How to sell a business: Sharon Roots on succession planning

Sharon Roots's journey from a local accountant to the IPA Member of the Year 2023 is a valuable lesson in the art of seamless succession planning and unwavering client dedication.

Having nurtured a loyal client base over almost two decades in Sydney’s west, Sharon's decision to sell her practice, SNS Accounting, and move to rural Western Australia was spurred by a personal turning point.

“My daughter, who lives over here, phoned us and told us she was pregnant,” Sharon told us recently, from her new home on the west coast, where she continues to work part-time for the new owners of her practice. 

She balances that part-time work with being the hands-on grandparent-slash-childcare provider new parents dream of.

“[The pregnancy news] was the catalyst that started everything moving – it was the push that I needed,” Sharon says.

The sale of her practice was soon in motion – and it was a rewarding journey to preserve her professional legacy, ensuring continuity and growth.

Finding the right buyer

Sharon's success as an accountant has hinged on her ability to establish deep, personal relationships with her clients. Operating from Luddenham, once a quaint farming community and now a bustling suburb, Sharon cultivated a practice that thrived on personal connections. 

Her emphasis on nurturing these relationships became a critical factor in the seamless transition of her practice.

“[Finding the right buyer] wasn't about the money for me. It was about making sure that the clients were going to be treated in the same way that they are used to being treated,” she says. 

“I really do think that's something in our industry that sometimes gets forgotten about. People get too focused on getting the work done. And you can be brilliant at what you do, but if you can't communicate with your clients, there's no point in being brilliant at what you do.”

Her client-centric ethos led her to carefully handpick the new owners, young accountants Krishan Sharma and Raj Singh, who helped ensure a transition that upheld the high standards she had set. 

Establishing the new leadership

Her successors brought their own ideas and ways of working to the table, but Sharon feels fortunate to have found new owners willing to preserve her client-centric business model.

“Flexibility is the key – you have to be able to look at the other person's point of view. I've definitely had to adapt to different points of view and different ways of doing things.”

This process involved preparing clients for the transition, openly addressing any concerns and ensuring they felt valued throughout the change.

“I walked around the corner and there they were.” Sharma and Singh arranged for Sharon's Sydney-based mother (second from right) to attend the IPA Gala Dinner with two of Sharon's close friends. 

The transition was not without its challenges, particularly her own journey from being a “self-confessed control freak” to adopting a more hands-off role. 

The loyalty of her client base meant it took some convincing to drive clients towards the practice and its new owners rather than coming directly to her, and reassuring them they were in good hands.

“I just took the mindset, ‘It's not yours. You just now get to sit back and enjoy what you do,  communicating and contacting and working for your clients without the managerial side of things’. Because that to me is a headache, and it’s a headache that is no longer mine.”

Today, she engages with long-term clients and mentors her successors from afar.

Finding professional balance

In August of last year, after Sharon had completed her handover and relocated to Western Australia, the strength of the transition was put to the test during a personal crisis. Sharon's husband fell seriously ill. 

“He was taken to the ICU, and he spent seven weeks in a coma,” she says. “So I threw my hands in the air, I rang the office and I said, ‘This is what's happened, I have to go’.”

Sharon didn't work, or think about work, for seven weeks – and she wasn't expected to either.  

“I've never had seven weeks off in my life. But when I came back, it was all okay. [The new owners] told me that a lot of clients wanted to wait for me, so they rebooked everybody,” she says.

“I look back and think, if I hadn't done this and it had just been me, I would have no business.”

Not only did the business carry on while Sharon had the space she needed, but during this time Sharma and Singh also nominated her for IPA Member of the Year and gathered testimonials from her clients to support her entry – all without her knowledge. 

Today, Sharon enjoys a life of balance in Western Australia, cherishing her role as a grandmother and continuing to serve her long-term clients remotely. 

“We're in quite a rural area where we don't have the hustle and bustle. We can sit back. We are a stone's throw from the beach. And it's nice to be able to watch [my grandson] grow up so much in just 15 months. There are so many milestones and developments in that time – you see their first steps, their first words. I have no regrets at all about the move.”

Sharon's story is more than just a successful business transition; it's about prioritising human connections in a digital world, understanding the value of personal touch in professional services and striking a harmonious balance between personal life and career. 

“It wasn't about the money for me, it was about making sure that the clients were going to be treated in the same way that they are used to being treated.”