What Founders Get Wrong About Taxes

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Your Next Move

Episode: What Founders Get Wrong About Taxes
Date: May 12, 2026
Host: Inc. Magazine / Rebecca Dasinski, Senior Editor
Guest: Kimberly Furr, Founder of Furr and Associates (454 on Inc. 5000)

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Episode Overview

This episode features a candid and energetic conversation between Inc. Senior Editor Rebecca Dasinski and Kimberly Furr, founder of Furr and Associates. As a rapidly growing CPA firm in southwest Oklahoma, Furr’s business has earned a coveted place on the Inc. 5000 list. The discussion focuses on how entrepreneurs often misunderstand taxes, key pitfalls new business owners face, building a distinctive company culture, and the real secrets to growth in the accounting industry. Kimberly shares practical tax insights, advice for founders, and colorful stories from her own experience.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Kimberly’s Unusual Journey to the Inc. 5000

• Started as an accountant in her living room in 1999 after helping a pest control professional with taxes.
• Grew by buying eight other practices over 25+ years; now the largest accounting firm in southwest Oklahoma.
• Previously unaware of Inc. 5000, she set the list as a goal after being involved in another client’s failed attempt.
  • Quote:
    "I worked really hard for two years to get here. So, yeah, it’s pretty great." (02:05 – K. Furr)

Sustaining (and Managing) Massive Growth

• Firm now serves 5,700 clients with only 17 employees (up from 8 two years ago).
  • "Right now we're at about 5,700 clients." (04:29 – K. Furr)
• Added business coaching to the accounting platform, targeting small-scale serial entrepreneurs.
• No advertising until recently—word-of-mouth has driven growth, especially among real estate investors.
  • "We haven't advertised a diddly squat... now we've got clients all over the world." (08:41 – K. Furr)

Most Common Tax Mistakes and Myths for Entrepreneurs

• Top question: “What’s deductible?”
  • "It's whatever is ordinary and necessary for your business is a tax deductible item." (05:53 – K. Furr)
  • "The tax code is full of opinions, and you just have to support your opinion with a 50% certainty." (06:02 – K. Furr)
• Many listen to social media myths instead of learning IRS standards.
• Created paid courses for entrepreneurs about deductions and business organization.

LLC Pitfalls

• Major error: Founders often create LLCs but fail to protect the “veil” with proper legal paperwork and procedures.
  • "They don't sign documents correctly, they don't set up their bank account correctly, and they totally jeopardize this beautiful business that they're creating..." (09:45 – K. Furr)
  • Correct contract signing is vital to maintain liability protection.

Education, Safe Spaces & Empowerment

• New entrepreneurs are often embarrassed about their lack of financial/administrative know-how.
  • Furr’s “Self Made” program creates a safe space for asking "dumb" questions.
  • "Creating that safe space for entrepreneurs...is really how we've tripled our business since I learned about Inc 5000 two years ago." (07:07 – K. Furr)

Building and Maintaining Company Culture

• Firm intentionally maintains an unconventional ("kooky") culture: fun, team-focused, and client-centered.
• Two years ago, Kimberly fired every exec/admin staff who didn't buy into her growth vision.
  • "I hated my culture. Two years ago, I fired every executive and every admin person in my office." (16:39 – K. Furr)
• Personal touches include posting clients’ photos around the office and celebrating National Cheese Day.
  • "If we don't have laughter in our office, then something's wrong." (18:50 – K. Furr)

Technology and AI in Tax/Accounting

• Furr uses industry-specific, secure AI for some bookkeeping and financial analysis, but not for tax preparation.
  • "You can't use AI for taxes. You can for bookkeeping...but you have to have a really secure platform." (15:21 – K. Furr)
• Stresses the irreplaceable role of personal relationships in financial work, despite tech advances.

Lessons from Failure: The Server Meltdown Story

• In 2015, Furr’s server crashed during tax season, backup systems failed due to untrustworthy IT.
• Recovered by draining accounts and bringing in temps to recreate lost data—a valuable, if traumatic, lesson.
  • "Don't trust your IT guys. You verify your IT guys." (20:18 – K. Furr)
• Now, she always verifies that staff actually handle what they report.

