm working for right now has a moonlighting policy that states no other accounting work on the side, or you will be shown the door. So, unless I sneak around, I can't grow a client base while I'm still here. I don't have the capital to buy a firm from a retiring practitioner. I think I might be in a position to get into ownership here, but who knows how long that would take, and there's at least a ten year gap in ages of the existing partners, so it wouldn't be my practice, I would be someone's junior partner.
A few years ago, I had some tax clients at one firm, but I moved to another firm and focused on audits for a few years, and I had a nonsolicit with the first firm, so I left their clients be. Now I am at this firm, back in a tax role, and frustrated when I know I could be doing this work for myself. The biggest hurdle I see is that jump from a steady paycheck to struggling to get enough work to keep the lights on. Wife doesn't have a salary, so it's a pretty big hurdle.