I keep you from buying the wrong company and help you grow the right one | Accountant for acquisition entrepreneurs | Tweets ≠ advice https://teapawt.net/t.co/DsLgaeWY6D
Wisconsin/Nationwide
Joined June 2023
- Tweets2.7K
- Following290
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Chris Barrett retweeted
We had 132 people attend the webinar that I co-hosted with @CBarrett_CPA on the SBA guideline changes
If you attended the webinar or registered, a member of my team will be in touch with a copy of the presentation. If you would like a copy of the deck and weren't able to make it, please send me an email to [email protected]
When I get stressed at work my wife likes to leave messages on my white board reminding me why everything is going to be alright:
Chris Barrett retweeted
I am looking to add a U.S. based BDR to my team at @PIONEERCAPADV
Substantial earning potential. W2 role. Please feel free to apply or share if interested. This person will report directly to me.
linkedin.com/jobs/view/44562…
Chris Barrett retweeted
I am co-hosting a happy hour in the Madison, WI area with @CBarrett_CPA of Midwest CPA on Thursday, August 20th from 4 pm - 7 pm CST
If you're a current business buyer or prospective business buyer that is considering entrepreneurship through acquisition, we would love to meet you
Please feel free to stop by for some free drinks on us. RSVP below 👇
eventbrite.com/e/eta-happy-h…
Chris Barrett retweeted
I will be in Chicago tomorrow
4:30 pm at The Randolph
ETA Happy Hour
Buyers, investors and intermediaries
Come join myself, @AgeofHoffman @GrantHensel @LisaGForrest @sarah_m_andrews and others!
RSVP link below. Drinks and appetizers included 👇
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F…
We brought on 3 interns this summer. I am doing my absolute best to give them some war stories they can walk away with. Lol.
If they’re going to spend the summer with us, I want them to get more than exposure to the profession.
One of our core values at Midwest CPA is “heart of a teacher,” and this felt like a real chance to live that out.
So we went all in.
Each intern is shadowing a manager and working on a real project this summer.
- one's on an AI project
- one's on process improvement
- one's helping build something we've been needing to fix for a while
At the end of the summer they're each giving a presentation on what they built. That's the kind of internship I wish I'd had, and that's what I'm trying to give them.
(Also… a cool little full-circle moment: two of them are from my alma mater.)
We’re growing like a weed at Midwest CPA, and that means it’s time to bring on another team member to grow with us.
I’m hiring a Tax Manager, and I want to be upfront about who I’m looking for.
This isn’t a position for someone who just churns out tax returns. I want someone who genuinely gets small business. Someone who understands that behind every 1120-S is an owner who took a risk, built something real, and deserves an advisor who treats their company like it matters.
If that’s you, keep reading.
About Midwest CPA
Midwest CPA is a growing, owner-led firm serving closely held businesses and their owners across tax, accounting, and advisory. We also run a specialized quality of earnings practice supporting searchers, independent sponsors, and acquirers.
Our team is sharp, and we give our clients access to advisors who actually understand growth, transitions, and exits.
The Opportunity
You’ll take ownership of a portfolio of small business and closely held engagements.
This role is fully remote and offers meaningful client relationships, real influence on how engagements run, and a clear path to keep growing here.
What You’ll Do
- Review federal and state returns for closely held businesses and their owners, including 1120, 1120-S, 1065, and 1040 returns
- Serve as the primary point of contact for your portfolio, building lasting relationships as a trusted advisor
- Deliver proactive planning and advisory work, including entity structuring, year-end planning, projections, and strategies to minimize client tax liability
- Manage engagement workflow from planning through delivery, ensuring deadlines, quality standards, and budgets are met
- Mentor, coach, and review the work of staff and senior accountants
- Handle IRS and state notices and correspondence
- Stay current on tax law changes and share what matters with the team
- Spot ways to improve our workflows and review processes
What You Bring — Required
- CPA license or EA credential
5+ years of progressive public accounting tax experience
- Demonstrated review experience, including entity and individual returns prepared by staff
- Strong technical knowledge of pass-through entities, C-Corps, and individual taxation
- Experience handling IRS and state notices and correspondence
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with a client-service mindset
- Ability to thrive independently in a fully remote environment while collaborating with a distributed team
Preferred Qualifications
- Prior Tax Manager experience, or Senior-level experience with a clear progression toward Manager
- Experience mentoring or supervising staff
- Familiarity with ProConnect
- QuickBooks experience and comfort with book-to-tax matters
- Multi-state compliance experience
Why Midwest CPA
- Fully remote, with the tech and support to do your best work from anywhere
- Competitive base plus a bonus structure tied to clear metrics: $120k to $150k DOE
- 401k with match
- Unlimited PTO
- Free CPE
- Growth path to Director of Tax
- No time sheets, ever
If you’re an experienced tax pro who loves reviewing returns, mentoring people, and being a real advisor to business owners, I’d love to talk.
