How to Fire a Client

Big businessman foot on spring kicking three businesspeopleBONUS: Sample Client Disengagement Letter.

By Sandi Leyva and Michelle Long

How many clients have you fired?

MORE SMALL FIRM GROWTH STRATEGIES: What to Do When a Client Doesn’t Pay | The Dreaded ‘Quick Question’ | How to Handle Referrals – And How Not To | Why Clients Need Dashboards | Five Ways to Raise Your Prices | Your Existing Clients Are Your Best Leads | Need More Business? Focus on Referrals

Let’s talk about firing a client because sometimes you do need to fire your client. Maybe they’re difficult to work with, or a guy is belligerent and loud and yells, and you don’t want to work for him. Maybe there are ethical issues.
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Registration Opens for ‘Ultimate Accounting vCon’ 2017

https://ne220.isrefer.com/go/vcon17/rtcpat/
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Produced by CPA Trendlines expert authors Michelle Long and Sandi Smith Leyva.

The registration desk is now open for the sixth annual Ultimate Accounting vCon, the profession’s leading live and online video conference for solo and small-firm accountants and bookkeepers, produced by award-winning accounting industry thought leaders Michelle Long and Sandi Leyva, and scheduled for Sept. 21-22.

Attendees can count on practical, grow-your-business advice plus great how-to sessions on all your favorite software and some you may not know about yet.

Register here or click to learn more
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Clients Need Advisory Services More Than They Know

Man with head down on desk, sticky note with "HELP" writte on it on baseball capBe aware of your clients’ fears.

By Sandi Leyva and Michelle Long

There’s a lot that falls into the revenue and cash flow improvement area. This can be any services that help the client increase or manage revenue as well as cash.

MORE SMALL FIRM GROWTH STRATEGIES: 5 Fast, Easy Ways to Turn Annual Clients into Year-Round Clients | Six Concrete Ways to Help Business Clients Reach their Full Potential | Why Businesses Offer Subscriptions | Your Time Has No Inherent Value | Four Tools for a Millionaire Mindset | Reconnect with Your Why | Use Payroll to Grow Client Retention | 3 Ways to Work Less and Earn More | What to Do When a Client Doesn’t Pay | How to Handle Price Sensitivity
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Any of the marketing metrics are going to fall into this category as well and, honestly, this is one of the most underutilized consulting opportunities there is because a lot of accountants are scared of the revenue side of business. Please don’t be.
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Six Concrete Ways to Help Business Clients Reach their Full Potential

Female hand with pen pointing at documentHow financial literacy makes clients better, and makes better clients.

By Sandi Leyva and Michelle Long
The Ultimate Accounting Virtual Conference

We really need to be compassionate with our clients. If they don’t see our value, we just have to realize they’re afraid of all this.

MORE SMALL FIRM GROWTH STRATEGIES: 10 Tips for More Energy This Tax Season | Ed Kless on Factors Affecting Price Sensitivity | How to Keep Current | Best Practices for Growth: Network, Specialize, Share | 10 Easy Tips to Boost Your Business Cash Flow | 2 Ways to Serve Clients Better | How to Fire a Client
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

I think we need to be gentle as we communicate our value and help them with their fear. If they stay afraid of it, they will stay close-minded and that will keep their business from reaching the potential it could.

We can make such a difference in our clients, especially these micro businesses we work with. These are people who are struggling to put food on the table in some cases and we can really turn their lives around and make a difference.

Let’s talk about six literacy topics that clients desperately need. READ MORE →

How to Teach Financial Literacy

Woman watching what man is doing on laptop in officeHelp your clients and maybe learn about your business as well.

By Sandi Leyva and Michelle Long

Here is how to make more from working less: offering financial literacy and financial services to your clients. They need this so much.

MORE SMALL FIRM GROWTH STRATEGIES: Why Businesses Offer Subscriptions | Welcome to the Subscription Economy | Ed Kless: What Is Strategic Pricing? | Marketing vs. Sales and How to Plunge In | 5 Steps to Get Clients to Say ‘Yes’ to Cloud Applications  | When You Should Answer Questions for Free | When to Turn Over Client Data Files | The Dreaded ‘Quick Question’
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

We’re going to talk about two ways to avoid so we don’t turn off our clients about this. It’s easy to turn off our clients and easy for our clients to get blocked. So we’re going to talk about turning off some blocks.
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Why Next-Gen Firms Embrace Subscription Billing Plans

Sabhlok

Zoho president explains the “freemium upsell.”

Pricing Strategies that Work
Join the Survey. Get the Answers.

 

By Sandi Leyva and Michelle Long

Let’s take a look at some pricing strategies for the subscription economy.

MORE SMALL FIRM GROWTH STRATEGIES: Welcome to the Subscription Economy | Ed Kless on Factors Affecting Price Sensitivity | How to Keep Current | Best Practices for Growth: Network, Specialize, Share | 10 Easy Tips to Boost Your Business Cash Flow | 2 Ways to Serve Clients Better | How to Fire a Client | How to Manage Client Expectations | Trashing the Spreadsheet: Best Practices in Modern Expense Management | 3 Ways to Implement Value Pricing | Building Reputation to Build Your Business | Need More Business? Focus on Referrals
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

There are a number of things that businesses can do related to subscription models, in particular around their pricing strategies. We have the freemium and upsell model, multiple additions, pay as you go, tiered or volume-based pricing and bundling. I’ve got some examples of each one of these. I’d be fairly surprised if we haven’t run across these already as consumers.

Our guest for this discussion about subscription-based models is Raj Sabhlok, president of Zoho Corp., in his own words…

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Welcome to the Subscription Economy

Laptop with "SIGN UP" on screenWhat it is and why it’s popular.

By Sandi Leyva and Michelle Long
AcceleratorLibrary.com

We’re going to be speaking about subscription economy, which is new to a lot of us.

MORE SMALL FIRM GROWTH STRATEGIES: Ed Kless on Factors Affecting Price Sensitivity | Your Time Has No Inherent Value | Four Tools for a Millionaire Mindset | Reconnect with Your Why | Use Payroll to Grow Client Retention | 3 Ways to Work Less and Earn More | What to Do When a Client Doesn’t Pay | How to Handle Price Sensitivity | How to Find Hidden Money for Your Clients | How Small Firms Can Use Value Pricing | 3 Killer Lead Generation Channels | Need More Business? Focus on Referrals
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Our guest for this discussion about subscription-based models is Raj Sabhlok, president of Zoho Corp.
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Ed Kless on Factors Affecting Price Sensitivity

Head shot of Ed Kless
Kless

Parsing substitute, expenditure, fairness and other effects.

By Sandi Leyva and Michelle Long
with Ed Kless, senior director of partner development and strategy at the Sage Group
AcceleratorLibrary.com

Many of you offer a fixed price on many occasions, which is fantastic.

MORE SMALL FIRM GROWTH STRATEGIES: Your Time Has No Inherent Value | What Is Strategic Pricing? | Marketing vs. Sales and How to Plunge In | 5 Steps to Get Clients to Say ‘Yes’ to Cloud Applications | When You Should Answer Questions for Free | When to Turn Over Client Data Files | How to Handle Referrals – And How Not To | 3 Ways to Raise Your Prices
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

What you’re doing now is maybe just fixed pricing and not value pricing, and the key here is we’re going to make this jump now. Now that you made the leap to fixed price it is a very easy jump to value pricing. I’ll quickly describe the difference for those of you who might not have fully fleshed this out in your mind.
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