Sole practitioners and owners of accounting firms with less than 20 employees know how to juggle a myriad of tasks and offer hands-on, apprentice-type learning to staff at various levels. Despite limited resources, this environment holds many competitive advantages for client service as well as opportunities for employee growth.
We asked accounting and finance professionals in those spaces and those with small-firm and sole practitioner clients what’s working and what their current challenges are. Here are their responses:
Service Strengths
Robert Nordlander, CPA, CFE, owner and founder of Nordlander, CPA, PLLC
In public accounting, growth is often treated as the default goal. But staying small can be a competitive strategy. For many CPA firms, the real advantages are not scale, but profitability, personalized service and the ability to build a clear niche. Those strengths often matter more to clients than size alone.
Smaller firms are often better positioned to deliver personal attention. Clients usually want direct access to the professional who knows their business and understands their concerns. It is also easier for a small firm to develop a niche. A focused practice can build deeper expertise, and that specialization creates value clients are willing to pay for.
My own remote forensic accounting practice reflects that model. Because overhead is far lower than in a traditional brick-and-mortar firm, the business can remain profitable without chasing size for its own sake. Lower fixed costs create more flexibility in client selection, pricing and service delivery, while reducing the pressure to add complexity simply to support a larger structure.
That model also supports stronger relationships and more personalized service. In my practice, clients have my cell phone number because I want them to reach me directly. More broadly, accessibility is a real competitive advantage for small firms. Many clients value knowing exactly who they are working with and receiving advice from someone who knows their history and goals.
None of this means scale has no value. But bigger is not always better. For many CPA firms, staying small is what makes it possible to be profitable, personal and specialized. That is not a limitation. It is an intentional business model with clear competitive advantages.
Sharrin Fuller, owner and founder of Glass Wallet Ventures
The advantages are real and underrated. Small firms are faster. They answer the phone, make decisions in a day rather than a quarter and give clients direct access to the most experienced person in the building. They can specialize deeply and build relationships that a larger firm's volume does not allow.
The opportunity is to keep those advantages while escaping the capacity ceiling and not require aggressive hiring. It requires systematizing the owner's knowledge, so the work no longer depends on the owner doing it personally. When a sole practitioner documents and hands off repeatable tasks, they free the hours that competing with larger firms actually demands. That is how a small firm grows past the owner without losing what made it valuable in the first place. Small does not have to mean limited.
Eileen Monesson, CPC, MBA, is the CEO of PRCounts, LLC
Small firms possess several significant advantages. Personal service is often their greatest strength. Clients typically work directly with senior professionals or firm owners who understand their businesses and can provide tailored advice. Decision-making is also faster, allowing small firms to respond quickly to client needs, market changes and emerging opportunities. Their smaller size often fosters stronger client relationships, greater accessibility, and a higher level of trust.
Small firms can also be more agile than larger organizations. They can adapt services, pricing and processes without navigating multiple layers of management. Many develop strong niche expertise in specific industries or service areas, enabling them to differentiate themselves from larger competitors. Ultimately, while larger firms may offer scale, small firms often win by delivering personalized attention, responsiveness and deep client relationships that create long-term loyalty.
Overcoming Shortfalls
Sharrin Fuller, owner and founder of Glass Wallet Ventures
The greatest challenge sole practitioners face is not talent or expertise. It is capacity. In a small firm, the owner is usually the firm. Every client deliverable, every review, every decision routes back through one person. Larger firms compete on leverage. They spread the work across teams, so growth does not depend on any single individual. The sole practitioner has only their own hours to sell, and those hours run out. I call this the “Dependency Trap,” a business that cannot function when the owner steps away. It caps revenue, fuels burnout and makes it nearly impossible to pursue larger or more profitable work.
Eileen Monesson, CPC, MBA, is the CEO of PRCounts, LLC
One of the biggest challenges sole practitioners and small firms face is limited resources. Larger firms often have greater budgets for technology, marketing, training, and recruiting, making it easier to invest in new service offerings and attract top talent. Small firms may also struggle with capacity constraints, particularly during busy seasons, and can find it difficult to provide the same breadth of specialized expertise available through larger organizations. In addition, some prospective clients perceive larger firms as having deeper resources and more extensive industry experience, which can create a competitive hurdle when pursuing new business opportunities.