Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Take over family business or continue on your own?
The situation: I'm a 25 year old CPA with about 3.5 years experience in public accounting. My mom is also a CPA & has her own 20 year old practice. Her firm is in my hometown - a smaller, rural area about 25 miles from where I live. I currently work at a well-known regional accounting firm that has 3 locations within a 60 mile radius. I've only been working there about 6 months because my husband & I moved here from Atlanta when we got married.
My mother is considering retiring because she's older & my dad is already retired. We've discussed me working for her & slowly transitioning her out over the next couple of years, leaving me to run & be partial owner of the firm.
Pros: I'd be my own boss, own my own business, gain an excellent client base, etc.
Cons: May change my relationship with my parents (we're very close & have a great relationship), I'd have a 25 mile commute, it is a small so it may be hard to expand/grown in the future, etc.
What would you do? Any advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Re: Take over family business or continue on your own?
There are certainly a lot of things to consider before really knowing what's best... things like:
- Current business income and expenses
- Client database and loyalty (will they be loyal to you?)
- Is you 25 mile commute fast or are you stuck in stop and go traffic the entire time
Not having all the info, I would lean towards having your own business- That's the goal for a lot of people and to walk away from an opportunity like that would be difficult. You can always find a job working for the man but it's rare when you are handed your own company with established customers.
Ditto all this. Esp. the bolded part. Sadly, most of the time, coporate is just that. It can take longer to advance. At the end of the day, you are just a number. If you are your own boss, it would be nice to...go to a dr. appointment or leave a 1/2 hour early once in awhile or something.
My commute was 35 miles 1 way, pretty steady (i.e. little stop & go. 55 mph rural highway most of the way) & it really isn't that bad. You do get used to it.
BUT I hate traffic! So if the 25 miles is stop & go, I might tell you a different story.
Thanks ladies. To answer your questions, the commute would be a 25 mile rural commute with little stop & go traffic. Currently the overhead expenses are relatively low & I know she makes twice what I do as far as income. The overhead would probably increase in a few years as I would go 100% paperless, hire more people, incorporate additional software, etc. These would be things that would improve the business, make it more efficient & hopefully help the business grow. As for the loyalty, I think it'd be fine. My entire family (grandparents & all) were raised in my small hometown, so we have strong roots. That's the main reason mom wants to have a transitional period - so the clients will be comfortable with me.
My husband thinks it is a no-brainer, but I wanted some unbiased opinions. My current job isn't so bad, but I'm young (the 2nd youngest in the firm) & it'd be a long time before I advance to an upper level position that present this type of financial opportunity. I guess I'm just a little afraid to get out of my comfort zone...
I think the main thing is to see how well her business income is. Since she has been doing it so long she may have clients that she does work for rather cheap. So if you took over would you need to go in and raise prices? That may lead to you losing clients. Would it have to be fulltime? Could you maybe work in that town 2-3 days per week and work from home the rest and then try to build business in your town?
I think you really have to look at what kind of accounting you want to do. If you always wanted to do public accounting, than go for it. But if you like working for more of a corporate office than I would stay where you are and maybe take some of her clients on the side for extra income.
25 mile commute wouldn't bother me if 1. it was all interstate - so about 30 min drive tops. And the weather was nice. I live in an area that gets a ton of snow and used to work 20 miles away driving interstate the whole way. I hated it in the winter because I couldn't avoid taking the interstate so sometimes my commute was over an hour.