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00:00:00.450 [Music]
00:00:11.880 uh hey everyone uh welcome to 50 shades
00:00:14.240 of accounting. Today we are diving deep
00:00:17.439 into a topic that’s uh reshaping really
00:00:19.840 the accounting industry as a whole that
00:00:22.279 is exit strategies for decades we have
00:00:25.680 seen that accounting world has been
00:00:27.240 pretty flat without uh much traction
00:00:30.039 happening when it comes to change of
00:00:31.400 ownership buying and selling
00:00:33.320 Acquisitions and so on so forth it was
00:00:35.520 just the reasonable amount which was
00:00:37.480 happening in the last few years we have
00:00:39.879 seen the landscape shift which is
00:00:41.840 happening in the accounting Market
00:00:43.920 partially because we see that the baby
00:00:45.719 boomers are going out of the job market
00:00:48.559 and if you remember Guys these were the
00:00:49.960 entrepreneurs these were the senior
00:00:51.559 Partners who have been working hard
00:00:53.280 throughout their life and now is the
00:00:55.239 time when they’re retiring of course for
00:00:57.239 the right reasons so while they’re
00:00:59.239 retiring there’s so much of buying and
00:01:01.239 selling which is taking place and on top
00:01:03.719 of it we have got uh the private Equity
00:01:06.760 money which is pouring in we can
00:01:08.880 literally see that so to make uh us uh
00:01:12.400 you know or to help us make sense of all
00:01:15.159 of it we have got uh Christine with us
00:01:18.280 uh I’m super thrilled to invite uh of
00:01:20.479 course here today and uh Christine is a
00:01:23.439 expert in um helping accounting firms
00:01:26.840 helping companies to develop those smart
00:01:29.960 strategies in fact exit strategies that
00:01:32.320 we’re going to be talking about today so
00:01:34.360 so much looking forward for this
00:01:35.799 conversation and uh I’ll jump in
00:01:38.119 straight away hey Christine very very
00:01:40.079 warm welcome super excited to of course
00:01:42.159 have you here with us yeah I this is
00:01:45.399 such an important topic and I am a
00:01:47.719 complete evangelist so I’ve got my soap
00:01:51.520 box I’m ready to stand on it great super
00:01:55.159 so we’ll start on right away so
00:01:57.399 Christine now one of the great top so
00:02:00.119 say I always thought about that
00:02:01.640 accounting firms can offer in the
00:02:03.320 current market situation is really
00:02:06.159 helping their end clients to uh get them
00:02:09.800 to ready for the exit because it’s not
00:02:12.040 just one industry there lot many other
00:02:13.920 Industries who are falling into the same
00:02:15.680 bracket because the baby boomers are
00:02:17.720 going out so could you help us U sort of
00:02:20.760 understand the landscape there how it
00:02:22.440 works because we really see it’s only a
00:02:24.680 few Progressive firms who may be doing
00:02:26.319 it but nobody’s talking about that
00:02:28.319 really yes absolutely absolutely the
00:02:30.800 look the great thing about being an an
00:02:32.400 accountant in practice is that you’ve
00:02:35.840 got this unique insight into every one
00:02:39.760 of your clients you know where they live
00:02:41.920 you know how old they are you know
00:02:43.680 pretty much everything about their
00:02:44.920 business and you probably know quite a
00:02:47.200 bit about their personal circumstances
00:02:49.599 as well because likely is if you’re
00:02:51.760 doing their their corporation tax you’re
00:02:54.319 probably doing their personal tax too so
00:02:57.080 you have this amazing Insight now
00:02:59.959 there’s one inali inescapable fact that
00:03:04.959 every single one of us that’s in a
00:03:07.159 business is going to leave that business
00:03:09.680 one day now we can we can react to this
00:03:12.640 two ways we can stick our head in the
00:03:14.879 sand or we can do some preparation
00:03:19.400 and one of the things that always amazes
00:03:21.959 me is if you’re the accountant and you
00:03:24.640 have these
00:03:25.879 insights this is opening the door and
00:03:29.319 it’s pushing on an open door I mean you
00:03:31.640 literally you would be welcomed in if
00:03:33.760 you just started having these
00:03:36.360 conversations so what why why don’t
00:03:39.840 accountants have these conversations
00:03:42.120 well I I think it’s really two
00:03:44.080 reasons first of all they probably don’t
00:03:47.680 want to have that conversation with
00:03:49.560 themselves and if they have it with
00:03:51.519 their own clients their clients might
00:03:53.439 say what are you doing and it it’s not
00:03:56.720 very good if the accountant says H not
00:03:59.040 really doing anything
00:04:00.560 um so so there there’s a the kind of 360
00:04:03.760 thing so you know if I’m not doing