Being Hands-On & Client-Focused

• Kimberly selectively manages her client connections: "I have my favorites...I'll be your friend as long as you write that check." (22:39 – K. Furr)
• Advocates that even as founder and CEO, you cannot disconnect from your customer base:
  • "You've got to know what your customers are thinking...You've got to be connected." (23:01 – K. Furr)

Hiring, Supply Chain, and Planning for the Future

• The biggest external risk: severe national shortage of CPAs, fewer young people entering the field.
  • "There's a national shortage of certified public accountants...That's how I was able to grow so quickly. Marketing for clients? No, not necessarily the thing." (24:43 & 25:38 – K. Furr)
• Actively markets to local universities—recruiting talent is now more effort than acquiring clients.

Aspirations for the Next Two Years

• Kimberly’s goal: Move up the ranks in the Inc. 5000 list, aim for the Inc. 500.
  • "I'd like to be on the Inc 5000 list for the next 10 years, and I'd like to be on the Inc 500. So that's my goal right now." (26:11 – K. Furr)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On what’s deductible:
  "It's whatever is ordinary and necessary for your business is a tax deductible item." (05:53 – K. Furr)

• On supporting your opinion in the tax code:
  "The tax code is full of opinions, and you just have to be able to support your opinion with a 50% certainty." (06:02 – K. Furr)

• On the culture at Furr and Associates:
  "If we don't have laughter in our office, then something's wrong...we are not the stuffy accountant." (18:50 – K. Furr)

• On lessons from failure:
  "Don't trust your IT guys. You verify your IT guys." (20:18 – K. Furr)

• On client relationships:
  "Everybody thinks I'm their friend, and that's okay. I'll be your friend as long as you write that check." (22:49 – K. Furr)

• On the importance of staying connected:
  "Just because you're the founder...you can't disconnect from your client base." (23:01 – K. Furr)

• On the CPA pipeline:
  "There's a national shortage of certified public accountants, so much so that our industry has reduced the testing requirements in order for you to take the test." (24:43 – K. Furr)

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Timeline of Important Segments

• 01:46 – Kimberly’s background and making the Inc. 5000
• 03:00 – Starting the firm in 1999; growth strategy
• 04:25 – Number of clients and scaling challenges
• 05:09 – Common tax advice: "What’s deductible?"
• 09:45 – Typical mistakes new entrepreneurs make (LLCs)
• 12:01 – Marketing and CRM tools (Omni, High Level)
• 15:21 – Use and limitations of AI in accounting
• 16:39 – Transforming company culture for growth
• 19:30 – Biggest failure story: catastrophic server failure
• 22:15 – Lessons on trust and verification in leadership
• 23:21 – Staying connected as a founder
• 24:43 – CPA shortage and talent acquisition
• 26:11 – Aspirations for future Inc. 5000 placements

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Tone & Takeaways

Kimberly Furr’s approach blends candor, humor, and realism. Both down-to-earth and strategic, she highlights the challenges entrepreneurs face in tax and business organization—with practical advice and memorable anecdotes. The conversation is accessible, energetic, and geared toward founders who want to avoid common tax pitfalls and build people-centric, scalable businesses.

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Transcript

[Narrator]

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[Mike Hoffman]

Hi, I'm Mike Hoffman, editor in chief of Inc. And you're listening to youo Next Move audio edition, produced by Inc. Capital One Business. In this season's audio edition, we're bringing you conversations from the youe Next Move Pop up studio at the Inc. 5000 conference this past October in Phoenix, Arizona. You'll hear Inc. Writers and editors interviewing the founders of some of the fastest growing private companies in the country. In this episode, Inc. Senior Editor Rebecca Dasinski talks with Dr. Sandy Fiaschidi, founder of Lodestone People Consulting, which ranked number 872 on the 2025 Inc. 5000 list. Lodestone helps private equity firms and their portfolio companies strengthen leadership teams and build better people systems. Now, Rebecca starts the conversation by asking Sandy how she turns human behavior research into clear, practical decisions for leaders under pressure.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Hi. Could you tell me your name, your company, and what number on the Inc. 5000 you are?

[Kimberly Furr]

Absolutely. My name is Kimberly Furr, and I am the founder of Fir and Associates. We're a certified public accounting firm in southwest Oklahoma. And My number is 4000, 454. Check that out. Right?

