Why I’m buying 20 accounting firms by 2027

I’ve got an insanely ambitious deal in the works, and it’s time to pull back the curtain and let you in on it.

Over the next 2 years, I’m going to buy 20 accounting firms.

This is a life-changing project that’s going to set my family up for true generational wealth.

This is still in the early stages. But I want to make this process as transparent, inspirational, and educational as possible for everyone following along.

So here’s my plan in detail:

The criteria + my team

I chose accounting firms because they hit my three criteria for lucrative investments — they’re recession proof, have recurring revenue, and have a high barrier to entry.

And, because I’m doing what’s called a “rollup.”

(Merging these companies together.)

And that’s the core of this strategy, because…

If you own multiple firms with a total cash flow of over $10M a year, you can sell all of them together for 10x to 12x cash flow.

I’ve got a team searching for viable deals every day, and I’ve also got a CPA partner with 5 acquisitions under his belt doing due diligence, who will be the CEO of all 20 firms.

We’re looking for firms generating $1M-2M per year in revenue.

At this scale, the owners aren’t doing all the work (so we can eventually replace them), and we won’t be competing with large institutions trying to buy the business.

Where we’re at now

We’ve closed on firm #4 already.

It was 60% SBA financed and 40% seller financed, and I’ll be using this as our proof-of-concept to raise $5M from investors for future down payments.

After that, all deals will be 40-60% down and 40-60% seller financed.

Post-acquisition

To minimize risk, the contracts specify that if revenue drops below 95% of the previous year, we won’t need to pay back a portion of the seller financing.

This incentivizes sellers to make sure the transition goes smoothly.

On top of that...

My CPA partner will implement his proprietary tech stack into all the firms to integrate their systems together. And, teams should already be in place, so at most we’ll only need to add a few hires. This will take around 90-180 days to implement per deal after the acquisition.

The endgame

Once we merge 20 firms and reach $10M in EBITDA, we’re going to sell it all to a large financial institution for a $100M to $120M payout. Easier said then done, but I feel confident in our strategy and my team to implement it.

My main focus this year is to buy 10 accounting firms by the end of 2025.

And so far, the market conditions for this look great.

(Like I’ve been saying... right now is the best time to buy small businesses!)

I’ll keep you updated on progress as we go.

In the meantime:

If you’re planning on buying a small business or passively investing in one in the near future, let me know here.

Or if you’re looking to sell your business and would like me to refer you buyers, tell me the details here.

— Ben Kelly