Whichever route you choose, you need to start planning at least three years in advance of your intended exit. It takes time to prepare your practice for sale and make it as attractive as possible to potential buyers. Here are some of the things that you can do:

• if your practice is still paper-based, move it onto the cloud. This will take time and commitment but will vastly improve the value of your practice
• if your practice is already on the cloud, make sure you have a solid up to date app stack
• start distancing yourself from the practice - help your team to build relationships with the clients and largely run the practice
• put your clients onto monthly direct debits and reduce debtors as far as possible
• improve the profitability of the practice through offering additional services including advisory services
• disengage with unprofitable or problematic clients
• attract new clients that have a younger profile and growing businesses
• make sure you have up to date engagement letters for all your clients covering all the services that you offer
• ensure that you have comprehensive AML procedures in place
• ensure that all your team have up to date employment contracts in place with non-competition and confidentiality clauses
• tidy up your working papers so that anyone can follow them
• streamline your processes.

These are some of the more obvious steps that you can take - but you can also consider engaging a coach specifically to help you prepare for your exit - ideally one that has run their own accountancy practice.