Growing your accounting firm or its offerings doesn’t mean sacrificing quality for quantity. It first begins with assessing the current accounting landscape. Between 2020 and 2024, the percentage of firm staff who hold a CPA dropped from 56% to 48.4%. In an industry that is lacking in recruits, new graduates, and has a workforce that is looking to retire sooner rather than later, the ability to grow to satisfy client demands becomes significant. The landscape is changing, and maintaining a high quality of service is what sets firms apart.

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1. They listen to their clients
2. They actively develop their team’s skills
3. They make decisions to expand their capacity
4. They price new services based on their value
5. They know to grow slowly

The firms who are responding to this pressure aren’t the ones filling in gaps where they form. They’re taking the strategic, considered, and proactive lead to provide services that allow them to set up systems that benefit both their firm and their clientele long into the future. Whether using technology to streamline their workflow, implementing business advisory services, or harnessing outside sources to expand capacity; the focus remains on growth. Here are five ways to grow your firm’s offerings without sacrificing quality and without the growing pains that hold firms back:

1. Listen to your clients

The most sustainable way to grow your offerings is within the client base that you already have. This begins with taking the time to listen to what your client needs. This might not be a conversation that happens in a straight line. Ask follow-up questions that help you dive deeper into your client’s current situation or include multiple-choice questions when quizzing them about their business’ future. Multiple-choice questions are great in the preliminary stages as they give your client suggestions to pull from that can develop in-depth answers instead of ambiguous responses or yes and no replies. Use their answers to provide your own expertise, or guide them to a professional within your sphere that’s able to help. Some example questions to ask them could be:

• What keeps them up at night about their business or financial situation?
• What success did they see in the last year and how it has shaped how they operate moving forward?
• Where do they want to be in the next five years?
• Which decisions are left on the table or have been pushed aside to a later date?
• When do they plan to retire and do they have a succession plan?

2. Actively develop your team’s skills

When expanding your offerings to include business advisory services, for example, you can’t expect accountants who have worked their whole career in compliance to pivot to in-depth client management work. Being able to consistently and actively develop your team’s skillset before implementing new services is key. 

Identify staff members who possess the skills associated with business advisory, like strong client management, the ability to engage, strong soft skills, problem solving, and a drive to step out of the compliance sector. Set a strong development pathway that includes training, feedback, and mentoring to ensure the service will be executed to a high-quality standard. Treat the team members who are stepping out of their usual roles as a long-term investment, showing careful consideration to who you choose and how they are able to step up to the plate.

3. Make decisions to expand your capacity

When offering a new service, ensure you have the capacity to achieve your desired goals while managing the work you’ve already been contracted to take on. Some ways successful firms do this are:

• They engage outsourcing companies who are well-versed in the industry and ready to take on compliance tasks like payroll management, bookkeeping, or end-of-year tax filing. Expanding your capacity begins with freeing up time spent on everyday tasks so that new services can be applied by your in-house team successfully.
• They assess what tasks senior staff are completing and if it is actually valuable for the overall firm. If not, delegation is paramount. Each level of staff should be working within their experience and job role to keep both quality and value high.
• They bring in specialist advice when a new service is unable to be built internally. They may partner with a self managed superannuation fund (SMSF) expert if clients are looking for specific advice on that topic. Or refer their clients to a business valuation specialist as part of advisory services to help assess a business who is looking to sell. 

4. Price new services based on your value

Accountants are well-versed in pricing their services based upon the time it takes to complete them, but growing your firm means making the shift to pricing your offerings based on their value, not only on time. Fixed-price models are a strategic way to reflect outcomes rather than input. By doing this, the firm benefits from getting better at a new service completed in a faster amount of time which improves quality dynamics.

This helps the client plan their budget when working with your firm too. An hourly service creates variables that the client may not see coming. When engaging a fixed-price model, your client can trust that their work is handled with expertise and a defined value, and creates less pushback when adjusting your fees.

5. Grow slowly

When quality is under pressure and at risk of slipping, the best option is to slow the pace of expansion to recalibrate what is and isn’t working. Rather than pushing your firm’s capacity, your team, and your clients to take on new offerings, the ability to stop and reassess is pivotal. Recognise the firm’s limits honestly, and check-in with your staff to see how both they and the clients are reacting to any changes.

Warning signs aren’t to be ignored. If your team is staying back later than usual, reporting burnout, or feeling overwhelmed with their workload, take notice. If clients are sending urgent emails, complaining of easy mistakes, or wondering where their documents are, it’s time to make a change. If the firm is struggling to keep up with requests, slow to respond to clients, or feeling unprepared to execute new services, respond to the signals early and slow down now to grow over the long-term.