entrepreneur

two daily rituals: focus and measure

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calm balanced businessman sitting outdoors on bench in yoga lotus pose meditating, with office building and blue sky in backgroundbonus checklists: 6 sample questions and 10 sample metrics.

by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

there’s something special about the word ritual. it sounds sacred, like you wouldn’t dare break it.

more on small-firm growth strategies: 5 cool ways to streamline data sharing | how to calculate your ‘opportunity number’ | 9 ways accountants throw away profits | 5 ways a deadline can help close a deal | 7 ways to get new revenue from old clients | 3 ways to test your revenue forecast | how to work the same hours and make more money | if you’re a ‘best-kept secret’ cut it out!

it sounds a little mysterious, as if there’s a component you can’t quite control. and it sounds colorful, like something full of character that you would never get bored of.

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5 cool ways to streamline data sharing

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businessman using internet on smartphone and laptopclients and stakeholders benefit, and so do you.

by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

do you ever get any of the following questions from clients or co-workers?

  • i can’t find your email.
  • i accidentally deleted what you just sent me.
  • my computer crashed and i lost everything. (and i want you to take up your precious time to help me recreate everything you’ve ever sent me.)
  • i lost my tax return and i need it in the next five seconds.

more on small-firm growth strategies: 9 ways accountants throw away profits | 5 ways a deadline can help close a deal | 7 ways to get new revenue from old clients | 5 things you know that clients don’t | 3 ways to test your revenue forecast | how to work the same hours and make more money | take advantage of 4 key marketing strategies | four ways to stop leaving money on the table

these requests can get downright annoying. and they can be expensive, too. knowledge workers spend anywhere from 15 to 35 percent of their time searching for information. executives waste six weeks per year searching for lost documents. read more →

how to calculate your ‘opportunity number’

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money on one side of scales, watches on otherbonus checklist: 6 steps to get you there.

by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

every week, do you get wonderful, exciting calls from new clients who want to use your services? you might want to talk with every one of them to get the sale. the problem is, if you do, you’re likely to go bankrupt. let me explain.

more on small-firm growth strategies: 3 tips for following up with prospects | 9 ways accountants throw away profits | 5 ways a deadline can help close a deal | 7 ways to get new revenue from old clients | 9 ways to increase sales through ‘power networking’ | 3 ways to test your revenue forecast | 8 must-haves for a prospect kit | how to work the same hours and make more money | if you’re a ‘best-kept secret’ cut it out! | take advantage of 4 key marketing strategies  | four ways to stop leaving money on the table

each of us has 24 hours in one day. most of us have annual revenue goals. a few of us have monthly, weekly, daily or even hourly revenue goals. hopefully you know what your revenue goal is. (if not, you should!) if you don’t pull in that level of revenue for the week or month, then you’ve missed your plan.

let’s say you want to generate $1 million in sales for the year. on average, you need to pull in $20,000 a week. that’s $4,000 a day.

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3 tips for following up with prospects

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businesswoman talking on phoneit’s the key to 98 percent of your sales.

by sandi smith leyva

it seems there are hundreds of questions swirling around how to follow up with prospects.

more on small-firm growth strategies: 5 ways a deadline can help close a deal | if you don’t develop your business, who will? | 7 ways to get new revenue from old clients | draw new clients in like a magnet | 11 ways to add value for clients | 9 ways to increase sales through ‘power networking’ | 5 things you know that clients don’t | 3 ways to test your revenue forecast | 8 must-haves for a prospect kit | whip out the wow factor for clients | how to work the same hours and make more money

the raw truth is that very few people follow up at all. on average, only 2 percent of people buy on the first contact with a vendor.

so if you’re not following up, you’re walking away from 98 percent of your sales.

here are my tips to maximize sales and take the pain out of following up: read more →

why even the best and biggest cpa firms are losing their best and brightest talent

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despite paying top dollar for top talent, old-line firms are losing gen y staffers with bigger ambitions.

derek davis, the shared economy cpa, talks about launching the first app-first cpa firm

by rick telberg
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

with cpa firms locked in a battle for top-level talent, wages are advancing at record rates in desperate efforts to both retain and recruit highly-prized professionals, according to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research.

partners and staffers alike, feeling stifled and underused at their current firms, are finding a broad array of new opportunities at other firms. and where they can’t find the right position at another firm, they are creating their own.

los angeles cpa derek davis, for example, left a career at a big four firm to start his own practice. but his first hire wasn’t an assistant. and his first partner wasn’t another cpa. instead, davis teamed with a software designer. and they didn’t open an office, they launched an iphone app.