00:04:06.000 anything how can I approach my clients
00:04:07.840 well here’s the thing it doesn’t matter
00:04:10.760 where you start whether you start with
00:04:12.560 yourself or whether you start with your
00:04:13.720 clients just get started and recognizing
00:04:17.839 the fact that everybody’s going to leave
00:04:21.880 and so here’s the first thing are you
00:04:23.880 going to leave vertically under your own
00:04:26.360 steam or are you going to leave
00:04:28.120 horizontally and leave a massive mess
00:04:31.120 behind so actually that’s almost the
00:04:33.880 first question that any accountant can
00:04:36.759 ask their client is how do you think
00:04:39.800 you’re going to leave your business and
00:04:42.120 and if the client says well I’m never
00:04:44.240 leaving my business it’s like great I
00:04:46.240 want to get into business with you then
00:04:47.720 because if you’ve got the secret to
00:04:49.400 everlasting life let’s partner on
00:04:51.639 marketing this baby um so see but
00:04:55.880 typically as an accountant you can have
00:04:58.039 the kind of insightful convers ations
00:05:00.759 that let’s face it almost no one else
00:05:03.919 can have corre so it’s always that first
00:05:07.160 step just con it’s literally one
00:05:10.080 conversation starting with the what are
00:05:13.360 you doing to exit your business what are
00:05:16.120 your plans to exit your business it
00:05:20.199 makes sign it’s very very insightful
00:05:21.759 thanks for that in fact uh while you
00:05:23.800 were talking about that uh it’s a
00:05:25.639 reality which is going to strike I mean
00:05:27.520 in the sense it’s life and death those
00:05:29.840 kind of cities it will happen and we
00:05:32.759 have gone through the capital event
00:05:34.120 ourselves sometime back Christine so I’m
00:05:36.199 sure we’ll pick it up later on but just
00:05:39.120 uh picking the you know cue from there
00:05:41.600 but what are the benefits that you see
00:05:43.680 accounting firms can actually Avail if
00:05:46.120 they are really Progressive and they
00:05:47.919 want they want to offer the service to
00:05:50.160 the clients that they have that’s a
00:05:52.880 really good question because often when
00:05:55.280 I speak to accountants you’ll find them
00:05:58.199 moaning a bit about about the fact that
00:06:00.720 one of their clients got sold and
00:06:03.880 they’re now moving to another client
00:06:06.120 they’re moving to another accounting
00:06:08.160 practice and I think well one of the
00:06:10.639 real benefits of opening that
00:06:12.319 conversation and and I think there are
00:06:14.479 three key three key benefits um I am the
00:06:17.520 Mistress of Threes I love them I love
00:06:19.319 threes but there are three key benefits
00:06:21.199 to the accountant so first of all you’re
00:06:24.199 engaging in a conversation that actually
00:06:27.000 gets them thinking and also gets you as
00:06:28.919 the accountant thinking about how you
00:06:30.360 can operate in your in your business so
00:06:32.479 you you’re generating an awareness mhm
00:06:35.240 both for yourself and also for your
00:06:37.680 client because you’ve opened the
00:06:40.160 conversation and and let’s face it your
00:06:42.759 client may never have thought about this
00:06:45.319 you’re now positioning yourself as an
00:06:47.440 account in as an accountant as somebody
00:06:49.880 who goes beyond compliance so if you’re
00:06:52.440 thinking about how you engage in more
00:06:55.720 advisory then this is the most magic
00:06:58.919 question
00:07:00.160 so it’s opening an advisory um which
00:07:04.160 your client is usually silently
00:07:06.199 screaming for by the way um you know
00:07:08.840 they don’t get out of bed and go please
00:07:10.479 give me some advisory but they what they
00:07:12.639 are getting out of bed in the morning
00:07:14.319 and they are saying to themselves I wish
00:07:17.879 there was somebody that I trusted that
00:07:20.000 would just help me MH and the one person
00:07:22.800 they generally trust is their accountant
00:07:25.840 correct and then the third thing is that
00:07:28.919 if you’re in that exit conversation and
00:07:31.680 your client is selling then the
00:07:34.879 likelihood depending on who they sell to
00:07:37.879 the likelihood is that they will keep
00:07:40.919 you as their accountant so it’s only if
00:07:43.919 they’re going to only if the client is
00:07:46.240 sold to someone who is going to jam a
00:07:48.680 few companies together or two companies
00:07:50.800 together in which case it’s always the
00:07:52.960 biggest firm that wins by the way um
00:07:55.280 right then then typically you you’re
00:07:58.039 more likely to ret aain that client
00:08:00.960 because you’ve already got the trusted
00:08:03.360 advisor um role you’ve already nailed
