Partnership

The Franklin Alliance (TFA) is a platform of leading entrepreneurial CPA firms. We leverage our best in class team, robust operational playbook, and cutting edge technological tools to provide human capital solutions, facilitate successful transitions, and create a next generation Tax & Accounting platform.

Our view is that small and medium sized CPA firms are the backbone of the financial services industry, yet the industry is changing. Firms are consolidating, adopting new technological tools, and finding new sources of talent, all of which can be challenging for small firms to access. Despite these challenges, small and medium sized firms are better places to work and often provide better service to clients than bigger firms.

We believe that by bringing together a select group of like-minded, entrepreneurial CPAs, that we can win together and build a next generation Tax & Accounting firm, one that is client obsessed from the start and which retains its local spirit while accessing big firm resources.

TFA is led by three co-founders: Ben Holloway, Tuyee Yeboah, and Steve Shein. Each brings extensive experience in private equity, venture capital, and business operations from their previous roles at significant financial institutions and investment firms. Ben Holloway started his career at Intuit and has worked with firms like Turn/River Capital and Graham Partners. Tuyee Yeboah has executive leadership experience at Crown Peak Holdings and in corporate strategy at Citizens Bank and J.P. Morgan. Steve Shein, a Chartered Financial Analyst, founded the fintech company ReVal and has venture capital experience with OCA Ventures​​.

The firm also has a team of Strategic Advisors who are involved with both the strategy of the firm and some of the day to day operations, a few of the key member involved are as follows:
Rick Dreher - Former CEO, Wipfli
Brent Bement - Managing Partner, Bement & Company
Rob Morris III - Managing Partner, RWM & Company
Jon Segal - Regional Partner, Aprio
Matt Sussman - CEO, Alliance Animal Health
Allan Koltin - Managing Partner, Koltin Group Consulting
Kimi Ellen - Managing Partner, Benford Brown & Associates. 2023 Most Powerful Women in Accounting

Lastly, the firm is backed by a small group of both institutional and individual investors, many of whom have deep experience in the Financial Services industry.

Our origin story is best told in person, so let’s get on a call and chat! But to give a quick summary, all three of us grew up in and around family business/small business entrepreneurship. We were fortunate enough to have the opportunities to learn and grow within larger organizations, but after 10+ years of working in and around large corporations, we wanted to return to our roots and work on something that we are all passionate about, growing small businesses and helping them transition to their next phase of growth.

We felt as though existing institutional investors didn’t know how to best work with small business, it was too much Wall St and not enough Main St yet there are 30 million+ Main St businesses in the US, which constitute a larger part of the economy than the big businesses we all hear about.

Additionally, small business is undergoing a rapid transition with aging owners, new technologies, consolidation, etc so we felt it was the perfect time to leverage our skills to partner with owners and extend and expand the legacy of these companies.

Regarding why we picked Tax & Accounting firms, we felt as though the small businesses challenges we discussed above were particularly notable in the Tax & Accounting space. We also were able to find a great group of advisors and interests, each of us had a unique personal tie to the Tax & Accounting space. We set off to learn as much as we possibly could about the industry and ~year later we had raised money from outside investors, partnered with our first few platforms, and we’re well on our way!

We think the second page of our overview two-pager does a great job of laying this out. Here is a link to that document. The first thing to highlight is that we are not a fund, nor are we traditional Private Equity. We are backed by Venture Capital and much more focused on growth. We are an operating company, which allows for much more flexibility.

Aside from that, despite our professional resumes, as we mentioned our roots are in small business and entrepreneurship. We pride ourselves on being a different type of partner, one who can draw from the best practices of larger organizations but also translate that into useful and actionable steps for small businesses. We lead with authenticity and integrity and prove that the people and groups we’ve partnered with. We feelSome of the ways we differentiate ourselves:

Win together - There’s an old proverb that we love, If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together, we’re in this for the long-term and we believe that with a long-term perspective and the right partners, that success is inevitable. As part of that, we want to make sure everyone is taken care of and that not only means best in class compensation and benefits, but equity ownership for yourself and team members, and opportunities for the team to grow and expand. Too many firms enrich themselves at the expense of others. We don’t believe that business is a zero sum game and we want to win together.Preserve & extend your legacy - A small business is often much more than just a company that does Taxes or bookkeeping, it’s a representation of your life’s work, it may even have your name on it. To us, it’s doing that business a disservice to have a multi-decade old business transition into an H&R Block (or the equivalent) or to become part of a larger organization that isn’t going to value you, your people, or your customers. We’ve seen these transitions happen the wrong way, and we’re determined to do better.People first - People are the most important part of a business. Yet finding good people is a challenge, especially in an industry that is facing a perpetual shortage of qualified individuals. We’ve heard that for every 1 CPA entering the industry 7 are leaving. Despite this challenge, we see opportunity, how can we become the most desirable place for those individuals? We borrow lessons from best in class firms and cultures and have a robust plan to attract and retain top talent.
Hands on operators - Lastly, we’re hands on operators. We’ve all been entrepreneurs and we’ve all worked in and with small businesses for years. The reason we’re doing this is because jobs at Intuit or JP Morgan didn’t excite us and we’re never going back. You’ll hear from us often, and we’ll be involved as much as you can handle. We travel constantly, are available at a moment's notice via Zoom, and we’ll work to find the right cadence of communication with you and your team.

