Acquisitions for Small CPA/Bookkeeping firms - any State in the US

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by a professional from Universidad Militar Nueva Granada
in Houston, TX, USA

2w ago

Acquisitions for Small CPA/Bookkeeping firms - any State in the US

Hello Searchfunder family, I recently had the chance to acquire a small CPA firm in Virginia, and it was a great experience. Now, I'm looking to take a more deliberate approach and focus on acquiring small to micro CPA/Bookkeeping firms across the U.S. What I'm Looking For (Sweet Spot) Revenue: $100K–$300K Services: Bookkeeping, accounting, payroll, and tax Location: Any state Maybe is not a huge deal, but it's underserved—many small firms with less than $500K in revenue are being forced to shut down. I want to invest in these opportunities. Any introductions to sellers or brokers would be greatly appreciated!

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reply by a searcher 1w ago
from University of California, Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Hey Edison! I'm 10 months into a similar journey and 18 months into a search that based on geographical constraints has had me spend most of my time in the <@$2M revenue range. Here are a few thoughts and I am happy to share more directly. Almost any business under $2M in revenue is really not big enough for a broker to deal with. Generally the owner is the master craftsman of what the business provides and is the key revenue generator with a couple employees and a bookkeeper. A business under $500K is a job and not a sellable business at all except to a friendly competitor that can just absorb the clients. Accounting businesses the size you are talking about will need to just wind down and retire or find a friendly local competitor to turn their clients over to and take an earn out on revenue that sticks around. The SDE is typically earned entirely by the seller's hours at that size, so if you replace them, the real SDE becomes pretty close to zero. I can almost guarantee that you have between 10 and 100 targets within 30 miles of your current firm and I would strongly advise the local approach vs. trying to patch together small firms in different areas. If you are trying to build a full virtual firm that might work, but the reason the small CPA firms generally exist is because people want to go sit down with someone.

reply by a professional 1w ago
from Universidad Militar Nueva Granada in Houston, TX, USA

That's a fantastic perspective—thanks for bringing it up. One thing I genuinely value about this group is its genuine nature. Our approach currently incorporates a transition phase to help with retention, and we're prepared to have someone on-site if client demand justifies it. My goal is to be the top choice for those smaller firms thinking about retirement, as so many are often left with no option but to shut down.