Ninja CPA

Photos by John Burns

When most people start a business, they usually don’t choose a name that represents failure. But that is exactly what Jeff Elliott did when he started Another71, a website about passing the CPA Exam.

The magic score needed to pass the CPA Exam is a 75, which is the equivalent of an ‘A-.’ A score of 71 can be gut wrenching—especially if it isn’t the first time you have taken the test. Or the second. Or maybe, the third.

As a young business professional in his 20s with a full time job, a wife and three kids under the age of 5 at home, a mortgage and a commitment to involvement with church, Jeff knew firsthand the struggle involved of finding time and resources to study for the CPA exam.

“I really wanted to be a CPA, but just couldn’t find the focus to really study the way I needed to pass the
exam,” Jeff said.

BLOGGING FRUSTRATIONS

After his third attempt on the various sections of the exam, he started a blog to voice his frustrations. The first entry on March 14, 2008 (three years after his first failure) read: “I scored a 74 on the CPA Exam and all I got was this lousy FAIL letter. It felt like a 44. Does a more gut-wrenching number exist?”

Rather than giving up, Jeff was determined to find a better way to study. He developed a hyper-focused approach that cuts out the unnecessary steps and redundancy found in most traditional CPA Exam prep courses.

Armed with a new study method, and a resolve to never fail again, Jeff was able to pass all four sections of the CPA exam by the end of that year, actually skyrocketing his scores on the tax portion of the CPA Exam to a 92.

Of course, he was ecstatic after passing, but after the euphoria wore off, he realized what he had accomplished was bigger than himself—he had also helped countless others along the way and, in the process, created a potential business idea.

WHAT? ... BLOGGING?

Even in this pre-social media era, Jeff found that some of his blog posts had more than 3,000 comments on them.

“When I saw the number of people following my blog, I told myself ‘there is something there,”’ Jeff said.

He partnered with another company to do some affiliated referrals, and within a short time found that his blog was bringing in more money than he was making as a CPA.

I never intended for it to be a business,” Jeff said. “If I did I would not have called it Another71 because you don’t necessarily instill confidence in helping others pass the CPA exam if your name represents a failing score.”

In 2010, Jeff and his wife decided it was time to make the leap into entrepreneurship. Having followed the financial advice of Dave Ramsey for years, they were debt free except for their mortgage, with three months of living expenses sitting in the bank.

My wife was on board with it because I was essentially working two jobs and was burning the proverbial midnight oil. Other family members were a little more skeptical of my decision to quit a good- paying job at a publicly traded company with full health benefits to work out of a spare bedroom. They thought it was crazy town,” Jeff said.

Crazy town quickly turned into success city.

CPA candidates typically pay $2,000 to $3,000 for a CPA Review course, which gives them access to lectures, textbooks, notes, and a bank of questions. At the time that Elliott started his business, there were no comprehensive supplemental study options out there, so he took his NINJA study methodology and created a set ofsupplemental materials that could be affordably added to any study course.

FROM FAILURE TO NINJA CPA

Today, NINJA CPA Review includes a complete test bank of questions with adaptive learning, comprehensive notes, an audio course, online tutoring four nights a week, flashcards, textbooks, study planners, study groups, and even a private social network where people can share their experiences. NINJA also acquired
Bisk CPA Review from Thomson Reuters in 2016.

“Everything I am doing doesn’t quite compute,” Jeff said. “People see this guy that failed the CPA exam a bunch of times. What business does he have telling people how to pass? He doesn’t even have a full course, why are people buying it?”

They buy it because his method works, and word has spread.

Another71 is the most visited CPA exam-related site on the Internet with 1,000,000+ monthly page views and 100,000+ unique visitors per month.

Jeff says the most expensive component of any business is acquiring a customer. The longer you can extend the lifetime value of that customer, the better. They came into your funnel because they wanted product A. When they no longer need that product, what else can you offer them to keep them coming back?

SHINY OBJECTS SYNDROME

“What you see a lot of times is that an entrepreneur will get bored with what brought them to the dance and lose sight of their core competencies,” Jeff said. “My friend calls it ‘shiny objects’ syndrome where they go off on these tangents that they know nothing about, but it looks fun. That is a recipe for going out of business.”

Jeff says the company tries to stay in their lane by continually remembering their ninja focus as a supplemental product to the big study programs.

“It gets tempting to want to shift into the big course option, but we remind ourselves to stay true to who we are,” Jeff said. “Life is a treadmill. It gets boring. Business is a treadmill. It gets boring. Boring is good. Stay on the treadmill, just put the incline up one notch.”

NINJA CPA Review took it up a notch a few years ago when they shifted into a subscription model that
gave customers more flexibility in their study needs. The pay-as-you-go model let subscribers pay for a few months while studying for a specific exam, stop for a month or two, and then jump back in with no ongoing contracts or commitments. Customers love the flexibility, and the competition has taken notice.

“Competitors of mine try to offer something similar to our model,” Jeff said. “They offer low monthly payments to make their product seem comparable, but it isn’t a true month-to-month payment. When you look at the contract, they just break it out into 24 monthly payments.”

PRICING & MARKETING

As CPA exam study materials have become more commoditized over the years, with companies all offering virtually the same materials, Jeff says the business focus has shifted more to pricing and marketing. They acquire customers through pay-per-click ad buys and Facebook ads.

“I have team members who are exceptional at Google pay-per- click,” Jeff said. “That is how our little speed boat in an ocean full of oil tankers can compete—and even win. If you do a Google search on CPA review materials, Another71 and NINJA CPA Review are third most- searched for brand right now.”

Another71 employs 10 people from all over the world. These include software developers, project managers, content editors and marketing experts working from Topeka, Denver, San Diego, Costa Rica and India.

“Our database has over 6,000 multiple choice test questions and more than 250 task-based simulations, and the CPA test updates its content twice a year,” Jeff said. “That’s a lot to manage, not to mention every time Congress even thinks about changing the tax law, we have to update it.”

ENTREPRENEURIAL ADVICE

Jeff says he often likes to give unsolicited advice. When he talks to someone who is thinking about quitting a job to start their own business, he can’t help but offer a little advice.

“I tell them the business needs to make at least 70 percent of what they are currently making because once they can devote all of their time to it, it will grow. I also tell them not to borrow money to start a business because business is stressful enough without the added weight of debt hanging over your head,” Jeff said.

He also warns entrepreneurs that if they don’t do it right, they will eventually find that they have traded one boss for another. They will get caught up in systems and working in their business rather than working on their business.

Jeff says he has had offers from some big companies looking to purchase his business. At first he was flattered, but when he stepped back and looked at the big picture, he realized that the chances of another company buying his business and not wanting him to stay on were slim.

“So really I would be exchanging the freedom that I love as an entrepreneur to become another cubicle warrior,” Jeff said. “And what do most entrepreneurs do after they sell their company? They start another one. I love my current company, so I think I will just stay with it.”