atrick Dichter bought a bookkeeping & tax business just over a year ago, at the end of 2021.

I had him on Acquiring Minds shortly thereafter, and I invited him back on now to update us on how things have gone.

Spoiler: quite well.

Patrick's acquisition was small, with $330k SDE on $1.2m in sales. A year later, sales are up 60%.

We get into how Patrick has done that, plus lots of other topics:

  • why he bought small;
  • his key advice for other searchers;
  • the viability of rolling up accounting & tax firms;
  • and growing by acquisition versus growing organically (Patrick made 2 more tuck-in acquisitions in 2022).

We also discuss lots of elements of the bookkeeping & accounting industry, and specifically from the perspective of a buyer of businesses in that industry.

This episode is a nice follow-up to my episode with Chris Williams of a few weeks ago — which was also an update with a former guest, and also a searcher who acquired a business around bookkeeping.

So if you're interested in this space — and it is appealing — you've now got 4 episodes to sink your teeth into about searchers who acquired bookkeeping businesses. The other 3:

Here is Patrick Dichter, owner & CEO of AppleTree Business Services 👇👇👇