We wrote the book on it.
Our company is built around firms being stronger when together. Whether a firm needs better infrastructure, additional support, or is one of the 75,000 owners in need of a succession plan, we are the solution.
Three forces, arriving together.
Any one of these would strain the industry. All three at once is what makes this structural.
Demand is exploding
36.2M
small businesses in the US, an all-time record, with more than 5 million new ones forming every year. Every one is legally required to keep books and file.
Talent is evaporating
43k → 28k
new CPA exam candidates in a single year, a one third collapse. Over 300,000 accountants left the profession in a recent two year window.
Owners are aging out
75,000
firm owners face a mandatory succession decision in the next five to ten years, all at the same time.
When an industry ages out, it consolidates.
The same squeeze has already run its course in other trades built on independent, owner-operated shops. Independent ownership did not hold.
The wave of consolidation is close to a certainty. The people who move early keep the leverage.
Why the market values your firm the way it does.
A firm can be excellent, loved, and profitable and still sell for a fraction of what a comparable recurring revenue business would.
Five metrics. Three the firm wins outright.
Recurring revenue
Not sold, mandated. The federal tax calendar enforces it every year.
Customer retention
A well run firm keeps more than 90% of its clients year over year.
Lifetime value
Relationships measured in decades, passed down across generations.
Gross margin
About 60 cents on the dollar, delivered by skilled, expensive people, not code.
Growth rate
Capped in the single digits, because you cannot hire enough qualified people.
The headline number is not the number.
The earnout
That last 30% is a holdback tied to client retention. If a client leaves during the handover, it comes out of your share.
The employment agreement
The deal almost always requires you to keep working for the buyer, often up to five years.
You are charged twice for the same risk.
The same cash flow is worth more at scale.
A firm's one times revenue price comes from one thing: it cannot scale past the owner's own hours. Solve that, and the very same relationships and recurring revenue become worth far more, because they are finally part of a business that can grow. That is the entire idea behind combining firms under ARV.
Two ways out. One keeps you in the upside.
Sell for cash
A clean, certain floor.
- Cash now, most of it up front
- An earnout tied to keeping clients
- Usually five more years working for the buyer
- You become an employee of your own firm
Combine forces under ARV
Ownership in a larger, scalable company.
- You stay an owner, not an employee
- No adversarial earnout hanging over you
- Technology carries the delivery load
- You keep serving your clients
The ceiling was never data entry. It was senior judgment.
The software preps
Arrive handles the baseline extraction and assembly, like a tireless first year associate.
A senior accountant reviews
An experienced human corrects anything the software got wrong. Judgment stays with people.
The system learns
Every correction teaches the machine, and applies across every client in the network.
Both sides of the desk win.
The owner gets
- A real succession path, without walking away from the work
- Ownership in a company built to grow
- The bench and technology no single firm could fund alone
- Their people and their name kept intact
The client gets
- A call that gets answered, in season and out
- Advice on pricing, cash flow, hiring, financing, and a sale
- Work that continues even when one person is out
- The same trusted advisor, now with a team behind them
Two questions that tell you who is real.
“Show me your committed capital.”
Prove the funds exist today. If the money depends on a loan they have not secured, you are the collateral, not the client.
“Who does my clients' work in March?”
If there is no army of qualified accountants ready for tax season, no financial engineering will serve your clients.
ARV was built to answer both. Committed capital, a real bench of accountants, and the technology to carry the work.
Let's talk about your firm.
Weighing succession, feeling the ceiling, or tired of turning away work you know you should be doing? Start a conversation.