no more ‘off-season!’ seven post-season tactics for building income streams year-round.
by jassen bowman
tax resolution systems
after one tax season ends and another begins, it’s time to turn your attention to business planning for the rest of the year.
more by jassen bowman: how to end the tax revenue roller coaster with a four-season practice model | how to turn routine cpe into a new marketing opportunity | more
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you do need to start planning ahead for what your business will look like for the rest of the year.
if you fail to plan ahead for the post-filing season, then you may suddenly find yourself wondering, “what now?”
here are some things to consider when it comes to your post tax season planning:
- what services will you offer the rest of the year?
- will you focus on servicing individuals or businesses?
- will you be working full time or part time?
- what marketing will you be doing to arrive at your off-season revenue goals?
- does your current staffing support your objectives for the remainder of 2017?
- what marketing will you do to your existing tax prep clients to cross-sell other services to them?
- what marketing will you do off-season to generate tax prep clients for next season?
no matter what you choose to do during the off-season, you need to start planning for it now. tax day is rapidly approaching, and you cannot just keep your head down for the rest of tax season and not plan for what happens after. taking this approach is simply a poor business practice.
for practitioners that focus on working with individuals, and live heavily in the 1040 world, i’m a firm believer in what i call the “4-season tax practice.” i wrote about this model last week. this breaks the year into four distinct tax seasons: prep, resolution, extension prep, and planning. if this is how you operate or want to operate, then now is the time to start getting ready for “resolution season,” and starting to get new tax resolution marketing campaigns ramped up.
for practitioners that have a significant business focus in their practices, things are slightly more complicated. if you have monthly and quarterly service clients, then you are constantly in both marketing and service mode. if you happen to shift focus to the 1040 market for tax season, then you need to be planning on how to get back on track with your primary business objectives.
no matter what the focus of your tax business, if you’re in business year-round, the hustle and bustle of tax season are somewhat of an interruption of your normal mode of operation. just as you have to prepare for tax season, you need to prepare for the end of tax season, and put into place a plan that allows you to seamlessly transition back to “normalcy.”
beyond anything else, i encourage you to heavily consider your off-season objectives and put a plan in place to accomplish them. this weekend, invest a couple hours into planning out your objectives for at least the remainder of second quarter. if you have staff, and you’re all at the office on saturday, be sure to spend a few minutes with each of them to discuss their own plans. figure out when people are planning to take vacation. suss out the additional length of time for which you’ll need to retain your seasonal preparers. try to project exactly where you’ll be at the end of may in regards to your extension workload, such that you can prepare to transition into tax resolution season when those statutory notices of deficiency come out.
taking a little bit of time to do this over the next week will not only make you much better prepared for the rest of the year, but it will also relieve you of a significant “mental load” that comes with being unclear about the immediate future. all too often, i’ve seen tax professionals get overwhelmed this time of year because they don’t have a plan for what comes next after filing season. just take a step back and answer some simple questions for yourself and the near-term future of your business.
come july, you’ll be glad you did.