The “Rembrandt in the attic” is a metaphor for a valuable asset that a business owner does not recognize or know how to monetize. There may be some accounting hidden value in the business or your firm.

Imagine inheriting a house and discovering an authentic Rembrandt painting gathering dust in the attic. To an untrained eye, it may look like another old picture. To the right buyer, it could be worth millions.

The value was there all along. It simply required someone with the right perspective to recognize it.

Businesses can also accumulate overlooked assets. These assets may not appear clearly on an income statement, but they can create new revenue opportunities and make the company more attractive to a future buyer.

For accounting firm owners, the “Rembrandt” could be a specialized process, a library of educational content, expertise in a profitable niche, or a service that clients value more than the firm realizes. Accountants and advisors can also help their small business clients uncover similar opportunities.

Where Hidden Value May Be Found

An overlooked business asset can take several forms.

A company may offer a product or service that it treats as a sideline, even though a strategic buyer would consider it the most valuable part of the business. The owner may also have a recognized brand, proprietary methodology, valuable media library, or strong community that could support additional growth.

Other hidden assets might include intellectual property, underused partnership rights, or a contract that provides opportunities the company has never pursued.

Business owners usually value their companies according to how they operate today. A strategic buyer looks at the same company differently. The buyer considers what the business could become with its distribution network, customer base, resources, and cost structure.

The gap between those perspectives is where the “Rembrandt” may be hiding.

What Dori Yona Overlooked at Earny

Dori Yona built Earny, a consumer fintech app that automatically claimed price-protection refunds for its users. If someone purchased an item and its price dropped within 30 days, Earny helped recover the difference.

Approximately 3.5 million users embraced the service. However, the core business had a serious limitation: its model depended on retailer and credit card policies that could change at any time.

Eventually, those policies did change. Earny received cease-and-desist letters, protections were restricted, and growth stalled.

Underneath that vulnerable business model, however, Earny had been quietly creating something else of value.

Every transaction the app processed produced SKU-level purchasing data. Across millions of users, that created an enormous collection of frequently updated information about what consumers were buying.

That information was valuable to consumer packaged goods companies seeking to understand consumer behavior. When Dori began developing the data into a separate product line, it grew from zero to millions of dollars in revenue within months.

The asset had been there all along. It took pressure on the original business model for its value to become clear.

What Is Your Accounting Firm Quietly Building?

Accounting firm owners may be accumulating valuable assets while concentrating on daily client work.

A firm that serves a particular industry may have developed specialized expertise, benchmarks, checklists, or workflows that competitors do not possess. A repeatable method used to improve cash flow or profitability could become the foundation of an advisory service. A collection of articles, webinars, or client guides could support a stronger marketing and education platform.

Potential hidden assets might include:

• A repeatable bookkeeping, tax, or advisory methodology
• Specialized knowledge of a particular industry
• Training materials developed for clients or employees
• A trusted brand within a local market or professional niche
• An engaged audience built through newsletters, webinars, or social media
• Referral relationships with complementary professionals
• A service clients consistently request but the firm has not formally packaged

The goal is not to monetize everything a firm creates. It is to recognize which assets solve valuable problems and determine whether they can support a new service, licensing opportunity, partnership, or more efficient business model.

Accounting firms must also distinguish their own intellectual property from confidential client information. Client financial records, tax data, and personally identifiable information should never be repurposed without appropriate authorization, privacy protections, and legal or regulatory review.

Helping Clients Recognize Overlooked Assets

Accountants and business advisors can help clients uncover hidden value because they see the business from a different perspective.

A business owner may be focused entirely on the primary product or service. An advisor can examine which activities generate profit, what customers value most, and what resources the company has developed along the way.

Helpful questions include:

• What does the business produce besides its primary offering?
• Which internal process gives the company an advantage?
• What do customers repeatedly ask the company to provide?
• Has the business developed content, expertise, or intellectual property it rarely uses?
• Are there products or services with greater potential than their current revenue suggests?
• Could an asset become more valuable in the hands of a partner or strategic buyer?

Not every business has a multimillion-dollar dataset hidden in the background. However, many companies possess expertise, systems, relationships, or intellectual property that they have never evaluated independently.

Finding those assets is part of becoming a trusted advisor. It requires looking beyond what the company currently sells and helping the owner recognize what the business has quietly built.

