Today we’d like to introduce you to Brad Ebenhoeh.
Hi Brad, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My wife, Meredith and I both experienced the overworked, burnout culture in the Big Four accounting world. We knew there was a better way to provide accounting support to businesses. You don’t have to work 80 hours a week in an uncomfortable suit under the soul-crushing haze of fluorescent lighting to be a good accountant.
We decided to focus on providing modern accounting solutions for small business owners in Charleston, South Carolina in 2012. We adopted cloud-based, modern systems so that we had the ability to support our clients from anywhere. It naturally attracted modern companies like us.
Since then, we expanded our services to the larger operation Accountfully is today. Now, we are a five-time Inc. 5000 company and we employ over 70 accountants that support us across the nation.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Nope! Owning and growing a business is seldom easy, though. I know it sounds cliche, but our biggest struggles have become the foundation of some of our biggest strengths.
I preface this to say I am sure many other service business owners can relate to these struggles, so I am more than happy to be transparent about ours. In a nutshell, they are:
1) Identifying and improving upon our core service offerings. This means always ensuring we are offering the services needed (and valued) by our client base, and prioritizing a flawless delivery of these services. Ensuring a high quality standard of service delivery fuels our biggest lead source; client referrals.
2) Finding the correct balance and segmentation of duties between my wife and I as co-founders and partners running the business together. Similarly, finding the segmentation of home and business and making sure we are not “bringing work home”.
3) Finding and retaining top talent in a wild talent ecosystem post-COVID. Our remote-first work environment and our top-notch culture helps us a lot with this.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Accountfully?
Nowadays you see a lot of self-proclaimed modern or outsourced accounting and bookkeeping–even finance–services, but back when we launched in 2012, it was not a “thing”. We have 12 years of experience refining our modern accounting and tax services and have a jump on the competition. One of the biggest perks of working with Accountfully is our scalable service model.
I think the biggest thing we want the small biz world to know about Accountfully is this: we support you across the entire business journey. You can start your accounting and tax journey with us as a pre-revenue startup, and continue to grow your service requirements with us. Even if you get so big you hire in-house accounting support, we offer controller-level services that can be used to oversee month-end closes and ensure things are top-notch. We hate to see our favorite clients go, but many of them have navigated successful exits and we have the support for that too.
We support a wide range of service needs that support all types of businesses as they grow up to $20mm in revenue per year. We are not a starter firm, nor are we an automated AI-type App or plug-in. We are a true partner in your business journey.
Another item to note is the confusion surrounding “fractional” or “outsourced”. Our team is not outsourced to overseas contractors. We are 100% US-based accountants–real professionals who learn your business inside and out and know how to support your goals. We can match your business with the right services, and have great relationships with many industry partners that offer services like financing, operations support, and other helpful business services.
These are some of the qualities many of the newer modern accounting firms are missing. Our remote-based systems and processes are dialed-in. Many of our clients adopt these ways of operating in their own business once introduced to how seamlessly they support a cohesive, remote team. We are truly proud of the diverse, talented team and services and network we have built.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
I may embody the outdoorsy, beach vibes of a true Charlestonian now, but I am a small town Michigan kid through and through. There is just no replacement for experiencing that classic small town Americana lifestyle. I was surrounded by friends and family who embodied raw talent, hard work and success through adversity. It gave me the gritty life skills needed to become the successful accounting pro and entrepreneur I am today.
One of these classic memories is visiting “Gramps” aka, Grandpa Gene. He was legally blind, but a skilled carpenter and woodworker. Every day in the Summer my brother and I would get up and ride our bikes over to Gramps’ house to help him with projects; building a shed, small jobs, you name it, we did it. We would talk about life and learn things as two kids just happy to be outside and helping out our Gramps. It was in these moments we were learning so many life skills and becoming immersed in a world that later laid the foundation to hard work, resilience and loyalty that applies across my work ethic today.
Pricing:
- Pricing of our full-service outsourced accounting retainers are based on the complexity of a client business and typically start at $1,500/mo
- Hourly bookkeeping services start at $150 per hour
- Tax filing services start at $750 for personal returns, and $1,500 for business filing
- Finance and Advisory hourly rates are $225/hr with forecasting packages available
- The best way to get a sense of what your business can benefit from and a ballpark pricing range is to reach out to us through our contact form
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.accountfully.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/accountfully/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/accountfully/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/accountfully
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/accountfully/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClf7jHbR5m6o9l3UPdZmpbw
- Other: https://www.x.com/bradebenhoeh