00:08:06.599 that because you were there when the
00:08:09.440 client was literally going through their
00:08:11.440 typically their darkest days correct I
00:08:14.400 think it’s uh really sums up to uh
00:08:16.520 having that One-Stop shop and having
00:08:18.599 that uh you know flavor of uh of of
00:08:22.759 providing that full-blown tipto toe
00:08:25.479 service and going into advisory as you
00:08:27.639 said nothing beats that and we know it
00:08:30.280 one of the areas Which accounting firms
00:08:31.919 they really struggle is with advisory
00:08:34.279 compliances I think everybody’s super
00:08:36.039 not super expert and everything super
00:08:38.320 nice but advisory is one area where U I
00:08:41.240 think clearly this is one area which can
00:08:43.679 be uh explored further so thanks for
00:08:46.120 that uh inside there so Christine just
00:08:48.959 uh changing the gears a bit now and uh
00:08:51.920 getting into the uh you know accounting
00:08:54.560 firms Arena as a whole now we know that
00:08:58.200 uh exit is just not about the timing
00:09:01.880 it’s about the strategy and the fact
00:09:04.680 which I was saying before that baby
00:09:06.160 boomers really while they’re going out
00:09:07.680 of the job market it is such a massive
00:09:09.959 massive play in fact I was reading it
00:09:12.200 somewhere that uh the average age of the
00:09:14.200 cpf CP partner for example is about 52
00:09:18.720 54 so imagine the the 3 4 five years
00:09:23.880 down the line and if the stock market is
00:09:25.640 working well I’m just thinking
00:09:27.399 everybody’s just getting ready to retire
00:09:29.200 right right away so what are the problem
00:09:31.640 areas that you see there while you’re
00:09:33.720 talking to accounting firms per se what
00:09:36.040 they should be doing what they haven’t
00:09:37.480 done just the Grays if you can highlight
00:09:39.760 that oh yeah and and and it just to be
00:09:42.880 clear this is accounting firms and any
00:09:45.880 other business in the universe all right
00:09:48.079 because there’s really three key
00:09:50.279 problems I told you I was the magic 3
00:09:52.720 but there are really three uh three key
00:09:55.279 problems and particularly in accounting
00:09:57.640 firms too
00:09:59.640 the the first of first of all
00:10:02.200 it’s the uh structure of the
00:10:06.279 organization if you’ve got people who at
00:10:09.120 the top are of an age and they’ve been
00:10:11.880 controlling everything and and
00:10:14.040 especially if it’s Founders so if people
00:10:16.399 who found uh uh founded a business but
00:10:19.480 what I find is it’s very specifically in
00:10:21.720 Partnership businesses Partners or the
00:10:24.839 founders everything hangs off them so
00:10:28.560 they’re so woven into the function of
00:10:31.760 the business and of course the value
00:10:35.000 that the partner or the founder feels is
00:10:39.120 because you know that it’s part of their
00:10:41.920 identity the being this senior person
00:10:45.079 and they can’t imagine doing anything
00:10:46.320 else so they literally built the
00:10:47.800 business around them so that they’re
00:10:49.760 almost like a if you think about an arch
00:10:53.040 a stone Archway always has a keystone
00:10:56.000 and it’s that Keystone that if you
00:10:57.560 remove the bridge collapses the arch
00:10:59.920 collapses right the big mistake that
00:11:02.880 most partner Le or founder-led
00:11:06.480 businesses Miss make is that they build
00:11:10.320 themselves into being the Keystone and
00:11:13.040 the minute they’re not there everything
00:11:15.040 starts to to collapse so so for me it’s
00:11:18.920 the it’s that owner Reliance issue which
00:11:22.040 leads then to the other big mistake that
00:11:24.959 people make is then making no plans for
00:11:27.760 succession and I I’ll go back to that
00:11:30.040 horizontal versus vertical again yeah
00:11:33.639 everybody literally everybody is going
00:11:35.680 to leave at some point and you never
00:11:38.519 know whether that bus that is going to
00:11:40.279 come and hit you might hit you tomorrow
00:11:43.040 correct so the the lack of succession
00:11:45.800 planning because well I’m not thinking
00:11:47.760 of leaving for another 5 years is it
00:11:51.440 makes the um the business weaker and it
00:11:54.399 certainly makes partners partners firms
00:11:56.600 weaker because you tend to find that if
00:11:58.839 the power power is Consolidated and and
00:12:01.040 by power I mean the decision making is
00:12:03.519 all Consolidated at the top and they
00:12:05.720 don’t trickle that down effectively
00:12:08.519 enough then when it only takes one brick
00:12:11.440 to to fall out and and actually the the
00:12:14.279 value of the business is um is
00:12:16.600 eliminated and and in accounting we got