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Nice. Nice. Yeah. You made it. Is this your first time?

[Kimberly Furr]

Absolutely. Didn't even know Inc. Existed until two years ago when I was asked to certify somebody else's results, and they didn't make the list. So I decided, you know what? I'm gonna make that list. And I worked really hard for two years to get here. So, yeah, it's pretty great.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Wow, that's an interesting origin story for making this list. You're a cpa, correct? How long have you been in business for? And, like, what's been your secret to massive growth over the last 12 to 24 months?

[Kimberly Furr]

Well, so, I mean, I started in my living room. My boss at the time, I was CFO for this guy who built landfills for the army. So he built garbage dumps for the military. And he said, thank you for making me rich. And I was like, okay. And then two days later, my pest control guy says to me, he's like, so what do you do? And I said, I'm an accountant. He goes, I need my taxes done. And I thought, come back on Saturday and I'll do your taxes.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

And around what time? Like what year was this?

[Kimberly Furr]

This was in 1999.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Okay.

[Kimberly Furr]

Yeah. So I started in my house, I started in my living room. He had my 2 year old on his lap and I sorted through his receipts and I did a tax return and he gave me money. So I thought, this is pretty cool. So I did it on the side for a couple of years and made nothing like no money. So I decided I needed to get aggressive, started seeking out who I could buy their business. Long story short, after buying eight different accounting practices over the years, I am now the largest in southwest Oklahoma. Yeah, this is pretty cool.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

I guess like over the next year to two years, like, how are you going to sustain this massive growth you've been experiencing?

[Kimberly Furr]

Oh, okay. So in my industry, there's a lot of serial entrepreneurs on the small scale. Right. They haven't hit their $500,000 yet and they are hunger to learn. I've got a waiting list of clients that are looking for one on one consulting of how to run their business. So we've recently added business coaching to the accounting plat platform, which is not real common in Oklahoma at the moment. And so our goal is to just to add more accountants that are willing to advise that entrepreneur that's just trying to get started. And right now we've got a waiting list of clients. We've got probably 75 clients that are waiting just chomping at the bit to get some advice on how to run their business.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Wow. I mean, how many clients do you have that you've actually been able to take in?

[Kimberly Furr]

Right now we're at about 5,700 clients.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Wow. I know, that is a lot of clients.

[Kimberly Furr]

It's a lot of tax returns. Yeah, yeah.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

What's it like around tax season at your office? Do you sleep?

[Kimberly Furr]

No, but who needs to sleep, right?

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah, totally. I mean, that was my thought.

[Kimberly Furr]

Yeah, you can sleep when you die. I mean, tax season is so concentrated, you have two and a half months to really do what you need to do. But the entrepreneur guy, he's not organized, he's not ready to file his taxes in the spring. So you actually have 10 months to do their taxes. So, yeah, we just do all that work in the summertime when their stress is not there. Yeah, it's pretty cool.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Okay, gotcha. What is, like, the. The most common piece of advice you wind up giving to new entrepreneurs who are, you know, looking for tax advice from someone like you?

[Kimberly Furr]

Well, so, you know, the most common question we get is what's deductible? What's deductible?

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah, that makes sense.

[Kimberly Furr]

Yeah. They don't know. They listen to TikTok or Instagram or, you know, other social media of what's deductible, but they really don't have certainty on what's deductible. So we actually created a course where they can pay to sit with an accountant and really go over what's deductible. But I'll give you the secret. It's whatever is ordinary and necessary for your business is a tax deductible item.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Okay.

[Kimberly Furr]

And it's crazy that these guys don't know it.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Ordinary and necessary.

[Kimberly Furr]

Ordinary and necessary.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah. Isn't that like an argument, though? Like, you could argue some things.

[Kimberly Furr]

Absolutely. The tax code is full of opinions, and you just have to be able to support your opinion with a 50% certainty.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

50%.

[Kimberly Furr]

50% and you can win an IRS audit. Check that out.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

That's interesting.

[Kimberly Furr]

Ordinary and necessary is all you got to do, man.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah, I'm going to learn a lot in this half hour. So you teach them how to write things off, basically. Well, what's the most common? Sort of like, because that's something that, like, freelancers need to know how to do. Like, when I was freelancing, I would write off my rent. You know, that kind of stuff.

