Marketing an accounting business is harder than most people realise. Angus Gasbarri from Earnt Advisory joins Nic to talk through why, and the conversation ends up going a lot deeper than expected.
For starters, there are strict licensing rules around what accountants can even say. You can’t call yourself a tax agent without a license, and you can’t give investment advice unless you’re qualified to. On top of that, money is one of the most sensitive topics there is. People don’t share their financial “dirty laundry” with a stranger straight away, no matter how good the marketing is. Trust has to be built first.
Angus breaks his clients into two buckets. There are the ones who show up once a year purely to stay compliant and lodge their return, and there are the ones who want a real partner in growing their business. He’s upfront that the second group is where the more interesting, higher value work happens, and it only comes from an actual relationship, not a transaction.
That relationship piece comes up again and again. Nicole talks about her own accountant of over a decade, someone who knows her business inside and out because they actually talk, regularly, about more than just numbers. Angus agrees that the accountants who get the best results are the ones treating clients like people, not line items, and clients need to be willing to show up and communicate too. One line that stuck: your accounting fee often comes down to how well you communicate. Prompt, clear communication makes the whole relationship smoother and cheaper.
They also get into the myth of the “expert who has it all figured out.” Angus is candid that his accounting degree taught him nothing about running a business, and that he was just as clueless as any first time business owner when he started out. He talks about the air of superiority some accountants project, and how it usually masks a personal financial life that’s a mess behind the scenes. His take is simple, approach clients as peers, not as someone who knows everything.
Angus’s own path into the industry started with a chance meeting on a bus in Central America, where a conversation with another Australian traveller became the nudge he needed to eventually go out on his own. It’s a good reminder that nobody starts a business fully ready. You figure it out as you go, whether you’re an accountant, a tradie, or anyone else running their own show.
The bottom line for finding the right accountant, or the right anyone, for your business? Ask them about their own journey. If they can be honest about what they don’t know, that’s usually a good sign.
