See: Four Tips to Hitting Your Perfect Price Point PART 1

Last But Not Least… Discounts

There are two keys when it comes to using discounts to win new clients. The first is introducing urgency, and the second is offering value.

A remote bookkeeping service with BOSS gives you a fixed fee plan AND means no more budget overruns ever again!!

In creating urgency, you’re setting a due date and thereby nudging your potential client past the sense of this not being “the right time.” Suddenly there’s a very limited “right time” to get the services they were considering for a reduced price.

Price-wise, you have to go back to your overall strategy to decide if you’re going to offer a percentage discount, or a dollar discount. Percentages generally work better when dealing with lower dollar amounts – 50% is sexier than $50. But dollars are the better bet at higher prices, so you can show a big fat number behind that dollar sign.

Cancel remote bookkeeping staff with only a month’s notice. Don’t get caught out with super long contracts and hidden exit fees with other outsourcing firms!

The key here is that the two – urgency and offered value – must be used together. If you offer a huge discount but have no explicit end date, then that sense of urgency is wiped out. Conversely, if you have a one-week sale but only slice off a tiny amount from your price, the sale becomes meaningless when it comes to value.

When you engage a BOSS remote bookkeeping service or an accountant you can have a monthly client services meeting to make sure your firm’s goals are being met

Another way to discount is instead of purely slashing prices, you offer to knock off a percent from a certain service if your client brings in a new client. So you offer new Business A your “Advice For New Businesses” package… but you’ll give it to them for 10% less if they can get someone else to sign up with them (that second business also receiving 10% off).
So they call up Business B who agrees, and they come to you together for that deal where each gets 10% off. Your “Advice For New Businesses” package is a pretty standard bundle of services, and it costs you little to no time or money to tailor it to both A and B. So for the one-time loss of 20%, you now have two new clients who will grow with you, steered onward to additional services as time goes on.

BOSS remote bookkeeping staff have all worked reviewed by a senior reviewer before the work is returned to you

Like with the rest of our points, this is an experiment in getting to know your own business better – here you’re figuring out how to measure long-term gains (gained clients) versus short-term losses.

There is one great big caution sign here – charging too little too often will devalue the perception of your services. Don’t offer discounts for long periods of time or on a routine schedule. You want to keep your overall value up – offering a lot, for a little less, shouldn’t seem like something you have to do to stay in business. It’s generosity, not desperation.

You can be setup with your BOSS remote bookkeeping staff within a week’s notice

In summary, it all comes down to getting to know yourself and your clients – what you offer, and what they value most.

The End

See: Four Tips to Hitting Your Perfect Price Point PART 1

And here’s where your dollar sign does the dance again – because in fact there can be a very healthy value to you if you price high. Very high. Think about lawyers – do you want the one who costs the price of a house just for showing up to defend you, or do you want the poor public defender who has worn out the elbows on his shirt? While that public defender may actually be the superior lawyer, the woman with the thousand dollar watch automatically reeks of resources and competence.

With BOSS, bringing on the outsourced accountant needn’t be a frightening thought, we have trained accountants that can follow your in-house procedures on all of your jobs!

There can be a lot of value gained by pricing yourself as the Rolls Royce of the accounting world. Which pricing strategy would work best for you at this time?

3. Measure Your Value
Value Metrics. Metric – a means of measuring. Value – what you have to offer.

Your value metric defines not only what services you provide for a given fee but how you are charging.

Don’t pay any kickstart fees with the outsourced accountant provided by BOSS. Other firms can charge an arm and a leg!

E.g. A software company may sell different numbers of licenses at different prices. The price goes down as the volume of licenses goes up (the value becomes greater). They may also add-on specials such as 10 free support calls or unlimited support calls as part of a top tier package. (The value then is even greater).

With an accounting firm you could have a metric which is the frequency of management accounting reports you provide a business per year (e.g. monthly, quarterly, six monthly or annually). The increased value goes up in higher and higher tiers. Additional value based offerings could be bill payments, invoicing, budgeting, cash flow and strategic planning.

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The most important facet of all of this is to remember to be clear as to what the increases in price revolve around. What service(s) do your clients value the most? Build your various price levels around the value(s) your clients want from you at the most basic level.

Once you have a pricing strategy in place with various increasing value propositions in exchange for rising prices, make sure your clients understand your pricing strategy without needing to have someone from your firm explain it to them. The last thing you want is for the waters to be muddy when it comes to what you’re charging for which services. Confusion or difficulties in purchasing your services will lead to a client’s lack of confidence, and that means missed conversions.

The outsourced accountant with BOSS can provide you with quick turnaround on your work

When done right, your firm will still be able to grow even when your acquisition of new clients occasionally fizzles a bit, because since your value metric revolves around services your clients will always need no matter how big they get, as they grow they’ll look to you as their trusted advisor for other valuable services.

4. Bundles, Tiers, and Packages

So we’ve already talked about tiers.

Let’s expand on that by including bundles and packages. What we’re looking at here is placing two or more services together, and then offering them at a price that’s lower than the sum of those individual services. While you’re now receiving less for one (or more) of the services, you’re still receiving income that you wouldn’t have otherwise received at all because the client had no initial interest in the extra service(s). You may even sell a service that isn’t even truly necessary.

