The Profitable Accountant Podcast

Hosted by Reza Hooda

Business Management Marketing

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Episodes

264

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Oct 2026

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About the show

The Profitable Accountant Podcast is for accounting firm owners who want a firm that pays them properly, without working every hour to get there. Each week, Reza Hooda shares what actually works: pricing on value instead of hours, choosing a niche so you stop competing on price, winning clients beyond referrals, and building the team and systems that stop everything running through you. Reza built his own practice to over £1m in fees while working under five hours a week, and now mentors firm owners inside the Profitable Accountants Community. Expect practical episodes, real member stories, and ideas you can use in your firm on Monday.

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October 20, 202639 min

#265 AI Can Already Do Most Of What Accountants Do (So Why Are Most Firms Ignoring It?)

This week, I share the message I gave my managers in a meeting yesterday. AI can now do most of what we do day to day in an accounting firm. The real challenge isn’t the technology. It’s getting your team to use it. I break down: The DOCTORS framework Claude helped me build for sales calls, and why prescription without diagnosis is malpractice Why accountants keep giving away free advice on sales calls, and what to do instead Why you need to start planning your exit years before you actually want out The maths behind why I’d happily pay £1,000 to win a single client The £1,000 referral offer we make to our existing clients, and how to get a copy of the email The video I added to our thank you page to warm up cold leads before we ever speak to them What happened when I asked Claude to prepare a full set of accounts whilst I picked my daughter up from swimming Why “rules-based and repetitive” describes most of the work happening in your firm right now How I’m getting experienced, sceptical managers to treat AI like an employee, not a chatbot Why autonomy without accountability means you’ll keep tolerating missed targets Why I think a pod of 2 could soon look after 200 clients, and which layer of the firm is most at risk I also share how I’ve built my second brain across Fathom, SharePoint and Notion so every AI tool I use has the context it needs. And if your firm is at or close to £1m in fees and you’re thinking about an exit, message me on LinkedIn. This episode is sponsored by Karbon , the practice management platform we recently moved to after 12 years on our previous system. If you’ve ever wondered how much of your firm’s work AI could already be doing, this episode is for you. If you’ve enjoyed my podcasts, here’s how you can get more value from me: Free stuff Get a free copy of my book The Four Pillars from here Watch a short 8 min video on how you can win new clients whilst you sleep here My inner-circle Join 150+ accounting firm owners in the Profitable Accountants Community (the PAC) to get access to the tools, training and tribe to help you grow your firm - without wasting time and money doing it the hard way. Join the PAC NOW! For larger sole practitioner firms wanting more support, direction and accountability, access the Profitable Accountants Mastermind including 1-2-1 access to me If you’re going to create an account and use OnlineJobs.ph use my affiliate link here and i’ll get a few pennies back in return to fund my coffee addiction 🙂 http://store.onlinejobs.ph/?aid=377675 And if you haven’t already, here’s a link to sign up to Fathom AI for your video calls so you can generate those transcripts to help in your content writing.

October 13, 202646 min

#264 Why I’m Betting On Paid Ads Again (After Years Of Them Not Working)

In this episode, I lift the lid on something I haven’t enjoyed admitting. The Google enquiries that built Capture Accounting have taken a nosedive. So I’m doing something I’ve avoided recommending to accountants for years. Running paid ads again. I break down: Why our enquiries dropped from 5 to 7 a week to just 1 or 2 in the last 6 months Why SEO isn’t dead, it’s become search everywhere optimisation Why tactics without strategy is just noise, and the question to answer before you pick a platform What a fish in a puddle and Amazon selling books can teach you about niching The 3 systems behind a predictable pipeline of high quality enquiries Why someone searching on Google is a very different prospect to someone who sees your ad What’s changed in the ad algorithms, and why your copy now does the targeting for you The maths behind a book ad I’ve been running for 2 years (look out for the balloon) Why I give my book away rather than sell it on Amazon How adding friction to our lead form is weeding out the tyre kickers, and what a qualified enquiry is costing us so far I also share how Claude edited our Dubai ad videos in a few hours, a job that used to mean a week or two of back and forth with my editor. And if you want a place on the next Power Positioning Accelerator in 2027, message me on LinkedIn. There are only 12 spaces and the waiting list is already building. This episode is sponsored by Karbon , the practice management platform we recently moved to after 12 years on our previous system. If you’ve ever struggled to get a steady flow of enquiries into your firm, this episode is for you. If you’ve enjoyed my podcasts, here’s how you can get more value from me: Free stuff Get a free copy of my book The Four Pillars from here Watch a short 8 min video on how you can win new clients whilst you sleep here My inner-circle Join 150+ accounting firm owners in the Profitable Accountants Community (the PAC) to get access to the tools, training and tribe to help you grow your firm - without wasting time and money doing it the hard way. Join the PAC NOW! For larger sole practitioner firms wanting more support, direction and accountability, access the Profitable Accountants Mastermind including 1-2-1 access to me If you’re going to create an account and use OnlineJobs.ph use my affiliate link here and i’ll get a few pennies back in return to fund my coffee addiction 🙂 http://store.onlinejobs.ph/?aid=377675 And if you haven’t already, here’s a link to sign up to Fathom AI for your video calls so you can generate those transcripts to help in your content writing.