00:12:18.800 an image problem because it’s becoming
00:12:21.040 more and more difficult to get young
00:12:22.399 people in absolutely and I I don’t think
00:12:26.000 as accountant I mean I’m a I’m a Seer
00:12:28.360 accountant but as accountant we don’t
00:12:30.760 paint a nice enough picture of what the
00:12:32.560 opportunities are and so sometimes a
00:12:36.160 young and this certainly happened to me
00:12:38.079 when I was training I would look at the
00:12:40.399 people um that I was training with so I
00:12:43.079 used to look at my FD and I used to
00:12:44.839 think goodness me I don’t want to do
00:12:46.240 that job if that if that’s what’s what
00:12:48.240 I’m going to look like in 10 years time
00:12:50.600 yeah I’m out of here and actually that’s
00:12:53.120 exactly what I did I went and found you
00:12:55.440 know accountancy opened another door for
00:12:57.560 me um and I was very lucky that I I got
00:13:00.279 that opportunity but we don’t show a
00:13:03.880 really good image to bring accountancy
00:13:07.560 in and yet it’s the most amazing
00:13:11.480 profession I mean if you’re
00:13:13.600 nosy or just curious you get to see
00:13:17.959 insights about every client in your in
00:13:21.440 your practice corre I don’t know about
00:13:23.680 you but it’s like looking through
00:13:25.000 someone’s window without actually having
00:13:26.760 to take any responsibility and it’s and
00:13:29.399 and you just get to see all of yet you
00:13:31.480 literally get to see the whole world The
00:13:33.639 Good the Bad and the Ugly um I I
00:13:36.240 personally find that exciting so but
00:13:39.000 then maybe I’m weird in fact no no I
00:13:42.000 absolutely agree in fact I remember um a
00:13:44.240 small joke I’m going to uh you know pass
00:13:47.560 it on so U accounting and accountants as
00:13:51.040 you said there’s a certain stereotype
00:13:52.680 which is attached to the profession as a
00:13:54.519 whole right so it says that uh who is
00:13:57.959 the most extroverted accountant that you
00:13:59.720 have met and that person is who is
00:14:02.839 talking to you while looking at your
00:14:04.800 shoes yeah that’s the most accountant
00:14:07.639 that you can imagine one would get and
00:14:09.839 these are the kind of jokes we see all
00:14:11.360 the time isn’t it that uh being
00:14:13.279 accounting is uh you know having that
00:14:15.440 big thick glasses and sort of just doing
00:14:17.399 all the numbers and that’s pretty much
00:14:18.839 it so U I think if Acca and SEMA and
00:14:21.800 everyone else is listening or CPA I
00:14:24.240 think uh we need to change that at at
00:14:26.600 the very top because I agree it is Trust
00:14:29.320 worthy it is honest and most importantly
00:14:32.240 I think the amount of trust which the
00:14:34.000 client gives to the accountant is second
00:14:36.560 to none I think we all know that yeah
00:14:39.800 absolutely I remember someone telling me
00:14:42.120 become a lawyer because lawyers changed
00:14:43.880 the world MH okay if you become a lawyer
00:14:47.560 you’re more likely to become a
00:14:48.639 politician which means you’re going to
00:14:50.199 change your world yeah or the immediate
00:14:53.519 world around you accountant can impact
00:14:56.720 and in particularly from a climate
00:14:58.519 change perspect perspective accountants
00:15:00.279 are the ones that are going to bring the
00:15:01.880 tools that are really going to bring
00:15:05.040 effective change and that should
00:15:07.880 energize the Next
00:15:09.920 Generation we’ve got to show them how to
00:15:12.240 do it yeah absolutely I think we should
00:15:14.279 talk to Marvel or DC to create a movie
00:15:16.440 called super accountant rather than
00:15:18.519 Superman which could probably do the for
00:15:20.959 the Gen Z the point which you were
00:15:22.440 mentioning but amazing I I absolutely
00:15:24.759 get that and just to add on there U on
00:15:27.800 the exit strategy G uh you know
00:15:30.199 Christine that you are absolutely expert
00:15:32.160 on is there any preferred mode of
00:15:35.000 exiting for accounting firms per se I
00:15:37.319 mean is it uh that you should be looking
00:15:39.079 at uh the P side of things now that’s
00:15:42.199 happening so much or you should be
00:15:43.839 looking at maybe merging with a bigger
00:15:45.560 firm or just uh looking at U anyone who
00:15:49.040 pays the max amount of money what is the
00:15:51.199 trick there well I’m afraid the answer
00:15:54.160 to that is kind of um it depends and I
00:15:57.160 and I hate that’s a bit weird easily
00:15:59.440 worded but it really depends on you as
00:16:02.560 the business owner what do you really
00:16:05.480 want and because everybody’s ideal exit
00:16:09.319 is very different and it’s one of the
00:16:12.720 things I always do with all of my
