Embracing change is critical in driving your practice through the barriers of increasing compliance and volatility, explains Vipul Sheth.
In a world where compliance becomes more complex, and clients require increasing levels of your support, how can you get ahead of the curve?
It’s a question I ask because the operating environment for accountancy practices feels unrelenting. Let’s be honest, it is unrelenting.
That doesn’t mean it’s a bad environment to be in, or one that shouldn’t be attractive to a new generation of accountants and business advisers. But it requires existing practice leaders and owners to put the foot on the gas.
Breaking the cycle
There are certain competencies required in moving a business forward: certainly, a pulling-together of vision, strategy, planning and then driving through projects. Accountants are expertly trained, but that doesn’t mean that running their own firm is necessarily easy or a natural thing to do.
It’s easy to get caught up in the rhythm of compliance and associated back and forth of information between firm, client and then filings to government departments. But, as I said earlier, the world is becoming more complex and that means greater regulation, legislation, and client needs.
Practices and their people can get caught up in the day-to-day, which becomes closer to firefighting as demands increase.
The problem this creates though, is that operational change usually comes through a piece of software becoming defunct, and a replacement found, rather than as a driver of growth or efficiency.
Leaving the comfort zone
So, if you want things in your firm to change – whether streamlined processes, cost efficiencies or new service lines, what do you do?
Well, it comes from getting out of the comfort (or maybe that should be discomfort) zone. It’s attitudinal – and you must drive that top-down. There will be people within your firm resistant or worried about change. However, for your firm to exist in five or ten years’ time, you will need to have brought along very good people for the ride… and keeping them will have been about the promise of things to come.
Inspire others to join you
You need a group of people who will be advocates, leaders and adopters within the business to say: ‘This is where we want our firm to head, and these are the changes we all need to make in order to make it happen.’
The fastest growing firms try lots of different things – if something fails, they try something else. Ambitious people help you build a better business, have better and more successful clients.
Ultimately, the concerns about change – disruption, cost etc. are outweighed by creating a growth and improvement journey. Again, it’s easy for me to say but if people don’t want to be part of that journey then it’s for the best; and find people who do. They may well be your practice’s next set of equity holders.
Vipul Sheth is founder and MD of Advancetrack
If change is on your agenda, then join us at gbX 2026. We’ll be helping practice leaders to adapt, innovate, and lead their people and clients confidently into the future. Registration details are here.
