Practice Growth Clinic

Overcome the barriers to your firm's development.

Despite having worked with over 1800 accounting firms since 1998, over four continents, over 40 countries and having played a part in generating over £500 million pounds of compound fees gained through various projects, no matter where I am, I hear the phrase;

“Martin, you don't understand, it's different here..” 

“Martin, you don't understand, it’s different here in Paris…”

“Martin, you don’t understand, it’s different here in Rome…”

 “Martin, you don’t understand, it’s different here in Scunthorpe…”

Alas I do understand and with minor cultural and legislative nuanced differences, the issue every firm has is how to tackle Practice Growth.

So in this Practice Growth Clinic, I will highlight and prove to you that I understand what you and your firm is going through. 

This series was recorded at The Evolve Conference in Kilkenny, Ireland where I asked over 200 accounting professionals to tell me their concerns, talk to me about their issues about growing their firm. Issues such as staff retention and recruitment, time management issues, sales management issues or whatever the issue or struggle was.

In this recorded series, the 5 key areas we covered were:

 Key area 1: Understanding that the practice must communicate to its audience how it is a superior option and not just a different option to its competition. 

Key area 2: Developing your firm’s brand-new marketing message.

 Key area 3: A investigation into fee resistance and to the causes and solutions behind the struggles that practices go through day in day out on getting paid what they are worth. 

Key area 4: The issue of recruitment, staffing and growth and where practices need to improve in their recruitment strategy in order to attract and retain the best talent.

 Key area 5: Drawing on 20 years of experience in the accounting profession, this session highlights the recurring 11 issues that occur in every accounting profession and how to approach them.

In the Practice Growth Clinic, I present myself to the audience as their potential client, given that I own several businesses, which are growth businesses, profitable businesses and ambitious businesses and this content is to help you discover the difference your firm can make in the lives of your clients, like me. 

Meet Martin Bissett

Founder of USP

Martin Bissett is the founder of the Upward Spiral Partnership (USP), the international consulting firm that specialises in enabling the accounting profession to win higher-end clients, create leaders from their ranks and save lives.

His professional purpose is to alert the accounting profession to the profound outcomes that their advisory expertise can create in the lives of their clients.

At the same time, he also alerts the accounting profession to the profound difficulties that can arise in the lives of their clients when they choose not to educate their clients about the impact that their advisory expertise can have.

The Upward Spiral Partnership is the 4th business Martin has played a key role in building and the first of his own. 

In the first 5 years of USP, Martin has: 

  • Been engaged/retained by 4 of the World's Top 10 Accounting associations and 6 of the Top 10 in the UK. 
  • Authored 9 books including Passport to Partnership, content from which has been adopted into the curriculum of AAT Level 3 courses, and taught in selected UK colleges and US CPA Societies.  
  • Been retained by Accountingweb as a judge of their prestigious practice excellence awards for three years in a row. 
  • Been highlighted as ‘one to watch’ in AccountingToday’s Top 100 Most Influential countdown for 2 years running. 
  • Spoken on 4 continents. 
  • Created several trademarked items of intellectual property including the ACCOUNTS™ system and ‘Martin’s Relationship Pricing™’ Model. 
  • Written for several professional publications including AccountingToday, AccountingWeb, CPA Practice Advisor and Chartered One. 
  • Sat on many international expert panels and guested on professional podcasts in the US, UK, and Australia. 
  • Sits on a parliamentary steering committee tasked with bringing advisory services to the fore in the accounting profession. 


The outcome of Martin’s work is profitable new business for the practices he is engaged by, alongside the fine-tuning of teams of partners and emerging leaders who can develop new business by increasing their commercial awareness for themselves, without significant ongoing third party assistance. 

Previously, Martin served 10 years as a director (appointed at age 26) on the board of a marketing consultancy firm serving the accounting profession. There, he held the responsibility for the growth of the client base including six of the U.K.’s top 30 accountancy firms. 

He now coaches, mentors, speaks, trains and consults with accounting firms worldwide.

In total, he has worked with over 1800 firms of accountants and found it unnecessary to keep track of his contributions to the new business growth of those firms once it surpassed £500m collectively. 

What's Included?

Your Pricing Resources

  • 1

    New Chapter

    • Introduction - Martin you don't understand...

    • Exercise - Being Superior

    • Dealing with Fee Resistance

    • Recruitment, Staffing and Growth

    • Eleven Issues in the Accountancy Profession

Practice Growth Clinic

Make a real difference in the lives of your clients.

Buy £47