Reach out or tag someone who’d be a great fit.
The most annoying thing about AI is that people now have the ability to create a deliverable 10X longer than needed in 1/100th of the time, which will take me 5X as long to review, and they’ll call it value.
Congrats high earners! We’re 37% of the way into the year.
You’re now done working for the government and the rest of what you make this year you can keep.
Reminder: Most deals don't make it to close.
And that's normal.
If you've been searching for months / years, it's easy to feel like things aren't going the way they should.
... but that's exactly how things usually work out for most people.
You find a deal.
You get under LOI.
You spend money on diligence.
Something breaks.
You walk.
Then you do it again.
And again.
On average, it takes multiple tries to find (and close on) the right deal.
Way too often, I see people slowly fall into the belief that:
Taking a long time to buy a business = failure
... when that's not the case at all.
The truth is that:
Buying the wrong business = failure
If you want to win the game, the first thing you need to do is stay in it.
First-time buyer.
Under LOI on a ~$1.4M deal.
But the seller was doing something you don't see often.
He wanted to structure the deal as a stock sale to qualify for QSBS.
Which basically means they could sell the company and pay zero capital gains tax.
Huge win for the seller.
Not for the buyer.
Most buyers don’t realize this, but buying a business as a stock sale is usually worse for them. Because you give up a lot of the tax advantages you’d get in an asset sale.
Which means the business is effectively more expensive than it looks.
So I walked him through it and explained what the seller was gaining and what he (the buyer) was giving up.
He took that back to the seller and renegotiated the deal.
End result:
200K knocked off the purchase price.
Reminder:
"Tax advantages" usually don't apply across the board to everyone in a deal.
So make sure you plan (or negotiate) accordingly.
What was the last movie you saw in theatres that was better than Project Hail Mary?
I'm having to go way back to try and think of one.
I had a client who spent over a year trying to buy a business:
- quit his job
- burned ~$100K in deal costs
- wife kept working while he searched
He eventually found a deal he was excited about... and it fell apart.
We started working together on his second, and you could feel it almost immediately:
This one had to work.
... that was his mindset, at least.
I think he was beginning to feel the pressure, and felt like he couldn't afford another "failure" (i.e. another deal falling through).
And then when we got into diligence, things started breaking.
Earnings were inflated.
The revenue didn't really make sense.
And some operational issues didn't add up.
... but I still got the sense he wanted to move forward, so I told him straight-up:
“You’re still fine right now. You’ve got a good life. You can go get another job. But if you buy this and it goes bad, you're not back to zero. You're worse."
We delivered the QofE and as far as I know, he passed on the deal.
If you're a first-time buyer, it's easy to get caught up in the pressure of the search...
Especially if you've spent months, or years, looking for the right deal.
But when it really comes down to it:
The biggest risk isn't passing on the right deal...
It's moving forward with the wrong one.
Sometimes winning is walking away.
Midwest CPA is hiring again!
We’ve grown from 0->17 team members in under 3 years and would love for you to join us!
Location: Remote
Type: Full-time
The Role:
We’re hiring a sharp, detail-oriented Tax Associate to help support our growing roster of small business clients and acquisition entrepreneurs. You’ll work directly with our Tax Manager to prepare returns, build tax estimates, solve notice issues before they ruin someone’s day, and support proactive tax planning for owners who expect smart guidance year-round.
If you want to strengthen your technical skills fast and work on meaningful client relationships instead of being stuck in a basement cranking forms, you’ll fit right in here.
What You’ll Do:
• Prepare federal and state tax returns including 1065, 1120, 1120-S, and 1040
• Assist manager with tax planning and projections for business owners
• Build and maintain quarterly estimate schedules
• Help respond to federal and state notices and resolve issues efficiently
• Support extensions, elections, and compliance calendars
• Collaborate closely with accounting and CFO services teams to ensure tax readiness
• Contribute to process improvements as we scale (we love better, faster, easier)
What We’re Looking For:
• 2-5 years of experience in public accounting tax work
• Bachelor’s degree
• Working knowledge of individual and small business taxation
• Ability to communicate clearly with clients and team members
• Curious, proactive, and committed to continuous learning
• Thrives in a dynamic, entrepreneurial environment
What You’ll Get:
• Competitive salary
• Hands-on mentorship from experienced tax leadership
• Exposure to a wide variety of clients and entity structures
• The opportunity to actually see the impact of your work
• A growing firm where your voice matters
Range: 70-95k DOE
Benefits:
• PTO starting at 15 days
• Flexible hours / Remote work
• 401(k)
• Support for CPA exam and continuing education
