Growth

Learn where you stand in 8 simple steps.

By Sandi Leyva

In order to find out whether client retention is improving, you need to compute a baseline rate.

MORE SMALL FIRM GROWTH STRATEGIES: Turn to the ABCs for Client Feedback | Use Feedback for Service Innovation | Create Your Marketing Plan | 3 Steps to Using Social Media to Increase Your Search Rankings | Six Concrete Ways to Help Business Clients Reach their Full Potential | Why Businesses Offer Subscriptions | Your Time Has No Inherent Value
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You can easily do this by starting out with the Sales by Customer Summary in QuickBooks or a similar report in your accounting system.
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And remember the 80-20 rule.

By Sandi Leyva

If you’re feeling overwhelmed about taking every client to lunch or coffee and wondering where you’re going to get the time, then try the ABCs first.

MORE SMALL FIRM GROWTH STRATEGIES: Use Feedback for Service Innovation | Take Your Client’s Pulse | How to Determine Your Ideal Client | Clients Need Advisory Services More Than They Know | Welcome to the Subscription Economy | Marketing vs. Sales and How to Plunge
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Not every client needs extra private (unbilled) time with you, just your top clients. The ABCs is a ranking method that will help you figure out which clients your top clients are. Group your clients into three groups: A, B, and C.
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What will you do if some of it is negative?

By Sandi Leyva

One reason to ask for client feedback is so you can improve and expand your services or create new service lines.

MORE SMALL FIRM GROWTH STRATEGIES: Take Your Client’s Pulse | Use Client ‘Touch Plans’ to Stay in Touch | Build Your Revenue Plan in Reverse | 5 Fast, Easy Ways to Turn Annual Clients into Year-Round Clients | How to Teach Financial Literacy | How to Keep Current | Best Practices for Growth: Network, Specialize, Share | 10 Easy Tips to Boost Your Business Cash Flow
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You can also send a survey to do this, but the questions will be different.

Here are just 25 ideas:
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Don’t assume you know how they feel.

By Sandi Leyva

Why ask for your clients’ feedback?

MORE SMALL FIRM GROWTH STRATEGIES:Use Client ‘Touch Plans’ to Stay in Touch | Create Your Marketing Plan | 3 Steps to Using Social Media to Increase Your Search Rankings

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BONUS: Three sample plans plus 31 quick ideas.

By Sandi Leyva

Are your current clients happy? Or are they on the verge of leaving you?

MORE SMALL FIRM GROWTH STRATEGIES: Create Your Marketing Plan | How to Determine Your Ideal Client | Clients Need Advisory Services More Than They Know | 10 Tips for More Energy | Marketing vs. Sales and How to Plunge In | When You Should Answer Questions for Free
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

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Plus 4 sample personas.

By Sandi Leyva

In 2011, there were 28.2 million businesses in the United States. Almost all of these businesses are small businesses, and more than 75 percent of them are solopreneurs. More than half a million new businesses are born each year.

MORE SMALL FIRM GROWTH STRATEGIES: Build Your Revenue Plan in Reverse | 3 Steps to Using Social Media to Increase Your Search Rankings | 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
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

The great thing about being in the accounting industry is that every single one of these businesses needs one or more accountants to help them keep their books. What’s even more recession-proof is the requirement that all business owners must file all sorts of taxes and reports each year, requiring by law the type of recordkeeping that accountants are great at.
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Calculate exactly how many clients you need.

By Sandi Leyva
The Complete Guide to Marketing for Tax & Accounting Firms

When I started my business, one of the first things I did was teach a QuickBooks class at the local adult education center. I was paid a lousy $20 per hour to teach a six-hour class of up to 12 entrepreneurs how to set up a chart of accounts, create invoices and enter bills. After the first class, some of the entrepreneurs came up to me and said, “This is good, but I don’t want to do it. Do you want to do my QuickBooks for me?” And I started getting clients.

MORE SMALL FIRM GROWTH STRATEGIES: 3 Steps to Using Social Media to Increase Your Search Rankings | Clients Need Advisory Services More Than They Know | Marketing vs. Sales and How to Plunge In
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

The thing about how I started my business was that it was completely reactive; I was at the mercy of who approached me. I wasn’t actively selling. The result was that my business grew incrementally and slowly. I truly didn’t know where I was going, and I didn’t have a plan.
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