October 8, 202632 min

#263 Everyone In Your Firm Is Busy (Your Pricing Might Be Why)

This week, I'm tackling something every firm owner hears on repeat. "We're busy." But busy doing what? And is it productive busy, or inefficient busy? I break down: Why timesheets won't tell you who's really productive (and what will) The revenue allocation tracker we use to split every client fee across the team The exact percentages we give each role, starting with 35% to the client manager The 3x salary benchmark every team member should be hitting What it means when someone isn't even covering their own cost Why "it's not fair, I'm working all hours" usually points to a pricing problem Why firms turning over £1m to £4m still keep pricing in the owner's head Why your PDF proposal is losing you clients, and what to do instead The 2 steps to building a pricing system and repricing your existing clients How one client went from £16,000 to £40,000 a year, and what he said when we told him I also share an update from Doha, why we've restructured the practice into pods, our new client manager hire, and how Power Pricing is moving faster than ever with a small team and AI doing the heavy lifting. This episode is sponsored by Karbon , the practice management platform we recently moved to after 12 years on our previous system. If you've ever struggled to work out where capacity really sits in your firm, this episode is for you. If you’ve enjoyed my podcasts, here’s how you can get more value from me: Free stuff Get a free copy of my book The Four Pillars from here Watch a short 8 min video on how you can win new clients whilst you sleep here My inner-circle Join 150+ accounting firm owners in the Profitable Accountants Community (the PAC) to get access to the tools, training and tribe to help you grow your firm - without wasting time and money doing it the hard way. Join the PAC NOW! For larger sole practitioner firms wanting more support, direction and accountability, access the Profitable Accountants Mastermind including 1-2-1 access to me If you're going to create an account and use OnlineJobs.ph use my affiliate link here and i'll get a few pennies back in return to fund my coffee addiction 🙂 http://store.onlinejobs.ph/?aid=377675 And if you haven't already, here's a link to sign up to Fathom AI for your video calls so you can generate those transcripts to help in your content writing.

September 29, 202644 min

#262 Why Pricing Still Lives In Your Head (And How To Get It Out)

In this episode, I share a conversation I had with a coaching client this week that took me straight back to my PwC days. A firm still billing every client from timesheets, and losing up to 2 days a month just deciding what to invoice. With the owner stuck as the pricing bottleneck. I break down: Why billing by the hour means the faster AI makes you, the less you get paid What my PwC days taught me about WIP reports, write-offs and made-up numbers Why you are not a bank, and should never be financing your clients The terms of business that get every client paying monthly by direct debit Why clients who fear the meter ticking will never see you as a trusted advisor The internal and external drivers that should shape every price you quote Why "I'll get back to you in a couple of days" quietly costs you the deal How I went from £100 a month clients to a £135,000 one-off fee What a £50,000 bottle of perfume taught me about the ceiling on price Why confidence in pricing comes from evidence, and why that means going first I also give an update on hiring our new client manager, and explain why I'm flying 20 hours to Vegas next month to learn from people further ahead than me. This episode is sponsored by Karbon , the practice management platform we recently moved to after 12 years on our previous system. If you've ever felt like pricing lives in your head and nowhere else, this episode is for you. If you've enjoyed my podcasts, here's how you can get more value from me: Free stuff Get a free copy of my book The Four Pillars from here Watch a short 8 min video on how you can win new clients whilst you sleep here Join 1500+ accountants owners in the Profitable Accountant Free Facebook group My inner-circle Join 150+ accounting firm owners in the Profitable Accountants Community (the PAC) to get access to the tools, training and tribe to help you grow your firm - without wasting time and money doing it the hard way. Join the PAC NOW! For larger sole practitioner firms wanting more support, direction and accountability, access the Profitable Accountants Mastermind including 1-2-1 access to me If you're going to create an account and use OnlineJobs.ph use my affiliate link here and i'll get a few pennies back in return to fund my coffee addiction 🙂 http://store.onlinejobs.ph/?aid=377675 And if you haven't already, here's a link to sign up to Fathom AI for your video calls so you can generate those transcripts to help in your content writing.

