247 search results for "by sandi"

6 biz dev metrics accountants should measure

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business diagramme with magnifying glass, workplace businessman.yes, you can do marketing with a spreadsheet and a checklist.

by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

one way to help accountants embrace marketing is to fill training sessions with spreadsheets and numbers, things that most accountants love working on. there’s a lot of insecurity around learning marketing, but when accountants hear they need to do some spreadsheets first, they dive right in.

more on small-firm growth strategies: 5 areas to improve client acquisition success  |  are accountants newsworthy? you bet!  |  when accountants don’t know they don’t know  |  seven hot lead generation methods for accountants   |  what stage of business are you in?  |  8 essential ingredients for your new client welcome kit  |  4 ways small firms can surpass larger firms  |   rebuttal: the 3 most unused marketing methods for accountants

here are six numbers we suggest you track: read more →

when accountants don’t know they don’t know

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blindfolded at computer by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

early in my career, one of my favorite things to teach was maslow’s four stages of learning.  i still think it’s one of the most valuable and profound pieces of information i have come across in my learning.

maybe you recall, too:

  1. unconscious incompetence.
  2. conscious incompetence.
  3. conscious competence.
  4. unconscious competence.

here’s how it applies to accountants: read more →

what stage of business are you in?

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evolving from running a practice to leading a business.

by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

technology has allowed just about everyone to start their own businesses. we can do something part time, full time or in between. we can start and stop our businesses. we can be successful at lots of different business models. and we can go through stages of our business.

if you want to grow exponentially, or even linearly, you’ll need to progress. and before you can do that, it makes sense to figure out where you are now. here are five stages of business so you can see where you are now and where you want to go. read more →

8 essential ingredients for your new client welcome kit

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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 →

4 ways small firms can surpass larger firms

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by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

when i look through accounting today’s top 100 leaders list and the comments they have made about what they perceive to be the challenges in our profession, many of the answers are the same: change, talent and relevance are a few you’ll see. and they are all right to some extent, but there is a deeper systemic problem that i think could fix quite a few of these in one swipe. i’m not saying it will be easy, but it is a fairly straightforward problem once diagnosed.

the most interesting part is that the smallest firms are getting better at solving this than the larger firms. read more →

rebuttal: the 3 most unused marketing methods for accountants

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the best – or worst? – accounting marketing methods.

by wesley middleton, cpa
managing partner, middletonraines + zapata llp

i read “the 5 worst marketing methods for accountants,” by sandi smith leyva and i was shocked.

the top three that are on my list that are must do in our firm are on this list.

so let me speak from a managing partner perspective of a firm of 37 people adding 28% organic growth through these exact channels. cpa firms are getting it wrong and while i feel like i am sharing my secret, i just have to say it.   read more →

the 5 worst marketing methods for accountants

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update: see the rebuttal, “the 3 most unused marketing methods for accountants“

by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

there are a couple of dozen different marketing methods that you can use to build your practice, but they are definitely not created equally. in fact, some are so ineffective and costly that we really try to steer people away from them. here are five of the worst for building your practice. read more →

5 tech tools for managing remote staffers

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by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

when you are working out of your home and have reached the point where you want to hire someone, you have many options, but one of them may not be having employees come to your home to work. and although i have had employees working out of my home when i was single, it was not an option in 2010 when i was ready to hire an assistant. so i hired a virtual one.

today you might be surprised to know that my employees work from home two days a week each, and i only see them in person once a month. how do we do it? we keep our heads in the clouds. here are five tools that keep us seconds away while we’re miles apart. read more →

the five biggest social media mistakes of accounting firms

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by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

social media is all the rage, and there’s lots of pressure on small business owners – from friends, coaches and especially social media vendors – to get you to use social media in your marketing.

in most cases, we like to talk accounting practice owners out of social media marketing (and we’re one of those vendors who will set up and maintain your social media accounts for you, so we turn down an awful lot of business).

here’s why, and here are the five biggest social media mistakes accountants make:

read more →