Do CPA's Specialize?

[Leigh Ann Smith]

We have recently acquired a vacation rental.  It's located on our choose & cut Christmas tree farm, and we're looking into the possibility of hosting events there, too.  We're running it all as a sole proprietorship, and things are getting complicated.  Also, during our Christmas tree selling season last year, we had 40+ employees and I was running payroll for them myself in the most inefficient way imaginable.

So, I need to talk to a CPA about our business structure (keep it all together? split it up?  can I keep using schedule F [Farm Profit & Loss] even though only some of the business activities are technically farming?).  I also need a plan for payroll.

I think that picking a CPA with Google or Yelp might not be the best idea.  Are there keywords I should be using to identify the kind of professional I need?  Should he/she be someone local or does it matter?  Thanks for any insights you can provide!

[Chris Mason]

@Leigh Ann Smith,

CPAs do specialize, yes. For reasons that are unclear to me, I have a ridiculously high % of clients that are CPAs considering how small a percentage of the overall population they are (should I take this as a compliment or insult?!), and some mostly serve corporations, some mostly REI, some W2 people, et cetera.

Lots of farms have both "traditional" farm type business as well as retail operations. So, yeah, I'd hit up a farmer friendly CPA.

I wouldn't use google. If I were a farmer, I'd hit up my farmer buddies and ask who they use and what their experience has been.