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three ways to maximize your roi.

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

attending and learning from conferences can be amazing opportunities for your career or your business. they can also be huge money drains. it’s easy to take a look at the conference registration and make a quick decision about whether we can afford it – or even worse – whether it will clear our credit card limit or not.

more: set bold new goals for the rest of the year | generative ai: should you avoid it or adopt it? | want better clients? here’s how | get your name in the news | five ideas for more summer revenue | four ways small firms can beat large ones | why you need a link-in-bio tool
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a smart business owner will take a bit different approach. here’s how to calculate how much revenue or increase in price you need to justify the expense of attending a conference.
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use four metrics to measure change, progress and success.

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

think back to this day one year ago for just a minute. where were you in your business? what were your revenues, salary and profits at that time? what were your clients like? what were your biggest issues?

more: generative ai: should you avoid it or adopt it? | beyond compliance: six tips for adding value | track six figures to test your marketing | when you don’t know what you don’t know | eight things to give new clients | five ideas for summer focus | leverage your client list today | need leads? try a quiz | now’s the time to clean up your email list
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if we don’t occasionally look back to take a snapshot at a point in our history, we may not realize how much we’ve accomplished in such a short time. i’m not much for dwelling in the past, but this exercise is tremendously useful for a couple of reasons:
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take an objective look and build your road map.

by sandi smith leyva

here’s a question: what portion of your revenues are derived from compliance work – e.g., tax preparation and irs representation; bookkeeping; quickbooks setup, cleanup and training; payroll; and audit work – versus value-added work, e.g., revenue improvement, business consulting, profit margin analysis and workflow improvement projects?

if you answered 100 percent compliance work and no value-added services, you’re not alone.  there’s a lot of lip service about moving from compliance services to becoming a “trusted advisor.” there’s an equal amount of confusion in how to get started.

here are a few tips to help those of you who want to move in that direction.

1. assess your skills.

it’s likely you know more than you think you do! most accountants already have the technical knowledge to offer value-added services. all they need is a little structure and some help with the soft skills. depending on the type of offerings you create, you might need skills such as coaching, teaching and more advanced selling. take an objective look at what you need so you can start to lay out a road map to fill those skills.

2. assess your boredom.

yep, if you’re bored or burned out, it’s likely you’re ready for the next great challenge in your career. you may need to get out of your comfort zone, but if you are bored or underutilized, then you’re definitely ready!

3. assess your clients.

be careful with this one. don’t assess your client’s ability to pay. just assess whether they will benefit from your newly designed value-added service. there’s a really big difference, and this is where most accountants hold themselves (and their clients) needlessly back.

4. keep it separate.

value-added services deserve and need to be completely separate service lines. don’t shortchange yourself or your client by thinking you can “tack it on” to something else.

5. resist the temptations.

i’m not talking about grandma’s warm apple strudel with blue bell french vanilla ice cream, although that’s tempting. it’s easy to get into the compliance sinkhole, where you need to spend time learning all of the new regulations. start delegating some of that to your team so you’ll be freed up to think bigger.

6. trust your intuition.

moving into value-added work is not right for every accountant. if you’re new, about to retire or don’t feel comfortable with selling or soft skills, then it might be best to keep your current focus on compliance work.

another opportunity to fine-tune your business.

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

i was drawn to reading howard buffett’s book “40 chances: finding hope in a hungry world” because i am completely intrigued by huge social problems and figuring out ways to solve them. for buffett, who is a farmer at heart, the challenge is how to tackle world hunger.

more: want better clients? here’s how | track six figures to test your marketing | when you don’t know what you don’t know | eight things to give new clients | put your linkedin profile to work | what’s in a (domain) name? plenty
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one of the stories in the book has buffett listening to a lecture for farmers on how to improve their yield year after year. buffett recalls the speaker saying that one farmer, on average, will have a 40-year career from the time he or she starts working the land to the time to retire. on average it will be 40 harvests and 40 plantings.
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