5 tips to make sure your accounting firm can handle growth

The aim of every accounting practice – irrespective of background – is to get more clients on board and to grow exponentially. As a CPA-turned-business owner, you will agree with this. Otherwise, why would you start a business in the first place?

We understand you are a smart planner and have all the necessary strategies in place. But exactly how well-equipped are you to sustain the expansion of work? Once you observe a growth spurt in your operations, it will get difficult to manage everything smoothly unless you already have a plan of action.

Listed below are five tips that can help your accounting firm handle growth:

1. Build a virtual officeThanks to the advancement of cloud-based technologies, there is no need to obtain a larger physical space to sustain a growing accounting firm. There are two ways of setting up a virtual office:* Create your own private cloud-based infrastructure that meets all goals and supports access from anywhere, anytime and through any device.* Select a vendor that can host your desktop software and assume responsibility for serving up data as per your convenience.

   You can even hire a virtual assistant to handle day-to-day tasks the way a standard office receptionist would. This is in case you don’t have one! Security is a big concern in the accounting industry but with the right protocol, you can avert fraud and ID theft.

2. Segment your client baseYou are functioning in a high-touch industry, which means all your clients desire a personalized service. From tax consulting to account reviews, many tasks require consistent communication between the two parties. So if your employees are not able to manage all the clients effectively, then they can try this: segmentation.Put your clients into different categories – depending upon the volume of work coming from each client. Name each segment as “Group A”, “Group B”, “Group C”, and so on. Grouping them would bring clarity about which client work needs to be put on priority and how.
3. Get rid of odd clientsSure – every client helps drive revenue. But if that person is costing way too much energy and time, it is wise for you to drop that client and bring a new one on board. A rapidly-growing business doesn’t have any time to waste.
4. Break down every employee’s roleIt’s just easier if every employee knows what he or she is contributing to the accounting firm. A big organization has too many processes in place. The scope of work for every employee increases, which is why it is vital to break down the role in parts. This will boost the efficiency level of every employee.
5. Outsourcing time-consuming tasksDoesn’t it make sense to get accounting support from an external company while you can focus on more innovative tasks? Of course, it does! Outsourcing is a wonderful option when you don’t have enough employees on board and too much overflow work in hand.There are so many providers of accountancy services that will help you eliminate staff shortage, scale your practice and drive revenues by managing books, processing payroll and filing tax returns. Get rid of low-margin and time-consuming activities and focus on areas that can make your practice more profitable.

Over to you

Say “yes” to growth and “no” to obstacles post-growth. Is your accounting practice ready to kick-start its engine? We’d say now it is!