At the beginning of a new year, I often think about attention. Where we place it. What we rush past. What we assume we already know. In accounting and advisory work, attention has a habit of drifting outward towards new clients, new logos, new growth. Yet the longer I have spent in this profession, the more convinced I have become that the most meaningful opportunities are not found by looking further away, but by learning to look again at what is already close.
I have run advisory practices. I have sat in boardrooms and small offices, across big firms and boutique ones. Now, through Spotlight Reporting, I spend my days alongside thousands of firms around the world who are trying to do work that matters.
Again and again, I see the same quiet truth. Growth is rarely absent – it is simply unacknowledged.
Why Fewer Clients Can Lead To Better Advisory Work
When I ran my own practice, I learned that more is not always better. More clients can mean thinner relationships, lighter conversations, less consequence. Fewer clients, on the other hand, can create space. Space to listen more carefully, to notice patterns, to do work that stays with people long after the meeting ends.
The new year offers a moment to ask difficult but necessary questions. Who are your best clients, not only in terms of revenue, but in terms of trust, curiosity, and shared intent? These are the clients who answer your calls, who pay on time, who believe that advice is not an expense but an investment.
They are often already inviting you deeper into their businesses, even if the invitation has gone unrecognised.
Once you identify them, another question follows quietly behind. What are you doing for them now, and what are you not yet doing? In many firms, the list of services delivered is far smaller than the list of services needed. This is not a failure of ambition or capability, but a reflection of how easily advisory opportunities can remain invisible when there is no structure for seeing it.
Advisory Opportunities Hiding in Plain Sight
I have watched firms work through this gap using a service opportunity matrix, and the moment of realisation is often the same. What initially looks like a full relationship reveals layers beneath it.
- ESG conversations that have never quite surfaced.
- Cash flow concerns that have been hinted at but not explored.
- Strategic decisions hovering at the edges of routine reporting.
Clients are often ready for these discussions long before their advisors realise it, waiting for permission to talk about the future rather than the past.
How To Move From Fragmented Interactions to Intentional Relationships
Opportunity does not unfold on its own. It needs care, continuity, and intention. This is where the idea of a client portfolio review becomes powerful, not as an administrative exercise, but as a way of holding the whole relationship in view. Looking back at what was started last year, considering what remains unresolved, anticipating the milestones ahead, and recognising the moments worth acknowledging all help transform a series of interactions into something more coherent and enduring.
Too many client relationships exist in fragments, shaped by deadlines rather than direction. What changes everything is the establishment of a rhythm, a steady cadence of conversations that build meaning over time. I was always drawn to starting the year with some form of goal setting, sometimes formal, sometimes simple, but always deliberate. When business, financial, and personal goals are articulated early, they quietly shape every conversation that follows, even when they are not explicitly referenced.
Using Tools to Create Better Advisory Conversations
These conversations need grounding if they are to move beyond intention into action:
- Reporting provides structure and shared understanding.
- Dashboards invite curiosity and engagement rather than obligation.
- Forecasting shifts attention forward, opening space for possibility and planning.
- Action plans give insight somewhere to land.
- Tools do not replace judgement or experience, but they create the conditions in which both can be applied more thoughtfully and more consistently.
The start of the year is also when many firms look at their tools and ask what they are really doing for them. This is not merely a question of cost or efficiency. It is a question of care. Are the tools being used fully, understood properly, and supported adequately? Are teams confident in them? Underutilised tools are rarely a sign of excess. More often, they point to unfinished learning or unrealised potential.
I created Spotlight Reporting because I believed, and still believe, that advisors must drive better conversations. In practice, I learned that the most valuable moments rarely involved numbers alone. They happened when someone trusted me enough to ask what came next, when uncertainty was acknowledged, when the future was allowed into the room. Advisory work, at its heart, is about proximity, about standing close enough to help shape decisions rather than simply record them.
As 2026 begins, I invite you to slow down and look again at the clients already in front of you. Listen with greater intention. Use your tools as anchors rather than outputs. Ask the questions that open doors rather than close files. Not because growth demands it, but because the work itself does.
There is value waiting here. Not hidden. Just quietly overlooked.
