ACCOUNTING PRACTICES FOR SALE IN MELBOURNE

2024 Market Update - Practices for Sale in Victoria

LOOKING TO BUY ACCOUNTING FEES?

If you're looking to buy an accounting practice or a parcel of fees in Melbourne, you're not alone.

We currently have more than 120 registered buyers looking to buy fees in Victoria and at any one time we generally only have a handful of vendors. The baby boomer partners and principals just aren't selling in the numbers we all expected and many of them are working way beyond the traditional retirement age of 65. Their reasons for not selling are many and varied but it has become a very frustrating market for buyers. As a consequence, it is a vendors market and prices are at peak levels due to the forces of supply and demand.

Please note, we deal almost exclusively with firms in Victoria and Albury on the NSW border.

CURRENT VICTORIAN LISTINGS

• Northern Suburbs - Sole Practitioner $550k - 15% Growth Last Year - UNDER OFFER

YOU NEED TO REGISTER AS A BUYER AND SIGN A CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT

Register as a Potential Buyer - Compulsory 

If you are interested in buying fees you MUST  complete a Buyer's Registration Form and Confidentiality Agreement and email them to pat@pjcamm.com.au    

Both forms can be downloaded from:

Click here to Download the Buyers Registration Form
Click here to download the Buyer's Confidentiality Agreement

With the market saturated with buyers and very little stock available we recommend you also consider the alternative to buying fees and ramp up your marketing. The internet has caused a marketing revolution and face-to-face networking, letter box drops, yellow pages advertising, local paper advertising and sponsorships don’t produce the same level of leads as they did five years ago. Radio, television and print advertising have also lost their marketing mojo and the new marketing magnets for accountants are online searches, content marketing and social media.

Referrals remain vitally important for firms but with an ageing client base these have also dried up in recent times. To read more about marketing and buying or selling fees click here or have a read of these articles and blogs:

Why Are There So Many Accounting Firms Looking to Buy Fees ?
How to Buy Accounting Fees the Easy Way
Would You Like a Marketing Manager in Your Practice that Generates 50 Times Their Salary?
Why Do Accountants Spend so Little on Marketing?
Thinking of Buying an Accounting Practice in 2016?
Need Help with Your Online Marketing?
Reignite Your Referral Engines

LOOKING TO SELL ACCOUNTING FEES?

Selling your accounting practice is an emotional process because in most instances, you are selling your life's work. To successfully transition both your clients and your staff requires a combination of careful planning and the right chemistry between the vendor and the purchaser. Price is obviously important and the transaction demands total integrity and confidentiality.

Having been a sole practitioner for 15 years, Pat Camm has been through the sale process and offers the experience, expertise and practical knowledge to help you:

• Sell Your Practice or a Parcel of Fees
• Buy a Practice or a Parcel of Fees
• Merge Your Practice with another Firm
• Source a New Partner
• Find Placement as a Partner

Our major point of difference compared to other practice brokers is the relationship we have with more than 2,500 accounting firms across Australia. In many cases these relationships stretch back several decades and we can discreetly bring buyers and vendors together without the need for public broadcasts that can be potentially damaging and alert staff to the proposed sale.. The right chemistry between the vendor and buyer is the key ingredient in a sale and we endeavour to match their requirements with your practice (location, gross fees, spread of clients, charge out rates, software etc.).

We recognise the fact that your time is valuable and our objective is to qualify the buyers so you only interview genuine prospects who satisfy key criteria. By vetting buyers and getting an understanding of their firm culture, charge out rates, background and reason for buying we can minimise the disruption to your practice. While competition is vital to obtaining the highest price, a lot of time can be wasted on buyers who are looking for the 'ideal' practice or prospects who don't have their finance in place.

We can also assist you with strategies to get the practice 'investor ready' and increase the value of your firm. We can identify the key issues that impact on practice values and guide you through implementation. We emphasise the fact that selling your accounting practice is a process and because you are generally selling your life's work, it can take several months with proper due diligence and negotiations. Our aim is to maximise the sale price for the vendor and also negotiate the most favourable terms including retention, handover and ongoing consultancy arrangements.

There are many issues involved in selling your practice including restraint of trade, the treatment of work in progress, debtors, creditors, contracts, staff, equipment and price. We guide you through each of these areas so you make an informed business decision.

If you are considering selling, buying or expanding your accounting practice call us today on (03) 9824 5300 for a confidential, no obligation discussion.

Additional Reading for Vendors:

The 10 Don'ts of Selling Your Practice
7 Reasons Why Buyers Won't Buy Your Accounting Practice

MARKET UPDATE - JULY 2022 

Please note that we generally only deal with the sale of firms in Victoria and Albury.

The Victorian suburban market for accounting fees is completely lop sided. We have more than 250 registered buyers and only a few practices for sale. Clearly it remains a vendors market with prices at peak levels. While some vendors have unrealistic expectations of the value of their practice, many buyers have unrealistic expectations that they can pick up a practice tomorrow for a 'bargain'.  For every metropolitan Melbourne practice there are at least 10 if not 20 buyers and generally the vendor only wants to meet with two or three parties at any given time. As a result, most buyers don't get to sight the detailed practice profile report (information memorandum) that includes the fee history of the firm, a breakdown of the top 20 or 30 clients by industry, fees and postcode plus details of the staff and their experience..

When a practice is listed for sale we have a process that matches the buyer's criteria including fee size and location. We contact the vendor and because of the massive demand for fees they generally only want to deal with buyers who have finance in place and meet their criteria including age, reason for buying, finance availability, current charge out rate etc. There is a lot of pent up demand for fees and frustrated buyers but we recommend you complete the buyer's registration form and confidentiality agreement (see below) and email them to our offices. We will then contact you if suitable practices become available, however, buyers need to understand the scarcity of stock.

Historically, the April to June period is peak season for practice sales.

BUYERS MUST REGISTER AND SIGN A CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT

OUR CONFIDENTIALITY PLEDGE

Maximise Your Practice Value While Maintaining the Strictest Confidentiality'

• No confidential information about your accounting practice will appear on any website
• We will never discuss the sale of your firm with any employee or client
• All potential buyers will be heavily screened and must sign a Confidentiality Agreement before receiving any detailed information regarding your practice for sale
• We will exclude from our marketing efforts specific firms and individuals who you designate as being 'off-limits' for any reason
• We will sensitively and carefully use our marketing strategies and techniques that mask the identity of your accounting practice for sale but at the same time, will elicit maximum interest from the most active buyers in our extensive database of registered buyers
• We will keep all information related to your accounting practice for sale in the strictest confidence including  blanking out Tax File Numbers before releasing copies of tax returns you provide
• We will never sell our database of firm names and contacts including your information
• You control how we use the information you provide about your accounting practice for sale
• Our offices are heavily secured and alarmed
• Each of our employees must sign a confidentiality agreement acknowledging that maintaining client confidentiality is a condition of employment with our Company
• We are committed to upholding our Privacy/Confidentiality Policy 

We are committed to treating you with the greatest respect and providing the highest level of service possible. If you have any questions or concerns regarding our Confidentiality Policy and Pledge please call us today on (03) 9824 5300.