We pride ourselves on being value add partners and we’re working constantly to continue to bring more benefits to the platform and thus to your and your business. To highlight some of the main things we bring to the table currently:

Human Capital: We approach human capital from several angles, all focused on supporting and elevating existing talent. We have a team of recruiters, all of whom specialize in Tax & Accounting recruiting, who will work with you to fill in talent gaps, particularly at the mid and senior levels. We will also work with you to figure out if existing employees can be up-leveled into more impactful roles. We also have a dedicated pool of talent in both the Philippines and India that can oftentimes make an immediate impact, especially for some of the day-to-day work. Lastly, we are building a bench of internal CPA talent that can assist remotely as needed.

Strategy & Operations: We pride ourselves on being strong process oriented professionals and we’ll bring best in class practices to your firm in order to drive efficiencies and growth. To give a tangible example, one of the first things we’ll do with you is to conduct a complete customer base evaluation. We go through each customer, outline their services and their prior year billing and assign them a category. Each category will have its own set of actions to take over in the future months. For some, it’s increasing prices to baseline level, for others it may be offering bookkeeping services in addition to the business and personal tax offerings you already provide.

It’s a simple exercise, but one we find owners typically don’t have the bandwidth to conduct themselves. It’s typically quite revealing and we’ve realized 10+% revenue gains purely from that analysis alone. We have several of these initiatives that we start on as soon as we begin working together.

Tech Enablement: We’re believers that tech is a critical, yet often overlooked portion of small and medium sized CPA firms. Not all tech is useful and many times it can be a distraction; however, we have a set of recommendations for various levels of tech adoption based on tech-savvy your firm currently is. For some firms that may mean setting up a basic CRM, making sure all filing processes are digitized, and having the right communication tools so that employees can work remotely as needed. For others, it is testing and implementing Artificial Intelligence co-pilots that can fill out a 1040 within seconds. We’re technologists at heart and we’ll help you find the right balance of useful tech for your business.

M&A & Expansion: We have an internal program, loosely referred to as the CP(M&)A program in which we provide capital and M&A support to allow you to acquire local businesses in order to grow your practice. As we mentioned before, many smaller CPA firms are starting to look for transitions and there is significant opportunity to inherit or acquire these books of businesses. Especially if paired with team expansion and human capital improvements.

Sales, Marketing, & Growth: We have partnered with a S&M agency that has a particular focus on Tax & Accounting firms. They will work with you to figure out the right customer profiles to target and the best way to take advantage of low hanging fruit opportunities to gain more customers. Best practices for SEO & SEM, local review strategies, and referral programs are just a few of the ways they’ve helped our firms so far.

As we mentioned above, the ultimate goal of The Franklin Alliance (TFA) is to leverage our collective and extensive expertise in tax & accounting services, private equity, operations, and technology to transform small and medium-sized firms into more efficient, scalable, and profitable versions of themselves.

To reiterate, our core belief is that small and medium sized CPA firms are currently underserved and going through a period of rapid transition. We see an opportunity to partner with best in class owners to drive growth within their businesses and position them for the next leg of growth. Some of our main goals are as follows:

Build Market-Leading Platforms: TFA's strategy is centered around creating a platform that transforms smaller industry players into larger, more competitive entities. This approach allows for the realization of economies of scale, enhanced market reach, and the ability to offer more benefits and services to clients.

Enhance Value Through Operational Excellence: TFA employs a hands-on operational approach, utilizing its best in class team and operational playbook to drive improvements. These improvements include technological integration, process optimization, and financial management enhancements that together increase efficiency and profitability.

Drive Technological Advancement: Recognizing the pivotal role of technology in modern business, TFA prioritizes tech-enablement for its portfolio companies. This involves implementing cutting-edge solutions that streamline operations, improve client engagement, and deliver data-driven insights for better decision-making.

Facilitate Successful Business Transitions: For many small business owners, especially those nearing retirement or without a clear succession plan, TFA provides a vital pathway to ensure the continuation and growth of their businesses. Through strategic acquisitions, TFA not only preserves but also builds upon the legacies of these businesses, ensuring they thrive in the changing market landscape.

Create Value: By professionalizing and scaling businesses, as well as combining them under one roof, TFA will increase their value and attractiveness for future sale or further investment.

Promote Sustainable Growth: In addition to financial metrics, TFA focuses on sustainable growth, which includes nurturing the human capital within its portfolio companies, fostering a culture of innovation, and maintaining high standards of corporate governance and community engagement.

The ultimate goal is to become a leading Accounting firm in the US, but to do it without compromising customer service, to allow our partner firms to retain their identity and to truly have a firm that is worth more than the sum of its parts and that follows our local spirit with national resources mission.