“Until I found Harness, starting my own tax practice wasn’t an option that I was seriously considering.”

Mr. Maddox is a member of Harness and is not being directly compensated for sharing his opinion and experience with our firm. Due to Mr. Maddox’s relationship with Harness as a tax adviser on the platform, material conflicts of interest may arise. There is an indirect financial incentive for Mr. Maddox to promote Harness as he is a tax adviser available through the Harness platform. Mr. Maddox’s comments may not be representative of any other person’s experience with the firm. While Harness provides valuable tools and support, individual results can vary, and success requires effort and leveraging the platform’s resources effectively.

Kelley Maddox, CPA, CFP® - Harness Wealth

Kelley Maddox, CPA. CFP®

Breaking away from an RIA

Before moving to Harness, Kelley Maddox was on a typical trajectory at his previous company. He was at a registered investment adviser (“RIA”) working as a tax manager on the planning team, on a path to becoming a director in a couple of years. 

“Given the structure at that firm, a director role would have maxed out my growth potential and I would have been effectively stuck there with little opportunity to continue growing and increase my earning potential,” shared Kelley. He felt stuck, so he started to explore his options.

Kelley explored a couple of full-time salary jobs similar to the role he was in before, both RIAs with in-house tax teams. But then he found Harness and considered the idea of going solo. 

Kelley shared that the control and freedom of running his own tax firm was attractive. He saw going solo as an opportunity to create a sustainable business and to have the autonomy to support his life goals. And as someone about to start a family, “You can’t put a price on that,” he said.

“Getting set up on Harness was easy”

Once Kelley decided to make the leap and go solo, things moved quickly—and in a good way.

“Getting set up with Harness was pretty quick and easy for me,” Kelley shared. Within a couple of weeks, he was trained on the entire Harness tech stack.

After being trained on the Harness tax practice management platform, Kelley was ready to build his book of business. He was starting from zero but that didn’t last long. Just weeks after starting to use the platform, he was taking a full load of introductory calls from Harness-generated leads. 

Growth: The first 100 clients

Kelley was ready to network to attract clients, but he quickly realized that it was not necessary to grow his firm. 

“When I joined Harness I expected to have to network and source clients to supplement the Harness leads in order to build a sustainable book,” Kelley stated. But Harness helped Kelly gain traction. 

In January 2023, Kelley started with zero clients but has grown to over 100 clients in early 2024, with annual revenue projected to be upwards of $250,000 this year. A large part of Kelley’s success in attracting clients on the Harness platform is that his services and experience align with the needs of the consumers using the Harness Marketplace. As the Harness Marketplace grows, it’ll only become increasingly important for tax advisors to offer a comprehensive range of services for their ideal clients.

Finding the ideal client

Kelley leveraged Harness’s curated tax client introductions. Through the Harness marketplace, Harness automatically pairs tax advisors with vetted clients with a range of complex tax needs. When a new tax client registers for Harness, the platform recommends three tax advisory firms that align with their unique and personal needs, functioning like algorithmic match-making for the financial services industry.

As Kelley began attracting new clients through the Harness Marketplace, he was able to identify his ideal client and narrow his focus to streamline client research and operations, something that he was not able to do while in-house at an RIA. 

He primarily works with clients in the tech industry with equity compensation. “Preferably someone holding stock options (ISOs or NSOs) with limited understanding of the tax implications of their holdings,” Kelley explains. These clients value tax planning to help them understand how taxes fit into their decision making process when deciding how and when to exercise their options and planning for eventual liquidity events. His clients have employee equity as well as some other form of tax complexity layered in that he helps them navigate through annual tax preparation and ongoing tax planning, often with quarterly estimate preparation. 

Onboarding tax clients with ease

“Client onboarding is pretty quick with Harness. For the average client, it takes about one to two weeks,” Kelley shared. 

Kelley leverages Harness’s tax practice management technology to offer a streamlined onboarding process, from the first conversation with a prospect to sending a client engagement letter to conducting tax client intake. When it comes time for Kelley and his clients to work together, the Harness client portal makes it easy for them to collaborate, upload documents, and provide tax questionnaire information in one central location. 

Being solo doesn’t mean that Kelley is left to onboard and service clients alone. His team of contractors sourced by the Harness Concierge team helps Kelley facilitate client communications, set up introduction calls, and manage tax engagements through the client portal, as well as prepare client work like tax returns and projections.

