Questions provided by our current customer base with answers from our Managing Partner, Mike Jerman
Question: The website describes the services Hollywell can perform, but what does Hollywell do best for its clients?
Answer: Great question. We are a team of 20+ former big firm accountants and finance professionals that are great fractional CFOs, Controllers, and accounting and finance leaders for interim, turnaround, and companies looking for long-term, high quality professionals for less than they would be paying for a full-time equivalent.
Additionally, our teams have extensive experience to support client internal and external audits, operational audits, process improvement, and deals (Quality of Earnings (QoE), buy and sell side diligence and data room preparation).
Question: Where geographically does Hollywell operate?
Answer: We are a national firm headquartered in sunny Tampa, FL with the majority of our work coming out of Houston, the Tampa Bay area, New York, New Jersey, and other major cities in Florida. We operate primarily as a remote firm with consistent team huddles with all client deliverables being reviewed by at least one senior Hollywell team member.
Question: How does Hollywell price its work?
Answer: We have little in the way overhead, meaning we provide quality work for much less than the big firms. Think of it as 25-33% of the rates we charged at our previous firms. This equates to approx. $100/hour for a senior associate-level team member on up to $225/hour for a director-level team member with further discounts provided for longer term contracts.
Question: In what industries does Hollywell operate?
Answer: We consider ourselves relatively industry agnostic, noting the team has a strong background in manufacturing, retail, oil & gas, construction, logistics, agriculture, and within SEC, private equity, and venture fund environments.
Additionally, we are a DUNS-registered, veteran-owned firm able to perform U.S. government work.
Question: You mention “rapid response” on your website and in your other literature. What does it mean to be a rapid response firm?
Answer: We have consistently demonstrated our ability to mobilize quickly with team members expected to travel fast and economically for our clients.
For example, we had a turnaround CFO project in Houston that was communicated to us on a Thursday and were boots on the ground at the client the next Monday. Additionally, we had a QoE project that a big-4 firm said they could not get to for a month that we were subsequently engaged to perform and completed within two weeks (I.e., two full weeks before the big-4 firm would have even started).
Question: How does Hollywell manage client expectations in the beginning, middle, and end of an engagement?
Answer: We start by ensuring we are on-site as long as needed in the beginning of our projects. Our fractional CFO work clients have benefited well from our initial two-week on-site assessment that comes with a red-green-yellow (RGY) analysis of the six areas we as a team feel an accounting and finance shop should own and deliver upon:
§ Financial Reporting
§ Management, Board, & Investor Reporting
§ Capital Management
§ Governance & Compliance
§ Internal Controls
§ Talent Management
We then manage expectations on what we will prioritize to improve and implement to get to a best practice and business as usual (BAU) state. Once complete we issue the same report with improvements and changes implemented.
No matter the work we manage our client expectations on deliverables, not hours, within one or all of the areas shown above.
Question: How does the team stay up to date?
Answer: Speaking for the team, all are required to maintain their applicable licenses with CPE coursework paid for by Hollywell as we feel quality and continuous improvement are needed to run a great firm.
I myself am a contributing member of the FICPA Accounting Principles & Auditing Standards Committee having co-authored multiple comment letters on top of maintaining my CPA license. I was also previously on the SEC review desk for PwC London and have been through multiple SEC PCAOB and internal PwC inspections, which the team benefits from as we know what accounting and finance mistakes to avoid from an audit and review perspective.
Question: What is the firm named after?
Answer: Hollywell is a play on “Holywell Manor,” which was the graduate housing I lived in and where the idea of starting the firm was born.