Universal Accounting Center helps accounting professionals develop the technical, advisory, and business-building skills needed to identify opportunities, deliver greater value, and grow stronger firms. Call 435-344-2060 to meet with our team and take your next step toward building the premier accounting firm in your area—with these lessons in mind.

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The System Should Be the Star of Your Accounting Firm

According to Value Builder research, companies in which the owner remains the center of the business are 20% less likely to receive an acquisition offer.

That does not mean they receive a lower offer. They are less likely to receive any offer at all.

A business that cannot operate without its owner may not look like a business to a potential buyer. It looks like a demanding job—and buyers generally do not pay a multiple for a job.

This is an important lesson for accounting firm owners. Being the person who closes every sale, answers every client question, reviews every return, and approves every decision can feel like a competitive advantage. In reality, that dependence may be limiting the firm’s growth, reducing its value, and preventing the owner from enjoying the independence they started the business to achieve.

When the Owner Becomes the Business

In many professional service firms, the owner is the star. Clients ask for the owner by name, employees turn to the owner for every important decision, and the owner personally maintains the firm’s most valuable relationships.

That model may work when the firm is small. As it grows, however, the owner can quickly become a bottleneck.

Work cannot move forward until the owner reviews it. Employees may be hesitant to solve problems independently. Clients learn to bypass the team and contact the owner directly. Even when the owner takes time away, the business continues demanding their attention.

The owner may have created a source of income, but they have not yet created a company that can function independently.

How Cameron Passmore Built a Different Model

Cameron Passmore built PWL Capital into a wealth management company with $8 billion under management and more than 100 employees. When the firm sold to OneDigital, its value did not depend solely on Cameron’s personal expertise or relationships. It came from the company he had built around him.

As Cameron puts it, “The system is the star.”

Wealth management is typically an advisor-dependent industry. The advisor owns the client relationship and becomes the face of the business. If that advisor leaves, clients may follow.

Cameron deliberately built the opposite model: one team serving one client base.

Clients belonged to the firm rather than individual advisors. When advisors joined PWL, they entered an established system instead of building separate books of business.

The firm standardized its investment philosophy and financial planning processes so clients could expect consistent service regardless of the advisor they worked with. Cameron also hired a president to professionalize operations, allowing advisors to concentrate on serving clients rather than managing the company.

Equity was distributed broadly across the organization, including to people working in compliance, operations, finance, and marketing. This encouraged employees throughout the firm to think and behave like owners.

PWL also invested in compliance systems, governance frameworks, and data infrastructure that many independent firms might have considered unnecessary.

Together, those choices produced a company that did not depend on one person—including Cameron.

Applying the Lesson to an Accounting Firm

Accounting firms face many of the same challenges. Clients may associate their relationship entirely with the owner, while processes exist only in that owner’s head.

To build a more independent firm, owners can begin by standardizing the way work is completed. That might include documenting:

• How new clients are evaluated and onboarded
• How bookkeeping, tax, and advisory engagements are delivered
• Who communicates with clients and when
• How work is reviewed and approved
• How deadlines and client requests are tracked
• How common problems are handled
• How the firm’s knowledge is shared among team members

The goal is not to remove personal service. It is to make excellent service repeatable.

A strong system should allow clients to receive a consistent experience regardless of which qualified team member serves them. It should also give employees enough direction and authority to make appropriate decisions without waiting for the owner.

These systems can make the firm easier to scale, create a better client experience, and give the owner more freedom. They can also make the practice more attractive to a future buyer because the firm’s revenue and relationships are less likely to disappear when the owner leaves.

Helping Clients Build More Valuable Businesses

This lesson also creates an opportunity for accountants and business advisors to help small business clients examine their own operations.

Financial reports may reveal whether a company is profitable, but they do not always show how dependent it is on the owner. That requires a broader conversation.

Ask what would happen if the owner stepped away for a month. Would employees know what to do? Would customers still receive the same level of service? Could someone else approve purchases, solve problems, and manage important relationships?

If the answer is no, the company may need clearer processes, stronger delegation, and better management systems.

An accountant who raises these questions is doing more than reporting historical results. They are helping the client create a company that is more scalable, transferable, and valuable.

The owner may always be an important part of the story. But if the business is going to reach its full potential, the system must become the star.

Universal Accounting Center helps accounting professionals develop the technical, advisory, and business-building skills needed to create firms that can grow beyond their founders. Call 435-344-2060 to meet with our team and take your next step toward building the premier accounting firm in your area—with these lessons in mind.