September 22, 202630 min

#261 How To Get Your Review Process Out Of Your Head (Using AI)

In this episode, I share what's been happening inside my firm this week. A hiring decision, a tough conversation about accountability, and a simple AI idea that could change how your firm reviews work. I break down: Why your average performance drops to the level of your lowest performer What tolerating mediocre work quietly does to your best people Why you should strip a process back to the bare bones before you automate anything Whether your clients actually read the PDF pack you send them, and what to send instead How I got a team leader who was sceptical about AI to say "that was pretty clever" The Loom trick that turns your senior reviewer's knowledge into an AI skill How juniors can review their own work before it reaches you Why AI should be your second brain, not your first The calendar rule I use to protect my deep work every morning The one alarm most firm owners never set, but should I also share why I'm flying 20 hours to Las Vegas for Alex Hormozi's scaling workshop, and why investing in yourself has been the best return I've ever had. This episode is sponsored by Karbon , the practice management platform we recently moved to after 12 years on our previous system. If you've ever felt like the whole firm still runs through your head, this episode is for you. If you’ve enjoyed my podcasts, here’s how you can get more value from me: Free stuff Get a free copy of my book The Four Pillars from here Watch a short 8 min video on how you can win new clients whilst you sleep here Join 1500+ accountants owners in the Profitable Accountant Free Facebook group My inner-circle Join 150+ accounting firm owners in the Profitable Accountants Community (the PAC) to get access to the tools, training and tribe to help you grow your firm - without wasting time and money doing it the hard way. Join the PAC NOW! For larger sole practitioner firms wanting more support, direction and accountability, access the Profitable Accountants Mastermind including 1-2-1 access to me If you're going to create an account and use OnlineJobs.ph use my affiliate link here and i'll get a few pennies back in return to fund my coffee addiction 🙂 http://store.onlinejobs.ph/?aid=377675 And if you haven't already, here's a link to sign up to Fathom AI for your video calls so you can generate those transcripts to help in your content writing.

September 15, 202627 min

#260 Three People Left At Once (Here's How I'm Replacing Them Without A Recruiter)

This week, three people left my firm within weeks of each other. A client manager. An onboarding manager who didn't last two months. A bookkeeping manager. All while we're trying to grow. So I got dragged back into the one thing I try hardest to stay out of: hiring. I break down: Why you will only ever have two real problems in your firm, no matter how big you get The reason finding good people feels impossible (and why that has nothing to do with the market) How I used AI to write the job spec, post the ad on Indeed and screen every application that came in The LinkedIn outreach campaign I'm running for talent, exactly like I'd run one for new clients Why I deliberately exclude PAC members and coaching clients from that search The one qualifying question I ask every candidate before I'll give them an interview link Two answers from real applicants this week, side by side, and what they told me about each person Why the remote role attracted a completely different calibre of applicant How to think about the cost of a hire so you stop procrastinating over the decision The restructure we're making: back to a pod model, led by client managers I also share what I'm doing instead of timesheets to measure the team, using a revenue allocation tracker that gives every person in the firm a number they own. Mentioned in this episode: I'm running a live Claude workshop on Wednesday at 1pm UK time, building a website from scratch and deploying it on the web by the end of the session. One firm owner on the call gets their site built live and handed over on the day. PAC members are already included. Everyone else can grab a ticket here. This episode is sponsored by Karbon , the practice management platform we recently moved to after 12 years on our previous system. If you've ever told yourself it's too hard to find good people, this episode is for you. If you've enjoyed my podcasts, here's how you can get more value from me: Free stuff Get a free copy of my book The Four Pillars from here Watch a short 8 min video on how you can win new clients whilst you sleep here Join 1500+ accountants owners in the Profitable Accountant Free Facebook group My inner-circle Join 150+ accounting firm owners in the Profitable Accountants Community (the PAC) to get access to the tools, training and tribe to help you grow your firm - without wasting time and money doing it the hard way. Join the PAC NOW! For larger sole practitioner firms wanting more support, direction and accountability, access the Profitable Accountants Mastermind including 1-2-1 access to me If you're going to create an account and use OnlineJobs.ph use my affiliate link here and i'll get a few pennies back in return to fund my coffee addiction 🙂 http://store.onlinejobs.ph/?aid=377675 And if you haven't already, here's a link to sign up to Fathom AI for your video calls so you can generate those transcripts to help in your content writing.

