Continuing to own your practice is a perfectly valid choice. But the next five years will require investment, and the expensive option is to drift into them without deciding what you want the practice to become.
Ten years ago, many established practice owners could improve their firm largely by doing more of what already worked. That is harder now.
The list asking for attention has grown: artificial intelligence and the controls around its use; data security; better workflow and client-service systems; compliance capability; recruiting and retaining good people; succession; and, in many firms, a redesign of how work is produced, priced and reviewed.
AI is not really the point. The point is what comes with it. A useful AI tool dropped into an old workflow does not transform a practice. You still have to decide where it belongs, what information it can touch, who checks the output and how any productivity gain improves service or economics.
None of this means the profession is in trouble. Good accounting and financial-planning firms still have many of the qualities owners have always valued: recurring relationships, trusted clients and work that matters.
But the next phase is an investment phase. It will require money, management attention and, for many owners, something more valuable than either: several years of personal energy.
That creates a fork in the road.
Road one: reinvest and lead
The first road is to back yourself and the firm.
For owners who still enjoy building, this can be an excellent choice. Invest in the people, systems and capability the practice will need. Reduce owner-dependence. Develop the next layer of leadership. Use technology properly rather than cosmetically. Make the business easier to run.
Done well, you may finish with a stronger, more valuable and more enjoyable practice.
But call the decision what it is. This is not simply “keeping things as they are”. It is another investment decision.
The capital matters, but so does the personal commitment. If you are five or ten years from wanting more flexibility, do you want to spend a meaningful part of that period leading another change programme?
There is no wrong answer. The problem is answering the question accidentally.
Road two: realise and hand over
The second road is to realise some or all of the value already created and allow the next phase to be funded and led, at least in part, by someone else.
That does not necessarily mean selling on Friday and disappearing on Monday.
A full sale can include an orderly transition and an agreed period working with clients. A staged sell-down can convert part of the owner’s equity into capital while preserving an ongoing interest. A merger can put the practice inside a larger platform with more depth in people, systems and administration. An incoming equity partner can provide succession and additional capacity while the existing owner remains involved.
For some owners, the attraction is financial. For others, it is simply that they would rather keep doing the client work they enjoy without continuing to underwrite every staffing, technology, compliance and management decision themselves.
The common feature is not retirement. It is a change in who carries the next round of investment and responsibility.
The expensive third option
Most owners do not consciously choose either road. They remain busy.
Nothing dramatic happens. Clients are serviced. Staff are paid. Work gets out the door. A new system is considered, then postponed. Recruitment is dealt with when somebody resigns. Succession remains something to revisit “after this year”.
Five years can disappear remarkably quickly that way.
The cost of drift is that both roads become harder. Reinvestment is delayed until more has to be done at once. The practice can become more dependent on the owner, not less. Systems and client information remain untidy. Key staff may have no clear pathway. If the owner eventually decides to sell or merge, there is less time to prepare properly and more pressure to accept a timetable imposed by events.
I have seen owners sit in this middle ground for years. They are working hard, but not really building towards a defined outcome.
That is the expensive option.
Exploring is not deciding
One reason owners put the question off is that they assume exploring a sale, merger or equity partner somehow starts a process they may not be ready to finish.
It does not have to.
A sensible first step is simply to understand the position: how the market is likely to view the practice, which structures could fit your objectives, what would need attention before any process began, and what continuing to build is likely to require.
That conversation should be confidential and owner-controlled. Nothing needs to be circulated. No buyer needs to be approached. No timetable needs to be set. Those steps should occur only if, and when, you separately authorise them.
Information is not commitment.
Some of the most useful conversations I have with practice owners end with the decision not to sell. The owner continues, but with a clearer view of what they are building, what needs fixing and what a future transition may look like.
Deciding like you're the client
There is a useful way to strip some emotion out of the decision: treat your practice as though it belonged to a client.
For many owners, the firm is one of their largest financial assets and the product of decades of work. If a client held a substantial part of their wealth in a single private business, knew that business required another period of investment, and had no settled ownership or succession plan, you would probably not advise them to remain indefinitely undecided.
You would help them understand the alternatives while they still had the freedom to choose between them.
Practice owners deserve the same discipline.
The argument is not that every established owner should sell. Many should not. Some have the appetite, capital and team to build the next version of the firm and will enjoy doing it.
The argument is that continuing should be a decision, not the absence of one.
The fork in the road remains open for a long time. It does not remain open forever.
Start with a confidential conversation
If you are considering whether to keep building, sell, merge or bring in an equity partner, a useful first step is a confidential 30-minute discussion with Mark Witt CA of Practice Exchange.
The purpose is to understand your options, not to start a sale process. There is no obligation, nothing is circulated and no buyer or merger partner is approached without your separate authority.
Mark has around 20 years’ experience in accounting and a further 20 years specialising in practice transactions, with more than 400 completed matters.
- Book a 30-minute phone call
- Book a 30-minute Zoom meeting
- Email mark@practiceexchange.com.au - I read and answer these personally
- Call Practice Exchange on 1300 722 452 or find me directly on 0407 006 438
A confidential conversation commits you to nothing. It simply gives you a clearer picture of what may be possible.