[Kimberly Furr]

Sure, yeah.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

When you're starting a construction business or something like that, what are these people trying to learn from you other than writing things off?

[Kimberly Furr]

Well, so, you know, most of the entrepreneurs are embarrassed that they don't know. And so they get in front of bankers or they get in front of other people, and they realize they don't know what they don't know. And so they don't want to sound stupid. And so we have created this safe space for the entrepreneur to come in and ask questions and not be made fun of. And so when they go back and speak to their bankers or their investors, they sound intelligent. In that safe space that we've created is really how we've tripled our business since I learned about Inc 5000 two years ago was creating that safe space for entrepreneurs.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

What's the program called?

[Kimberly Furr]

It's self made. So honestly, I was certifying a client's results so he could apply for Inc 5000. He didn't make the list, but that's okay. And so I realized that in order for me to be on the ink list, I'm going to have to be triple of where I'm at right now in my business. So what's the product that we need? What is the most common scenario that we have in our business? It's not tax returns. Nobody cares about that. I mean they just want their refund. Bookkeeping is a necessary evil. So what else could we do to bring in these business. And that business coaching and that education piece really was the key.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Who teaches these classes, I guess you want to call them, right?

[Kimberly Furr]

Well, you know, it, it really just depends. We've got lots of great accountants in our firm. Some are more specialized than others and it just really depends upon the need. And so when a client signs up for an educational program in our system, they're going to have three to four different people on their team to teach them the things that they need to know so they can go out and grow their business and hit that million dollar mark.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

So are you actively like advertising the firm or this one product?

[Kimberly Furr]

That's just it. We haven't advertised a diddly squat. Not a single thing. It really has just been word of mouth in the entrepreneurial community in North Texas and southwest Oklahoma. So we are just now getting into the marketing situation. As a result, we've got clients all over the world now.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Wow. What are the primary industries you serve like locally?

[Kimberly Furr]

The real estate investor.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Okay.

[Kimberly Furr]

The real estate investor thinks their poop don't stink. I'm just going to be real transparent. They think because they've got, you know, 10 to 20 single family homes that they've made it. They don't really realize they haven't. But we're going to let them have their ego. But the real estate investor is really our key target.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Okay. Yeah, got it.

[Kimberly Furr]

And they talk to each other. It is so funny. They'll talk to their real estate agent who now talks to the other guy. And as a result, we've got real estate investors in 26 states now.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Wow. Those entrepreneurs were just starting out in their careers. Like what is the biggest mistake, like the most common mistake you see them making on their taxes?

[Kimberly Furr]

Well, it's not really on their taxes. They go out and create this llc, right. Limited liability company and don't know how to protect it. And they go out and violate that sucker so many ways. They don't sign documents correctly, they don't set up their bank account correctly, and they totally jeopardize this beautiful business that they're creating because they don't really understand the things that's involved with having an llc. And it's not about what's deductible or making too much money or not saving money for taxes. It's really just violating the core principles of the legal structure of their business.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

And how do they do that?

[Kimberly Furr]

When you're an llc, there's certain parameters that you're supposed to do. So when you create a contract, whether this contract is with a subcontractor or if you're a real estate investor buying the property, you have to sign it a certain way. You can't sign it as if you're Joe Smith. You have to sign it as Joe Smith, the member, who's the member of the llc.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Okay.

[Kimberly Furr]

And so that little bit of signing totally violates, in IRS's eyes, their LLC. So why do they spend the money to do it?

[Rebecca Dasinski]

They have to sign the paperwork as, like, an officer of the company, Correct?

[Kimberly Furr]

Yeah. And so they go in and violate these LLCs that they've created, and then they want to file their taxes and have that liability protection from the irs, and they can't. It's really sad because they don't have that education piece. Yeah.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Navigating that bureaucracy. It's like the last thing that, like, any of them want to do, right?

[Kimberly Furr]

Absolutely. Well, yeah, because they're creators. Entrepreneurs are creators. We're here to create, be dynamic, and bring in that business and close that cell and get, you know, the next deal. We don't want the minutia of admin. What entrepreneur is good at admin?

