The owner who cut his firm in half and got happier with Ian Vacin

One firm owner told Ian Vacin he went from 16 people down to eight and was the happiest he’d ever been, while also making more on gross profit. That story is at the heart of this conversation with Sam and Candy. Ian, co-founder of Karbon, talks about the book he co-wrote with Jason and its core idea: scale doesn’t mean becoming the biggest firm. It means deciding what you actually want. He explains why firms tend to hit plateaus that often start around eight to twelve people, and why the business becomes independent of its founder once it passes roughly twelve to fourteen. The conversation also gets personal. Ian talks about choosing not to take the CEO role and watching Mary Delaney run the company better than he could, the difference between managers and leaders, why the people closest to you often see you at your most worn down, and advice he got at Intuit about crystal and rubber balls. Unbalanced is brought to you by Anchor. We help accounting and professional services firms send agreements, collect payments, and manage billing in one simple system. ⁠⁠⁠Join the thousands of accounting firms who have made the switch: https://bit.ly/4zv79ws --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Follow Anchor: Website - https://www.sayanchor.com/ LinkedIn -   / say-anchor   Twitter - https://x.com/Say_anchor_ Facebook -   / sayanchor   Instagram -   / say_anchor