Tax technology plus real human support

Part of Kelley’s success has been the balance of efficient technology and helpful people. Harness’s platform equips Kelley’s firm with tax practice management software and his own dedicated administrative support to assist him and his clients.

Advisor-friendly tax practice management software 

Harness’s technology platform offers client relationship management tools, automated task management, file sharing, billing and invoicing software, e-filing, and more. The tax practice management software platform combines all of an advisor’s tax engagements in an easy-to-use, visual dashboard. Advisors can also send tax engagements in bulk to save time and resources.

“One of the most valuable aspects of Harness’s approach to technology is the access that you have to the product team,” Kelley shared. This access gives advisors the ability to provide feedback and request additional functionality. Kelley explained, “This isn’t possible at most tax firms where the tech stack consists of many third-party software providers being pieced together.”

The Harness Concierge team helps you get more done

“For me, the concierge support may be the most undersold part of the Harness offering.”

The Harness Concierge team gives Kelley the support from a dedicated individual to help facilitate administrative tasks, client and prospect communication, as well as, in Kelley’s words,  “hold me accountable for client follow ups.” The goal of the Concierge team is to enable advisors and clients to get more done faster.

Kelley explained that the Concierge team “allows me to focus my time on serving clients instead of getting bogged down and spending valuable time on administrative tasks. This has definitely removed a huge perceived barrier to starting my own firm.”

A growing community for advisors

“The Harness Advisor Community is an area I’m excited to utilize more in the future,” Kelley explained. “To date, I haven’t yet taken full advantage of the community offers, but I plan to reach out to other advisors for guidance or advice when I run into certain situations.” 

The Harness Advisor Community provides a network of advisors with different backgrounds. Kelley explained how this helps replace the peer-to-peer feedback and collaboration that you may be hesitant to give up when making the decision to leave a big firm to go out on your own. The community is designed for advisors to ask and answer questions with tax advisors from around the country and with all areas of expertise. The goal is to give advisors, especially solo advisors, immediate access to the personalized insights they seek.

Planning for future growth

Currently, the bulk of Kelley’s clients are in the wealth accumulation phase offering the opportunity for their engagements to grow and evolve as they move through critical phases of their professional and personal lives. His average client fees are between $1,600 to $1,800 annually.

Over the next year, Kelley’s goal is to increase revenue by 30 percent while maintaining his 100-plus client book of business. His strategies are two-fold:

For Kelley, it is about finding the right client-advisor fit so that the relationship makes sense for both parties. At Harness, that’s why we’re here: to help advisors and clients work together to create well-rounded financial and tax strategies.

Harness can help you start your own tax firm

If you’re a breakaway tax advisor looking to start your own tax practice, Harness has the tech and the people to help you. The Harness platform brings together four key areas to offer not only tax practice management software but also the administrative resources you need to help your firm grow.

Are you thinking about starting your own tax practice? Set up an intro with our Business Development team to see the platform for yourself. Plus, we’ll connect you with other advisors on our platform, like Kelley, so you can hear first-hand from tax practices leveraging Harness today.

Set up an intro with Harness today.

 

Tax related services provided through Harness Tax LLC. Harness Tax LLC is affiliated with Harness Wealth Advisers LLC, collectively referred to as “Harness”. Harness Wealth Advisers LLC is a paid promoter, internet registered investment adviser. This blog should not be considered tax or legal advice and is provided for informational purposes only.

Harness cannot guarantee future results. An advisor’s past performance may not be indicative of future results. Not all advisors have the same skills, knowledge or expertise, including those that have certain credentials. Content should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. All expressions of opinion reflect the judgment of Mr. Maddox as of the date of publication and are subject to change.

As noted above, this blog contains an endorsement from a tax advisor who provides services through the Harness platform. This presents a conflict of interest as there is an indirect financial incentive for a tax advisor to promote Harness’s platform. The tax advisor’s comments may not be representative of any other tax advisor’s experience with the firm.

Certain information contained herein constitutes “forward-looking statements,” which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “estimate,” “intend,” “continue,” or “believe,” or the negatives thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology. Due to various risks and uncertainties, actual events, results or actual results may differ materially from those reflected or contemplated in such forward-looking statements. Nothing contained herein may be relied upon as a guarantee, promise, assurance or a representation as to the future.