September 8, 202624 min

#259 Why AI Won't Replace You (But Will Replace Some Of Your Clients' Reasons To Pay You)

In this episode, I give my take on the Xero advert that set the whole profession off last week. The one where an influencer said she'd stopped paying her accountant £800 a month because she'd connected her cloud accounting. I'm not angry about it. I think it's a useful mirror. I break down: Why the software houses were never really "accountant first", and why that shouldn't surprise anyone The reason Excel, cloud accounting and OCR didn't kill accounting, and why AI won't either What clients are actually buying from you, and why it isn't the deliverable or the time The single highest value thing you offer, which almost nobody puts on their proposal Where you will genuinely lose clients to AI, and why you probably shouldn't want those clients anyway Why AI being confidently wrong matters more for your clients than it does for you The radiologist, the pilot and the £5m share sale: three analogies that explain why expertise still gets paid Why positioning is your real protection, and what "inch wide, mile deep" looks like in practice How to treat AI like a new employee, including the Loom trick for building skills your whole team can use Why the efficiency gains are yours to bank, providing you've got your pricing right I also talk about what I'm seeing inside the accelerator, including the member who went from nothing to being the go-to expert in children's care homes. [SPONSOR CREDIT LINE GOES HERE: This episode is sponsored by [Name](clean link), wording as supplied.] If you've been quietly anxious about what AI means for your firm, this episode is for you. If you've enjoyed my podcasts, here's how you can get more value from me: Free stuff Get a free copy of my book The Four Pillars from here Watch a short 8 min video on how you can win new clients whilst you sleep here Join 1500+ accountants owners in the Profitable Accountant Free Facebook group My inner-circle Join 150+ accounting firm owners in the Profitable Accountants Community (the PAC) to get access to the tools, training and tribe to help you grow your firm - without wasting time and money doing it the hard way. Join the PAC NOW! For larger sole practitioner firms wanting more support, direction and accountability, access the Profitable Accountants Mastermind including 1-2-1 access to me If you're going to create an account and use OnlineJobs.ph use my affiliate link here and i'll get a few pennies back in return to fund my coffee addiction 🙂 http://store.onlinejobs.ph/?aid=377675 And if you haven't already, here's a link to sign up to Fathom AI for your video calls so you can generate those transcripts to help in your content writing.

August 28, 202636 min

#258 Why Your Team Isn't Doing What You Asked (And How To Fix It)

This week I'm talking about the pillar most firm owners ignore until it starts costing them money. People. I've just got back from two and a half weeks in South Africa, and the firm carried on perfectly well without me. That doesn't happen by accident. But I'm not going to pretend it's all perfect. We've had people leave because they couldn't handle their roles, we're recruiting again, and we're pulling apart our structure because what worked at a team of four doesn't work at a team of twenty. I break down: The three real drivers of employee motivation, and why money is rarely one of them Why hiring junior in the early days is a false economy that makes your bottleneck worse The fear that stops firm owners hiring people better than them, and how often it actually plays out The four questions to run through before you complain that your team hasn't delivered Why your internal targets get missed when external deadlines never do Why nobody ever trained you to manage, and what that costs you as you scale How I get a process out of my head in the time it takes to do the job once The one button that turns a screen recording into a full written SOP Why increasing the speed of your check-ins gets work finished faster The growing pains that hit at 200k, 500k and a million, and why they keep coming back I also share the exact list of questions I send candidates before I'll even take an interview call with them, and how to get a copy for your own recruitment. This episode is sponsored by Karbon , the practice management platform we recently moved to after 12 years on our previous system. If you've ever wondered why your team isn't doing what you asked them to do, this episode is for you. If you've enjoyed my podcasts, here's how you can get more value from me: Free stuff Get a free copy of my book The Four Pillars from here Watch a short 8 min video on how you can win new clients whilst you sleep here Join 1500+ accountants owners in the Profitable Accountant Free Facebook group My inner-circle Join 150+ accounting firm owners in the Profitable Accountants Community (the PAC) to get access to the tools, training and tribe to help you grow your firm - without wasting time and money doing it the hard way. Join the PAC NOW! For larger sole practitioner firms wanting more support, direction and accountability, access the Profitable Accountants Mastermind including 1-2-1 access to me If you're going to create an account and use OnlineJobs.ph use my affiliate link here and i'll get a few pennies back in return to fund my coffee addiction 🙂 http://store.onlinejobs.ph/?aid=377675 And if you haven't already, here's a link to sign up to Fathom AI for your video calls so you can generate those transcripts to help in your content writing.

