Most business owners with a frustrated accountant ask, “What else do you need from me?” Evan Scharf asked a different question: “Why is a client paying CPA rates for work a CPA shouldn’t be doing?”
That question became CedarRock Advisory Group.
In this episode of Mind Your Business with Yitzchok Saftlas, Evan Scharf, CPA, Founder and CEO of CedarRock Advisory Group, spends an hour on financial storytelling and why a number on a page is worth nothing until someone can tell you what it means.
Evan starts at Deloitte in 2003, auditing on Wall Street three weeks after his wedding. Six years later he went back for a job interview, sat down for twenty minutes, and told them he was sorry, he just couldn’t do it again. He walked out and built the thing he had been watching go wrong from the audit chair.
The whole business traces back to one small opening. A partner at an accounting firm gave him a $350 a month engagement, and he took it to prove a point. That partner sent him a $3,500 client. That client’s CFO told a friend. The friend brought him into an apparel startup at $4,000 a month, and eight years later that one account was billing $30,000. More than 400 clients later, not one has come from an advertisement.
Roughly a quarter of those clients are nonprofits, yeshivas, and day schools. Evan walks through what he finds when he opens an organization’s books, from an unstructured chart of accounts to controls that were never put in place, and why fixing 90 percent of it is a real win. His point for every executive director watching: the hours you spend on payroll and bill pay are hours you are not spending with a donor.
He is just as direct about where he fits. CedarRock does not do high-end CFO work, and he explains where that line sits. Some low-cost providers do a good job, and he says so. What he wants is the client ready to invest in the accounting function and stay for a decade, which is what most of his clients have done.
And then there are the baseball hats. Evan’s family stamps them with the year of their annual road trip. A stranger in Colorado read one, said “you must do this a lot,” and Evan told him with a straight face it was their 2,025th trip. His point: a number without someone to interpret it will send you down the wrong road.
For owners still doing the books at night, for anyone with a bookkeeper and no second set of eyes, and for executive directors carrying the finance function on top of everything else, this hour is worth the time.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:
Why a CPA firm can’t fix the books it is auditing, and what that gap costs the client
How a $350 a month engagement compounded into a $30,000 a month client
The accounts receivable mistake that leaves profitable businesses short on cash
What a bank is actually evaluating when you apply for financing
The real difference between a bookkeeper, a controller, and a CFO, and which one most owners actually need
What Evan’s team does every time a vendor’s wire instructions change
Why he will not hire an accountant who cannot write a clear email
FEATURING:
Evan Scharf, CPA, Founder and CEO, CedarRock Advisory Group
Website: https://cedarrockadvisory.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanscharf/
Phone: 516-666-9249 ext. 101
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đź“Ś EPISODE CHAPTERS
00:00 – Teaser
01:07 – Leaving Big 4 Accounting
07:11 – Launching Cedar Rock
10:00 – Scaling to 400 Clients
13:52 – Financial Storytelling
16:14 – Fire Yourself as Bookkeeper
18:36 – Beating Parkinson’s Law
22:06 – Cash Flow Killers
24:20 – Mastering Bank Relations
27:45 – Fraud-Proofing Your Business
30:30 – Must-Watch CEO Metrics
34:02 – How to Vet Clients
38:42 – Bookkeeper vs. Controller vs. CFO
41:08 – The Power of Soft Skills
44:55 – The Road Trip Analogy
47:09 – Smarter Pricing Strategy
50:06 – High-Touch vs. Cheap Outsourcing
51:27 – Nonprofit Financial Controls
57:08 – The “Who Not How” Mindset
59:11 – AI in Accounting
01:02:05 – Power Networking
01:03:26 – Freedom to Fail
01:05:11 – Fast-Growth Company Habits
01:08:49 – Relationships Over Revenue
01:13:40 – Final thoughts
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About the Channel
Mind Your Business with Yitzchok Saftlas features thoughtful discussions with executives, entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, and changemakers. Hosted by Yitzchok Saftlas, CEO of Bottom Line Marketing Group, the show dives into leadership, marketing, fundraising, and organizational growth through real stories and practical insights.
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Yitzchok Saftlas is the founder and president of Bottom Line Marketing Group, an award-winning marketing agency helping hundreds of corporate, political and non-profit clients since 1992. Yitzchok’s new book: “So, What’s the Bottom Line?” published by Morgan James, contains timeless advice for marketers, seasoned executives and entrepreneurs. He is the host of the weekly business radio show, “Mind Your Business” on 77WABC in the New York / New Jersey metro area as well as on C-Suite TV and C-Suite Radio. Additionally, Yitzchok is a featured columnist in the Yated newspaper and Mishpacha Magazine, both international weekly publications.
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