Barbara Agerton flunked retirement. After selling her California CPA practice, she thought she'd ride off into the sunset with her husband. Instead, she got bored, picked up the phone, and asked if she could come work for the company that sold her firm.

Now she's an intermediary at Poe Group Advisors, which means she gets to help other firm owners navigate the exact journey she just completed. Barbara knows what it feels like to let go of the practice you built, to wonder if you're doing the right thing, and to discover that the transition you were dreading turned out easier than expected. 

Barbara sold her practice after running it remotely from Texas for eight years. She transitioned to the cloud back in 2013, before that was the standard playbook, and built systems that allowed her team to run everything without her in the room. When it came time to sell, her buyer barely called during the transition. Barbara's feelings were a little hurt, but that's actually when she knew she'd done everything right.

The conversation covers:

• How losing two key team members to relocations forced a pivot to cloud-based practice in 2013, and why the trust challenge of going remote was harder than expected
• The emotional reality of selling: "It's like cutting your arms off" when you stop interacting daily with people you've worked with for years
• Why her buyer barely called during transition (which hurt her feelings but proved she'd built systems that didn't need her)
• The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey approach: stop solving every problem yourself and teach your team to find their own answers
• Why she wishes she'd sold sooner instead of waiting, and how most sellers wait until illness or family situations force the decision

Barbara's biggest lesson? Most sellers wait too late. They wait until illness, family situations, or burnout force the sale. The best exits happen when you're selling from a position of strength, not desperation. The firms that sell the easiest are the ones where the owner has already slowly, gradually let go over years of building systems and empowering their team.

The irony? Barbara prepared so well for retirement that she got bored and came back to work. But now she gets to use everything she learned to help other firm owners prepare for their own exits, whether they actually retire or, like her, discover they're not quite done yet.

This episode is for firm owners wondering when to start preparing for an exit, leaders trying to figure out how to let go without losing control, anyone considering a move to a remote or cloud-based accounting practice, and sellers who think their practice isn't "perfect enough" to take to market yet.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Introduction to Barbara Agerton
• 01:34 Preparing for the Sale of a CPA Practice
• 03:39 Transitioning to a Cloud-Based Accounting Practice
• 07:00 Client Experience During a CPA Firm Transition
• 08:50 Deciding to Sell Your CPA Firm: Personal Motivations
• 09:58 Emotional Challenges of Selling a Tax Practice
• 11:01 The Importance of Team Dynamics
• 13:30 Preparing Your Team for a Sale
• 16:03 Reflections on Timing and Selling any bookkeeping, CPA, or CAS practice
• 18:30 Book Recommendations and Closing Thoughts

Book Recommendation:

Unreasonable Hospitality