Many CPA firm owners wait until they're ready to retire to ask who can replace them. Susan Stutzel, CPA, business performance coach, and co-owner of Partners Coach Inc., believes that question should start the day a new hire walks in the door. In this episode of The Accountant's Flight Plan, Brannon Poe and Susan explore how developing leadership and professional skills at every level builds a stronger accounting practice and a smoother path to firm succession.

Susan brings more than 25 years of experience in public accounting, including roles at a top five national firm, a regional firm, a small business, and a Fortune 500 company. She has seen why succession plans stall: owners with no one ready to lean on, managers measured only on chargeable hours, and staff who never hear what the path to partnership looks like. One firm she worked with believed no one wanted to become a partner. Once someone asked, staff and senior managers said they were interested.

Brannon adds the buyer's perspective. Many firm owners contact Poe Group Advisors years before they plan to sell, and that early start pays off. Buyers want great teams and well-run practices, and a lot can be accomplished in a few years. Susan notes that an owner who isn't growing their team becomes the bottleneck, which makes any transition harder.

The Conversation Covers:

• How developing leadership skills early creates successors from within your CPA firm
• Why owners who stop growing their teams become the bottleneck to firm succession
• How one firm learned its staff wanted partnership once someone asked
• Why tying manager bonuses only to chargeable hours slows leadership development
• How AI is changing the way firms train the next generation of accountants
• Why buyers look for strong teams when evaluating an accounting practice

Susan's advice for firm owners planning ahead is a shift in role: move from being the expert in the room to creating more experts in the room. The team you build today shapes the options you have when you're ready to sell.

This Episode Is For...

This episode is for accounting firm owners planning a sale or transition in the next five to ten years, partners ready to identify and develop their successors, owners curious about what buyers look for in a CPA firm, and leaders wondering how to reduce owner dependence before stepping back.

Q&A

When should a CPA firm owner start succession planning?
Susan Stutzel, CPA and co-owner of Partners Coach Inc., recommends starting the day new staff join the firm. Building leadership and business development skills at every level creates successors long before the owner is ready to retire.

Why do buyers care about a CPA firm's team?
Brannon Poe, founder of Poe Group Advisors, notes that buyers want great teams and well-run practices. Firm owners who start preparing several years before a sale have time to strengthen both.

How can firm owners find successors within their own staff?
Susan suggests asking directly. Many staff and senior managers are interested in partnership but never hear about the opportunity. Open conversations about career paths often reveal future leaders already inside the firm.

What makes a CPA firm harder to sell?
When the owner is the bottleneck and no one else can lead client relationships or the team, a transition becomes more difficult. Developing capable leaders reduces owner dependence and makes the firm more attractive to buyers.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 - Welcome and guest introduction: Susan Stutzel, co-owner of Partners Coach Inc. 
• 02:35 - Why AI can amplify expertise but cannot build trust or lead an effective feedback conversation 
• 04:19 - Professional skills are where knowledge transforms into real impact for clients and colleagues 
• 05:11 - Is technical knowledge being commoditized, and what replaces it as the differentiator? 
• 07:00 - Why managers need to unlearn how they were trained and rethink development entirely 
• 08:34 - Why niche expertise got the profession this far and why it is no longer enough on its own 
• 10:02 - Why Susan refuses to call them soft skills: these are business skills, and they are often the hardest to learn 
• 12:36 - What it means to build a great place to work across hybrid and remote arrangements 
• 15:41 - What firm owners should be communicating to high performers and what staff should be advocating for 
• 16:02 - Case study: no one interested in partnership because the conversations simply were not happening 
• 19:04 - Young firm owners building tech-forward niche practices and outearning traditional partners 
• 23:28 - What courageous leadership looks like when there are no complete answers 
• 25:28 - The Kubler-Ross loss curve and why your team has to work through what you already processed 
• 27:12 - Growing yourself alongside your firm: why the owner who stops growing becomes the bottleneck 
• 29:59 - What Susan wishes more CPA firm owners understood about leadership development 
• 30:27 - The best firms start development at onboarding, not at partner elections 
• 31:14 - The manager shift: running meetings, developing people, and still carrying chargeable hours 
• 34:03 - Don't wait until you want to retire to ask who can replace you 
• 36:20 - Growing a business is a series of letting go, and you have to build the team to be able to let go 
• 36:57 - Where to find Susan: LinkedIn and partnerscoach.com, including a free weekly Monday message for the profession

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