Shaan Rizvi, founder of RizBiz Services, joined the Bookkeepers.com podcast to talk about his journey from broke accounting grad to running a growing tax and accounting practice.

His approach? Stop being transactional, start being transformational.

The Debt That Changed Everything

After graduating with his accounting degree and moving from New Jersey to Houston for a fresh start, Shaan got hit with reality: $63,000 in total debt and the sinking feeling of "how am I going to do this?"

Instead of the traditional 10-year payoff plan, he went all-in on Dave Ramsey's baby steps. Working his 9-to-5 accounting job plus side hustling with DoorDash, he knocked out the entire amount in 13 months.

"Your best wealth building tool is your income," Shaan explained. But here's the thing, it wasn't just about paying off debt. "With the DoorDash side of things, I was able to learn more about cash flow and being able to control my budget. That whole debt-free journey taught me how to forecast. That's where I started molding into a better accountant."

Translation: He learned to run a business by running his own finances like a business.

Why He Actually Paused the Course (And Why That's Okay)

During his debt elimination sprint, Shaan discovered Bookkeeper Launch. As an accountant, it seemed like the perfect side hustle. But he quickly realized something: "I needed to pause because I had too much on my plate."

He's sharing this because it's real. A lot of people buy courses with the best intentions, then life happens. Shaan's message to anyone in that boat? "Don't fall in love with the outcome, fall in love with the process. Every single time you do that, you're going to continue to improve step by step."

Once he was debt-free, he came back to it. Now he's running a practice where clients pay an average of $850-900 per month—significantly above the industry average of $300-400.

"Transactional vs. Transformational" Isn't Just Marketing Speak

Throughout the interview, Shaan kept coming back to this idea: most accounting firms are transactional. They do your books, file your taxes, send you a bill, disappear until next year.

Shaan's approach is different. When asked if he'd rather have one $36,000 client or twelve $3,000 clients, he didn't hesitate: "We're going to get 12 clients because we want to make sure we don't have all our eggs in one basket. We don't want to be transactional about it. We want to be transformational about it."

Even when presented with the classic "nightmare client" scenario—fire them or double your price and keep them—Shaan chose to double the price. "Maybe we can outsource and figure out how to get this work done still and focus more on what we need to really do to help change their financial path."

This isn't about squeezing every dollar out of clients. It's about actually solving problems instead of just checking boxes.

The Client That Made It All Click

Ask Shaan about his biggest business win, and he won't talk about hitting a revenue milestone. He'll tell you about an elderly couple.

They'd used a DIY tax service and owed $700. Not a huge amount, but stressful for retirees. Shaan was just chatting with them over tea when the husband mentioned his solar panels.

"Hold on a second," Shaan said. He looked into their tax credits. That $700 liability? Gone. They actually got a $1,500 refund instead.

"The smile across his face about the impact that we were able to make just by talking—that's when I realized, hey, this is something that I really want to be able to do to help more people. For me, it wasn't really paper. It was more purpose."

He did all of this pro bono, by the way.

From Bookkeeping to Tax Planning to Training Other Tax Pros

Shaan didn't stop at bookkeeping. He moved into tax preparation and planning—because as he put it, "nothing's ever promised, but death and taxes."

But here's where it gets interesting: he recently launched his own tax academy to train other tax professionals. Why? Because he can only reach so many clients with his own two hands.

"We decided, hey, let's try to see if we can start developing tax preparers to be aligned with our mission," he explained. "Now we have an academy with 13 plus students—tax professionals that are doing their own businesses that are following with our cause of educating financial literacy."

It's the same philosophy scaled up: teach people, don't just do it for them.

Real Talk About Entrepreneurship

Shaan doesn't sugarcoat the hard parts. During one particularly brutal tax season, with three extensions left to file, his computer died one hour before the midnight April 15th deadline.

"I legit was on my phone and on my iPad working to make sure we reached the deadline by 12. And we got it. But that moment right there was like the world is burning."

These are the stories nobody puts in the marketing material, but they're part of the deal.

His Advice to Other Bookkeeper Launch Students

Shaan had a direct message for anyone in the Bookkeeper Launch community who's struggling or considering starting:

"People overestimate what they can do in a year, but people also underestimate what they can do in a decade. This is not about you falling in love with the outcome, but the process."

He also emphasized finding your people: "The lone wolf dies, but the wolf pack survives. If you're able to find your accountability partners inside of the group, that's going to help you grow much more than you would on your own."

What AI Means for Accountants (According to Someone Actually Doing the Work)

When asked about where the tax industry is headed with AI, Shaan had a surprisingly optimistic take:

"AI is definitely a great tool that is going to make things more efficient. But is that going to replace a tax preparer? No. These things make us much more efficient so we can take more time to analyze."

His vision: AI handles five minutes of data entry, he spends 55 minutes figuring out how to save clients money. "Your scenario versus another person's scenario, even if you guys make the same amount, can be completely different. That's where I think the tax industry is going."

The Bottom Line

Shaan Rizvi isn't trying to build the biggest accounting firm in Houston. He's trying to build one that actually helps people understand their finances instead of just managing them in the dark.

From conquering his own debt to teaching clients how to do the same, from bookkeeping to tax strategy to training other professionals—everything comes back to the same principle: education over transactions, transformation over compliance.

And it's working. He's growing, his clients are paying premium rates, and he's expanding into training others to do the same thing.

Not bad for someone who started by delivering DoorDash orders to pay off student loans.

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