The Profitable Accountant Podcast

By Reza HoodaBusiness Entrepreneurship Marketing Management

The Profitable Accountant Podcast episodes

November 02#266 AI Won’t Replace Accountants (But Accountants Using AI Will)
This week I'm back from a week in the mountains of Oman.
And I want to show you how AI has completely changed the gap between having an idea and actually getting it done.
Inside this episode you'll discover:
How I recorded an ad on a hotel balcony and had it edited, approved and ready to upload before the end of the day
Why I no longer wait 10 days to 3 weeks for an editor to turn work around
The lead magnet that's bringing us some of the highest quality leads we've ever had
Why we deliberately add friction to our forms (and why it works)
The building blocks you need in place before you spend a penny on ads
How my AI chief of staff and assistants decide what actually needs my attention each morning
The simple inbox habit that will save you hours every week
Why some people on your team may not be on the right bus anymore
The one question to ask AI that paid for itself almost straight away

I also share how we're using AI to give my team feedback on every sales call, and why your role as a firm owner is shifting from doer to architect.
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 there aren't enough hours in the day to do everything you want 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.
31 min
October 20#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.
40 min
October 13#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.
47 min
October 08#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.
33 min
September 29#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.
45 min
September 22#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.
31 min
September 15#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.
28 min
September 08#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.
25 min
August 28#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.
37 min
August 17#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.
55 min