For years I’ve told marketing consultants, sales trainers and social media gurus not to bother trying to sell growth strategies to sole practitioner accountants without first finding out if they are likely to be interested. My reasoning is simply that many accountants running their own firms are not that keen on growing their practice.
Of course some are keen to grow. Some want more clients, higher fees and bigger profits.
But many have already reached a size where they are broadly content.
Yes, higher profits would be welcome, but not if achieving them means investing money in new initiatives and committing even more time to the practice.
Having more in-house support might help, yet the thought of recruiting, inducting, managing and retaining staff is often far less appealing.
With almost one hundred episodes of the Accountants Success Secrets podcast under my belt, I can recall dozens of interviews with sole practitioners who have said they are not trying to grow their practices. Quite a few have even allowed firms they had previously grown to shrink rather than replace departing staff.
This confirms my long-held belief that most accountants running their own firms are not trying to build larger practices. They are trying to run sustainable ones. They don’t actually want their practice to be bigger. They just want it to work better.
Investing time and money in new client acquisitions rarely sits at the top of their to-do list. Nor should it. A modest trickle of good new clients that offsets the occasional loss is often more than enough. That’s a steady state, and in many cases a perfectly healthy one.
In fact, many sole practitioners quietly reach a point where they are managing the practice rather than building it. Their client list is broadly stable, the workload is predictable and the income is comfortable enough. Growth stops being the goal. Stability becomes the priority.
In other words, many smaller accountancy practices are not trying to grow, they are simply trying to maintain a stable, manageable business that fits their life.
And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
But it does raise an interesting question.
Are you genuinely comfortable with where things stand, or could you be kidding yourself a little?
Why steady state suits many sole practitioner accountants
In my experience, only a relatively small proportion of sole practitioner accountants are actively trying to grow their practices.
At the other end of the spectrum, perhaps 10-20% of firms are both willing and able to invest properly in growth. These firms often have two or more partners, or they’re led by someone with clear ambitions to build a much larger firm.
And that’s perfectly fine.
But most sole practitioners accountants simply aren’t wired that way.
If that observation rings true, you’re probably part of the 60–80% I often talk about; sole practitioners who are broadly content with where they are.
You’ve built a solid client base over many years. Most clients come back year after year. They rely on your services and, in many cases, genuinely value your advice. The practice provides you with a good (enough) living and a degree of independence many other professionals and partners in larger firms would envy.
You’re not chasing every new lead that appears. You’re not losing sleep over your marketing strategy or limited social media activity. And frankly, you probably have better things to do with your time than attend networking events or webinars promising the secrets to generating dozens of new clients every month!
If that sounds familiar, you’ll understand why you’ll never hear me telling accountants they must grow their practices. For many established firms, growth simply isn’t the priority.
Change never stops coming
That said, it’s always worth remembering that change never really stops.
Over the years there have been countless predictions about upheavals that would transform the profession beyond recognition. Yet somehow the foundations have remained remarkably stable.
Self-assessment didn’t destroy the role of accountants. Nor did the abolition of small company audits or online filing. Cloud accounting arrived with huge fanfare, but most firms simply absorbed it into the way they already worked.
Economic downturns, automation, AI and Making Tax Digital have all threatened the profession’s comfort zone and yet most practices simply adapt, evolve and carry on.
Because of that history, it’s easy to assume that past resilience guarantees future stability. Perhaps it does. But the landscape is still evolving, and it would be unwise to assume the future will always feel as comfortable as the past.
Comfortable — or slightly stuck?
Which brings us back to the question.
Are you genuinely comfortable with where your practice sits today, or are you sticking with the familiar because the alternatives feel uncertain?
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with contentment. Many accountants have built practices that suit their lives perfectly well.
But sometimes comfort quietly masks frustration.
You’re not unhappy exactly. Yet you suspect things could be better, even if “better” doesn’t mean bigger.
Perhaps you’ve accepted the status quo because it feels easier than making changes. Perhaps you experimented with a few low-cost marketing ideas before deciding you simply don’t want to spend your time hustling for work.
Maybe there are a handful of clients you’d happily let go, but replacing their fees feels like unnecessary hassle. Or perhaps you’ve reached a stage where the idea of gradually shrinking the practice feels more appealing than building it.
And then there’s the quiet uncertainty about technology, AI and change. New tools, new platforms and new expectations appear every year. It isn’t always obvious which ones genuinely matter and which are simply the latest passing trend.
Working on the business
Many accountants attend conferences and seminars each year. They return home with fresh ideas and good intentions about doing things differently.
Then the reality of client work takes over again.
The inbox fills up. Deadlines loom. Compliance work expands to fill every available hour. Before long those good intentions quietly disappear.
That’s completely normal.
It’s difficult to work on your business when working in it already consumes most of your time and attention.
So if you are genuinely comfortable with how things are, that’s perfectly valid. You’ve built something that works and there is no rule that says it must constantly expand.
But if something has been niggling at the back of your mind, if you’d like things to feel different without doubling your workload or hiring a team, you’re certainly not alone.
Many sole practitioners feel exactly the same way. These are all reasons I hear as to why they have joined my online Sole Practice Club (SPC) or want to work with me 1-2-1
SPC is a place where independent accountants can have honest conversations with others who understand the realities of running a small firm. There’s no pressure to chase growth for the sake of it, just practical discussion about what might make your practice work better for you.
And if you’d value a more personal sounding board, mentoring can also help bring some clarity to the decisions you’re considering.
So perhaps it’s worth asking yourself the question one more time.
Are you comfortable… or coasting?
Only you can answer that. But if the answer isn’t quite as clear as you thought, it may be time to look ahead a little more thoughtfully. Let’s talk.
