I'm at a crossroads. My practice has grown to the point where I'm turning away work because I can't handle it all. I have two options: bring on a partner who can share the audit workload, or hire a junior analyst and stay solo. What are the pros and cons of each?
Partnership vs staying solo — pros and cons?
I went the partner route and regretted it. We had different standards for report quality, different ideas about how to handle client relationships, and constant disagreements about how to split fees on shared clients. Dissolved the partnership after 18 months. Now I have two junior analysts who do the data collection and preliminary analysis while I handle client relationships and final review. I control the quality and I keep more of the revenue. Much better arrangement.
Most successful audit practices I've seen are built with analysts, not partners. A partner means shared decision-making and shared revenue. An analyst means you maintain full control of the business while delegating the time-intensive work. The ideal first hire is someone detail-oriented who can learn tariff analysis — they don't need to be a certified auditor on day one. Train them on your process, have them handle data collection and initial screening, and you focus on findings review, client presentations, and business development.
Went the analyst route too. Best decision I made. Hired a recent college grad with an accounting background. Trained her on my audit process over 3 months. Now she handles 60% of the analytical work while I focus on clients and sales. Revenue went up 80% in the first year because I wasn't buried in spreadsheets anymore.
Three votes for analyst, zero for partner. Message received. Going to start looking for someone with a finance or accounting background. Thanks everyone.