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah, totally. I know that I'm not. I'm not an entrepreneur, though. But still, I can relate to being bad at admin. So you mentioned that you're just starting to think about marketing. I guess I'm familiar with, like, accountancies, advertising and stuff. When you think of, like, specialty, like, services that cater to, I don't know, like, business people or just the general public. I think of, like, public injury law firms being, like, advertising heavy. But, like, how are you going to advertise your company?

[Kimberly Furr]

We have certain requirements as a certified public accounting firm. We have restrictions on how we're allowed to advertise. So we've actually spun off this business coaching portion of the business because then if we have a separate business for it, we're not under the guidelines of this certified public accounting community. So right now we actually have recently bought a program called Omni and we are just blasting a lot of promo and we're having workshops, just a lot of social media posts.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Okay. Is Omni a like email marketing platform?

[Kimberly Furr]

It is, it's a, is a version of High Level. Have you heard of High Level?

[Rebecca Dasinski]

No, I haven't.

[Kimberly Furr]

Okay, so High Level is this. It's like a CRM platform that also will do your social media posts for you. You can set things up in advance. It also responds to client inquiries, send out promo pieces. It will allow you to create this webinar sign up. That's never really a webinar. It's like a. I don't know, I just bought it, so I'm still learning about it, man.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah. Yeah, that's cool.

[Kimberly Furr]

Yeah.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Did you mention how many people work for you?

[Kimberly Furr]

No, I didn't, but I only have 17.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Really? Only 17 and you have that many clients?

[Kimberly Furr]

Yeah, so two years ago I had eight. Eight employees.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Okay.

[Kimberly Furr]

And so the concept was we've got to double our client base, so let's add more people. And so yeah, we're at 17.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

So when you think about scaling, you tend to hire ahead of growth. Is that sort of how you look at it?

[Kimberly Furr]

Well, you have to. I mean, because if you don't have the bandwidth to bring in more growth, you're going to stop yourself from closing that deal. At least that's my experience. And so yeah, I've just hired five employees since July 1st to get to the 17. Now we're just ready for business.

[Mike Hoffman]

And when we come back, Kimberly explains how her firm uses industry specific AI.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

But first, a quick break.

[Narrator]

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[Rebecca Dasinski]

Everyone wants to Talk about AI all the time. I don't know if it's the same in your field. I write about tech and tech bros and VCs and stuff. So AI is just thrown at me from every angle of my life throughout the workday. You probably don't have it that bad.

[Kimberly Furr]

No, we don't.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah. But I'm curious, can you use AI programs to do people's taxes? You probably can't, right?

[Kimberly Furr]

You can't. Well, so in my world, we have to have specialized AI, so we actually have an AI that is very secure where it will allow us to do certain functions. But really, no, you can't use AI for taxes. You can for bookkeeping. You can for other things like financial statement analysis. But again, you have to have a really secure platform because you're dealing with clients, private data.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah, totally. Have you seen startups try to enter the tax industry, like peddling an AI product? Is that something that's going on?

[Kimberly Furr]

So there's this guy right now that's really showing up on my social media feeds that he thinks that you can take a whole bunch of receipts and sort them with AI and create financial statements. And I'm thinking, yeah, you can. But then really, can you? You know, most of our clients like the fact that they have that personal relationship. AI has its place. But when you're dealing with people's money, you really need that personal relationship.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah, I guess. Maybe when you're filing your own taxes and you're trying to just like, I don't know, organize things, perhaps that could be applicable.

[Kimberly Furr]

Yeah.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah, I'm not sure. So talk to me about the culture at your company. How do you maintain the culture while you're growing? Is that a challenge?

[Kimberly Furr]

Well, so in all honesty, I hated my culture. Two years ago, I fired every executive and every admin person in my office. I only kept my technical people, my accountants and bookkeepers. Everybody else was fired because they did not want to grow. When I came back and said to him, okay, guys, I Learned about this Inc 5000 list thing and I want to be on it. Let's figure out how to be there. And I was met with stops by my admin team, my executive team. That's not where we need to be fired, every single one of them in the last 12 months. We are now have a new culture of growth and really servicing the client and really helping them understand their situation. And as a result of changing that culture where we're there to help each other, we have skyrocketed. But yeah, no culture is really Important, but you've got to stay focused to the end goal. We have pictures of our clients in our office, so we can see that little guy. We can see that insurance agent or that pest control guy. We can see their families. So we understand that's our end game. That guy.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Hmm. That's interesting. Are these framed photos or are these, like, just how do you organize them?