00:16:14.319 clients is I look at what does an ideal
00:16:17.319 deal look for you look like for you and
00:16:19.800 that will be all the lifestyle issues
00:16:21.639 not not money is almost the last thing
00:16:24.800 mhm and then we’ll look at what’s an
00:16:27.440 absolute hell no deal it’s like hell
00:16:31.600 will freeze over before I take this type
00:16:33.839 of deal so you’re really looking at
00:16:35.959 what’s really attractive and what’s
00:16:37.480 really not attractive and somewhere in
00:16:39.600 between there is an acceptable deal and
00:16:42.920 the mistake that most people make is
00:16:45.600 that they see and we’ll come on to PE in
00:16:48.360 a minute but they see a lot of PE
00:16:49.839 activity and they think oh that’s going
00:16:51.680 to get me out it’s going to get me out
00:16:53.519 of the day-to-day it’s going to get me
00:16:55.319 Rich you know it’s going to make me
00:16:57.000 retire only for them to find that the
00:17:00.519 price of taking PE money is they got to
00:17:04.439 be in their business for another 5 years
00:17:07.119 and now they’re now they’re an
00:17:09.439 employee and this the partnership model
00:17:13.199 doesn’t really work very well in in PE
00:17:15.720 so the PE house comes in and tries to
00:17:18.359 change it but that cost time and money
00:17:21.119 and in the meantime you’re being to get
00:17:23.599 the rest of your money out you’re that
00:17:25.559 you’ve got to drive fees and
00:17:27.160 profitability but you’ve got these d on
00:17:30.120 on you from the change that’s required
00:17:33.520 so I think when you look at what an
00:17:36.039 ideal deal for you as an individual is
00:17:39.080 MH and you look at the the what the
00:17:41.400 worst deal possible is for you then
00:17:44.440 somewhere between the ideal deal and the
00:17:46.160 acceptable deal is probably where you
00:17:47.640 want to to to be and it will be
00:17:49.640 different from for every different
00:17:52.559 person when it comes to PE though I if
00:17:56.080 PE is something that you want to explore
00:17:59.440 then let’s get really clear on what
00:18:02.799 private Equity is and what what they’re
00:18:05.840 looking for because um and and actually
00:18:10.520 forget private Equity money uh for a
00:18:13.159 minute you may be approached as a
00:18:16.080 mid-tier practice by a bigger practice
00:18:19.200 and and and the idea of becoming part of
00:18:21.480 something bigger might be very
00:18:23.600 attractive to you so if that if that is
00:18:27.039 something that’s part of your ideal deal
00:18:29.640 then get your business ready to be
00:18:32.919 attractive to that kind of buyer MH and
00:18:35.640 that means understanding what those
00:18:37.039 buyers are looking for mhm so so I
00:18:39.760 always come at it from a what what what
00:18:41.799 does life look like for you in an ideal
00:18:44.880 exit and and I get people who say look I
00:18:47.600 want to die at my desk but I only want
00:18:50.360 to I want to die at my desk only working
00:18:52.280 two days a week and it’s like great okay
00:18:55.080 now we know what we’re working with we
00:18:56.640 know what your values are
00:18:59.240 PE isn’t
00:19:01.280 necessarily the Nirvana that a lot of
00:19:05.120 people think it is because if you’re
00:19:07.559 just focusing on the money you’re
00:19:09.240 focusing on the wrong thing because
00:19:12.120 everything comes at a price and you
00:19:14.919 don’t know what the buyer is looking for
00:19:16.520 you don’t know what that price is MHM
00:19:19.919 that’s super in fact u in fact what do
00:19:22.640 you think about the the cultural side of
00:19:25.799 things so I get that uh while you’re
00:19:27.720 looking at the end game game that you
00:19:29.360 have what you personally want it’s going
00:19:31.240 to drive majority of the actions but
00:19:33.919 what about culture the you know the
00:19:36.720 values which an organization had or has
00:19:39.240 at the moment while before you you know
00:19:41.360 you do any acquisition or of course you
00:19:43.000 go out in the market do you see that has
00:19:45.280 a Major Impact in the decision making oh
00:19:48.400 yes it has a major impact on the post
00:19:52.200 exit
00:19:53.200 experience and so let’s go back to
00:19:56.960 private Equity um you private Equity
00:19:59.400 usually looking for some very specific
00:20:03.760 um boxes to take in their acquisition so
00:20:07.280 they they’re going to be very picky
00:20:08.880 about the the type of thing that they
00:20:10.400 they’re looking for but one of the
00:20:12.720 things that and and and I think we’re
00:20:14.840 starting to see this come through in the
00:20:17.360 accounting industry as the first phase
00:20:20.280 of private Equity investment is now
00:20:23.039 starting to think about how they recycle
00:20:25.480 themselves out of those Investments yeah
