Business Advisory

Year-round business advisory services for the businesses families build.

Most business owners have a CPA who shows up in tax season. As a Virginia business advisory CPA firm, we're in your corner all year, on decisions, not just returns.

The Difference

We're not your tax preparer. We're your business advisory firm.

Traditional CPA relationship

Reactive. Something happens in your business, a deal, a hire, a hard year, and your CPA finds out about it in March when they're pulling your documents.

Shoemaker CPA

Proactive. We're in the conversation before decisions are made, not reviewing the aftermath. You reach us when something's happening, not only when you owe us documents.

Traditional CPA relationship

Once a year. A flurry of activity in Q1, then silence. The relationship exists to produce a return, not to move your business forward.

Shoemaker CPA

Year-round. Quarterly check-ins, open lines between sessions, and outreach from us when something changes that you should know about. Tax season is just one part of the calendar.

Traditional CPA relationship

Compliance-only. Your return gets filed correctly. That's the job. Whether it could have been better, whether you left something on the table, isn't really the conversation.

Shoemaker CPA

Strategy-first. Compliance is the floor, not the ceiling. We're looking at your structure, your compensation, your ownership plan, and the full arc of what you're building.

Who We Work With

Closely held family businesses under $50M.

Not every business is right for this model. We work with owners who want a real advisory relationship, people who ask questions, who want to understand their numbers, and who value access over a portal and a once-a-year call.

If you're wearing too many hats and feel like you're making major decisions without a real financial sounding board, that's the gap we fill.

S-Corps  ·  C-Corps  ·  Partnerships  ·  Sole Proprietors
You might be a fit if —

You want a CPA who knows your business, not just your tax return; someone who tracks what you're building year over year.

You make decisions throughout the year, on hires, structure, equipment, and ownership, that carry real tax and financial consequences.

You've outgrown a reactive model and want someone reaching out to you when something changes, not waiting for you to call first.

You value direct access to your CPA over being routed through staff who don't know your situation.

What We Do

What year-round business advisory and consulting actually looks like.

01

Entity structuring and tax planning.

We look at how your business is structured and whether your setup still serves you, then build a tax strategy around what you're trying to accomplish, not just what you earned last year.

02

Quarterly check-ins and proactive communication.

Regular touchpoints throughout the year to review your financials, flag issues before they become problems, and keep your plan calibrated to where the business actually is.

03

Owner compensation strategy.

Salary, distributions, retirement contributions; we model the right mix for your business stage and personal tax situation, and revisit it when things change.

04

Major transaction support.

Acquisitions, ownership transitions, exits; these are the moments where the right advisor changes outcomes. We're in the room before you sign, not reviewing documents after.

05

Business financial review.

We dig into your numbers, not just to produce a return, but to understand what's driving performance, where margin is hiding, and what the financials are actually telling you.

06

Coordination with attorneys and advisors.

Your CPA, your attorney, your financial advisor; when they're working off the same information toward the same goals, nothing falls through the cracks. We facilitate that alignment.

How It Works

Simple. Direct. No guessing about where things stand.

1

We start with a conversation, not a proposal or a pitch.

The first step is understanding what you're working with and what you're working toward. We don't show up with a deck. We show up with questions. If it's a fit, we'll both know it by the end of the call.

2

We build a plan specific to your business and your goals.

Not a template. Not a package. A plan built around your entity structure, your ownership situation, your numbers, and where you're trying to take the business. It changes when your business changes.

3

We stay in your corner; proactive outreach, not waiting for you to call.

Quarterly reviews, check-ins when something in your industry shifts, a call when a new rule affects your structure. You shouldn't have to remember to ask us the right questions. That's our job.

Let's talk about what your business actually needs.

No commitment, no pressure. Just a direct conversation.