When Sami El Khalidy returned to Brussels to help out at his father’s accountancy practice, it was supposed to be a temporary thing. The business, JMS, was a well-established family firm, but it was still very traditional: lots of paper, manual processes, and a focus on audit and tax.

Fast forward two years, and the firm had doubled in size, added a second office, and tripled its revenue.

This wasn’t about sweeping in with bold statements or a flashy rebrand. It was about taking a good, steady business and gradually making it fit for the modern world, without losing its personal touch.

In his growth story, you’ll learn how Sami:

• Tripled the size of the practice within 2 years, so it is now over £1m in revenue

• Built a strong team beneath him who no longer see him as the boss’s son

• Digitised his business and gained the hearts and minds of his team to get there

• Added new profitable revenue streams, including corporate finance

• Dealt with significant setbacks and handled growth during some of life’s toughest personal challenges

• Learnt how to lead and have the gravitas, authority and maturity of someone much older

If you’d like to listen to or watch the conversation, click below for the YouTube video of Sami’s chat with Heather. 

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About Sami

Sami El Khalidy is not yet 30, but he’s achieved many things in his business life that others wouldn’t do in a lifetime. After an initial career in aviation, including roles as a pilot and in aviation finance, he returned home to Brussels at the start of the pandemic to join the family firm, JMS.

Little did he know four years ago that he was about to take on the challenge of a lifetime – one that would push him so far outside of his comfort zone that it nearly broke him.

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Taking over the reins

When Sami joined the family firm, it was a well-respected firm in Brussels known for its expertise in working with private and independently wealthy families and individuals. It was a firm that was all about his father’s relationships with the firm’s client base. He didn’t plan on running the business – he’d built a career in aviation finance after all – but when his father needed help, he stepped in.

What started as a favour quickly turned into a full-time commitment. He started in the firm as a client manager but has rapidly risen through the ranks to be seen as an equal to his father. Why? Because once Sami got stuck in, he realised there was huge potential in the firm.

It’s not been without its challenges. Family businesses can be notoriously difficult to lead through periods of change, not to mention that Sami and his family have faced serious health issues that have hindered their growth over the last 12 months. But it’s only strengthened his resolve to build something sustainable. Something that works even when life doesn’t go as planned.

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Overcoming early obstacles

JMS has always been a family business. Sami’s father, mother, and brother were all involved. The firm had loyal clients and a solid reputation, but growing was not easy. Everything was manual, there were no clear systems or pricing, team roles were fluid, and clients were often more attached to Sami’s dad than to the firm itself.

Lots of potential… if only someone could modernise and digitise it.

At first, Sami just helped with operations and finance. But before long, it became clear that the business needed structure, clarity, and a better way of working. Drawing on his background in aviation finance and corporate management, Sami identified where the firm was stuck and what needed to change. He didn’t tear things down and start again; he made steady, practical changes that soon started paying off.

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Committing to growth

Outside of work, Sami is known for being the calm in a storm (unless you’re trying to skip a checklist!). With his mix of commercial experience and calm, process-driven thinking, he has helped JMS grow into something far bigger, while maintaining the family-first feel that clients value. This is how he did it:

1. Bringing the firm into the modern age

One of the first things Sami tackled was the tech. Up to that point, there were no proper systems in place. Everything ran through email, memory, or paper files, so he introduced a practice management tool, created a consistent client journey, and gave the team clearer processes to follow. This shift helped the team go from reactive to proactive. Clients no longer had to chase for updates, work was tracked more clearly, and the business stopped relying on timesheets.

He also got rid of hourly billing and moved to fixed fees and packaged services. That improved cash flow and made pricing conversations easier, as it removed the ambiguity. In Belgium, where advertising and publishing fees are restricted, having clear, consistent pricing behind the scenes made all the difference.

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2. Creating space to grow

Once the foundations were in place, Sami looked at how the business could scale. That meant tidying up operations, redefining roles, and being clear on who did what.

The team had been working in a “everyone does everything” way, which made delegation difficult and slowed things down. So, to unblock this, Sami introduced checklists and clarified team responsibilities, allowing work to be delegated effectively. As a result, the team became more productive and less reliant on chasing.

Then, he addressed the firm’s clients who had changed over time, but the service hadn’t kept up. Many clients now needed more than bookkeeping and year-end tax returns, so he focused on cleaning up the client portfolio (letting go of loss-making or slow-paying clients) and diversifying the firm’s offer, adding services that brought real value. That included expanding into advisory, corporate finance, and higher-end tax work to serve the firm’s more complex clients better.

