Are You A Leader?
Like any business, accounting firms need not just an owner but a leader at the helm. How do you know if you fit that definition?
Ask yourself this question – are you guiding the firm with the sense of accomplishing goals (going after what you want) or do you see yourself as only fending off one problem after another? Ask yourself an even more fundamental question – do you know what you want?
Save Money Through Communication
The lack of communication doesn’t just lead to a lack of information. Employees will fill in spaces with their best guesses, and these best guesses can become destructive habits. Additionally, when employees don’t know the overall picture, when they don’t have an idea of their business’ big-picture goals, they’re going to feel like their work is being sent off into a void as opposed to their helping build something big.
Get the Most Value from Meetings with Your Accountant
We’ve talked previously with the accountants out there about how they can become much more valuable to their clients. Whether you’re the accountant or the business owner, one of the key ingredients in getting the most out of the client-accountant relationship is the regularly scheduled meeting. If you’re new to these meetings and you’re not sure what you should be discussing, try integrating the following points to get the most out of your time together.
Are You Wasting Time and Money with Your Meetings?
Business Insider Australia reported in 2014 that 66% of 3,900 workers feel that the time they spend in meetings is of zero value, and that this is having a negative effect on their productivity. Worse, 88% report that the number of meetings that they have to attend are static or on the rise. This in turn can translate to thousands of dollars being lost from your bottom line. Let’s take a look at some ways you can regain those lost minutes.
Power Up Your Team’s Productivity
How do you make your gang happy? The obvious answer is to pay them a whole lot of money. But if you’re a smaller business you simply won’t have the bank to back this kind of strategy. Let’s take a look at some other quick ideas that can help keep a smile on your employees’ faces if you can’t afford to pay everyone big-business sized salaries.
What Accountants Are Really Trying to Sell
It’s a simple idea – know what you’re selling so you can be better at sales. So the question becomes – do you know what it is you are selling to your clients? Knowing the answer to this question can make you better at sales, even if you have no inherent talent at chatting clients up.
Looking for a Way to Focus Your Firm?
There are principal benefits people looking for when they launch their own firm. The 1st is the ability to put food on the table. The 2nd benefit is satisfaction – that sense of fulfilment isn’t only a perk, it’s also a tool that you can use to mold your own business into your ultimate ideal firm.
7 Tips for Expanding Your Advertising without Breaking Your Budget
The internet offers multiple opportunities for even the smallest start-up to catch its fair share of new clients and customers. Here are some tips to help you get started connecting with people who are looking for a business just like yours. These tips may take you a little time and creativity, but none of them should put an unwieldy dent in your bottom line.
Here’s How You Keep Ahead in the Cloud Era
Accounting is no exception when it comes to digital disruptions. Most of you reading this will probably have experienced this already – clients are going it alone with DIY software packages or they’re expecting more from their relationship with you. So what is “more”? What can you give your clients in order not only to retain them, but in fact increase their numbers?
Hints on Handling Awkward Conversations with Clients
You’re going to be raising prices. You’re looking to sever your relationship with a client. You need to remind a client about their obligation to bring you referrals. There are all sorts of conversations that can make the average accountant queasy – and all sorts of reasons you can come up with to put the calls off until another day. However, you’re an accountant, a wizard when it comes to numbers but without training when it comes to delivering bad news. What can you do to make it easier for you to get these painful calls over and done with?
Are You Making These Time-Management Mistakes?
The more time you can spend on doing actual accounting work (as opposed to administration work) the more money your firm will make. Even better, the more time you can spend on clients and services that bring in higher dues (instead of lower-tier compliance stuff) the more return you get from your time investment. Here are a couple of quick clues that might indicate that you need to tweak your time management.
7 Quick Tips That Can Make You More Money
One of the hang-ups we find a fair number of accountants have when it comes to increasing their prices is that they simply think they are charging too much. They think that service X only requires so much work, how could they possibly justify charging any more than Y? Let’s take a look at some ways you can start boosting your own personal bottom line as quickly as possible.
Are You Charging Enough?
Do you know the clearest way to know if you’re charging too little? All of your clients say yes to your price without reservation. When you’re setting your prices, you should be setting them according to the value you offer. You shouldn’t be setting them according to the notion of giving your clients a great deal at your expense.
What Do You Do If Your Clients Don’t Appreciate Your Value?
The problem is that you have so much more that you can do for your client than pure bookkeeping or compliance work but your clients haven’t ever heard of an accountant getting so involved with everything in their business. If you let them keep this misconception you’re robbing them of the chance to boost their finances and/or business, and you’re robbing yourself of streams of revenue.
Planning Sessions are a Big First Step for Both You and Your Clients
We’d like to give you an incredibly simple way to get that ball rolling. Further yourself as an advisor for your clients’ businesses and finances. Instead of occasional work your firm will get tucked into their daily affairs, aiding them in their efforts to expand their business.
Are You Competing On Price Alone? Look into Alternatives
Outsourcing, while a great way to reduce costs, is actually at its heart all about growth, and competing on price alone is definitely not the best path to achieve it. Instead, you could look into these three other areas.
3 Tips To Help You Avoid Competing on Price
Price is just about the last point you want to contest with your competitors – but how do you let potential clients know that they should be looking past price when they go hunting for an accounting firm? Let’s take a quick look at 3 tips that will help you if you’re negotiating with a client that keeps bringing the conversation around to price.
Are You Limiting Your Own Growth?
You’re determined that your business is going to grow like gangbusters this year. You’re right in that this growth, and the desire for growth, has to emanate from you. You’re just not sure how to break down the growth into achievable and measurable steps that are practical and workable instead of just having a vague overall goal. So let’s help you figure out just what exactly “growth” means for you and your business and what steps you can make to achieve it.
How Do Prospects Form Their Opinion About Your Professional Skills?
It is of the utmost importance that you know exactly how your prospects evaluate you. In other words, what do they look for to determine how professional you are? Often the more you try to convince someone to use you, the more they will suspect your motives and be sceptical of what you are telling them.
Tips for Selecting & Thinning Out Clients to Boost the Success of Your Business
A savvy business owner knows which business connections are worth his time and energy and which ones are not. Culling your client list is an important business strategy. It is not personal. It is about their value to your business.
