Lifestyle Firms: Why Standing Still Sends You Backwards and the Key Metrics to Propel You Forward
There’s a certain appeal to the idea of a “lifestyle firm.” After years in public accounting, you imagine a business built around your life. Set your own hours, take on clients you like, keep things simple. You’re not chasing big profits…you’re chasing “balance”.
Sounds liberating, but here’s the catch: lifestyle firms usually deliver the opposite. More work, less profit, and ironically, less life.
The problem is that lifestyle firms tend to neglect sound business policies. Pricing is a classic example. Owners are reluctant to set proper prices because they don’t want to upset their “friends” (clients). And when you blur those lines, you underprice, over-service, and end up with suboptimal profit.
Boundaries slip in other ways too. You take on small jobs that don’t make commercial sense. You do favors you can’t afford. You let scope creep slide. In the name of “lifestyle,” you create a firm that demands more of your time, not less.
One of the great ironies of business ownership is when you try to prioritize “life” over “firm,” you usually end up with less of both. If your firm is weak, your life will be too.
Contrast that with firms built on what Renew firms refer to as strategic growth. They make the firm the number one client. They define who they serve and what they deliver. They set minimum and target prices and hold the line. They look for opportunities to grow their firm that are aligned with their business model. They understand that strong business policies aren’t constraints. They CREATE freedom.
And here’s another inconvenient truth: most lifestyle firms aren’t worth anywhere near what their owners think. If your firm is dependent on you for every client relationship, every pricing decision, every deadline, you don’t really have a business. You have a job. Jobs aren’t worth much when you’re ready to transition your firm.
Firms that are valuable are the ones that can run without the owners. They’re built on systems, leverage, and recurring revenue. They’re designed so that the firm comes first…so that they can grow strategically and drive profitability by creating value for the right clients with the right services, at the right price. In firms like that, owners and team members CAN work less without going backwards.
Standing still isn’t standing still. It’s sliding backwards. If you want balance, you get there by building a firm that’s commercially strong and strategically growing.
That’s what we help accounting firms do. Build firms that give you more profit, more freedom, and more life. Not less.
Access our 2025 Bite Size Benchmark Assessment here. It’s full of the key metrics that winning firms track…along with recommendations on HOW to improve those metrics.
And if you’re ready to move beyond “lifestyle”? Let’s talk.
