67: Building a Consulting Firm with Carey Rome

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While still in high school, Carey Rome decided that he wanted to own his own business. Seeing that, his Dad told him to go and speak to his uncle who told him the following: It doesn’t matter if you’re doing really well or you’re doing really poorly. If you have to have someone tell you, your business is at risk.

From there, Carey ended up working at the largest CPA and advisory firm in the world at the time before opening up his own firm in 2005. In this episode, Carey shares the ups and downs of going out on his own, plus his struggle of developing an MVP which ended up being his biggest business success- and biggest headache.

 

My Guest: Carey Rome

Carey Rome is a self-declared recovering CPA who somehow can manage both left and right brain activities. Admittedly, right-brain activities are where he thrives.

Carey is a constant admirer of smart ideas and an avid (or maybe addicted) Podcast and audiobook listener. But that is for a reason. It wasn’t until audible and podcasts that he discovered that he was an auditory learner. For years he struggled with reading comprehension. Ever since this discovery, it is like a whole new world has opened up.

 

Episode Highlights:

[3:52]: It doesn’t matter if you’re doing really well or you’re doing really poorly. If you have to have someone tell you, your business is at risk.

[8:08]: I decided to go to Starbucks to celebrate my launching of my business. I’m walking up the steps because I couldn’t find the elevator. And I’m walking up the steps. And I trip and I spill coffee all over the place.

[10:46]: Estie: What do you do first? What do you do?
Carey: Um, I did what I do not recommend others do. I bought everyone I know that would go, a bottom lunch or coffee.

[16:03]: And now I’ve got a cash flow problem, because I have to have to pay real people, 13 people, starting all at once, traveling every week, which gets expensive. And then I had to float that for 65 or 70 days until I got paid.

[29:56]: Yeah, I would say, find a way to document your expertise in a product of some sort. And don’t sell it based on time. Sell it based on the value that you deliver from that product or service.

[35:16]: Then one day that client looks up and says, I can’t believe we’re paying Estie this much money! We can hire someone full time for that. And then they say, “Hey Estie, it’s been great. You know what, probably at the end of the next two weeks, we probably need to end this.”

[44:33]: I went to larger companies saying. “Surely you do this, well, give me a little guidance on what I’m developing.” And as it turns out, they said, “Actually, we do that very, very poorly. We need that.” So now I’ve got a struggle as it were. I have developed a minimal viable product, and what I need to develop is an enterprise solution.

[50:34]: Because the goal is to get up to that peak, and then start another one, and then start another one. I look at it almost like mountain climbing. You go, you hit a little plateau, you’re like, ahhhh, and then you start climbing again.

 

Quote: 

Water the seed.

 

Resources & Links:

 


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About the author, Estie Rand

I love turning ideas into money, and helping others do the same. I help small business owners with everything from marketing to fiscal management, business plans to staffing, database architecture to work/life balance coaching and I love it all! What do you need help with today?

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