[Kimberly Furr]

We have a gal who's responsible for downloading social media pictures of our clients and just randomly posting them. So you may open the cabinet to get more paper towels for the bathroom, and there is going to be Jason the state farm guy.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

So it's kind of like a kooky culture.

[Kimberly Furr]

Absolutely. Kooky culture. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. We just celebrated National Cheese Day back in June, and we had cheese earrings and cheese hats, and we gave out cheese slices to the clients. It was pretty awesome.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Whoa. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. I wonder, like, you know, if, like, a prospective client walked in and just saw you guys, like, decked out in cheese gear, what they would think, you know, maybe they think, like, hey, this is. This is right for me. If you have a good reputation, I've

[Kimberly Furr]

known to be unusual. So, hey, there you go.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Do you think being unusual is. Yeah. It must be an asset. You have to be who you are. Obviously.

[Kimberly Furr]

Absolutely.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

But, like, when you think of, like, an accountancy, you think of, like, pretty buttoned up and, you know, sterile usually.

[Kimberly Furr]

Absolutely. Yeah. I was just talking to somebody here at the conference that when you think of an accountant, you think of that stupid green visor with a pocket protector full of pens and a calculator. Right. And. And no social skills. Okay. We're not that accountant. Yeah, yeah, we. We are ones that really laugh. If we don't have laughter in our office, then something's wrong. Sure, we're noisy, we're loud, we're caring. But, yeah, we are not the stuffy accountant.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Everyone makes mistakes in business. Tell me about a recent mistake you've made, but you would make again because the lesson that you learned from it was helpful.

[Kimberly Furr]

Well, I don't know if I'd make it again, but let me tell you. Yeah. Let me tell you a story. 2015, March, height of tax season, and I trusted the wrong people. Before my server was in the cloud, my server crashed. I lost every single stitch of data. In the height of tax season, we lost all the financial statements that we had prepared at year end. We had first quarter payroll reports looming at us, tax deadline looming at us, and no data. We're in such a remote place in Oklahoma that It was going to be a week before we could get back up, so it was awful.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

So it was just hard for, like, a technician to come fix your computers?

[Kimberly Furr]

Absolutely. Our backups were corrupt because my IT person had been lying to me.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Oh, no.

[Kimberly Furr]

And she said she was testing my backups, and she wasn't. So that was a lesson I learned. Don't trust your IT guys. You verify your IT guys.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

How do you do that?

[Kimberly Furr]

Well, you make them show you.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah.

[Kimberly Furr]

You know, show me that you restored that file. Show me my backups are still functioning.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Well, what became of that whole mishap?

[Kimberly Furr]

I know. I drained every single bank account I had. I maxed out every single credit card. I borrowed money from the guy I was dating and hired temps to come in and recreate all this beautiful data. And I had to call clients and say, bring me back your original documents. And we literally spent two weeks, nonstop, 20 hours a day, two different shifts to recreate everything, to make the deadlines.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Wow. Yeah, that is. That is hectic.

[Kimberly Furr]

It was awesome.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

How do you stay. It was awesome. How do you stay sane in a moment like that? I don't think I could do that. It's like. That takes me back to, like, high school math class or something.

[Kimberly Furr]

It was awful. Yeah. Yeah. Lots and lots of candy. I actually hid underneath the receptionist desk and just shoved Reese's peanut butter cups in my mouth for about two hours.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Okay.

[Kimberly Furr]

Cause I really just didn't know what to do.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah. Like, panic eating candy.

[Kimberly Furr]

Candy. It was huge panic. Yeah. Yeah. And they're like, are you okay? And I'm like, no, no, I'm not. I need more chocolate, please. Yeah.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

So the lesson learned is like, having trust in the people who work for you, obviously.

[Kimberly Furr]

Yeah, absolutely. You can trust, but you still have to verify. Yeah, yeah. That was really the lesson learned. And so going forward, you know when a client tells or a staff member tells me they handled that client who's a little bit cranky. Okay. I trust them. But I'm going to reach out to that client anyways and say, how's it going? Just to verify that it really was handled. And as a result, that that small personal touch has just made my business grow exponentially.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

That's a good point. I think a lot of founders talk about having, like, being not just, like, being the CEO and having the title, but, like, really being hands on and being the face of the business also, like, helps you maintain better control over it, for sure. And also. Yeah. Like, so. So how hands on are you? Like, you have so many Clients. Are you talking to everybody?

