stop making these 7 mistakes.
by matt solomon
you don’t have a marketing problem.
i know what you’re thinking. i don’t know you, and i don’t know your business. true, but i do know accountants and accounting firms. and i know that just about every practice doesn’t need more clients to be profitable.
more: your secret weapon for exponential profits | step into the role of a business advisor | shift your practice: stop depending on compliance work | three ways to leverage today’s uncertainties for renewed growth
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your best source of new clients is your existing client base. it’s rich with business owners who know, like and trust you. they already pay you – and they’re ready for you to offer them something more.
i’ll invite you to pause for a moment and think about your current client roster. how many of your clients would benefit from a deeper, more results-focused relationship with you? probably more than you initially thought, and it’s likely you’re still underestimating.
the opportunity goes beyond your existing client base, too. small business offers a massive opportunity for the advisory work we’ve been discussing in this series of posts. the u.s. has a whopping 30.2 million small business owners, and canada has another 1.14 million. and you can be a major player with these business owners as your clients.
the best way to begin? stop making these common mistakes:
- overlooking your current client base
- ruling out qualified people without giving them the opportunity to hear what you have to say
- depending on a marketing funnel for high-volume clients
- spending significant sums on advertising or content marketing to find new clients
- wasting hours every month on selling low-value work
- taking time away from your best clients and high-profit advisory services
- trying to gain traction on social media platforms
as a rule of thumb: every dollar you spend on tax clients costs you too much and gets you the wrong clients. it’s a lose-lose situation.
on the other hand, tapping into your gold mine is win-win-win.
- use a system that requires low investment of your time and money.
- get high-profit clients without spending a penny on advertising.
- turn existing clients into more lucrative engagements that are more beneficial to the clients.
- have as much as business as you want and can reasonably handle.
- earn more and do less.
how many clients do i need?
there’s a simple way to calculate how many clients you need in a low-volume, high-profit model.
- decide on your monthly income goal (e.g., $12,000 per month).
- divide your monthly goal by $3,000 (the low end of engagements, but a good starting point; $12,000/$3,000).
- determine how many clients you need to reach your monthly goal ($12,000/$3,000 = 4 new clients).
- discover how many potential clients are in your gold mine (your current client base).
low risk, high upside
converting your current clients into high-value engagements is a low risk, high upside venture. the worst-case scenario is that you’ll hear a few clients say no. the best-case scenario is that you add thousands of dollars in revenue every single month – without any additional advertising, marketing or networking expenses.
every time you engage a new client, more options become available to you. you can continue to convert current clients and let go of the bad ones. you can see the nature of your practice transform in the blink of an eye.