Keeping Up with Your Growing Accountancy Practice

Putting time, money, and/or effort into growing your accountancy practice almost always helps enhance your firm’s value, and ultimately bolsters your bottom line.

But managing growth can be a challenge. And actually quite annoying when it comes to the logistics of scaling your business effectively. As accountants you’re experts in helping your clients grow sustainably, but it’s easy to overlook some of the steps necessary to manage your own growth. We do like a list, so we wrote one on exactly that.

Make time to consider changes.

Accountants are busy (we get it!) – especially during tax season. But there are still times in the year when things are a little quieter. It’s tempting to fill these times with everything else you’ve got to do (finding new business, overseeing projects, general firefighting). Those things need doing.

Taking a strategic view isn’t something you ‘get done’ in a few spare minutes. So, like anything else in your business, schedule in time for it. Imagine your practice is up for sale. Would you buy it? You might be growing, but are you growing in the direction you want to?

Stand out from the crowd

There are tens of thousands of accountants out there, all vying for new clients. Some of those potential clients might come to you because you’re a local firm, or you specialise in a specific industry. But if you want to expand your reach, it’s useful to look at yourself from their point of view.

It can make it harder to stand out, but as customers shop around your brand identity comes into play, and what it conveys to customers. It’s how they know what you’re about. If you’re busy building up a practice now, you might be focusing on a particular message.

So, what happens if that message needs to change as you grow? A complete rebrand of your accountancy identity might be in order, or at least some tweaks to stay with the times.

Scaling up your processes with your client list

These days everyone wants things yesterday. As part of your plans for growth, you need to keep up the momentum. Delays cost time, which costs money – and clients won’t thank you for hold ups. Or additional fees. Or for any risk to their personal data.

But scaling up inevitably means more work from more clients, and therefore more resources, such as taking on staff. Making changes, training people up, even assembling the desks they’ll sit at – it all takes time!

So if you’re growing, and you expect (or plan) to continue doing so, then it’s probably better to start planning how you’ll accommodate it now, rather than waiting for things to get chaotic.

Finding ways to be more efficient

This could involve any aspect of your accountancy practice, from onboarding, to automating reminders for documents at tax return time, and all the AML checks inbetween. Embrace the technology.

We’ll just quietly mention how easy it is to collaborate with clients and colleagues through Pandle, and leave it there.

Are you busy, or ‘billable busy’?

There’s a good chance you’ve had this conversation with more than one client already, but it’s true that being busy doesn’t automatically translate into profitability. Are you doing a lot of extra work, but not actually making a lot more money?

Unless this is an intentional ploy towards future growth, it’s worth considering your internal processes, and having a look at your clients’ too. Are they as billable as they could be?

The fact is, clients who are tech-savvy will speed everything up, and make a positive difference to your bottom line. It makes it easier to collaborate, and with fewer errors.

Yes, you’ll always have a few old-school clients, especially ones who’ve used your services for years. And of course, that’s fine. But the more forward-looking businesses you have in the mix, the better. More efficient processes give you room for more billable work, building your reputation as a progressive practice for modern businesses.

Moving clients to digital bookkeeping

If you have clients that you think could be a little more tech-minded, then help them get up to speed by offering to set them up with a cloud-based accounting package. Once they’re up and running, they’d make a great case study for other clients too. Some real motivation!

Everyone is different when it comes to embracing new things, and updating technology can be pretty baffling. Doing your research will help you feel more confident in the system you’re buying in to. You’ll also need to train your staff, and work through any issues.

Could you specialise?

Sit back and evaluate the work you’re doing and the clients you’ve got. It will help you decide how you want to grow. Are you taking on a large amount of one type of work, or dealing with particular types of clients? You could be developing a niche without even realising it. Or you might find clients in one particular industry are far more lucrative than others.

Of course, many accountancy firms target a specific niche from the get go, but for others it happens more organically.

Developing a niche practice has some great competitive advantages. For example, you can benefit from economies of scale, developing systems that deliver projects quicker. You can also make yourself a ‘go to’ name, delivering authoritative advice in that area.

Targeting a specific type of accounting customer

Bear in mind that developing a niche doesn’t necessarily mean you should rush to change your whole marketing strategy straight away. Begin with a new landing page or microsite, using the URL in email footers and promotional campaigns. Such changes won’t break the bank, offering a strong launchpad to continue growing your accounting practice.

How are your employees doing?

It’s not always obvious, but your staff have a huge effect on your brand, your culture and your profitability.

During the process of growing your firm, consider your staff objectively. Do you have the right people in the right roles? Do they get on well with your clients and with each other? Are they on board with your plans for growth, with the skills to develop? Do they make a decent cup of tea? Ok, we’re joking about the last one.

But finding excellent accountants who also have good people skills isn’t easy. And paying them bigger salaries (even if this is affordable) isn’t necessarily the answer. What other value can you add to their working and personal lives?

Remote working, free lunches, and a pleasant working culture are all big selling points!

Anticipate hiring needs

As your accountancy firm grows, pay attention to how quickly and effectively you’re serving your clients. If there are gaps, consider if there’s space for creating new jobs.

Remember, efficiency doesn’t necessarily mean working on a shoestring. It’s about spotting new talent and having the bandwidth to engage with exciting new opportunities.

Sometimes, identifying roles that are likely to come up in the future can take months to bring to fruition. But the important point here is not to fall into the trap of thinking the roles your staff are doing now won’t change as your practice grows. Be open and considerate of your future hiring requirements.

To wrap up

Keeping up with your growing accountancy practice takes work and dedication – and yes, a healthy dollop of luck.

But in such a competitive sector, growth and expansion is vital. The secret is to automate as many processes as you can, ploughing your time savings into further growth and efficiency. And hopefully getting some time off to enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Learn more about using Pandle bookkeeping software with your clients.