What breaks first when a service business grows: pricing, people or process? In this Australian Business Podcast Operator Series episode, Owen Rask goes behind the scenes with Danil Goloubev, co-founder of Grey Space Advisory, to unpack how an accounting practice moves beyond compliance and builds a business that can keep serving clients as it scales.
Danil explains how a shared ambition with co-founder Jordan Kidis became a firm designed to be bigger than either founder. They began with referrals, learned from a shared workspace and gradually added content and other lead sources. But bringing in more clients was not the whole story. The team had to think hard about capacity, pricing and what owners actually value from an accountant who can help them look forward, not just lodge last year’s paperwork.
Owen presses Danil on fixed recurring fees, tailored advisory work and the metrics he watches inside the business. They also get candid about buying other accounting practices: what went wrong in the first acquisition, why client fit and staff due diligence matter, and how better service and pricing changed the economics of the clients they kept.
As the team grew, so did the need for clearer handovers, training and leadership. Danil describes where an old process stops working at higher volume, why collaboration in the office matters to him, and how a wider leadership group helps people own the next stage. For founders and operators, this is a practical conversation about building systems without losing the people behind the business.
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