Member Highlight Jason and Dawn Eger Eger CPA Fort Collins, Colorado By Cindy Carroll Since founding the full-service accounting firm Eger CPA in 2009, Jason and Dawn Eger have helped their small business clients create a better financial future by taking a proactive approach to helping clients create wealth and achieve their business goals. Since joining PASBA on a whim in 2017, this husband and wife team has grown from a staff of five to 15 while serving small business clients in the Fort Collins, CO area. Entrepreneurs are Jason’s favorite type of people. “I love people who are motivated, fight complacency, are passionate and dedicated to accomplishing lofty goals, but taxes, payroll, and finances might not be their strong points. We are here so clients can leverage our expertise to create wealth and achieve their vision of business success.” After graduating from Northern Arizona University and becoming a CPA, Jason thought he would be in the accounting profession for about 2 years or so before finding his true calling. “I love everything about business and entrepreneurship and figured being a CPA would give me a sneak peek into how the real world works and then figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up. But I fell in love with what I was doing and made the switch from working for others to owning my own firm in 2009.” Dawn comes from a family of entrepreneurs and was a third grade teacher before joining her husband in his business endeavors. “I dove right in and have done everything but tax returns.” She is currently the Payroll team lead and assists in business development as well as keeping the Eger team organized and accountable. Jason and Dawn have a daughter (14) and a son (12) who keep them busy when not working or enjoying their many outdoor activities such as skiing, hiking, biking, camping, and really any event that gets the family together. “Prior to joining PASBA, we thought we were doing pretty well and were already utilizing some PASBA type systems before we joined,” said Dawn. “I was working on our new website and needed to link to a reputable accounting association for better SEO. As I was researching, I found PASBA. After reading the description, I told Jason this is just the kind of organization we should be a part of.” Considering the business was doing well, they were a bit skeptical of the initiation fee but joined and attended their
Jason and Dawn Eger first conference in Baltimore. “We needed a trip away from the kids, figured it would be a good tax write-off, and we might just learn something new,” she added. “It was by far the most memorable conference we have attended, and it changed the direction of our firm,” Jason stated. “Tom Bowman kicked it off with his infamous ‘Bowritas’ as he called his margaritas. He then generously took all 100+ attendees on a tour of his office with each department having its own station and sharing invaluable information on how they are organized and how they operate. We were blown away with their organization and his office setup. This helped us envision the setup of our new office we were designing at the time.” “We couldn’t believe they were willing to share all their trade secrets,” said Dawn. “With some tweaks, we thought we can do what they are doing, too.” Team Eger was hooked and jumped right in implementing a lot of what they learned, receiving PASBA’s New Member of the Year award in 2018. Prior to this in 2016, the Fort Collins Chamber of Commerce recognized Eger CPA as Small Business of the Year. More recently, the practice was winner of the NOCO’s Best Accounting Firm in 2020, and in 2021, Teresa Fitch, CPA, MAFM, was named as one of BizWest’s Notable Women of Accounting. The team also learned along the way to remain true to themselves and their business. “You start to meet all these successful people and want to be just like them,” Jason said. “Don’t drink all the Kool-Aid and copy and paste all the ideas. Sometimes they aren’t the right fit for your firm. Listen, learn, meet amazing people, take great notes, and then add on to and perfect what you are already doing.” He tells of switching software because others were using it without attaining the same positive results, and this set them back as they ended up reversing back to the old software.
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