Partnership wanted.

nicd1981

Hi everyone,
I've been a licenced member in practice for around 18 months now but still work full time.
Although the dream is to one day cut the strings and go full time solo, I have children and a house /car to pay for so can't give up my security of my salary.
I've been considering though getting involved with another licenced accountant, like a partnership.
Not sure how to go about this, maybe I could start contacting small practices near me, or someone else maybe be doing same as me local and we could work around each other.
Reasoning for this is i could grow Customer base as time/ capacity would double.
Any ideas? Suggestions would be welcome
Nic

burg

Think carefully before settig up a business in parternship with somebody else. I always advise clients that not only do you need to talk about the here and now but you must talk about the future. Too many partnerships break down as the parterns have different ideas about exit strategies and they were never discussed. Talk about what if's and then write down and agree what will be done if those scenarios pop up.

Profit splits and money is only one area. You may have different ideas on an ideal client, cloud based software, paperless office, drinks machine, etc.

For me a partnership with anyone else would never be an option. Myself and my wife run the business together but we mainly both ahve the same vision and we work really well together. We have some dissagreements but we also have agreed that what goes on at the office stays there. We never take those disagreements home.

I see where you are coming from and why you think you need a business partner but consider trying to make things work. When I left employment to start our practice my wife was on maternity leave and we had a few bits of bookkeeping work. We also had children and a house. We set about a plan of how to gain the clients we wanted and arranging enough funds and overdraft to last us a year. If it did not work by that time then I find a job and we pay off the overdraft. Thankfully it did work but not necessarily how we planned in the early days. We did use the overdraft but we were not in it after the first year. Times were very tight but we fought through and today we have a practice that is firmly established with over 300 clients and staff that rely on us for pay. Thet brings a whole new world in itself.

Good luck.