Buying a Practice or block of fees

Practice

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I own a small practice and feel that I need to grow my practice. I thought about by acquiring another practice or block of fees via brokers which I will consider but is there any better way to do it ?

Can anyone please suggest some ideas? thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Replies (18)

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By David Ex
15th Aug 2021 19:36

If you Google “buying a practice or block of fees site:www.accountingweb.co.uk” you’ll see what’s been discussed previously - much of which will probably still be relevant.

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Replying to David Ex:
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By Adzuk
15th Aug 2021 19:45

David Ex wrote:

If you Google “buying a practice or block of fees site:www.accountingweb.co.uk” you’ll see what’s been discussed previously - much of which will probably still be relevant.


Thanks, I have seen those posts but were looking for some other ideas :)
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Replying to Adzuk:
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By David Ex
15th Aug 2021 19:53

Adzuk wrote:

Thanks, I have seen those posts but were looking for some other ideas :)

Can you be more specific then? Those links appear to have a lot of ideas and opinions.

What are your short/medium/long term aspirations for your practice? Do you want to be part of a partnership or are you content to be a sole practitioner? Do you want to specialise in particular areas or types of client? Do you want quick growth or slow?

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Replying to David Ex:
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By Adzuk
15th Aug 2021 20:16

Thanks, medium term aspirations, ideally partnership. Want to specialize in non audit work like accounts/tax, bookkeeping( compliance and some advisory work).
To be honest would love quick growth as I am already 42 and do not want to work all my life. ( want to work another 20 years max and then retire)

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By Geoff56
16th Aug 2021 09:22

Would you be happy to pick up the smaller, paper-based self-employeds and landlords, who will need a huge amount of help to cope with MTD for ITSA?

So many practitioners have indicated that they are considering retiring before this nonsense comes in, that there could be many of this type of client needing a new accountant?

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Replying to Geoff56:
By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
16th Aug 2021 13:40

Agreed, its not only a huge source of extra work from the much more frequent filings, which means practices will be shedding clients if they have a fixed no. of hours they can work (eg sole practitioners) a lot of practices are looking to step out of the market completely.

This leaves a huge gap for people to come in an run the new system, albeit it will be high on admin, low on actual accounting so might not be quite what you had in mind as a practice. its certainly not something I am interested in doing professionally as its more at the bookkeeper level than accounting level.

I would look out for older accountants selling up knowing their client base cant possibly cope with the new system as you end up being a lot of problems. Ditto existing firms selling off parcels of fees. This is likely to be "hassle clients who cant send you stuff" who they are looking to offload.

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Replying to ireallyshouldknowthisbut:
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By Adzuk
16th Aug 2021 18:13

Thanks, although I am open to but fee bank across NW ,Yorks and London areas still hard to find retiring accountants though?

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Replying to Geoff56:
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By Adzuk
16th Aug 2021 18:11

At the moment, yes I would be willing to take on variety of clients ie do not mind ITSA/MTD clients :)

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Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
16th Aug 2021 16:51

Have you not considered just marketing for them. Typically you pay £1 for every £1 of fees you buy in. Finding a good fit is difficult typically if you are young and buying a retiring accountants fee bank it will be a poor match,

Also taking on a 100 clients in 1 go is a big ask, and will be prone to fall out.

You should be able to win £6 of fees for every £1 of marketing you spend, you will only sign up the jobs you want, and its more manageable signing up 1 client a week on onboarding them rather than a load together.

Building a good pipeline of future referrals will pay greater dividends, I have looked at a few fee banks and the deals didn't stack up for me, age profile not right, poor systems low fees etc.

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Replying to Glennzy:
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By Adzuk
16th Aug 2021 18:57

Sorry not sure what you mean by " marketing for them"?
Used few lead generation companies which are rip off and ROI is too low. Any pointers on marketing ( sorry if I am asking too many questions).

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Replying to Adzuk:
Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
17th Aug 2021 10:06

Marketing threads are abundant on the site, maybe ask that question if you are struggling for inspiration.

Getting good at social media is a start look at PPC that worked well for us and gets you fairly quick results if you want generic clients.

If you are not confident at marketing look at Karen Rayburn she is just about to start a 12 week course around content marketing which is very fairly priced. Failing that look at someone like Amanda Watts who again I think is very good at what she does.

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Replying to Glennzy:
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By Adzuk
17th Aug 2021 20:06

Thank you so much, cant find Karen Rayburn on Google, sorry can you please send me web link for her course? TIA

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Replying to Adzuk:
Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
18th Aug 2021 11:21

Sorry its spelt Reyburn

www.wearepf.com

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Replying to Glennzy:
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By Adzuk
08th Sep 2021 21:02

Sorry Glen, do you use any specialist marketing companies for PPC campaigns or do you do by yourself? ( sorry if its too direct or private)

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Replying to Adzuk:
Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
09th Sep 2021 11:18

I tried it myself for a while but found there was a lot of waste so got someone to set it up to reduce the waste on add spend and improve performance there was not a massive cost to this. I now use Adzooma which monitors your account and tells you what needs to improve

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Replying to Glennzy:
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By Adzuk
09th Sep 2021 15:03

Thats great , thank you. Keen to meet you as a mentor , based in NW though :)

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By JD
17th Aug 2021 09:51

It seem to mean that you need to spend a little time working on your business, defining your proposition, who your customer is, what problem are you solving for them, pricing levels (your four p's).

Once you have a clear idea of your customer and your business, then the means of gaining them as clients or marketing to them will become more obvious

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Replying to JD:
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By Adzuk
17th Aug 2021 20:07

Makes sense:) thank you

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