August 17, 202654 min

#257 How Alex Grew A Remote-First Firm to £1m In 5 Years

In this episode I sit down in a Southampton studio with Alex Norian of IWN Accountancy. Five years ago he was made redundant, had no savings, a newborn daughter and a wife who had stopped working. He's now on track for seven figures in his fifth year of trading, with a team of 12 and not a single office. Inside this episode you'll discover: Why being made redundant in the middle of a pandemic turned out to be the best thing for his career Why his first hire was a mistake, and the hire that changed everything Why he'd rather his head of accounting prepared his firm's accounts than do them himself How niching into property landlords let him win clients nationwide instead of within a 20 mile radius The video system that's non-negotiable for every team member, and why it beats an hour-long sign-off meeting Why he wrote his core values before he had a single employee, and the document that now runs to 50 pages The three pillar framework that replaced timesheets and drives performance related pay Why professional introducers have outperformed every other route to new business he's tried What he did when growth doubled year on year, then suddenly stalled at half a million The hiring mistake he says quietly damages the whole business if you cling on too long We also get into why the post-pandemic shift to remote working created an opportunity most firm owners still haven't taken, and how a remote firm can charge premium fees rather than compete on price. This episode is sponsored by Karbon , the practice management platform we recently moved to after 12 years on our previous system. If you've ever wondered how a firm grows this fast without an office, a big team or a decade of grind, this episode is for you. If you've enjoyed my podcasts, here's how you can get more value from me: Free stuff Get a free copy of my book The Four Pillars from here Watch a short 8 min video on how you can win new clients whilst you sleep here Join 1500+ accountants owners in the Profitable Accountant Free Facebook group My inner-circle Join 150+ accounting firm owners in the Profitable Accountants Community (the PAC) to get access to the tools, training and tribe to help you grow your firm - without wasting time and money doing it the hard way. Join the PAC NOW! For larger sole practitioner firms wanting more support, direction and accountability, access the Profitable Accountants Mastermind including 1-2-1 access to me If you're going to create an account and use OnlineJobs.ph use my affiliate link here and i'll get a few pennies back in return to fund my coffee addiction 🙂 http://store.onlinejobs.ph/?aid=377675 And if you haven't already, here's a link to sign up to Fathom AI for your video calls so you can generate those transcripts to help in your content writing.

August 3, 202640 min

#256 Why Good Service Isn't Enough To Keep Your Clients

This week, I'm talking about something I rarely cover on here. Not how to win clients. How to keep them. We spend so much time obsessing over pricing, positioning and winning new work that we forget the thing that quietly makes or breaks a firm: whether our existing clients stay, and whether they shout about us to everyone they know. I break down: Why "we get their stuff in on time" is the bare minimum, not a selling point The difference between customer service and customer experience (and why most firms only do one) The two reasons clients actually leave their accountant Why losing a client costs you far more than their annual fee The Maya Angelou line that sums up client experience better than any textbook The car hire company that gave me a genuine "wow" experience, and what accountants can steal from it How to build proactivity into your team so it doesn't vanish the moment things get busy The simple one-letter tracker I used to measure client contact (and why we binned timesheets for it) How to give your team a bank of proactive ideas so they're never stuck for what to say I also share a bit behind the scenes on this month's PAC deep dive into pricing compliance profitably, and why compliance is still the most scalable, most profitable foundation your firm has. This episode is sponsored by Karbon , the practice management platform we recently moved to after 12 years on our previous system. If you've ever taken a long-standing client for granted, this episode is for you. If you've enjoyed my podcasts, here's how you can get more value from me: Free stuff Get a free copy of my book The Four Pillars from here Watch a short 8 min video on how you can win new clients whilst you sleep here Join 1500+ accountants owners in the Profitable Accountant Free Facebook group My inner-circle Join 150+ accounting firm owners in the Profitable Accountants Community (the PAC) to get access to the tools, training and tribe to help you grow your firm - without wasting time and money doing it the hard way. Join the PAC NOW! For larger sole practitioner firms wanting more support, direction and accountability, access the Profitable Accountants Mastermind including 1-2-1 access to me If you're going to create an account and use OnlineJobs.ph use my affiliate link here and i'll get a few pennies back in return to fund my coffee addiction 🙂 http://store.onlinejobs.ph/?aid=377675 And if you haven't already, here's a link to sign up to Fathom AI for your video calls so you can generate those transcripts to help in your content writing.