Working 5 Hours/Week at His CPA Firm and Writing a Best Selling Book

Summary

• Education is Key to Solid Leads
• The Difference Between Firms That Coast and Firms That Soar
• Building a Strong Team
• Book Recommendations

Connect with Tom Wheelwright

• Learn more about WealthAbility
• Connect with Tom on LinkedIn
• Find Tom on Facebook
• Check out Tom’s Youtube channel
• Follow WealthAbility on Instagram

Meet Tom Wheelwright

For more than 40 years, Tom Wheelwright, CPA and author of the best-selling book “Tax-Free Wealth” has built, grown, and sold successful CPA firms. Today, he’s on a mission to help other CPAs and financial planners do the same by transforming the way people think about running their practice.

Right now, Tom’s business WealthAbility has a network of CPA firms across the country and is, uniquely, the sales and marketing team for members of their network. 

Once the members join, they get trained on WealthAbility’s tax reduction system. The fCPA firm then takes an initial project with the client. From there, WealthAbility collects money from the client and then sends the client to the CPA firm. WealthAbility controls the first project and after that, the CPA firm does the rest. 

Get everything you need to manage projects and meet deadlines.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, and get 32 free accounting workflow templates today!​​

sign me up!

Tom says the old way of getting leads is boring and doesn’t work anymore. Now education-based marketing is the best route. However, most CPAs are worried that educating their clients will make them not want to be clients. Tom refutes this by saying the best kind of client is an educated client. 

Right now, educating your clients means telling them everything. There are enough people who will hear your information and come to you for help rather than try to do it on their own.

His philosophy is that tax laws are built to help you. He also shared you just need to know what they are, so you can use the incentives in a way the government intended. It’s taking a positive approach to a negative topic. 

The Difference Between Firms that Coast and Firms that Soar

Most CPA firms think they have to do things themselves, but the better mindset is to instead, find someone who can do it better than you. Tom suggests only doing what you are really good at and then outsourcing the rest. This creates the capacity for you to do more.

Connecting it back to Tom’s firm, he has a partner who has created and manages all of the systems and implementation. This removes him from doing tasks he doesn’t like and isn’t good at. 

He also gives young staff opportunities to talk with clients. This lets higher-ups have more ability to complete other tasks and build the confidence of the young staff members. 

Building a Strong Team

He credits his helpful staff to using COLBY, which is a natural instinct assessment. His firm looks to hire people whose natural instincts fit the role they are trying to fill.

Tom believes people can do a lot more than we give them credit for. He suggests giving them roles they may not be entirely ready for but keeping them on a long leash. This gives them the ability to grow into the employee you need. He does this by ensuring two people are always included in client conversations; a staff member and Tom.

Book Recommendations

If you are interested in book recommendations, here are a few Tom suggests: 

• Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki 
• More Important Than Money by Robert Kiyosaki and Tom Wheelwright
• Why the Rich are Getting Richer by Robert Kiyosaki and Tom Wheelwright

Tom covered all this and more in the latest Growing Your Firm Podcast! Be sure to listen to the full episode above and send it to a fellow firm owner who needs to hear it too!