THE SMALL FIRM AND SOLO PRACTICE

Focus on Value First

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Hand moving triangle along beam to indicate balance between price and value

Don’t discuss fees as soon as a potential client calls.

By Sandi Leyva
The Accountant’s Accelerator

How do you talk to a prospect or client about your fee?

MORE by Sandi Leyva
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Some of the answers I have heard are:

  • “It depends.”
  • “Tell them and get off the phone as fast as possible.”
  • “I don’t know.”
  • “What is your budget?”

Most accountants spill the beans about their rates way too early in a conversation with a future client. So when should you talk rates?

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Four Steps to Rebooting Your Practice

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Man in suit pushing a restart button

If it’s not everything you wanted, here’s how to turn things around.

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

How does your current business look compared to the one you dreamed about before you started your entrepreneurial journey?

MORE: Get More Referrals in Five Steps | Is Your Practice Leaking Money? | Boost Your Value, Boost Your Fees | Three Ways to Make It Easier for Prospects to Say Yes | Make Your Next Busy Season Easier Now | How to Put Your Strengths to Work for You | Three Ways to Follow Up with Prospects | Are You Throwing Away Profits? | Want to Close a Deal? Set a Deadline | How Mindset Affects Your Marketing | Three Steps to Becoming a Millionaire | Five Business Development Mistakes to Avoid | Twelve Ways Your Business Card Can Hurt You | How to Use ChatGPT to Create Images | How to Leverage ChatGPT During This Crazy Tax Season | Got FOMO When It Comes to AI and ChatGPT? You Should: Here’s What You’re Missing
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Do you now have

  • clients you love,
  • a dream team,
  • the financial rewards you are comfortable with and
  • plenty of free time?

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Is Your Practice Leaking Money?

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Money coming out of sink faucet and going down drain

There’s a spreadsheet for that. Three ways to recapture lost revenue.

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

There are dozens (and maybe hundreds) of ways your practice can leak money.

Here are three ideas that are fairly simple to implement and may be some great goals for you to consider.

MORE: Boost Your Value, Boost Your Fees | Three Ways to Make It Easier for Prospects to Say Yes | Make Your Next Busy Season Easier Now | How to Put Your Strengths to Work for You | Implement These Two Daily Rituals | Three Ways to Follow Up with Prospects | Are You Throwing Away Profits? | Want to Close a Deal? Set a Deadline | How Mindset Affects Your Marketing | Three Steps to Becoming a Millionaire | Five Business Development Mistakes to Avoid | Twelve Ways Your Business Card Can Hurt You | How to Use ChatGPT to Create Images | How to Leverage ChatGPT During This Crazy Tax Season | Got FOMO When It Comes to AI and ChatGPT? You Should: Here’s What You’re Missing
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1. Lost customer opportunities.

In just about every business I’ve worked with, there are opportunities within your current customer base that have not been harvested. When you offer multiple services or products, it may even be that some of your clients do not know everything you do.
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Boost Your Value, Boost Your Fees

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person handing a folder to another person

Can you leave behind a cheat sheet? A toy? It’s not silly if it works.

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

Want to charge more for your services? One way is to offer clients more value. Your fees and your value to the client should go hand in hand.

MORE: Three Ways to Make It Easier for Prospects to Say Yes | Make Your Next Busy Season Easier Now | Three Ways to Follow Up with Prospects | How Mindset Affects Your Marketing | Twelve Ways Your Business Card Can Hurt You | Got FOMO When It Comes to AI and ChatGPT? You Should: Here’s What You’re Missing | How to Weather Any Economic Storm | Ten Ways to Have More Energy This Tax Season | Seven Steps to Keeping Your Clients Forever | Give to Receive, and Eight More Ways to Boost Sales | Five Things That Clients Don’t Know about Accountants
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Here are nine ideas to increase your value to your clients:

1. Offer a Guarantee

You might feel like offering a guarantee is taking on a lot more risk than you’d like to, but this is a myth. When you offer a guarantee, you help to lower the perceived risk your client feels they might have when deciding to do business with you. This greatly increases the number of clients who will take that chance, even if they don’t know you very well yet. The surprising truth is that very few people will take the time to ask for a refund, making the increased sales far more valuable than the few returns you’ll need to process, if any.
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Three Ways to Make It Easier for Prospects to Say Yes

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Woman staring at watch in waiting area

Bonus: Checklists to implement each one.

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

Change is hard on all of us, and there’s no exception when it comes to new customers taking a first step to do business with you.

MORE: Make Your Next Busy Season Easier Now | How to Put Your Strengths to Work for You | Are You Throwing Away Profits? | Three Steps to Becoming a Millionaire | How to Use ChatGPT to Create Images | Create a Bad Website in Ten Easy Steps | Leverage Your Strengths to Beat Stress | Are You Crossing Off Your Business Bucket List? | Ten Ways to Make Your Business Irresistible | Five Ways to Target the Low-Hanging Fruit
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The question is, how can you make it easier for clients to get through that change so that they will do business with you?

The key is to be as approachable as possible, and here are some tips to do that. READ MORE →

Make Your Next Busy Season Easier Now

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Sad businessman sitting at desk outdoors and looking straight ahead

Five ways to shift some of the heavy lifting to your lighter months.

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

For some of you, summer can be a slow time in your business. If you do taxes, all the action is during busy season and in September if you have a lot of extensions. If you’re a bookkeeper, your busiest month is January. And if you do software consulting or training, it slows down in July and August.