00:20:27.480 the flip or period yeah
00:20:29.520 and so if we look at when they got in
00:20:31.400 what was their expectation of their
00:20:33.080 return on investment including the
00:20:35.880 timeline right and one of the biggest
00:20:39.280 impacts NE negative impacts is that
00:20:43.240 private Equity
00:20:44.799 money and the people who manage private
00:20:47.159 Equity Funds didn’t really understand
00:20:50.200 the nature of traditional partner-led
00:20:54.039 accounting firms so they didn’t
00:20:56.559 understand the culture and they also
00:20:58.320 didn’t understand that the accounting
00:21:00.080 industry sadly changes at a glacial Pace
00:21:05.200 M and actually even that’s fast so um
00:21:09.120 and I and I so I think they probably
00:21:11.279 well I I know from an anecdotally
00:21:14.200 that many of these practices that were
00:21:16.880 bought off as uh under a platform as
00:21:20.720 part of portfolio purchases through
00:21:23.039 private Equity um funding was they
00:21:26.559 thought that they would get economies of
00:21:28.039 scale and actually that didn’t really
00:21:30.000 result because there was so many
00:21:32.960 cultural um differences so I think
00:21:35.480 private Equity money that was going in
00:21:37.960 maybe a decade ago between six and 10
00:21:41.320 years ago is actually was had a very
00:21:44.440 different approach to the private Equity
00:21:46.559 that’s coming in now especially if
00:21:48.840 they’ve already purchased practices and
00:21:51.960 they’ve gone through the pain of trying
00:21:54.720 to
00:21:55.799 integrate business uh different side
00:21:59.159 of business that have got very different
00:22:01.400 cultures so culture for me is culture
00:22:05.919 kills return on investment like that
00:22:09.960 without anybody really seeing it until
00:22:14.240 they try and come at the until they try
00:22:16.600 and get their money out at the other end
00:22:18.360 and then the returns that they were
00:22:20.120 expecting right at the very beginning
00:22:22.600 they’re not they’re not getting those
00:22:23.840 size of returns because they’ve
00:22:25.720 literally had to sweat blood trying to
00:22:29.559 get businesses to change their culture I
00:22:32.880 get it in fact um so spot on it is I’m
00:22:35.600 able to relate to it what I’m seeing in
00:22:37.360 the industry and uh creating value to be
00:22:41.360 honest while you are buying those
00:22:44.320 accounting firms in the portfolio that
00:22:46.039 you’re building up it’s a massive
00:22:48.240 massive play whether the value can be
00:22:50.919 created through consolidation of your it
00:22:53.080 side of things or through offices and
00:22:55.600 lot many other things so I think the
00:22:57.640 game is on now and this U cycle I think
00:23:01.360 probably looking at two three more years
00:23:03.480 and this is yet to be seen how it’s
00:23:05.000 going to play out you know in terms of
00:23:07.080 the rois for the pees and of course the
00:23:10.039 people who have uh been bought by the PE
00:23:12.039 so uh it’s going to be interesting
00:23:13.360 landscape I guess all right so thank you
00:23:16.200 so so very much Christine it was super
00:23:18.559 insightful uh and I think uh whether
00:23:21.240 it’s preparing firms to get ready and
00:23:23.760 offer the client uh the exit Readiness
00:23:26.320 or looking at the PE money what you
00:23:28.080 should be doing looking at the cultural
00:23:29.880 aspect everything was super super
00:23:32.039 insightful I hope you enjoyed it no
00:23:35.360 thank you and I will just leave with one
00:23:37.159 sentence if you are an accountant in
00:23:39.159 practice and you want to engage more
00:23:41.200 with your clients just go and just go
00:23:43.400 and use this one sentence which is how
00:23:46.760 are you thinking what what are you
00:23:48.360 thinking about your exit and and
00:23:50.960 honestly they will open a conversation
00:23:53.000 that will be so insightful and fruitful
00:23:56.520 and it will add profit to your bottom
00:23:59.080 online um and with this uh we have come
00:24:01.919 to an end of this episode thank you
00:24:03.919 Christine for sharing these uh valuable
00:24:06.080 insights whether it’s uh preparing firms
00:24:09.159 for their next big step planning for
00:24:11.400 their own future or navigating the rise
00:24:14.679 of private equity and accounting today’s
00:24:16.640 conversation has highlighted it’s just
00:24:19.159 so much important to think strategically
00:24:21.640 and of course the cultural side which uh
00:24:24.640 picked up towards the end and uh thanks
00:24:26.960 to the audience as well for listening in
00:24:28.919 and tuning into 50 shets of accounting
00:24:31.279 looking forward to catch up with the
00:24:32.559 next one thank you so yeah stay safe

