It's not all about you!
Why your name isn’t always a good thing. 

When people start to think about selling their Practice it’s easy to believe that it should presented to the market exactly as it is. However, with some simple planning and preparation you should be able to maximise the value of your Practice and increase the sale price. 

One simple way to do this is through the branding of your Practice. Many practices have embraced the name of the founder/owner/ managing partner as their branding. This is fine, but ideally you need clients to be loyal to a brand, not to an individual. Loyalty to an individual can cause issues when a practice is sold and lead to a higher attrition rate of the client base, which can affect clawback. Good branding, however, can increase the value of a practice and make retaining and acquiring new clients easier. 

If you think all of this sounds like a lot of effort and expense for a practice you are about to sell then think again. You don’t need to spend a lot of money to achieve a rebrand and you’ll certainly get a good return on your investment. Creating a fresh brand and updating your web presence has become easier and more affordable in recent years and if you already have a prospective buyer you could work on a rebranding strategy together and share the costs. 

Once you have your brand then get straight to work on developing your brand loyalty. A simple way to do this is through regular client communication. Newsletters by email are an easy way of staying in touch with clients and any potential buyer will be impressed with effective brand communications as it means they can continue to be in regular contact with clients once the sale is completed. 

Here are a few simple steps that you need to take to change your brand 

1. Define your target audience
   What are the characteristics of the majority of your client base? Are they mostly one man bands or do you specialise in a particular market segment, such as hospitality? 
2. Define your brand mission
   This is what your company’s objectives are and how you will serve your clients 
3. Research the competition
   See what others in the market place are doing, what does their branding look like and what sort of services do they offer? 
4. Create a value proposition 
   This is what services or feature do you have that makes your accountancy Practice attractive to clients. Simply put – why would some choose you? 
   

If the thought of doing these things yourself brings you out in a cold sweat then you can always get someone else to do it for you. Perhaps one of your team might be interested or you can outsource to a specialist. Set a budget and then talk to a few providers in your local area, or go online to sites such as people per hour and put the job out to bid. 

Branding is just one of the things you can do to make your Practice sale ready. If you would like to know what other simple steps you can take to maximise the value of your Practice then visit our website for more information.