The outsourced accountant staff at BOSS only need one month’s cancellation notice. A big difference between BOSS and other outsourcing firms.

Continued in Part ¾ – Four Tips to Hitting Your Perfect Price Point

See: How Value-Based Pricing Works For You PART 1

Benefits of Value Based Pricing at a Glance

• The end-client has a clear idea of exactly what they get for their money for a clearly defined job. The client gets peace of mind.
• It improves the relationship with the end-client – fees do not creep up due to more time being taken on a specific job.

One month’s notice ONLY with a BOSS outsourced accountant! If you’re looking around ask about contract terms, many outsourcing providers ask for long notice cancellation periods. Don’t get trapped!

• It allows other services to be “packaged up” and sold as clear definable “add-ons” a client can choose to buy. This simplifying and clarity helps the client identify, from a complex set of services, what is useful to them. Thus it is easier to attract clients to additional services and then sell to them.
• Establishing a value-based fee requires accurate knowledge of the client needs, which mandates a pre-project meeting with a client. This collaborative approach helps build a positive relationship with a client, giving you a chance to take on the role of ‘trusted advisor’ rather than mere service provider.

A BOSS Outsourced Accountant That Promises How to Eliminate Budget Overruns With Fixed-Fees on All Your Work boz.com.au

Obstacles to Value-Based Pricing

Value-based pricing methods are not traditional pricing methods, and they take some getting used to, both as a firm, and for your clients. When attempting to implement this method of pricing, some of the obstacles you may face include:

• Internal resistance: Firm-wide adoption of this pricing method is necessary in order for it to be a success. Training and ‘reprogramming’ staff is an initial investment needed and can meet with resistance, particularly as cost-based pricing (hourly rates) are the pricing method taught at university and the established norm.
• Client discomfort: Despite the premise of value-based pricing being to set a rate that meets the customer’s value perception, some aspects of value-based pricing may seem unfair to a client, particularly as you change from one method to another. The best ways to assuage this discomfort is to prove to the customer they are getting their money’s value: increase communication with them, improve your availability, your responsiveness and ensure the quality of your work and improve visibility of senior partners.

An outsourced accountant needn’t be hidden in the background, out of sight or sound from your firm. With BOSS you have direct contact with your accountant via email or skype!

• Finding the value price: Price setting can be difficult if the proper information is not available. This is where engagement letters must be specific; then anything outside the scope of the initial engagement letter becomes an add-on and can be priced as such, without a project running at a loss. In a case where information is scarce, an engagement letter should cover what the project will encompass, as well as what it will not.

While many firms resist using a value pricing method, many still are embracing it, and feeling the rewards of not only increased value from their work, but a stronger and more open relationship with clients. What is stopping you from using value-based pricing in your firm?

Get started now on our new Freedom Service’s outsourced accountant deal

The End

See: How to Improve Your Cash Flow PART 1

Other Ways to Improve Cash Flow without Dramatically Changing Your Billing Style

Charge Interest on Overdue Payments

Charge a nominal 1% per month interest for money owing past the due date. This has worked well for some businesses in the past.

Factoring

Factoring is a method of securing your cash flow by selling the invoices of your clients to ‘factors’ or businesses that buy invoices of customers that have good creditworthiness. The factors will advance most of the invoice amount to you (typically 70% or 90%) then when the client pays the factor, they remit the balance to you, withholding their factoring fee. This works out great if you have a couple of large invoices that are choking up your cash flow, because you will have most of the money within a day or a couple of days, and the factoring fee will not eat away at the principal amount of the invoice. If however, you have multiple small invoices, factoring them is probably not in your best interest as a way to create cash flow, because the factoring fee may become costly.

Accounting Outsourcing That Means You Never Have to See a Budget Write-Off Again……..Get Fixed-Fees on EVERY job!

Fee Funding

Fee funders are similar to factors in that they pay you the value of an invoice. They differ however, on how the client repays them. Clients can repay a fee funder over a select term period, which means a client that has a large invoice has the option to repay in instalments to the fee funder, while you have already received the full payment upfront from the fee funder.

Your Firm Can Have Fixed-Fee Accounting Outsourcing Staff Working for Only a 50 Hour a Month Commitment 

Take QuickFee as an example. They specialise in fee funding for accounting and law firms, and it costs the firm an initial joining fee to access their services, after which there are no more fees for using the fee funding service. You can then offer their services to select clients, creating a repayment agreement that suits your client’s needs, i.e. a monthly repayment over 6 months. Upon approval, QuickFee credits your account with the full invoice amount, and will direct debit the agreed amount from your clients’ nominated bank account until the invoice is paid in full to them. It’s a cash flow solution for you and your client.

Have you heard of BOSS’ accounting outsourcing Freedom Service?

Cash flow problems have potentially huge knock-on effects; growth can be impeded and revenue opportunities lost. Time is wasted chasing late payments and it causes a lot of stress. For some companies cash flow issues can simply mean the business goes under. So if your cash flow could be better, do yourself a favour and do something about it now!

