How to Scale from 5-50 Staff, Structure Rev Shares and Lucrative Niches w/ Nicole Durio
Summary
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- Organic Business with Lucrative Niches
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- Structuring Revenue Shares and Joint Ventures
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- Scaling from 5-50 FTEs
What You’ll Find in the Conversation
About Nicole Durio
Nicole is the managing principal at Madison Brothers Consulting Group. The group commits to exceptional client service provided by trusted advisors. They endeavor to give peace of mind to clients by offering solutions for ever changing business challenges.
More specifically Nicole and her team’s services fall into ‘two tranches’ she calls them.
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- CFO/Fractional Controller Services: Offering part time advisory services and anything that would be relevant to C-Suite professionals.
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- High Net Worth Individuals: A high percentage of the time, these individuals have franchised concepts where Nicole and her team will assist with anything concerning the dollar.
More specifically, she and her team will help do any of the following for their high net worth clients: :
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- Categorize
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- Monetize
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- Invest
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- Spend
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- Save
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- Depreciate
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- Tax
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- Turn over
Organic Business
David and Nicole talk through the organic acquisition of franchised clients in 2012. During this time, Nicole purchased a tax practice from a CPA who the IRS chose not to renew the EFIN (Electronic Filing Identification Number). Because of this opportunity, Nicole was able to purchase the clients for pennies on the dollar.
After revenue share opportunities were discussed, the clientele moved towards franchised concepts.
As Nicole mentions, the move paid and continues to pay dividends. Most recently, she notes that the president of Massage Heights asked if they could publish information about Nicole and her team as a preferred resource for their operators.
Nicole and David discuss many of the franchise clients Nicole works with, so make sure to check out the episode for the full list.
Of course, a referral from a highly valued client in the franchise world of business is amazing for growth. Nicole tells us however, that this niche is one that is often overlooked. She notes that some regional and mid-tier firms would consider these clients to be too small. On the flip side, the niche can act as a gold mine for opportunities. Most likely, the franchiser does not stop after one concept, so they focus on obtaining multiple franchises.
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Revenue Sharing
Joint Ventures (JVs) are also a unique piece of Madison Brother’s business model. For example, Nicole shares that they have an alliance agreement with a marketing firm. She explains it like this:
The marketing firm will market to dental offices and dental management groups.
Their job is to:
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- Go out & seek the clients/businesses
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- Vet them
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- Gather information
Then, the baton is passed to Nicole and her team where they will:
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- Execute the work (tax & tax credit projects)
Finally, the revenue share is split between the two parties. In this specific example, it’s 60% to the marketing firm and 40% to the accounting firm. This works extremely well because it allows for Nicole’s team to capitalize on volume based services. Sure, they’re taking in less revenue, but they’re also getting access to more business than they could alone.
David asks a great question re: the trust variable amongst joint ventures. Trust is one of, if not the, most important component to business success. The conclusion?
Trust by default.
Nicole responds by letting the listeners know that trust is essential to move forward as a team and that the puzzle is so big, everyone is dependent on each other for successful outcomes anyways.
All in all, the sharing of information, knowing the ins and outs of the business model and shared concepts helps with the overall trust variable.
(Not to mention, Nicole has 12-15 emails for each of her partnerships so this likely helps with the trust as well).
5 to 50 FTEs in a Moment
Quite possibly the most interesting piece of the interview is understanding how Nicole scales up her FTEs nearly 10x. She explains that given her 30 years of experience she and her team understand the bandwidth and manpower that are necessary. They also share relationships with three different staffing firms based in the service, accounting and financing industries.
The bigger the deal, then most likely the more time there is to prepare. With that being said, Nicole is in constant discussion with her team about how to manage the upcoming work load. Because of their relationships with the staffing firms, they have the flexibility to ask for specific resumes and work towards filling the roles with appropriate personnel.
By going through the staffing firms, Nicole gets access to an abundance of individuals fit for the job. She mentions that if they need 10 hires, they might receive 20 resumes.
This allows Nicole to select candidates that are a fit for the job. They tend to tier down their hiring as well. For instance, they may hire a candidate that is one tier below their job level. This way, they are not competing with contractors and it keeps the business conservative, a unique way to handle the ever changing workload.
To find out more about Nicole visit their website www.madisonbrothers.com.
It’s also 5 individuals lucky day. If you mention David (Costello’s) name, you could earn a free 1 hour consultation with Nicole – a rate that typically runs $995.
If you enjoyed the interview, leave a review. It helps us get the word out. Also, if you really enjoyed it and there is a shift in how you think about the future of your firm, share it with a fellow firm owner that needed to hear something Nicole and David discussed today. If you name drop David, make sure to let him know!
If you’re looking to grow your firm, check out this free resource with a walk-through on how to double your accounting firm.
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