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client service opportunities

the 5 first steps in targeting clients

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and a

how to build a plan.

by ed mendlowitz
101 questions and answers for managing an accounting practice 

question: i want to start growing my practice but am having trouble defining my target client.  i tend to accept every client i can and seem to have clients all over the place. is there anything i can do to better target my “ideal” clients? 

answer: to have a target client means you have a target. the target is the result of a plan. so, what is your plan?  read more →

marketing & sales

why accounting marketers must still be educators

//www.g005e.com/2014/02/02/marcus-metrics/

teaching cpas the six metrics of real roi.

by bruce w. marcus
professional services marketing 3.0

tactics are the most difficult part of an accounting marketing program because so much of what must be done depends upon the scarce, non-billable time of partners and professional staff.

more: aam honors bruce w. marcus, visionary professional services marketer | accounting marketing takes a new step in the evolutionary process | the delicate art of positioning your firm in the mind of the prospect  |  who’s better at marketing? lawyers or cpas?  |  even a random disaster can be controlled with risk management | managing risk in client relations  |  your clients love you? what if you’re wrong?  |  the three degrees of risk | four essential habits for building client trust | the nine hallmarks of a marketing culture | the four cornerstones to building a marketing culture | getting the client is only half the battle | practice development: it’s not rocket science | nine fundamentals for a healthy marketing culture in an accounting firm

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

if the firm’s management hasn’t made clear that participation by every professional in the firm is an integral part of recognition and growth within the firm, you can scrap the marketing program. it can be helpful if the non-billable hour was renamed the investment hour because if those hours are spent on marketing, investment hours are exactly what they are.

read more →

leadership

why merge and what to watch out for

four checklists for thinking through the process, picking the right candidate and making it work. 

by august aquila
creating the effective partnership

it seems that you can’t pick up a newspaper today without reading about a merger of national, regional or local firms.

if you are a partner in a cpa firm that is contemplating a merger, you are about to enter into an extremely risky venture. this article will help you to lessen your risk and give you a better chance of having a successful merger. read more →

outlook & analysis

getting new clients and leveraging technology top list of accountants’ plans

top 5

survey shows new sense of confidence – and urgency.

get more updates: join the survey; get the results.

by rick telberg
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

tax and accounting professionals are hoping to make 2014 the year of working smarter, instead of harder, according to a new 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 survey.

in general, the goals and objectives as described by more than 200 accountants suggest a new surge of confidence in their business and in their clients’ businesses, and a new sense of urgency in upgrading their practices or moving on.

the survey is part of a 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 project, now in its eighth year, tracking the shifts in strategy and objectives in the profession. it measures sentiment on 21 or more strategies and tactics, and goals and ambitions across firms of all sizes nationwide. read more →

outlook & analysis

when should you drop a client?

the thought and calculation that goes into pruning a client list.

by ed mendlowitz

question: i want to clean out my client list of small tax clients because i am just too jammed during tax season, and don’t have enough business to hire someone. should i just drop the lowest-paying 10% of my clients?  

response: i never like dropping clients unless you just can’t stand them and are losing money on them and they never referred any new business to you. however, there are times when it is smart to prune your client list. 

many times practices grow where you take every client that comes along. for some that is a good strategy. for others, the strategy could be to accept only the type of clients you feel you could service best and can get the right fees. we are in a personal service business and we make our money by the work we personally do or personally are responsible for and personally supervise. we literally give up part of our lives for the benefit of our clients (and also to make our living). somehow the living comes – for some a little higher and for others a little lower, but it comes. it is the way we want to spend our time that we need to control. 

this starts with a clear assessment of your abilities and what gets you charged up, and where you think you can help clients the most, and for which they are willing to pay your fee based somewhat on the value of what you contribute to them. regardless of when you started and how much you might have strayed from your original plan, you can always do an up-to-date assessment and start from that point going forward.  read more →

outlook & analysis

what the bitcoin phenomenon means for accountants

it’s time to start to start thinking about the tax and accounting ramifications of digital, virtual currencies.

by hitendra patil
pransform inc.

bitcoin is virtual currency much in the news these days. it’s peer-to-peer so there’s no central bank or government. but, because it necessarily represents income or asset, it needs to be accounted for and hence will have tax ramifications.

accountants, the irs and accounting software developers are starting to take it seriously. but in the absence of irs rules specific to bitcoin taxability, accountants have to draw upon their knowledge of irs rules that govern income, assets, capital gains or losses, and stock and bond transactions, and apply that corollary to bitcoin ownership and transactions. read more →

outlook & analysis

the 4 dark clouds hovering over cloud accounting software

and the two professional remedies you already know.

by frank stitely, cpa
stitely & karstetter pllc

cloud accounting software revolutionizes our relationships with our clients, enhancing our ability to provide real-time and forward-looking tax and accounting services. at the recently concluded sleeter conference in las vegas, cloud vendors promised zero data entry, the editing of transactions in spreadsheet format and seamless integration with best of breed third-party applications.

they didn’t mention, however, that their programmers redefine accounting principles by sacrificing sound internal control at the ease of use altar. before launching your clients into the accounting cloud, evaluate the risks currently ignored by many, if not most, cloud vendors. read more →

marketing & sales

eight proven methods for accurately targeting new business

and 9 realities you can’t ignore.

by bruce w. marcus

a marketing program – a professional-caliber marketing program – begins with a realistic understanding of the needs and opportunities of the markets you serve.

more psm 3.0: the delicate art of positioning your firm in the mind of the prospect | what accounting firms need to learn from personal financial planning specialists | who’s better at marketing? lawyers or cpas? | 5 ways to manage risk in an accounting practice | all great strategy starts with “why” | a real-world approach for the smaller firm | do accounting firms really want an ‘image’? | accounting marketing takes a new step in the evolutionary process  | aam honors bruce w. marcus, visionary professional services marketer

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

it defines your abilities to meet those needs. it develops a strategy to persuade your market that you can serve its needs. and it formulates the tactics needed to make that strategy functional.

by defining the target audience first, you can devise the strategy to address that audience, with eight tried-and-true techniques: read more →

outlook & analysis

two steps to easy upsells

by sandi smith leyva
accountant’s accelerator

adding revenue does not have to take much time or money. start by going after the low-hanging fruit.

open excel or your favorite spreadsheet tool, and make a worksheet from the sales numbers in your accounting system. list the name of each current, active client you have in the rows of the spreadsheet. across the top, make columns for each service you offer. for example, if you offer tax, bookkeeping and quickbooks consulting, you will have three columns.

you can break your revenue out any way you like. the more columns, the better.

then, drop in your revenue numbers from your accounting system. in quickbooks, you may be able to run your sales by customer summary to make it faster. you can create the columns by class, if that’s what you use to break out your revenue by service line.

that’s step one, to create your spreadsheet. step two is the fun part.

read more →