The End

No hidden fees EVER with BOSS accounting outsourcing services… and no killer start-up fees either!

Value-based pricing is rapidly becoming the pricing method of choice for professional service firms from law firms to chartered accountants.

The premise of value-based pricing is that you set prices based on the value the client perceives they are receiving. “Value is in the eye of the beholder. For any transaction to take place, both the buyer and the seller must profit from the exchange and receive more value – in their subjective perception – than what they are giving up,” says Ron Baker, author of Pricing On Purpose: How To Implement Value Pricing in Your Firm.

Your Firm Can Have Fixed-Fee Outsourced Accounting Staff Working for Only a 50 Hour a Month Commitment

For example, a client calls with an urgent problem that you, with all your experience, can fix in a half hour. Do you charge the client for half an hour, or do you charge based on the value you are creating for your client? This concept is difficult for many accounting firms to come to terms with…charge the client for a value perception? Isn’t this deceptive? Isn’t it unfair? Won’t charging the client less make them happier?

In fact, pricing for the value you are creating for a client has farther-reaching benefits than just increasing of the worth of your work. This is primarily because to establish a value-based price, you need to involve the client in working out that price. You need complete information from the client, which necessitates greater interaction with the client, which in turn builds a stronger relationship with the client.

Outsourced Accounting saves you in-house time and money

Here is a scenario that most of you will have come across. Its tax time and you have a returning client from the previous year. They are expecting the tax return will cost the same as it did last year, but the work has taken much longer than it did last year, and so the client gets a shock at the bill. They call, upset, trying to negotiate their invoice. You are under pressure to keep the client for repeat business, so you cave, losing money. During the negotiation there is no cash coming in for the work done, so your cash flow suffers; worst of all, your client relationship suffers.

Visit BOSS for a fixed-fee outsourced accounting program designed to suit YOUR needs!

Now consider this. Its tax time and you have a return client from the previous year. You arrange a meeting to discuss their tax return, giving them a list of all the documents you will need to complete the tax return and ask them to bring it to the meeting. You spend a little time going through this with them, and then provide them with a value-based quote for the job. They might say that this is more than last year, at which point you can explain that there is more work in this year’s tax return, and can show them where. You might request upfront payment, or maybe bill for half upfront, half upon completion. You and the client are on the same page at the beginning, you have everything you need to complete the job quickly, and your cash flow is not impinged and your relationship is stronger.

Continued in Part 2/2 How Value-Based Pricing Works For You

Outsourced Accounting that gives you direct contact with your virtual staff – BOSS

Are you ready to be at the head of the change in a world of virtual accounting?

Cell phones became mobile devices. Classic office procedures are in the midst of evolving into a paperless endeavour as we speak. Tablets were something to goof on only four or five years ago – but 4.8 million of them were sold in Australia in 2013.

Want to get started on our Freedom Service’s outsourcing accounting work?

By far the greatest changes to the way accounting services are performed is coming from the world of technology.

Clients and their Virtual Accountants

We’ve been in the midst of a switch to a paperless system for some time now – people file their income tax returns online, goods and services are bought and sold internationally with no paper money ever entering the equation. In December of 2013 alone an estimated 3.4 million Aussies conducted an e-commerce transaction via a mobile device.

Outsourcing accounting work is much easier when you can speak directly with your BOSS accounting staff

Where once an accounting firm would have a representative sit down with a client and go through their options in a process that could potentially eat up hours, an entire plan can be laid out and virtually signed off on in a fraction of the time.

Software firms with specialized accounting cloud software like Xero and Saasu are becoming more dominant. As a sign of things to come, international concern Deloitte are pushing into the “private client” sector with a focus on SMEs and entrepreneurs with the Deloitte Private division and notably utilizing the Deloitte Private Connect technology. This system offers leading edge cloud goodies like up-to the minute management reports, alerts, online payment authorisation and queries all via one portal.

Outsourcing accounting work on a fixed fee plan means no more budget overruns for good!

The financial world is already trading in their binders and paperclips for cloud-based databases. Are you keeping pace with your competition?

The Benefits of Virtual Accounting

The benefits for clients are fairly obvious – ease and speed. They no longer have to get everything ready for their trusty accountant come tax time – transactions are electronically registered and merely need to be pulled up.

It they’re a business, their bookkeeping can be continuously shared with their accounting firm so that they have ongoing and up-to-the-minute financial information at their fingertips.

But the benefits aren’t merely client-centric. A paperless office requires less overhead and less staff. Outsourcing accounting can further reduce both of these costs by almost half. Your lowered costs allow you to trumpet lower service fees to potential clients. A professional firm can now be run from home – you can eradicate expensive office rentals – and a handful of new firms are doing just that.

Plus in a virtual world, you’re no longer a Sydney firm or a Melbourne firm, a Christchurch firm or an Auckland firm, you’re an Australian firm or a New Zealand firm – your reach can be stretching from one end of the country to the other to snag new clients.

Be sure to check out BOSS’ new Freedom Service’s outsourcing accounting work

Continued in Part 2/2 – How to Lead the Technology Wave