The Thesis of this Firm

I tend to want the first of something to be foundational. This will be no exception.

I was handed the decision of whether to start this firm earlier this year. I was informed that due to the location strategy of the company I was working for at the time, I would no longer be working for them. I was given a generous severance, a warm goodbye by my coworkers (any one of whom I’ll add I would vouch for today), and a choice. Either dive back into banking or go back to what I’d done for the first six years of my career - public accounting for small and medium businesses where I was expected to deal with the whole business at once instead of one tiny part of it. I chose the latter.

I’ve seen how much the talents of a CPA can make a difference to a small business. Here are some ways I want to deliver that.

Streetcar CPA

The firm is named after the streetcar neighborhoods in which I primarily want to do business. Here is a map of what the old network used to look like. This firm’s office is located in the Elizabeth neighborhood along a modern-day streetcar’s route. A major reason I started the firm is to help those who are building in the streetcar suburbs, particularly those trying to take advantage of the Charlotte Unified Development Ordinance to build Duplexes, Triplexes, and Townhome developments.

Technology without the Nonsense

I’m not going to tell you that Artificial Intelligence is not going to change how Accounting is done. It is changing it, it has changed it, and it will continue to change it. That’s the same story with fifty years of technological developments that have taken accounting from pen and paper spreadsheets to auto-reconciling accounts and closes performed by Claude. But that also includes that each new wave has induced a fresh new crop of professionals into thinking that they found a cheat code - and it tends to end with someone like me being hired to clean up the mess. Before asking “what can I do to use AI”, a better question might be “what do my systems, data, and processes need to look like so that I can take advantage of AI?”. The answer to that question will make your life easier whether or not you decide to subsequently implement AI, but you must do that first.

A Partner that you can talk to

I keep a physical office that’s not simply a room in my house. It’s not much, but it’s important to me to give the option to my clients to come see me and have a face to face meeting, rather than having to contend with someone who lives in their computer. I recognize that most of the time people seek out CPAs because they need to, not because they want to - but the exception to that rule normally gets the better value out of their CPA, and sometimes a friend. One of the rules that I insist on for my practice is that I will never charge you just to talk or for general advice (within reason, of course. No 3am phone calls, please).