help your clients account for marketing costs.
by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator
one of the value-added services we can offer clients is to align their chart of accounts with their tax form so that the numbers are easy to pull off at tax time. but there’s an even bigger opportunity if we take a deeper look. read more →
by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor
question: most of my clients are either tax returns or small business clients. the number of individual tax returns grows each year, but i seem to be standing still with business clients. for every new one i get, i lose one. otherwise, i have about a 6 or 7 percent turnover. is there anything i can do to keep them?
response: i think small business clients need extra hand-holding from us because they are really alone.
new strategic ally, or competitive threat?
practitioners are actively debating the effects and impact of h&r block and liberty jumping into the bookkeeping business, as detailed by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间’ hitendra patil here.
“this is an opportunity to highlight quality,” says wesley middleton, head partner at middleton raines in houston. “the only person who has something to worry about are those that are only focused on price.”
not all practitioners agree in the discussion which began at 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 and has spilled onto the 20,000-member 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 linkedin group. read more →
51% plan new hiring now and into next year. for 2015, 81 percent percent of small businesses forecast a revenue increase, with 21 percent expecting to grow more than 100 percent, according to a new xero survey. the study also shows that … continued
becoming a ‘trusted advisor.’
by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator
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. read more →
finding the sweet-spot for your target client.
by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator
many accountants serve clients with extremely small businesses that gross six figures a year or even less. these clients are prone to being price-sensitive and often struggle with budgets and cash flow. if you’re serving these clients, you’re definitely meeting an important need in the marketplace, but you may also start to question your own prices, or worse, under-price your services. read more →
don’t bother with #5 if you don’t do #1, #2, #3 and #4 first.
by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator
if getting new clients is a bit of a struggle for your business and you’re not reaching the revenue levels you desire due to too few clients, then the first step is to find out where the process is breaking down.
there are five main places: read more →
by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator
how you welcome your new client can set the tone for a relationship that could last for years or in the worst of cases, just days. start out on the right foot by looking super-organized (because that’s part of why we get hired anyway) and making it super-easy for a client to get on board with you. the best vehicle for this is a welcome kit. here are eight things that should be in your kit at a minimum: read more →
by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator
for some of you, summer can be a slow time in your business. if you do taxes, all the action is during busy season and in september if you have a lot of extensions. if you’re a bookkeeper, your busiest month is january. and if you do software consulting or training, it slows down in july and august. read more →
in comments, it gets political.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
call it what you will – the affordable care act or obamacare – accountants are calling it opportunity.
when we asked recently, “what’s the future of the professional tax preparation business?” a number of respondents called out the affordable care act.
“i think as aca takes effect we will be busier than ever before,” said jay d. parks of jay d. parks & associates, cpas in edmond, okla. read more →
by ed mendlowitz
question: i have a client i really don’t like and want to drop, but i hesitate because of the long relationship i’ve had with her, and also i don’t want to lose the income. what should i do?
response: i’ve addressed this before, but i am taking a different approach this time.
dropping clients is never easy and i don’t think should be done lightly. however, there are some instances when it needs to be done. this particular client i was called about is extremely obnoxious. not the normal grade of obnoxious, but far more so.
in fact it was one of the rare clients that i dropped. the call was from the accountant who had the client since then. i had the client six years. she’s had the client eight years – so she is much more patient than i am.
when she told the client she was dropping her, the client started to cry and beg her not to, so she changed her mind. now she wants me to tell her what to do. for beginners, i have dropped very few clients. this client was one of the nastiest people i’ve ever dealt with. she was also very nasty to her husband, treating him like s – – t, and he has since passed on.
by sandi smith leyva
with so much to do as business owners, we can get pretty overwhelmed at times. we can start believing that we have a “time” problem, but since all of us have 24/7, there really is no such thing as a time problem. read more →
from “ridiculous” to “important.”
in ed mendlowitz’s column this week, nice office, clunky car, cool computers: how much do they matter?, he is asked about the importance of a small cpa firm’s appearances, including the office and what kind of car a partner drives. commenters are having their say.