MORE: How to Put Your Strengths to Work for You | Implement These Two Daily Rituals | Want to Close a Deal? Set a Deadline | Five Business Development Mistakes to Avoid | How to Leverage ChatGPT During This Crazy Tax Season | Eight Steps to Getting Started with AI: A Guide for Tax Professionals | You Don’t Have a Time Problem | Three Money Leaks and How to Plug Them | Eleven Ways to Serve Clients Even Better
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If you have a good relationship with your clients, you might be able to move some of your busy season work to off season. And if you have clients who are ready to take advantage of new technologies, there are lots of opportunities in the cloud. Here are five quick ideas to stir up some revenue in the slower summer months.

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How to Put Your Strengths to Work for You

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Here’s a quiz that provides real insight.

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

Most of us have an idea about what our character strengths are.

A few years back, a scientist named Christopher Peterson developed a global list of 24 strengths that all humans have.

MORE: Implement These Two Daily Rituals | Three Ways to Follow Up with Prospects | Twelve Ways Your Business Card Can Hurt You | Got FOMO When It Comes to AI and ChatGPT? You Should: Here’s What You’re Missing | How to Weather Any Economic Storm | Ten Ways to Have More Energy This Tax Season | Seven Steps to Keeping Your Clients Forever | Give to Receive, and Eight More Ways to Boost Sales
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These break down into the following six major categories:
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Implement These Two Daily Rituals

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Calm balanced businessman sitting outdoors on bench in Yoga lotus pose meditating, with office building and blue sky in background

BONUS: Lists to help you focus and measure.

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

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

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.

MORE: Three Ways to Follow Up with Prospects | Are You Throwing Away Profits? | Three Steps to Becoming a Millionaire | How to Use ChatGPT to Create Images | Create a Bad Website in Ten Easy Steps | Leverage Your Strengths to Beat Stress | Are You Crossing Off Your Business Bucket List? | Ten Ways to Make Your Business Irresistible | Five Ways to Target the Low-Hanging Fruit | Are Your Revenue Projections Realistic?
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We don’t think about rituals much when it comes to business, but I think we should. What rituals could you create in your business that will rev up your revenues? Here are two ideas to get your engines started.
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Three Ways to Follow Up with Prospects

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Young businessman on phone with colorful world map background

This is the key to 98 percent of your sales.

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

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

MORE: Are You Throwing Away Profits? | Want to Close a Deal? Set a Deadline | Five Business Development Mistakes to Avoid | How to Leverage ChatGPT During This Crazy Tax Season | Eight Steps to Getting Started with AI: A Guide for Tax Professionals | You Don’t Have a Time Problem | Three Money Leaks and How to Plug Them | Eleven Ways to Serve Clients Even Better | Eight Ways to Build Busy-Season Stamina | Make Your Prospect Kit Stand Out | Six Ways to Beat the Competition | Grow Your Revenue with Three Marketing Strategies | What Can ChatGPT Do for Accounting Professionals?
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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.
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Are You Throwing Away Profits?

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$50 bills in a wastebasket

Nine things to stop doing today.

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

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: Want to Close a Deal? Set a Deadline | How Mindset Affects Your Marketing | How to Use ChatGPT to Create Images | How to Leverage ChatGPT During This Crazy Tax Season | Got FOMO When It Comes to AI and ChatGPT? You Should: Here’s What You’re Missing | Eight Steps to Getting Started with AI: A Guide for Tax Professionals | How to Weather Any Economic Storm | Leverage Your Strengths to Beat Stress | You Don’t Have a Time Problem | Are You Crossing Off Your Business Bucket List? | Three Money Leaks and How to Plug Them
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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.

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Want to Close a Deal? Set a Deadline

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hourglass on money background

Five ways to make it work.

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

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: How Mindset Affects Your Marketing | Three Steps to Becoming a Millionaire | How to Use ChatGPT to Create Images | Create a Bad Website in Ten Easy Steps | Leverage Your Strengths to Beat Stress | Are You Crossing Off Your Business Bucket List? | Ten Ways to Make Your Business Irresistible | Five Ways to Target the Low-Hanging Fruit | Are Your Revenue Projections Realistic? | Six Strategies to Make More without Working More | The Art of Prompt Engineering for Accountants | Calculate Your Business Relationship Ratios
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All of these deadlines may be a headache to business owners and accountants alike, but they are a marketer’s dream come true. How can you use deadlines to your advantage in marketing your services? And what if you are selling a service that is not in the accounting profession? Keep reading and we’ll answer these questions and provide you with five ways to woo your prospect with deadlines.
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How Mindset Affects Your Marketing

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Smiling businesswoman

Even after years of experience, confidence may not come easy.

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

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: Three Steps to Becoming a Millionaire | Five Business Development Mistakes to Avoid | How to Leverage ChatGPT During This Crazy Tax Season | Eight Steps to Getting Started with AI: A Guide for Tax Professionals | You Don’t Have a Time Problem | Three Money Leaks and How to Plug Them | Eleven Ways to Serve Clients Even Better | Eight Ways to Build Busy-Season Stamina | Make Your Prospect Kit Stand Out | Six Ways to Beat the Competition | Grow Your Revenue with Three Marketing Strategies | What Can ChatGPT Do for Accounting Professionals?
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

When I started my first business at age 13, I ran an ad and was able to get clients. It was no big deal. When I wanted to earn some part-time money during college doing bookkeeping (before I passed my CPA exam), I answered an ad and found clients. It was no big deal. When I started a part-time photography studio in the 1980s, I sent out press releases and direct mail and got clients. It was no big deal. I was doing all of this on the side while I had full-time jobs paying the rent and everything else.

But when I got laid off in the 1990s and needed clients in order to go out on my own and pay my own rent, something in me snapped. I was scared to death. I suddenly had no idea how to get started getting clients. I could have run an ad, but I didn’t. I could have sent out direct mail, but I didn’t.
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