aynsley damery: adding value is the only way to stay in business
rethink the 80:20 rule, because the 80% are likely stealing from you.
with liz farr for 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
value
wanna know what clients say about you?
if they can’t communicate your value, referrals will be tough.
by russ alan prince
three amazing cpas who want to do tax returns for free
creating awesome value to become the go-to business strategist.
by hitendra patil
pransform inc.
as part of my role in calling on cpa firms, i meet with as many as a hundred in a month. but three of them absolutely blew me away. let me tell you why.
they all share one common factor in their thinking, which is creating awesome value for their clients. all of them provide the same standard services to their clients that an accounting and tax firm would. what happens beyond those standard services is what separates them from the rest of the world. and they use a simple trick to create awesome value. read more →
lowballing and why it (usually) doesn’t work
plus some exceptions and how to pull them off.
by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor
i actually received the same question from two people in one day. these calls were from two cpas i speak to a lot, have a lot of respect for and who have successful firms with other partners and a good number of staff.
question: (1) i lowballed a fee to get a client ($2,000 a month), got the client and the time was running twice what i charged them ($4,000 a month). i asked for an upward adjustment four months later of halfway between the time and the fee (an additional $1,000 per month). they dropped me and went back to their prior accountant, who was charging less than i was ($1,800 a month), but who didn’t do anything close to what i was doing. i feel the client knew it was a lowball and took advantage of it. what did i do wrong? read more →
why the average fee doesn’t matter
not all data is relevant.
by ed mendlowitz
the practice doctor
question: what is the average fee that your firm charges for a review? assume the company is approximately $10 million in sales and $3 million in assets.
answer: what is the average size suit men wear? this might be nice to know but it is not relevant to any specific situation. read more →
readers sound off: value pricing vs. hourly billing
the gloves come off.
in his recent q&a column, 8 times when hourly billing trumps value pricing, ed mendlowitz addressed a question about moving completely away from time-based billing but noted that as much as he liked and suggested value pricing, he did not believe it could be used in every situation.
our readers’ opinions were both strong and divided. read more →
14 ways to switch to value pricing
by ed mendlowitz
question: how do i switch to value pricing?
response: there are a number of ways. ron baker’s books tell how to do this. so does dave cottle’s but in a different way. i believe most firms do some sort of value pricing and that is when a fee is determined in advance with the client. i’ve written previously on this and have presented programs for cpa firm management groups, but here is a descriptive checklist to use as a guide: read more →
pricing, billing, costing: don’t blame clients
how good communication habits can head off problems.
by ed mendlowitz
implementing fee increases
professional fees are typically billed based on time. yet, clients want outcomes and place a value on results, which doesn’t necessarily relate to time spent.
ingrained habits are hard to break away from. for ages, many professionals quoted jobs by providing hourly rates and possibly a range of expected hours. some projects are open-ended in the sense that no one knows where it will take them and what will be uncovered once work commences. this might include a forensic investigation, litigation where the discovery process becomes acrimonious, unraveling transactions in a complicated bankruptcy, a first-time audit of a multinational corporation or a tax audit for a reasonably sized business.
however, for most work, there is an understanding of what will need to be done and the approximate value to the client. this could include an annual audit, tax return, setting up a cost accounting or internal control system or a transfer price study. read more →
quick tax season billing tip
by ed mendlowitz
when you perform additional services on a tax return that you will be charging for, list it as a separate item along with the fee for that service. this way the client will know that something extra was done and the charge.
doing as little work as possible
by ed mendlowitz
“tax season opportunity guide“
question: i have many clients who always expect me to do extra work as part of our fixed fee agreement. how can i get paid extra for work beyond the scope of our agreement?
response: this is a recurring theme, and one that has many answers. one approach: don’t take on the extra work.
here is another approach. read more →
are your clients price-sensitive? maybe it’s you, not them
by sandi smith leyva, cpa
accountant’s accelerator
i hear more accountants grumbling every day about how price-sensitive their prospects and clients have gotten. and they are right, to a degree. the economy has caused even the rich to count their pennies, and the percentage of people who look at a price tag before they buy has increased over the last five years.
yet studies show that roughly 54% of buyers are not price-sensitive, and i would be willing to bet even more are selectively price-impervious depending on what they buy: women’s shoes, men’s cars, personal services, jewelry, vacations, cosmetics, and hair, to name a few exceptions.
so why are so many accounting clients and prospects price-sensitive? read more →
five ways competition is redefining accounting
…as accounting firms redefine value. by bruce w. marcus professional services marketing 3.0 today’s modern accounting firm — and there are more of them than we think, and fewer of them than we’d like to think – is still evolving. … continued
preparing for a value pricing opportunity
even if the first one gets away.
by ed mendlowitz, cpa, abv, pfs
author of implementing fee increases;
the 30:30 training method; and tax season opportunity guide.
question: i just heard from a client we hadn’t heard from in seven or eight years and he says he has an “emergency.”
here’s the story: he had started a business eight years ago and he used us for a couple of years until some big money was raised and they switched to a big four firm. he also stopped using us for his personal return switching to the big four firm. then, just last week, he called us to ask for assistance in evaluating a multimillion-dollar termination package. he needed to meet with me right away since he did not want the offer to slip away. he then asked what the rates would be and could he have a discount since he was once a good client (he was – seven and eight years ago!). the asking for a discount left a bad taste in my mouth.
ed, how should i handle it? i feel like i could bill $2,000 to $3,000 and i want to do the work. is that the right price?