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Understand Your Online Marketing Options

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Does your strategy include everything it should?

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

The global pandemic significantly impacted every aspect of business and our society, including digital marketing and how we do business. Accounting firms had to pivot and shift their practices to increase their online presence to stay connected with clients, find a way to stay relevant, and increase their client base.

MORE: Digital Marketing Strategies Level the Playing Field | It’s OK to Have Favorite Clients | Narrow Your Prospects by Choosing a Vertical | Eight Tasks to Delegate Today | Ten Questions for Teamwork | Build Your Team, Then Choose Your Clients | Advisory Services Done Your Way | Yes, You Can Be an Outsourcer
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The pandemic initially muted and almost eliminated traditional marketing, such as in-person meetings, conferences, and other events, and it amplified the importance of digital marketing in growing accounting practices.
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Digital Marketing Strategies Level the Playing Field

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Six goals you might have.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

Picking the best clients won’t automatically bring you a steady stream of eager prospects, ready to pay you their hard-earned cash. You have to do some work to help them find you.

MORE: It’s OK to Have Favorite Clients | Narrow Your Prospects by Choosing a Vertical | Build Your Team, Then Choose Your Clients | How Back Office Support Adds Value | AI Is Not Your Enemy
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Most accountants and bookkeepers would rather do anything other than marketing. Most equate marketing with being a pushy and sleazy used-car salesman. A better way to think about marketing is telling the world what you do, who you do it for, and how you can help the people who need your help.
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It’s OK to Have Favorite Clients

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Happy business professionals giving high five hand slap

Here’s how to get more work from them.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

You cannot do everything all at once for everyone. This group exercise calls on your team to be an integral part of selecting the best clients to approach for back-office support services.

MORE: Narrow Your Prospects by Choosing a Vertical | Eight Tasks to Delegate Today | Ten Questions for Teamwork | Build Your Team, Then Choose Your Clients | Advisory Services Done Your Way | Yes, You Can Be an Outsourcer | How Back Office Support Adds Value | AI Is Not Your Enemy
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Sit down with your team members and identify those clients you like working with now. Get their experience of working with these clients. Because your team’s collaboration is critical to success, getting their input is vital. The changes that occur will affect them as much as it will your clients.
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Narrow Your Prospects by Choosing a Vertical

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BONUS: The 10 types of clients.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

Taking on a client’s internal accounting work requires a level of comfort for both the business owner and the accounting firm. A client that has already provided you with access to sensitive financial data is easier to work with than a new business with no previous relationship. Once you have done it well with current clients a few times, then you are ready to do this with prospects.

MORE: Eight Tasks to Delegate Today | Ten Questions for Teamwork | Build Your Team, Then Choose Your Clients | Advisory Services Done Your Way | Yes, You Can Be an Outsourcer | How Back Office Support Adds Value | AI Is Not Your Enemy
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Understand that to be able to effectively in-source your client’s internal accounting work to your accounting firm, you need on-demand access to your client’s information. It doesn’t work if you have to wait for someone to send you the information you need. Understand that the processes you use today for write-up and compliance work will not transfer well to this level of client collaboration.
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Eight Tasks to Delegate Today

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Superhero businesswoman wearing shadow cape

Some work belongs in other hands.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

A firm we worked with in Philadelphia has a dedicated administrative assistant for their teams.

MORE: Build Your Team, Then Choose Your Clients | Advisory Services Done Your Way | Yes, You Can Be an Outsourcer | How Back Office Support Adds Value | AI Is Not Your Enemy
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She is not a bookkeeper. However, she is very organized and a dedicated team player. After she had been doing it for a while, I asked her what she now saw her function to be.

Her answer is: READ MORE →

Ten Questions for Teamwork

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ALSO: How to divide up back office support roles.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

I’ve developed a series of questions to assess someone’s aptitude for being on a team. Each person in your firm who is a possible member of the back office support (BOS) team needs to answer these questions. That includes you, as you are a potential team member.

MORE: Build Your Team, Then Choose Your Clients | Advisory Services Done Your Way | Yes, You Can Be an Outsourcer | How Back Office Support Adds Value | AI Is Not Your Enemy
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Ask others in your firm or people you work with outside your firm to give you feedback on these questions as they see you and the other potential members of your team. Their responses will give you a second filtering of your potential as well as others you would like on your team. Notice these are not questions relating to the competencies in accounting functions. The assumption is that you and your people already possess those skills.
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Build Your Team, Then Choose Your Clients

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Group of businesspeople hiding their faces behind question mark signs at officeFive aspects critical to success … and they’re not accounting.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

Before you can build back office support (BOS) practice, you need to assess what kind of team you already have. Let’s look at two similar and at the same time, uniquely different accounting and tax businesses who contacted me for help in outsourcing some of their bookkeeping.

MORE: Advisory Services Done Your Way | Yes, You Can Be an Outsourcer | How Back Office Support Adds Value | AI Is Not Your Enemy
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Both businesses have multiple offices; both have multi-partner owners; both do taxes, accounting and bookkeeping; and both list client advisory services. Both have ownership and employees of a similar age. Both exist along the same coast. Both of these accounting businesses appear successful. One business is full of happy employees, owners and cooperative clients. The other business has the word no figuratively imprinted on their front door.
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Advisory Services Done Your Way

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How to craft a plan to delegate, partner and outsource.

 

diagram

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

Back office support for the accounting firm defines you and your firm. Are you servicing clients who are part of the past, or are you servicing clients living into the future? Remember the new generation of business owners has never owned a filing cabinet, fax machine, landline, printer and turntables (only if they are into retro music!).

MORE: Yes, You Can Be an Outsourcer | How Back Office Support Adds Value | AI Is Not Your Enemy
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The diagram above is how I think about “advisory services.” The traditional role of an accountant has been as steward and operator. If you’re happy there, then that’s OK, this post will help you streamline your processes and technology to deliver these services more efficiently and profitably. And if you want to move into higher valued (and higher paying!) work and play a role in transforming your clients’ businesses, and play the role of strategist and catalyst, then we’ll show you how.
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Yes, You Can Be an Outsourcer

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woman on video conference with four other peopleHow BOS work lets companies focus on what they do best.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

What do you want to do for your clients? Define it, implement it in yourself and build a team that wants to be a part of your defined image. Watch it grow, and adapt it to the changing times.

MORE: How Back Office Support Adds Value | AI Is Not Your Enemy
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Added knowledge and insights assist the client in taking future action on sustainability and growth of their company. Cooperation between the client, the account manager and the cloud AI makes this work in order to provide the space for advisory.
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How Back Office Support Adds Value

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Woman using tablet in front of laptop and desktopBONUS: A case study of how NOT to do things.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

Accounting businesses have historically provided a range of “after-the-fact” compliance services including year-end accounting and tax return preparation. Many firms also provide “write-up” services, which involve the recording of business transactions based on documents generated by the client, such as invoices, checks, deposit slips and documents provided by third parties, such as bank statements and payroll reports. Write-up work is typically done once a month, after the fact.

MORE: AI Is Not Your Enemy
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Today, major innovations in technology are giving accountants the opportunity to expand their services and to provide much more comprehensive, timely and useful information to their clients.
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