Case Study: Little Fish Accounting doubles top-tier clients with Gusto People Advisory
Key results
The challenge
Little Fish Accounting, a Hyattsville, Maryland CPA firm serving very small businesses, first needed to move from a contractor-only payment system to full-service payroll for its own team and its clients. As clients increasingly asked for people-operations advice, the firm wanted a way to add strategic value beyond tax and accounting. Founder and CEO Keila Hill-Trawick needed better documentation and a repeatable way to onboard clients to payroll.
The solution
A Gusto customer since January 2020, Little Fish used Gusto for payroll and later completed Gusto's People Advisory certification. That certification let the firm weave people advice into its offerings and expand its service tiers from two to four. Gusto handles payroll runs and client onboarding, and its reporting supports the firm's advisory conversations.
“Adding advisory services has also allowed us to increase our highest service by more than $1,000 per month.”
KHKeila Hill-TrawickFounder and CEO, Little Fish Accounting
The results, in context
After incorporating People Advisory, Little Fish doubled its monthly client base at its highest tier in six months and added more than $1,000 per month to its highest service offering (the published summary states $1.5k monthly). Gusto saves the firm an average of about three hours when onboarding a client to payroll, plus 15 to 20 minutes per employee on each payroll run.