The Labor Market Is Not Telling You to Freeze Hiring
By Craig S. Cody, CPA, Certified Tax Coach. Published August 5, 2026.
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Your Agency's Margins Look Fine. The Number Underneath Them Is Wrong.
Every percentage on your agency P&L divides by the wrong number. Netting pass-through spend out turns a comfortable 49% payroll into a real 70%.
Outsourcing Is a Strategy Only If You Know What Not to Outsource
Sort every recurring task in your agency into three buckets: automate, outsource, retain. Decide the retain bucket first, before you price a single...
One Remote Hire Can Put Your Agency on the Hook in a State You've Never Visited
Here's the short answer. When somebody performs work for your agency from another state, that state can generally require you to register as an...
Multi-State Income Tax for Agencies: Your Client List Is Your Tax Map
Here's the short answer. If your agency has clients in other states, you may owe income tax in those states, and it has nothing to do with whether...
Your AI Stack Has a Single Point of Failure
Moody's warned banks about AI vendor concentration. The three things that protect a bank protect nothing at a 20-person agency. Six questions to ask.
How Marketing and PR Agency Owners Past $1M in AGI Legally Pay Less Tax
Five legal tax levers for marketing and PR agency owners past $1M in AGI: entity and QBI, retirement stacking, real estate, timing, and family...
Deferred Sales Trusts for Agency Owners: What You're Actually Paying For
Here's the short answer. A deferred sales trust lets you sell your agency or your building to an independent trust in exchange for a note instead of...
The Buy-Sell Trap That Can Leave Your Agency Underinsured
After Connelly v. United States, company-owned life insurance can raise your agency's estate-tax value and leave the buyout underfunded. A CPA...
AI Isn't Coming for Your Agency's Jobs. It's Coming for Its Ceiling.
The AI layoff headlines don't fit a lean agency. A CPA on why AI's first job is sellable capacity, and the one-metric rule that separates tools from...
Clean Books Sell Agencies. Messy Ones Get Discounted.
Buyers don't pay for your profit. They pay for provable profit. A CPA on add-backs, accrual EBITDA, and the tax moves that quietly cut your agency's...
The 351 ETF Exchange: A Real Fix for Concentrated Stock.
By Craig S. Cody, CPA, Certified Tax Coach | Craig Cody and Company | Published July 2026
When AI Spends Your Agency's Money, Who Approved It?
The real AI payment risk isn't fraud, it's unauthorized autonomous spend. A CPA's one-page, five-question sheet to control what AI can buy with your...
Roth Conversions After the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: The Rules Held, the Math Moved
By Craig S. Cody, CPA, Certified Tax Coach | Craig Cody and Company | Last updated July 23, 2026
Your Agency's AI ROI Isn't Faster Work. It's Higher AGI Per Employee.
AI making your team faster isn't a return. A CPA's five-number scoreboard for measuring whether AI actually raised your agency's margin and AGI per...
The Confidence Gradient: Why Agency Owners Trust Last Month but Fear Next Quarter.
300+ agency owners rated their finances at BABA 2026. They trust the past, fear the future. A CPA on the five categories, and the one they missed:...
Is Your Agency Worth Anything Without You? Two Headlines Gave The Answer.
Two headlines crossed my desk the same week. One was about a private equity deal. One was about AI. And they're both really asking your agency the...
Your Agency Is Leaking Revenue. Plugging the Leak Is Only Half the Job!
You raised your rates this year, or you're about to. But higher prices don't fix a leaky agency. The three leaks, and who actually keeps the margin...
You Hired a Leader and Everything Got Harder. Here's What It's Costing You!
You finally hired the Head of Delivery, or promoted someone into a COO seat. You expected relief. Instead you got more questions, more "can you weigh...
AI Is Not Free Labor. Here's the Bill Hiding in Your Agency's Margin
Everybody's telling you how much time AI is saving your agency. Almost nobody's asking what it's costing you.
Can You Write Off a Vacation? How to Turn a Trip Into a Legal Tax Deduction!
You're booking a trip somewhere good. A flight, a nice hotel, a few days you've earned. And a thought crosses your mind: is any of this deductible?
The Hidden Payroll Cost Buried In Your Sales Pipeline.
Your most expensive person did billable-grade work last week that nobody will ever invoice. It wasn't on a project. It was on a sales call, scoping a...
How Agency Owners Can Use the Augusta Rule the Right Way
Most agency owners are sitting on a legal tax strategy that may be hiding inside their own home — and they have no idea it’s there. The frustrating...
The Tax Break Hiding Inside Your Agency's Software
If your marketing or PR agency has quietly become a software company, this one's for you.
The Benefits of Outsourcing Agency Finances
Outsourcing agency finance buys expertise, continuity and cost savings without a full-time hire. What it covers, and the question to settle before...