Business management

France's 2014 Hamon decree liberalised prospecting; Belgium's ITAA still bans it. Twelve years on, which channels actually build a client base for an accounting firm? This guide reviews the four methods that work, explains why cold email alone fails structurally rather than legally, and clarifies the France-Belgium legal landscape after the CNIL's 10 June ruling and the 11 August 2026 telephone reform (consumer-only).

Since 1 January 2026, structured electronic invoicing has been mandatory between VAT-registered businesses in Belgium. For accounting firms, it isn't just one more constraint: it's the moment when every client turns to their accountant to understand what to do. Formats, the Peppol network, the calendar, the firm's role: this guide sets out what you need to master to stay compliant and turn the obligation into an opportunity.

Finding clients has become a growing challenge for independent accounting firms — often cited as readily as workload itself. Word of mouth remains the highest-quality channel, but it's structurally capped: it never reaches beyond the referrer's network, and it misses newly established directors. This guide compares the five acquisition channels for an accounting firm, reveals the real (non-billable) cost of a new client, and sets out a realistic prospecting strategy.

Close to a third of newly created companies don't make it past five years. Behind the commercial failures and the botched pivots, you almost always find the same fundamental financial mistakes — ones founders could have avoided with a little discipline and a good accountant. This guide identifies the five most common financial mistakes made by directors of very small businesses, SMEs and start-ups in France, Belgium, Switzerland and the UAE, and sets out the concrete counterm