He also opened a second office in Antwerp – positioning the firm to work with more international, high-net-worth clients. It wasn’t just about more space. It was a shift in focus and ambition.

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3. Changing the culture

As with any family business, changing how things are done can be tricky, especially when you’re the boss’s son. Sami had to earn his place as a leader, particularly with long-standing team members who had known him since childhood.

Rather than trying to assert authority and force change, he led by example. He wanted to move away from a founder-led culture to a team-led business, so he rolled up his sleeves, handled tough client work, and showed the team he had both the technical knowledge and vision to take the firm forward.

He also worked hard to move the team away from a culture that was reactive. That meant creating structure, assigning clear responsibilities, and encouraging more ownership. It’s still a work in progress, but there’s been a real shift in mindset.

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4. Letting go of what no longer fits

Part of modernising the business meant reviewing the client list. Some clients hadn’t paid in months and others were paying too little for the level of service they were getting. These relationships had often been protected out of loyalty, but they were holding the firm back.

Sami approached this sensitively but firmly, and he and his father worked through the list together. They identified which clients to retain, raised prices where needed, and gently parted ways with clients who no longer fit. As a result, profitability increased, and the firm had more capacity to focus on higher-value work.

To keep the business lean, Sami also made smart use of offshore teams and contractors. Given Belgium’s high employment costs, this gave him flexibility to scale without locking the firm into unsustainable long-term costs.

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5. Learning to let go

Delegation hasn’t come easily. Sami’s a self-confessed perfectionist (hence the checklists!), and in a growing business, it’s easy to fall into the trap of doing everything yourself. And that’s exactly what happened. He said himself that as demand grew, it became clear that trying to do everything himself wasn’t sustainable.

To change that, he focused on building systems that made delegation easier. He created checklists, mapped out workflows, used the practice management system to track progress, and involved his father in designing the processes so everyone felt confident in the changes.

Now, client work doesn’t grind to a halt when one person is away. The team has more structure, tasks are shared more evenly, and Sami can spend more time on big-picture planning instead of dealing with fires.

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Growing during tough times

Even without the growth, what Sami and his family achieved during this time would be impressive. But what makes it remarkable is that much of this progress happened during an incredibly difficult period personally.

Sami’s mother was diagnosed with a brain tumour, and he himself experienced serious health issues that stopped him from travelling and made day-to-day work harder. It would have been easy to stop, slow down, or even walk away, but instead, the family leaned on each other and the systems they had built.

This difficult period highlighted the family’s priorities and gave the business real clarity. It forced them and the team at JMS to focus on what mattered, and it gave Sami a deeper perspective on how to lead through uncertainty.

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So, what actually drove the growth?

There wasn’t one big thing; no silver bullet, if you will. It was a series of small, consistent changes:

• Digital systems and practice management tools to reduce chaos and save time.

• Clear pricing and packaged services, which were standardised.

• Delegation supported by systems, not guesswork.

• More focus on advisory and corporate finance, and less on low-value work.

• Offshore support to stay flexible.

• Repositioning the firm to serve international and high-net-worth clients (i.e. clients that actually align with the firm’s goals).

• A cultural mindset shift from reactive to proactive.

All backed by a clear strategy, a willingness to change, and the discipline to keep going even when life got difficult.

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What’s next for JMS?

With stronger systems, a more focused client base, and a healthier cash position, the next step is about depth. In particular,

• developing the team,
• growing the advisory side, and;
• continuing to improve efficiency.

Delegation remains a work in progress, but the goal is clear: to make the business less dependent on any one individual, including himself. There are also plans to do more with data, both for internal decision-making and to help clients make smarter financial choices.

After a few tough years, the business is in a good place. But as Sami would say, there’s always room for improvement, and there’s a checklist for that!

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Some final advice

Sami didn’t come in to make a name for himself. He came in to help. What he ended up doing was turning a solid, traditional practice into a growing, modern firm with strong foundations.

His advice to other practice owners?

Know what you want the business to become. Put systems in place. Don’t try to do it all yourself. And remember, progress doesn’t need to be dramatic. Small, steady changes really add up!

**Want to learn more about Sami’s story or connect with him directly? You can get in touch here.