How to get accounting clients from new limited companies

Ask any practice owner where their best clients came from and you'll hear "referrals" a lot. Ask where their next ten clients will come from and it goes quiet. Referrals are great, but you can't schedule them.

New limited companies are the one group you can plan around. Thousands register every week, they're all public, and most of them haven't picked an accountant yet. The trick is getting to the right ones first, and saying something more useful than "we do accounts".

Why new companies are worth the effort

A company that registered this week is at the point where most founders realise, often with a bit of panic, how much they don't know. They've got a company number and a bank account on the way. They haven't got a clue when their first accounts are due or whether they should register for VAT.

That's a much better conversation than trying to prise an established business away from an accountant they've used for eight years. You're not asking them to switch. You're offering to sort out something they're already worrying about.

And there are a lot of them. In the week of 21 to 27 September 2026 we counted 16,186 new UK incorporations. After removing shells, holding companies and registrations at formation agents and other accountants' offices, Leeds alone had 106 left in that one week.

The ones to skip

Not every new company is a prospect, and writing to the wrong ones is the fastest way to decide this doesn't work. Before you contact anyone, take out:

• Companies at a formation agent or virtual office. Look at the registered office. If thousands of other companies share it, your letter will sit in a mailroom.
• Companies registered at another accountant's address. They already have one, and that accountant probably formed the company.
• Holding companies, SPVs and nominee companies. Usually part of an existing client's structure, set up by their current adviser.
• Dormant and property-dealing only companies, unless that's a niche you want.

What's left is mostly sole-director trading businesses: builders, cafés, cleaners, consultants, hairdressers, electricians. That's the bread and butter of most small practices.

The deadlines that open the door

New founders don't respond to "full range of accountancy services". They respond to the thing that's due. These are the ones worth knowing cold, all from GOV.UK:

The 21 months sounds like plenty, and that's exactly the problem. Founders think they have ages. Then they find out that when the first period of accounts runs past 12 months, it's split in two for Corporation Tax, and the first tax payment can fall due before the accounts do. You can explain that in two sentences, and it shows you know your stuff.

Match the message to the business

The first letters that work are short and specific to the sector. A few examples of what to lead with:

• Builders, roofers and electricians: CIS registration and monthly returns, and the domestic reverse charge once they're VAT registered. Plenty of new contractors have never heard of either.
• Restaurants and cafés: payroll from the first shift, tips and tronc, and VAT timing, because food and drink businesses can hit the threshold faster than they expect.
• Consultants and IT contractors: salary and dividend planning, and what IR35 means if they work through agencies.
• Used car dealers: the VAT margin scheme, which is easy to get wrong and expensive when you do.

One concrete point beats a list of services every time. A fixed-fee "first year setup" offer for that sector gives them something easy to say yes to.

Timing, and how to reach them

Speed matters. In their first fortnight, new companies get a lot of post, much of it from accountants, and a fair amount of it from firms that won't answer the phone. The first sensible, local, specific letter tends to win.

• Post to the registered office, addressed to a named director, still works well. It's personal, it isn't covered by the email consent rules, and it stands out because so few firms do it properly.
• Email to a generic company address (info@, hello@) is fine for limited companies and LLPs under PECR, as long as you say who you are and make it easy to opt out. Don't guess personal addresses.
• Phone works if the company publishes a number, but check it against the TPS and CTPS first.

Whatever you send, follow up once, a week or so later. Most new clients come from the second touch, not the first.

Doing it every week without it taking over

The hard part isn't writing one good letter. It's doing it every week, for the right companies, without spending a morning on the register. You can do it yourself with the free Companies House search and data, or use a service that does the filtering for you.

That's what our accountancy feed does: every new company in your postcode districts by 7am, with the noise and the firms already at an accountant's address taken out, the directors named, and a pitch angle written for each one. If one new client covers a year of it, the maths is fairly simple.