Draper Hinks has had a good year. We can finally say we have bounced back from the effects of Covid where we lost over 85% of our business overnight. Things are looking much brighter.
My main observations as to what trends are becoming more prominent are several. We are still working with vendors that have paper-based practices. This is something that some buyers will not entertain. The cost of having to scan all paperwork into the system can make a profitable proposition turn into one that would cost money. This is becoming more of an issue.
Some vendors have an office where the staff work, and clients come in to meet their adviser. Not all buyers have offices, many people have staff working from home. There are pros and cons to this, but if a vendor has an office, they would normally want the buyer to take it on, at least for a short period, post-sale in order to help with retention. Obviously, this depends on many factors, the main ones being the size of the practice being sold, the location of the office and cost.
We have had a plethora of buyers coming to us wanting to buy a number of accountancy practices in the immediate future. The buyers are often backed by investors who can see that the return of their investment has the potential to be significant. However, having money in the bank does not mean there will be any practices for sale in the area you are looking, with the amount of turnover you want, with the profitability you would expect, without being over-staffed and under charging. It is easy to do a calculation on a piece of paper showing that buying a number of accountancy practices over a short period of time and then selling the resultant “empire” looks good financially. But you have to remember that fundamentally accountancy is about relationships with clients and not just numbers. Vendors do not like to sell to larger organisations looking to make a quick profit.
If you want to sell an accountancy practice or buy an accountancy practice please get in touch with me, Nicola Draper, on 01788 816440 or email me at n.draper@draperhinks.co.uk. Let me see how I can be of assistance. I look forward to talking to you.