From Retaining Clients to PE Takeovers: The New Rules of Exit Readiness

In this episode, we explore the critical role of exit readiness for accounting firms. From the retiring baby boomer generation to the rise of private equity investments, the accounting profession is facing unprecedented shifts. Are firms prepared to retain clients, sustain value, and navigate ownership transitions effectively?

Christine Nicholson, an award-winning business mentor and exit planning expert, joins us to share actionable insights. Drawing on her 30+ years of experience, Christine discusses the importance of succession planning, the impact of partner-led decision-making, and the cultural challenges posed by private equity takeovers.

What’s in Store:

  • How a lack of succession planning weakens firms and erodes value.
  • The untapped potential of accountants helping clients with their own exit strategies.
  • Strategies for retaining client trust and loyalty during ownership transitions.
  • Why cultural misalignment in private equity acquisitions can derail ROI.
  • The essential steps accounting firms must take to be exit-ready.

If you’re serious about securing the future of your firm and building stronger client relationships through strategic exits, this is an episode you can’t afford to miss

 

Unauthorized copying or plagiarism of our content is a violation of intellectual property rights. We take such matters seriously and will pursue legal action to protect our original work. Anyone found engaging in such activities will be held accountable under applicable laws.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Sagar Ahuja

CEO, QX Accounting Services

Sagar Ahuja is the CEO of QX Accounting Services, an accounting outsourcing evangelist, an ACCA-qualified accountant, and a Cardiff MBA with 16+ years in finance outsourcing. He partners with accounting firm leaders to scale operations, cut costs, and boost profitability through strategic outsourcing. A recognized voice in the industry, Sagar is known for turning outsourcing into a growth engine.

Christine Nicholson

Business Mentor & Exit Planner

Christine is a seasoned exit strategist and Chartered Management Accountant who transforms unsaleable 7-figure businesses into 8-figure assets—while helping founders reclaim their time and peace of mind. With 25 years of multi-sector leadership, she’s scaled ventures from zero to £4.5M in 15 months and engineered eight-figure exits from distressed positions. Her blend of financial acumen, legal insight, and hands-on operator experience positions her as the go-to mentor for owner-managed businesses seeking higher valuations and smoother exits. Christine doesn’t just advise on exit readiness—she delivers it.