Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Amy Adler. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Amy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Please tell us about starting your own firm and if you’d do anything different knowing what you know now.
I actually only made the decision to start my own firm about 2 years ago when the CPA firm I had worked at for 6 years delayed my promotion to partner due to the pandemic. I’d always thought I’d work my way up the corporate ladder throughout my career and never even considered starting my own business. It seemed way too risky as a single mom with a need to provide for myself and my kids on my own.
But a few years ago when the idea to become a divorce financial consultant came to me in a yoga class, I figured out that not only would this be an incredibly rewarding career move, but it would also very likely be a successful business. I started a divorce consulting division at the CPA firm at that time (because they loved the idea and really supported their people in going after work that they were passionate about). And in under 2 years, my salary was already almost covered by the revenue generated from that business, which was amazing considering I still had my other responsibilities at the Firm and was only able to devote a small amount of my time to the consulting division.
When I decided to leave the Firm and go out on my own with the business, I knew I still needed to ensure that my kids and I were financially taken care of. This was the scary moment. Do I just go for it and pray that I can make enough money right away to support our lives or do I get another day job to have a consistent income and build my business on the side? As a super risk averse person, I decided to go with door #2 and took a day job with a government agency while working nights and weekends to build the business. I figured it would take a few years to build my business to be big enough to sustain us full time or to have enough savings in the bank to fill in the gaps in months when business was slower. But within just over a year, I’d already saved 3 months’ worth of living expenses and my business was growing so fast I had already hired help to take some of my work off my plate. So I went for it and quit the day job just a few months ago now.
It was really stressful to do 2 jobs for that long, and it certainly kept me from doing as much marketing/networking as I would’ve liked that may have grown the business faster. So if I had it to do over again, I might say that I would’ve looked for a part-time job instead of full time so I’d have more to devote to growing the business. That said, I’m still really happy with the short timeframe to being my own boss full time.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Here’s my bio from my website:
Amy Adler is a CPA, Certified Fraud Examiner, Certified Divorce Financial Analyst, and 2x divorcee. She started her career as a CPA and fraud examiner in Big 4 public accounting, internal audit, fraud investigation, training, and corporate accounting at organizations such as Deloitte, Whole Foods Market, ERCOT, and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. But after her second divorce, Amy had the revelation that she could use her background in accounting, fraud, and auditing, and her personal experience in divorce, along with her clergy background to help others feel supported through their own divorces with a rational, knowledgeable, and compassionate advocate. Amy has always felt called to serve others, and this work is the perfect “marriage” of her skills, interests, and experience.
Her goal is to help others reduce the stress, time commitment, and cost of going through divorce while setting clients up for a bright future.
Amy is a mom of two teenagers, and in her spare time, she enjoys lifting weights, hiking, visiting with friends and family, officiating weddings, and singing.
I help people with understanding, compiling, valuing, and deciding how to address the financial information and decisions involved in the divorce process. This page on my website is a good description of how I help clients considering, going through, or recently finalized divorce: https://yourdivorceasset.com/services
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
My business model is unique. There are some folks who do similar work such as CPA firms that do forensic accounting and expert witness testimony and financial planners who do divorce financial analysis work. But there really aren’t many folks out there who do all of that, nor are there many divorce financial analysts with CPA and CFE licenses to help people understand and consider the tax consequences of certain assets/liabilities or find out if their spouse is hiding any assets from them in the divorce process. When you couple my unique model with the fact that I’ve been divorced twice myself (I joke that I was doing market research :)) and am a member of the clergy, people tend to trust that I know what I’m doing and are willing to allow themselves to be vulnerable enough to let me help them through this very stressful experience. I’ve done a lot of in-person networking in my area, and it’s easy to build a reputation in person when people can see first hand that I’m genuine and really love helping people.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
My networking partners – family law attorneys, therapists, financial planners, divorce coaches, realtors, mortgage lenders, etc. They and my prior clients always tell people they come into contact with who are considering or going through divorce to talk with me. That warm referral is priceless. My conversion rate from prospect to client is about 70% overall and 90% when they come from my networking partners.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://yourdivorceasset.com
- Instagram: @yourdivorceasset
- Facebook: Adler Divorce Financial
Image Credits
Felicia Reed Photography