Meet Ryan Lazanis, founder of Xen Accounting, a 100% cloud-based accounting firm (circa 2013). Following its acquisition in 2018, Ryan started Future Firm, which provides content, community, and coaching to help accountants quickly grow a scalable, systematic firm of their own. Ryan currently educates over 5,000 firm leaders globally via his free weekly newsletter and he coaches hundreds of successful accounting firms through his Future Firm Accelerate online coaching membership.

Timely ideas can take you far

Ryan grew up in Montreal, Canada, and is a ‘pandemic dad’; he and his wife have an 18-month-old daughter. “Professionally, I started an accounting firm called Xen Accounting, it was one of the first fully virtual online accounting firms in the country. Focused around making accounting easier for small businesses. While I was the CPA (certified professional accountant), I think I identified more with the entrepreneurial side of things. I felt it was very painful for entrepreneurs to get their accounting done, and to work with their accountants. So my idea was to make accounting more accessible by using tools like Skype and cloud accounting software to automate the processes in bookkeeping, taxes, payroll - all that kind of stuff. Today we work in a virtual environment for the most part, but not in 2013. It was definitely a new idea back then and an untested idea. Fast forward five years after starting it from scratch, I was acquired by a large corporate services firm based out of Europe. Then I started Future Firm, my current business, which helps other accountants. The premise of Future Firm is to help other firm owners avoid what I had to go through to try and piece it all together myself. There weren't a lot of resources out there for modern accountants that wanted to build a future-ready, future-proof firm.”

Learning from family history

Ryan was driven to be an entrepreneur, and also create a safety net.

“My father was an entrepreneur, and he had a very successful printing shop. We all know what happened to the print businesses. I've seen firsthand the ups and the downs of entrepreneurship, not just with my father, but other members of the family. Everything happens in cycles, I believe. I think from a young age, I also thought that I would have my own business. And, a profession, like a CPA designation, or law profession, or something along those lines, was a safe fallback plan, if ever business went south.”

People often ask: “How do you find your clients when starting from scratch?”

“I tried just about every trick in the book,” Ryan says. “The first couple clients were through traditional networking. Getting in front of different people and going to the early morning networking meetings and the late evening networking meetings. There were long days, and that's how clients started trickling in. Then I really realized the power of the internet. After a number of failed marketing campaigns online, I found some that started working. I started being able to tap into the internet to get a constant flow of leads coming through the door. I realized I was really good at that. That's how I grew - through leveraging the power of Google to bring business.”

When the opportunity to sell your business comes around

“When I started Xen Accounting, the idea was to just run this for the rest of my life. A couple years into the business, because I was one of the first firms that really got heavy into cloud accounting, we saw other accounting firms, the more established firms, wanting to also get into this space, but they didn't fully understand it. So I was having a lot of different conversations with firms that were approaching me with an interest in partnering or merging or acquiring. That's when I got the idea.

The sale was about a one year transition. I think what became clear through that process of getting approached by potential buyers was clarifying what my actual purpose was, which was to help move the accounting profession forward; to help modernize the accounting profession. I knew I wanted to start Future Firm. So I was very clear with the buyer that this is what I'm going to be doing.”

Currently, Ryan works primarily with six-figure firms that he characterizes as ‘modern entrepreneurial firms’. People that have already bought into an automated approach, and want help to quickly implement technology strategies.

The importance of being intentional about an exit

Ryan is a wonderful example of an intentional exit. It’s really great to be able to set up a business that has the opportunity to be acquired. And if you can do that intentionally, that's even better.

If you can set up a business which allows you to have a great lifestyle, meaningful work, and at the end of your journey, be acquired by people who will bring something new to it, that’s about as rewarding as it gets.

It’s really important to be intentional about business exits.

Fun, frank advice from Ryan Lazanis

“I don't know how fun this is, but I think sometimes you just need to jump. You know, sometimes entrepreneurs or business owners overanalyze things a little bit too much. Sometimes you just have to trust your gut and just jump, and see where things take you. That's the philosophy that I've utilized through my last two businesses, and it's served me well.”

Listen to the entire interview here:

https://iamamillionairesonowwhat.libsyn.com/ep211-the-importance-of-intentional-exits