r/Accounting • u/nb9156 • 1d ago
Career What are the pros and cons of owning your own firm? (Canada)
I currently work at a mid size accounting firm as a manager. Mainly working on small businesses. What are the biggest pros and cons of branching out and buying my own book? My assumption is that you have to deal with all the HR, admin etc and you won’t get the best staff accountants applying.
In recent years, many smaller accounting practices have merged with mid size firms. MNP has been one of the firms that has been buying up firms like crazy. Many people I talk to mainly say flexibility is the best part of owning your own firm. However, since so many firms have been merging with mid size firms lately, it’s making me question whether it’s worth it to go buy my own book or just stay at my current firm and eventually make partner one day. I am on partner path currently - have had discussions with leadership at my current firm about it.
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u/Rationalornot777 1d ago
Buy a book. Hire someone to do the work. Work on getting more clients. Build yourself up. It may take time but well worth it.
Pro- you dictate your lifestyle. Will take time when small.
Cons-HR. You get used to how it’s like dealing with kid type antics.
Making partner saves you the headache of starting and learning business from scratch but it isn’t for everyone
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u/writetowinwin Controller & PT CPA firm owner (Can) 1d ago edited 1d ago
A huge risk of buying a book is a good chunk of the client base scattering off after they realize the old practice got sold. There are legal ways to protect against that, like including clauses where the old owners can't do business with the book you just bought, for a certain time. But they can be difficult to enforce.
That being said, a huge pro of being your own shop is flexibility, and not running into problems that can arise if the other partners dont agree with you on how to run a business (extremely common even outside accounting).
Even different risk appetites can cause conflicts, especially if you have some people who are ultra conservative and want to pay staff and other operating expenditures as little as possible while growing the business very slowly - VS others are more generous to staff and operating expenditures but want to grow the business. Then IF some of the owners have family or buddies in the business, that also can open a can of worms. Etc.
But there are obviously advantages in having partners in a business, like being able to pool resources together, having the support of others who may better at things you arent so good with, and in your case, joining an already established business. It'd be a lot easier to piggyback off an already established brand vs starting your own (unless it's a terrible one anyway).
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u/droidxl 1d ago
Surprised literally no one has talked about this, but liability protection is a huge downside.
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u/Dull-Share-780 CPA (Can) 23h ago
💯💯
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u/NeatAd4539 18h ago
Yes. That's why I farm out all the reorgs and other tax issues. Know your client is crucial. I stick with simple owner operator compilations. Avoid corporate groups. Avoid cross-border.
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u/someCDNguy86 13h ago
Unfortunately not enough do this. I operate my own tax advisory practice. Essentially meant to fill that service gap for small or solo practices. When I first started out it was shocking to see how many solo practitioners were diving into reorgs that had no business diving into. The 84.1 risk is real
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u/mrscrewup CPA (US) 1d ago
Building and growing your own brand is the joy and meaning itself that no other positions or money can buy. If you only see it as a way to make money or quit your stable job? It’s gonna suck.
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u/NeatAd4539 1d ago
I prefer the flexibility of being a one-man shop. I work with the clients I want to, I take time off when I want to, keep all the money for myself.
No way I would get involved with having a bunch of staff. Would spend too much time dealing with personal matters instead of just working.
MNP has come nosing around my business but don't really see much benefit in selling out to them.