Meredith Arlinghaus
Founder & CEO, EmpowerAP
“I hit that breaking point where I knew something was going to break. Our family or me personally.”
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Meredith Arlinghaus grew up in a small town in northwest Ohio where everybody owned something — including her parents, who ran the local ice cream shop. That entrepreneurial mentality stuck. She built a 15+ year career before she grew increasingly burned out and walked away. No roadmap. No playbook. Just the conviction that there had to be a better way to use her expertise without surrendering her life to it. Then she built a fractional accounting practice from scratch — and figured out everything the hard way. That experience became the blueprint for Empower, a licensing model for experienced accountants who are ready to run their own practice but don't want to start from zero. It's the resource she wished had existed when she needed it most.
In Their Words
“You have to be willing to open your books. That's just the reality of this work — we can't help you unless you let us into some of the most intimate parts of your business.”
— Meredith Arlinghaus
“I hit that breaking point in my corporate career where I knew something was going to break. Our family or me personally. And I knew I had to step away from that position to save myself and my family.”
— Meredith Arlinghaus
“To talk to them and see their shoulders relax once you come in and start working with them, you can see the burden absolutely being lifted off of them.”
— Meredith Arlinghaus
“I've been hugged by a client who was able to make payroll for the first time in a month. They were losing sleep because they did not have the cash in the bank.”
— Meredith Arlinghaus
“I wanted to be there for them to help with their homework, to pick them up from school, to coach their teams. That's what I wanted to do, but I also wanted to continue working. So I had to find and actually create my own job to be able to do that for my family.”
— Meredith Arlinghaus
“I'm from a really small town in northwest Ohio. It's one of those towns that has no chains. Everybody owns something.”
— Meredith Arlinghaus
Watch & Listen
“To have that kind of impact on them is the most rewarding part of my job.”
-- Meredith Arlinghaus
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