22 January 2026
By Lyn Oaten, Co-founder of Delphini
Starting a business is exciting, but it’s not without its hurdles.
When we launched Delphini Accounting Tax & Advisory LLP, we knew it wouldn’t be easy, but the reality was a mix of unexpected challenges and valuable lessons.
Here’s an honest look at what we faced and how we turned those obstacles into opportunities.
The accounting industry is competitive, and differentiation is everything.
From day one, we asked ourselves: Why would someone choose us over another firm?
Our answer was clear:
“We wanted to offer more than compliance and number crunching.”
We focused on being approachable, proactive, and genuinely invested in our clients’ success.
That meant creating a brand that reflected our values and building relationships, rather than just transactions.
One of the most powerful decisions we made was creating a list of clients we didn’t want to work with.
It sounds counterintuitive when you’re trying to grow, but it was absolutely essential.
We knew that working with the wrong clients would drain time and energy, so we stuck to our boundaries even when saying “no” felt hard.
This clarity helped us scale with integrity and attract the right businesses that aligned with our ethos.
Early on, we realised waiting for the right clients to find us wasn’t a strategy.
We had to be proactive about our marketing and promotion.
First, we defined our ideal client profile then we went out and found them.
We attended networking events like Business Buzz and Grafters and started leveraging LinkedIn to generate personal brands too.
I’m most proud of the impact we’ve had on social media, especially because it doesn’t come naturally to accountants a lot of the time.
We leaned into our love of Lego and the fact that both of us have a smile and some knowledge to give our audience.
(You can follow us here, by the way).
Many business owners believe changing accountants is complicated unless their current provider is doing a terrible job.
(From a marketing perspective, this is called a distress purchase).
We had to tackle this problem head-on though.
You shouldn’t change accountant when the pain becomes so bad you can’t put it off any longer.
Our solution was to make onboarding seamless.
We developed a clear, simple process and communicated it upfront.
By removing the fear factor, we turned a perceived hassle into a smooth transition.
Perhaps the biggest shift was in our own mindsets.
We’d only ever been employed before with a steady cashflow, fixed hours, timesheets, etc.
But, as you’ll know, when we went self-employed, suddenly, everything changed.
No more nine-to-five.
No more guaranteed income.
It was daunting at first but liberating too.
We learned to embrace flexibility, manage cashflow carefully, and trust the process.
Letting go of the “employed mindset” was key to thriving as business owners.
We cannot ignore this one.
Being two women in a traditionally male-dominated industry came with its own, very real challenges.
There were moments when we felt underestimated, spoken over, or subtly questioned in ways that had nothing to do with our capability and everything to do with perception.
Sometimes it was overt but more often, it was quiet and difficult to call out:
At first, that was frustrating but then we realised something important.
We did not need to become louder, tougher, or more “like the industry”.
We needed to become more ourselves.
Rather than seeing it as a barrier, we chose to use it as fuel.
We leaned into our perspective, our communication style, and our approach to client relationships.
We built confidence through depth of knowledge, consistency, and delivery, not performative confidence, but earned confidence.
We also became very intentional about how we show up.
When you are clear on your value, you do not need to justify your presence in the room.
The biggest lesson here is that credibility compounds, results speak, clients notice, word spreads, and over time, the doubts fall away because the work doesn’t.
Being two women in business is not something we need to apologise for.
If you’d like to talk about your own business journey or need advice on accounting and tax, get in touch with us today.