We were thrilled to interview Jody Grunden, CEO and Co-Founder of Summit CPA. The firm adopted a subscription pricing model and we are eager to learn how he grew the firm from $600,000 in revenue in 2004 to $7,000,000 today.
But first…a bit more about Jody
Jody Grunden is the managing member of Summit CPA Group. Jody focuses his attentions primarily on Virtual CFO Services. Jody meets with business owners on a weekly basis to assist them with Cash Flow Management, Forecasting, Budgeting, Debt Restructuring, Cost Accounting, and Cutting Edge Tax Planning. He takes great pride in helping business owner strive in all economic conditions. He strongly believes that a well-run company will excel in both a good and bad economy. Jody is also the author of Digital Dollars and Cents. Jody graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor's degree in accounting. Jody has been happily married to his wife, April for over 25 years. April is an estate planning attorney for Grunden Law Offices where she concentrates her practice on estate planning, succession planning, and business formations. They have two children, Tyler and Lexi.
Here are Ed’s questions from the interview
You have a fairly unique pricing model, a weekly subscription. But before we get to that, let’s talk about your background. How did you get to Summit CPA?
For how long did you do timesheets? You started with them when you first started the firm?
Other than timesheets and hourly billing, why did you want to change your business model?
Talk to us about the time of transition from billing by the hour for about two years to fixed pricing? How did you change? Did you start with current customers, new customers, how did it happen?
What was the secret sauce, the magic that helped you turn the corner?
You mentioned you brought the pricing into equilibrium with what is valuable in the minds of the customers. What conversations did you have with your current customers as you were trying to help them make the transition. Was there pushback from them to the new pricing and just wanted to stay on the old method?
I noticed on your website, you talk about offering flat-fee pricing, but it’s unique because it’s done on a weekly basis, as well as you offer them choices. Why weekly?
You have three distinct categories: Transactional, Controller, and Virtual CFO, and priced as of June 12, 2020 at $750/week, $1,000/week, and $1,500/week. Talk to me about how you got to those prices for those three distinct levels?
You also offer some bundled services on top of those levels, such as individual and business tax returns—listed as optional—and also paying bills, cash flow management, payroll that are a la carte. What’s the difference between optional and a la carte?
Do you consider this to be more subscription-based pricing than, say, value pricing?
Do you have a lot of customers who jump on and jump off after they get their mess cleaned up?
You also mentioned that you teach what you call “profit-focused accounting.” Talk to me about that.
Let’s discuss marketing. You have a great website, it’s really well organized. You have a podcast, a blog. Talk to me about how you use that as an integrated marketing approach to get new customers.
One of the things most intriguing on your website is that you’ve created an accountant community, The CFO Community, for CFOs as well as firm owners. Give us a little run down on that?
If you were to give one or two pieces of advice to someone who has an accounting firm right now and is thinking of going to a new model, either going virtual or to a subscription model, what would it be?
If you are talking to a recent graduate who has their degree in accounting, and is interested in doing this, would you recommend they go right into it, or should they spend some time doing pain work with a regular CPA?
Bonus Content is Available As Well
Did you know that each week after our live show, Ron and Ed take to the microphone for a bonus show? Typically, this bonus show is an extension of the live show topic (sometimes even with the same guest) and a few other pieces of news, current events, or things that have caught our attention.
Click the “FANATIC” image to learn more about pricing and member benefits.