Aynsley Damery
Author. Entrepreneur. Founder of Clarity HQ.
He built and sold an advisory-led accounting firm. Now he helps firms across 17+ countries do the same.
The Drift
Why Small Businesses Fail and How to See It Coming
Most small businesses don't fail because of one bad decision. They fail because of a pattern nobody sees until it's too late. Margins thin. Cash stretches. The owner works harder for less. And the people who should be watching the numbers are looking somewhere else.
Aynsley Damery has spent twenty-five years sitting across the desk from business owners whose data told a story they had never been shown. In The Drift, he identifies the seven reasons small businesses silently erode, and lays out the system that turns diagnosis into action.
"This is the real thing." — Daniel Priestley
Out 18 May 2026
About Aynsley
Aynsley Damery is a chartered accountant, fifth-generation small business owner, and the CEO of Clarity HQ, which works with accounting firms across more than seventeen countries to transform the way they advise their clients.
He previously founded Accounting for Entrepreneurs, an advisory-led accounting firm that he built from scratch and sold to Crowe in 2018. That experience, building a firm that practised what most firms only talk about, became the foundation for everything Clarity HQ now teaches.
What People Are Saying
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![Daniel Priestley]()
Daniel Priesley
Founder of Dent Global and author of Key Person of Influence
"Aynsley doesn't just write about small business failure. He's spent twenty years inside it, diagnosing it, and building the frameworks that fix it. This is the real thing." -
![Kate Lester]()
Kate Lester
Founder Diamond Logistics
"I've built a business from nothing to a national network, and I can tell you that every single one of the seven reasons Aynsley describes in this book has shown up at some point. The difference is whether someone helps you see it in time. This book is that someone." -
Graeme Tennick
Chief Impact Officer Tennick Accountants
“One of the best and most transformational books I've ever read. Aynsley doesn't just explain why firms drift, he gives you the model to stop it. This might just be the book that saves the profession." -
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Liz Farr
CPA, host of The Disruptors podcast
“I wish I’d had this book a decade ago when I was still in public accounting. Any accountant who doesn’t get this book and start implementing these ideas immediately is leaving money on the table. They are also depriving their small business clients of the transformative power of the CLEAR methodology.” -
![Mark Wickersham]()
Mark Wickersham
Author, Speaker, and Founder of the Value Pricing and AI Academies
“A brilliant and deeply important book about the hidden patterns that quietly pull small businesses off course. Aynsley Damery takes a subject that so many owners feel, but struggle to name, and makes it clear, practical, and impossible to ignore.”
Speaking
Aynsley speaks at industry conferences, firm away days, and leadership events on the themes of advisory transformation, the economics of small business failure, and what the best accounting firms do differently.
Key topics: The Drift: why small businesses fail and how their advisors can see it coming. The Broken Advisory Model: why traditional advisory reduces firm profit by 30%. The Numbers Mentor: what transformation-level advisory looks like in practice.How to introduce, market, price and scale your business advisory services. Moving from compliance to advisory: the first steps and tech stack required to deliver success. How to double your clients profits in 5 easy steps! Unleash the Heroes Within. And many more.
Contact us for a complete Speakers Pack.