[Kimberly Furr]

No, I have my favorites.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah.

[Kimberly Furr]

Yeah, you talk to the ones that are necessary, the ones that can get you the referrals, the ones that bring you extra business. But I don't talk to everybody unless I need to.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Right, right.

[Kimberly Furr]

But they think. Everybody thinks that I'm their friend, and that's okay. I'll be your friend as long as you write that check.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah, totally. Totally. I mean, that's right. It's a transaction.

[Kimberly Furr]

Absolutely. But just when you make it, just because you're the founder or the CEO or the head honcho, you can't disconnect from your CL client base. You know, you don't necessarily know what really is the issue in your business. You've got to know what your customers are thinking. You've got to survey them. You've got to be connected.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Right?

[Kimberly Furr]

Yeah.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

What's like, the. The age group of most of your, like, new clients? Do you have, like, a lot of, like, younger entrepreneurs?

[Kimberly Furr]

Yeah. So I've been in practice for 28 years, and my client base, the older guys, they're retiring, they're closing their business. So the bulk of my guys are. Are younger than 35. And so you would think younger than 35 they could figure this out on their own. They can't, but they're afraid to go and talk to their mentors and tell their mentors they don't necessarily understand how taxes work or bookkeeping works, so we're that safe space for them. Most of the clients are my daughter's age, which is really weird.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah.

[Kimberly Furr]

Yeah. But that's okay.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah. I mean, understanding the tax code is really perplexing for a lot of people, myself included. You know, that's a good resource for them, I imagine. So in closing, what do you think the biggest external risk to your business is in the next year? Like, whether it be, I don't know, like, supply chain issues, regulation, just, like, you know, things of that nature. And the thing is, like, being that you're an accountant, people need their taxes done. So, like, are there any, like, external factors that actually affect your business in that kind of way?

[Kimberly Furr]

Well, you know, it's really just the supply chain because people don't want to be certified public accountants. They don't want to go. The younger people, they'll finish their degree, but they don't always want to take the test, and they don't want the responsibilities that go along with being a cpa. There's a national shortage of certified public accountants, so much so that our industry has reduced the testing requirements in order for you to take the test. So it's definitely gonna be supply chain in the next several years. Like, I'm at 53 years old, and I'm already thinking, who's gonna be my successor?

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah.

[Kimberly Furr]

Right. I've got to plan 20 years out for somebody to replace me.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah.

[Kimberly Furr]

And that wasn't the case just 10 years ago.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Huh? Well, I mean, maybe these things go in waves, you know?

[Kimberly Furr]

They do, but that's all right.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

I would imagine that, like, going to universities and kind of, like, recl. Recruiting people from accounting programs.

[Kimberly Furr]

Right, Absolutely. We do more marketing for our supply chain than we do for customers. Right. The key is to market the guy who's a junior in college and really start nurturing them. And so when they graduate, they want to come work for you. So I've been marketing to the local universities for years, and it's paid off. That's how I was able to grow so quickly. Marketing for clients? No, not necessarily the thing.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Right, right.

[Kimberly Furr]

Yeah.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Okay, so final question. Where do you want to see your business in the next two years?

[Kimberly Furr]

Well, you know, that's what I don't know. I would love to be on the Inc 5000 list for the next 10 years, and I'd like to be on the Inc 500. So that's my goal right now.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Okay. Well, hey, that's a worthwhile one. You know, I hope to see you back here for sure.

[Kimberly Furr]

Absolutely. Thank you for your time today.

[Rebecca Dasinski]

Yeah, thank you. That was great talking to you.

[Kimberly Furr]

Absolutely.

[Mike Hoffman]

That's all for this episode of youf Next Move. Our producer is Blake Odom. Editorial, editing and sound design by Nick Torres. Additional editing from Sam Gibauer and Tad Wadhams, and our executive producer is Josh Christensen. If you haven't already, subscribe to youo Next Move on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen and you'd Next Move is a production of Inc. And Capital One Business.