Content based on Get Paid What You’re Worth – Using Tax Planning to Get Paid for Your Expertise
by Dominique Molina
You started your tax practice for freedom. But does your business actually give you any?
When you decided to start your own tax practice, you probably had a picture of what business ownership would look like.
More control over your schedule. More financial opportunity. The freedom to make your own decisions. Maybe weekends with family, time for hobbies, or simply the ability to take a vacation without worrying about what would happen while you were gone.
But somewhere along the way, the business may have become something else.
Instead of creating freedom, you created a job. And you may be your own worst boss.
The Business You Wanted vs. the Business You Built
Consider what your typical week looks like.
How many hours do you work for your business? Does that number include evenings answering emails, weekends catching up on work, or the time you spend thinking about deadlines and client problems when you’re supposed to be off?
For many tax professionals, the work doesn’t end when they leave the office. The business follows them home, into their evenings, and sometimes into their vacations.
And when you finally take time away, what happens?
Does the firm continue operating smoothly? Are deadlines met, revenue still coming in, and new opportunities being developed?
Or do you return to a backlog of work, declining billings, and a business that seems to depend on your immediate presence?
There’s an important distinction here:
Owning a business and owning a business that can operate independently of you are not the same thing.
You can be the owner on paper and still function as the employee in practice.
When You’re the Business
Think about how your tax practice makes money.
If you stop working, does the income stop?
If you’re the person responsible for bringing in clients, preparing returns, answering questions, solving problems, managing staff, and keeping everything moving, then your business may be relying on your labor more than you realize.
That doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong. Many practices begin this way. You have expertise, you find clients, and you do the work. It’s a natural starting point.
The problem comes when that starting point becomes the permanent business model.
You may hire staff, add clients, and increase revenue, yet still find yourself working longer hours. More people can mean more management. More clients can mean more deadlines. More revenue can mean more overhead.
The business grows, but your freedom doesn’t.
At that point, it’s worth asking whether you’ve built a business, or simply created a more complicated job.
Three Ways to Own a Tax Practice
The chapter presents three stages of business ownership, adapted from Michael Gerber’s business framework.
- Employee-Owned: You Are the Business
At this stage, the owner is also the primary technician.
Your expertise and labor are what produce the income. If you’re sick, the work waits. If you take a vacation, the work waits. If you want to earn more, the most obvious option is to work more.
You may have complete control over your decisions, but very little freedom from the work itself.
- Manager-Owned: You Have a Team, But the Business Still Depends on You
At this stage, you’ve begun building a more sophisticated operation. You have staff, systems, and other people helping deliver the work.
That’s progress.
But ask yourself: Could the business continue producing income if you stepped away for an extended period?
If the answer is no, you may still be the person the business depends on to survive.
You might not be preparing every return anymore, but you’re managing the people, making the decisions, solving the problems, and keeping the revenue moving.
The workload has changed. The dependence on you may not have.
- Investor-Owned: The Business Can Operate Without You
The highest level of business ownership is an enterprise that can continue generating income without the owner’s constant physical presence.
This requires more than hiring employees. It requires systems, processes, capable people, and a business model that isn’t entirely dependent on one person’s labor.
The owner becomes less of a technician or day-to-day manager and more of an investor in the business.
This is the kind of business that can offer greater control, freedom, and the potential to continue beyond the owner’s direct involvement.
The goal isn’t necessarily to stop working. It’s to have a choice about how you work.
Why Your Pricing Model Matters
There’s another important connection: how you charge for your work can influence the kind of business you build. When you price primarily by the hour, your income is closely tied to the amount of time you work.
Want to earn more? You may need to work more hours, take on more clients, or increase your hourly rate.
But your time is limited.
There are only so many hours in a day, and eventually, the business reaches a ceiling that your own labor cannot break through.
A value-based approach looks at the result you create rather than simply the time it takes to produce it. For tax professionals, this means recognizing that expertise, judgment, problem-solving, and the value of the outcome may be worth more than the hours spent delivering the work.
When income is tied only to time, growth can require more labor. When income is tied to value, growth can come from creating more value—not simply working more hours.
That distinction matters when you’re trying to build a business that gives you freedom.
Take a Hard Look at Your Business
Before you decide what needs to change, take a moment to assess where you are.
Ask yourself:
- Is this the business I dreamed of building?
- Is my business growing at a rate that satisfies me?
- Will its current growth provide for my future financial needs and eventual exit?
- Have changes in my life affected what I need from my business?
- Are there things I want to do with my business that I haven’t had the chance to do?
- Do I want more challenges, or am I simply trying to keep up?
- How much of my workweek is spent doing things I actually enjoy?
- If I stepped away for a month, would my business continue to operate and produce income?
These questions aren’t about judging your success.
They’re about understanding whether your business is still serving the life you intended to build.
What Is Your Business Really Costing You?
The financial cost of owning a business is easy to measure. The personal cost is harder.
Consider what your current business model may be taking from you:
- Family time
- Hobbies and personal interests
- Personal relationships
- Health and well-being
- Other business opportunities
- Future goals and plans
These are not minor considerations. They are part of the reason many people choose entrepreneurship in the first place. If your business requires you to sacrifice the very things you hoped it would provide, then the numbers deserve another look.
The Question Worth Answering
You may have built a successful tax practice. You may have loyal customers, a strong reputation, and a healthy amount of revenue.
But success isn’t measured only by how much the firm brings in.
It’s also measured by what the business allows you to do with your time, your expertise, and your life.
Have you built a business that works for you—or a job that you work for?
The answer may be the starting point for building something better.i
