Logan Graf wants to eliminate busy season.
Since high school, Graf always wanted to be a business owner, so like many accountants, making partner was originally his goal. But after working at a regional firm for a couple years, he grew tired of the slam of tax season.
"The working conditions are not very fun from January to April," he said. "I always thought there's a better way to do this, and the only way I can do that is if I'm an owner or a partner."
But he didn't see himself starting his own firm until he moved to a smaller one and saw the better — but still not ideal — work-life balance. After a couple years there, he moved to an even smaller firm in central Texas in 2016 where he became a tax director. He used that time to observe the intricacies of running a firm and note what he would do differently if he were in charge. The opportunity to run his own practice came in 2019 when the partners there decided to sell their firm and offered Graf first dibs to buy.
"I was at a crossroads," he said. "The decision was there right in front of me, and so I was kind of forced to make that decision then. And I don't know if I was really that ready, mentally, to do that."
Graf didn't accept their initial offer, but they came to a deal where he worked with their clients as a contractor and could then buy those clients for a set price. Any client he added that season, he didn't have to buy. Through this agreement, he bought about 60 of their clients and added about 50-60 more on his own.
"I said, 'OK, now this makes sense for me financially,' and then I took that and started my own firm with a good chunk of clients that I could feel comfortable with and cash flow to pay for everything."
Graf founded The Graf Tax in August 2020 offering client advisory services. He now has roughly 150 clients located in Texas, where he is based. His firm operates entirely remotely and has one employee, whom he hired almost a year ago.
Graf's first goal is to eliminate busy season. He's going about that in two notable ways. First is through dramatic price increases. Many of the clients he started with have been priced out. He started at about $400 per personal tax return; now he charges $1,200.
"I use my pricing as a lever on how many clients I add. So when I'm starting to add a whole bunch of clients, I increase my pricing to hopefully slow it down," he said.
The second is by capping the number of clients he takes on during busy season. "I can't work on everybody's return between January or April, or I'll quit accounting, essentially," Graf said. "And so year by year, I'm reducing the number of clients I work with between January and April."
Put simply, his clients will pick a time for Graf to do their return. There is a limited number of spaces, so if clients don't secure a spot, then their returns are extended.
His strategy is already proving itself successful. In his first year running his firm, he worked an average of 60 hours a week during busy season. In the 2023 busy season, he averaged roughly 50 hours a week, and by 2024 he was down to roughly 44 hours a week.
"Managing tax season will help me be able to work towards my long-term goal of a holistic approach of working with clients," he said. "I'm essentially frozen for three months out of the year working on tax returns, and you can't really evolve your firm that way if you're stuck for that long of time during the year."
Documenting his founder journey
In addition to running his firm, Graf is a content creator. He dedicates his Fridays to expanding his social media presence, including his
"My goal now is just to help accounting firms, people that want to start an accounting firm, or people that want to run or currently run an accounting firm. I want to be a source for them for guidance and inspiration."
He has an even greater presence on X, formerly Twitter, with nearly 20,000 followers. He has nearly 11,000 followers on LinkedIn.
Graf also uses his platforms to share lessons he's learned as a founder and CPA. His first message is there will always be work, so the fear of not making enough money is largely unfounded. "There's so much work out there, even if you're being really picky with who you work with," he said.
Secondly, he advises that founders stay in their lane with their expertise, and in conjunction with that, to not be afraid to say "no."
"Don't take on projects that you aren't completely comfortable with taking on in the beginning," he said. "If you run into a project that's new to you, and you're having to research it and maybe consult with other people about it, it takes up so much of your resources that you could have worked on five different clients instead of this one client. And you probably aren't making much money from that client compared to if you just worked with the five clients you're comfortable with."
Graf also emphasizes managing expectations with clients, such as communicating clearly how you work or the tone of your working relationship.
Finally, he urges founders to raise prices faster than they think they should. He said he made the mistake of raising prices on a yearly basis, which resulted in a period where clients he added in his first year were paying less while clients he added in his second year were paying more. He also suggests hiring sooner rather than later, keeping in mind the time it takes to train an employee.
Despite the challenges, founding his firm is worth it to Graf: "Running your own firm is way different than being an employee. There's some days where I wish I was an employee and I didn't have to worry about all the things that I have to worry about," he said. "But then again, I work three times less than I did as an employee and make three times more."
This story is part of new series on how accounting entrepreneurs launched their practices. Look for more
