3,900 Contacts, 2 Accounts, 1 Clean Migration

The Situation

A client running two separate private advisory firms with overlapping but distinct networks came to us with a tangle that had built up over years. Both firms had ended up sharing a single HubSpot account because that's what they had been advised to do when first migrating from another platform. It worked for a while. Then it didn't.

The two firms had different missions, different focus areas, and different client relationships, but their contacts, companies, and communication history were all mixed together in one place. Switching between the two operations meant logging in and out. Telling one firm's data from the other meant scrolling through tags and notes. The same person could appear as a contact for both firms, with no clear way to keep their relationships separate.

On top of that, the HubSpot account itself had picked up years of small adjustments that nobody had time to revisit. Duplicate fields. Custom fields doing the same job as built-in ones. Tickets being used as a workaround for something they were never designed to do. The client knew it needed to be untangled. They needed someone to do it without losing data along the way.

Our Approach

We split the work into two parts: move what belongs to the second firm into its own clean HubSpot account, and tidy up the structure that had built up over the years.

For the migration itself, we moved roughly 3,900 contacts and all associated companies from the original account into a new one dedicated entirely to the second firm. Contact notes came over with them. Throughout the process, we kept the client informed about what HubSpot handles automatically and what works best with a guided approach, so they always knew exactly where things stood.

While we were in there, we tidied up the structure. Duplicate fields were removed. Custom fields that overlapped with built-in ones were retired in favor of HubSpot's native structure. Tickets that had been used as a way to group contacts were converted into proper lists, which is what they should have been from the start. We also recommended the right plan for the new account so the migration could be completed in full.

Throughout the project, we kept the client informed about how HubSpot works best, what to expect, and what would deliver the cleanest outcome. Transparency was part of the deliverable.

Before

• Two separate firms running on a single HubSpot account with mixed contacts, companies, and history

• Switching between operations required logging out of one account and into another

• Duplicate fields and custom workarounds that overlapped with HubSpot's built-in structure

• Tickets being used as a contact-grouping tool, not for what they were designed to do

• No clean way to separate the data without losing the history attached to it

After

• Two separate, clean HubSpot accounts with each firm's data living in its own place

• Roughly 3,900 contacts and their companies migrated into the new account, with notes preserved

• Structural cleanup that retired duplicate fields and replaced custom workarounds with HubSpot's native structure

• Tickets converted into proper lists, opening up better ways to communicate with grouped contacts

• A plan recommendation matched to the firm's needs and migration volume

• Clear documentation of everything that was done, with full transparency on the process

The Outcome

The client now runs two firms on two HubSpot accounts, with no mixed data, no confused contacts, and no workarounds left over from years of patching the same account. The history that mattered came with them. The structural pieces that had been quietly slowing them down for years got tidied up along the way.

What started as a migration job became a chance to clean up the foundation the client had been working on for years, so the second firm could grow on a system that actually fits how they work.