Bethany Galguera had an idea of what she wanted from her accountancy firm, but no idea of how to get there; AVN has helped her find a clear path.
I run an accounting firm based out of Kentucky in the United States, but we’re fully virtual and fully remote — my team works all over the world. We have 10 employees, split between Kentucky, Thailand and Bolivia, with around 50 to 60 monthly accounting clients, and we do about 100 tax returns a year.
The biggest thing I’ve experienced with AVN is being able to define what I actually want out of my business, and then having a clear path on how to get there. That was the key piece I needed before I could move forward. Before, I had an idea, but it wasn’t really clear in my mind where I wanted to go — and even with a fuzzy idea, I didn’t know the next steps to reach it.
Where I was before
A couple of years ago I’d already identified the issues most firms face — we were working too much for too little money with difficult clients — so I started making changes on my own. We raised prices, got more specific tracking gross profit per client to see where we were making and losing money, eliminated difficult and unprofitable clients, and started phasing out our income-tax-only segment. Those changes helped, but I reached a point where I’d figured that part out and didn’t know how to move forward. I wanted to grow, but I wasn’t sure where to go with marketing or scaling, or whether I was happy with my pricing.
I came across AVN through a webinar while doing my CPE credits at the end of the year. So much of what I saw in the webinar and the book mirrored my own thinking on how a firm should be run. I agreed with the basics — I just needed the practical steps and specific guidance on how to move forward. That felt like a good fit, so I read the book and reached out for a meeting.
Working with my coach
My practice growth expert, Oana, is really supportive and flexible. Sometimes I’ll divert and start working on things she didn’t ask me to, and she’ll redirect me when I need more focus — but she also works with me when I want to go off and concentrate on something else for a while. She provides a lot of resources and asks a lot of good questions, which is often exactly what you need to figure out the answer yourself. Having that external viewpoint — someone from outside asking “what about this?” or “have you tried this?” — has been really helpful.
The progress so far
I flew through the clarity stage quickly because I’d done a lot of it in the preceding two years. Positioning was the one I really focused on, because marketing was my big reason for joining. It helped me figure out who my client is, who we are, and how to connect the two so our message is consistent across whatever platform we choose. Even though I haven’t started marketing yet, I had to step back and ask, “What am I marketing? Who am I marketing to?” If I hadn’t worked with AVN, I’d have jumped straight into Google Ads or email marketing and wasted a lot of time and money.
I’ve since paused marketing to work on value — getting a clearer picture of what we’re going to sell to clients before we go out to market. AVN really helped me take a step back and make those bigger-picture decisions before just throwing money at a problem and hoping it works.
My two most senior staff join me on most meetings and have their own assignments from Oana. Including my client manager in the marketing, sales and packaging work means I’m training someone else at the same time — so I’m developing the processes and building her confidence with them without taking on all the additional work myself.
What’s next
Over the next six months, I want to redefine our packages and work through our pricing to make sure it’s consistent with the market and the services we offer. Once that’s done, we’ll put everything we worked out during positioning to work and start marketing to new clients.
Would I recommend AVN?
Absolutely. The resources and support are incredible — sometimes almost too much; there’s so much that I have to pick and choose. If you like to improve, if you’re open to new ideas, advice and change, and you’re willing to put in the work on your own business, there’s no way you won’t benefit. Ultimately it’s still your business — you’re the one who has to sit down and make the changes — but I’m totally happy with my membership and I highly recommend AVN.