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9 ways accountants throw away profits

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$50 bills in a wastebasketchecklist, plus how to fix your billing habits to compensate.

by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

a critical measure for accountants – whether they bill either by the hour or a fixed price – is the amount they bill clients each month. as anxious as many accountants are to raise their revenues, their daily activity often sabotages that goal with the same common billing mistakes.

more on small-firm growth strategies: 5 ways a deadline can help close a deal | if you don’t develop your business, who will? | 7 ways to get new revenue from old clients | draw new clients in like a magnet | 11 ways to add value for clients | 5 things you know that clients don’t | 3 ways to test your revenue forecast | how to work the same hours and make more money | if you’re a ‘best-kept secret’ cut it out!

here’s a checklist so you can compare your behavior with the list. i’ll give some tips on how to break the bad habit, and the rest will be up to you.

read more →

5 ways a deadline can help close a deal

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hourglass on money backgroundit might be just the push a client needs.

by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

in the accounting profession, there are a ton of deadlines. month-end, quarter-end and year-end. payroll taxes, sales taxes and corporate taxes. and extension deadlines, filing deadlines and payment deadlines, to name just a few.

more on small-firm growth strategies: mindset is key to marketing | become a millionaire in 3 steps | when your business card works against you | 10 ways to ruin a website | 4 steps to weather any economic storm | want to be stress-free? use your strengths | ‘time problems’ don’t exist | could you use more energy this tax season? | 15 items for your ‘business bucket list’ | 3 ways to plug your firm’s money leaks

read more →

mindset is key to marketing

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smiling businesswomaneven after years of experience, confidence may not come easy.

by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

in school, during both my undergraduate courses and my mba classes, i took marketing 101, or something close to that. i learned the four p’s: product, price, place and promotion. i aced the class.

more on small-firm growth strategies: when your business card works against you | 10 ways to ruin a website | 4 steps to weather any economic storm | want to be stress-free? use your strengths | ‘time problems’ don’t exist | could you use more energy this tax season? | 15 items for your ‘business bucket list’ | 3 ways to plug your firm’s money leaks

read more →

become a millionaire in 3 steps

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woman's hand pointing to three numbers for success stepsdump “nonprofit” tasks and focus on the high-value ones.

by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

let’s do the math. to earn a million dollars in a year, you have to bring in $83,333 per month. assuming you bill hourly and work for the standard 1,000 billable hours per year, you need to charge $1,000 per hour. if you want to make $5 million in one year, you will need to charge $5,000 per hour.

more on small-firm growth strategies: when your business card works against you | 10 ways to ruin a website | 4 steps to weather any economic storm | want to be stress-free? use your strengths | ‘time problems’ don’t exist | could you use more energy this tax season? | 15 items for your ‘business bucket list’ | 3 ways to plug your firm’s money leaks

read more →

if you don’t develop your business, who will?

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businessman working on laptop with wall of symbols scribbled behind him5 mistakes to avoid when seeking new clients.

by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

if you’re a sole practitioner or small-firm operator, you’re probably very good at what you do – or you wouldn’t be in business today. but when it comes to marketing and selling yourself, well, many of us didn’t voluntarily sign up for that part.

more on small-firm growth strategies: when your business card works against you | 10 ways to ruin a website | 4 steps to weather any economic storm | want to be stress-free? use your strengths | ‘time problems’ don’t exist | could you use more energy this tax season? | 15 items for your ‘business bucket list’ | 3 ways to plug your firm’s money leaks

as a matter of fact, some of us are resisting – kicking and screaming – marketing ourselves. so no wonder, for some of us, business is slow or not growing at the rate we’d like.

read more →

when your business card works against you

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woman and man exchanging business cardsare you making any of these 12 common errors?

by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

the lowly business card: we don’t give it a second thought before we get the thing printed up, and we just do what everyone else does.

many people, new in business, get the business cards printed before they’re really ready to, which causes many of the mistakes i list below. experienced or new, you’re missing huge opportunities to let your business card take some of the work off your shoulders. we may take it for granted, but i feel that your business card is one of your most important pieces of marketing collateral – and the most underutilized.

more on small-firm growth strategies: 10 ways to ruin a website | 4 steps to weather any economic storm | want to be stress-free? use your strengths | ‘time problems’ don’t exist | could you use more energy this tax season? | 15 items for your ‘business bucket list’ | 3 ways to plug your firm’s money leaks

here are my suggestions for how to get your business card working as hard as you do. if you want to play along, pull out your business card, and see if your card is guilty of any of these first four no-no’s. read more →