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Make $40k in Three Months This Busy Season

Posted on by Josh Tarica
beech valley solutions cpas

Imagine getting paid by the hour during busy season.

Sure, salaried employment is great, and it makes sense for a lot of CPAs.

But if you’re someone who isn’t sold on climbing the corporate ladder to enter yourself into the partner lottery 15 to 20 years into your career, then there’s a more flexible and lucrative way for you to work.

And that’s why Beech Valley is launching our busy season freelance program, kicking off in select cities this January. CPAs can double their relative income working with us, and needs are growing.

We’re paying qualified CPAs by the hour to help national and regional CPA firms through audit and tax busy season.

How would you feel if instead of getting a couple thousand dollars deposited into your bank account twice a month, you were sending a monthly invoice to the tune of $10+ thousand dollars? (9 hours per day x 21 days a month x $65 per hour = $12,285)

When I left PwC, they offered me $40/hr to stay on through their Flexible Talent Network. I declined and started making $65/hr immediately through Beech Valley, increasing the rate offered through the FTN by 62.5%. Beech Valley would pay you between $50 and $85 an hour depending on your experience and location.

This arrangement gave me the financial cushion to take time off to grow our business, just like many of our other freelancers. We’ve worked with entrepreneurs that have used “busy season capital” to start their own accounting advisory firms, a yoga studio, a real estate fund, a software company for restaurants, and other businesses. Others used that capital to travel Southeast Asia for 6 months.

And of course, others just want more time to spend with their family.

We’re officially launching in the following cities:

  • Atlanta
  • Chicago
  • Dallas/Ft. Worth
  • Denver
  • Los Angeles
  • New York
  • Raleigh / Durham / Chapel Hill
  • San Francisco / Bay area
  • Washington DC Metro

So are you interested in rethinking the way you work busy season? Click here to apply.

And, we’re continuing to meet with firms in other cities as well. So if you don’t see your market, send us a note and we may still be able to work together.

Plus, we work with qualified candidates out of public accounting on consulting projects year-round. They also pay for every hour worked. Again, if you’re interested, just send us a note or calculate how much your time is worth on this nifty freelance accountant rate calculator.

If you’re not ready to make the switch at this time, but would like to consider future projects, you can also join our mailing list and receive unique freelance opportunities that include remote work, travel engagements, and on-site advisory work in cities across the country (and some international).

Josh Tarica is a co-founder of Beech Valley Solutions, the premier network that connects CPAs with freelance opportunities in advisory, assurance, and tax. Beech Valley consultants enjoy higher pay for every hour worked, the flexibility to accept or reject projects, and the ability to diversify their skill sets.

Image: iStock/jabkitticha

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Caleb,

I am writing to you in the hopes that you can provide some insight. Here is my situation, I worked at Deloitte for about four years now in the Pacific Southwest region of the US. I recently quit and took a job at one of the big public Companies in my city. After being there for a couple of months I’ve realized that I am kind of bored and am considering going back to public accounting.

The partner I worked for at DT told me to call him anytime. Before I make that call I wanted to get some input. If I go back I’ll be a manager within a year, does the job function change that much like they are telling me? I’m single and in the long term I’m not sure what I want, for now I just want to work get some more experience and then figure it out.

Considering Going Back

Dear Considering,

Your problem is not an uncommon one. Many people have spent their entire careers bitching about life inside public accounting only once they leave, they come to the conclusion that they never had it so good. There are a couple of ways to interpret this:

1. You really do love public accounting and you truly believe it is your calling in life.

2.

Of course every situation is different and in your case, you’re looking at a promotion to manager in a year. Let’s give the partner the benefit of the doubt here and consider your question about life as a manager. Personally, we didn’t have the pleasure of reaching the rank but know plenty of friends and colleagues who did and many, many, many of them said it was their toughest year of their career to date.

What happens is that your auditing skills become less important and your time management and people skills begin to take center stage. Can you handle staffing issues? Prepare a presentation for a RFP? Convince a partner that a client really isn’t that pissed and you’re not getting fired (when, in fact, the opposite is true)? This is just a taste of your responsibilities. OH! And do you like reviewing other people’s work? Because you’ll have to squeeze that in as well.

Now that we’ve scared the living daylights out of you – it sounds like you’re more concerned with enjoying your job and getting good experience rather than money. That’s rare around these parts, so good for you.

Bottom line is this – if you’re not happy at your current job and think that career bliss awaits you back at the Green Dot with Sharon and the Costanza Twins, you should go back.

Peanut gallery – what do we think here? Back into the belly of the beast or is it a huge mistake? Fire away.

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Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Dear Stoney Jabroni,


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To answer your first question – since you work in a city that’s two hours from where your arrest occurred, it’s pretty unlikely that anyone at your firm will find out you had your little run-in with the law. Unless, of course, there’s townie that would go out of their way to contact your firm to fink on you. That seems unlikely but, hey! you never know.

As far as termination is concerned, it depends on the agreement that you signed when you accepted your offer. If you’re held to specific code of conduct, it’s possible that this arrest could violate that code. If there’s nothing in the agreement that would cover something like this, your firm doesn’t really have grounds to dismiss you. There are plenty of Big 4 employees and partners that enjoy a nice toke every now and again and it is more socially accepted than ever. If someone at your firm does get a whiff of this news, certainly some will frown on this behavior and you may get a talking to but does it mean the end of your career? That’s just wack, man.