How To Grow Your Accounting Practice: A Comprehensive Guide

Accounting firm expansion is the goal of many practices. While it brings with it many opportunities, it also has a number of challenges that need to be addressed as you grow.

If you’re looking for tips on how to grow your accounting practice, you’ve come to the right place. Read on for our advice, including tips on understanding your market, the importance of networking and technology, and the roles marketing and professional development play.

Understanding Your Market and Clients

You’ll already have particular types of clients that you’ll be targeting. However, you’ll also need to think about how this may change as your practice grows.

Will you continue to focus on the same target market, just in higher volumes, or will you increase your focus? Will you target new geographical regions, new niches, or different business sizes?

Whatever your approach to accounting firm expansion, you’ll need to ensure that you have developed the right strategies for growth. This begins with a solid understanding of the needs of these new target clients, enabling you to tailor your services accordingly and give them reasons to choose you over a competitor.

While you may be expanding into new markets, don’t lose sight of the needs of your existing client base. As a business expands, its longstanding clients may worry that they will lose the level of service that they’re accustomed to: it’s your job to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Networking and Partnerships for Growth

Don’t underestimate the importance of industry relationships when thinking about how to grow your accounting practice.

Networking events will not only help you stay abreast of industry trends but also help you meet potential new clients. These could be national accountancy events, local small business networks or even LinkedIn groups: the type of networking you choose will depend very much on your business setup and your growth goals.

As well as introducing you to potential new clients, networking events can also help you to form beneficial partnerships. Local small business networks, for example, could give you greater opportunities to gain new clients via referrals – as well as trusted contacts to refer your own clients to for other services, if required.

Leveraging Technology in Accounting

Of course, as your practice grows, so does your workload – and your admin. Scaling up your operations may involve making some major changes to your existing processes to avoid becoming overwhelmed – and technology can help.

Good accounting practice management software will enable you to manage various elements of your practice. A CRM functionality can help you manage your client relationships with ease. Workflow software can improve your processes to keep your practice running smoothly and consistently.

Dashboards can provide you with the data and reports you need to track your performance, while the invoicing and time management elements of accounting software can help you manage your resources.

Essentially, technology has a wide range of applications within a growing accountancy practice: applications that can streamline your operations and enhance your service offerings, allowing you to focus on providing a great client experience.

Marketing Strategies for Accountants

Accounting firm expansion requires either brand-new clients or new revenue from existing clients. While traditional marketing still has a role to play, are you doing enough digital marketing?

It’s likely that many – if not most – of your target clients will use online sources to research accountancy practices before they choose one. Is your online presence up to scratch?

Your website should be up-to-date and optimised for SEO. It should also be easy for readers to navigate and have clear calls to action. Consider creating content in the form of a blog or free downloads, too: useful content that potential clients will find valuable and that demonstrates your expertise.

Social media can help you reach potential clients and engage with your existing client base. It is also somewhere where clients can leave testimonials and reviews, demonstrating your commitment to great client service.

The Role of Professional Development

Upskilling and reskilling are also vital when considering how to grow your accounting practice. Relevant training and certifications have many benefits: they’ll demonstrate your practice’s professional integrity, they’ll increase the types of work and clients that you can take on, and they’ll enable you to take on more clients, too.

A focus on CPD demonstrates to clients and potential clients that your practice understands the importance of staying at the forefront of sector developments. It shows your commitment to providing the best possible level of service from a highly qualified team.

By upskilling both accountants and support staff, you’ll also have the confidence that your practice can handle increased workloads, no matter what happens.

Why Join ICPA?

At the ICPA, we’re passionate about supporting accounting practices in their growth. Our community of over 1,000 bookkeepers and accountants enjoy a wide range of benefits, from those that help in the day-to-day running of your practice to those that help foster growth.

These benefits include professional helplines covering a range of topics, resources to help you expand into new niches, professional indemnity insurance and discounts on some of the leading accounting industry tools, services and software.

What’s more, our members also enjoy access to industry professionals and invitations to exclusive events. To access this support and advice to help your practice grow, sign up to the ICPA today.

FAQs on Growing Your Accounting Practice

What are the first steps to take when looking to grow my accounting practice?

Accounting firm expansion first requires you to identify how you are going to grow, whether it’s employing new staff or expanding into new niches.

What role does networking play in expanding an accounting practice?

Networking, whether national or local, online or in-person, can help you to meet new clients, grow your industry knowledge and form beneficial partnerships.

How important is digital marketing for accounting firms, and where should I start?

With so many people turning to the internet for the majority of their research, good digital marketing is essential for growth. Start by ensuring that your website is up-to-date, easy to navigate, and optimised for SEO. Consider content marketing options and your social media presence.

How can I leverage social media to grow my accounting practice?

Social media can be used to share useful content, seek out new clients, and connect with others in your industry. If your practice is focused on local clients, consider following local pages or joining local groups on your social channels and starting and joining conversations to get your practice known.

What are the most common challenges when growing an accounting practice, and how can I overcome them?

One of the most common challenges with expanding an accounting firm is scaling every area of the practice. From client management to accounts to HR practices, utilising accountancy-specific software tools can prove incredibly helpful.