If you’re like a lot of others that we talk with, you hate marketing. Often seen as time-consuming, confusing, expensive and often, difficult to quantify—it really struggles to rank a spot on your top ten list of “favorite things to do.” The problem is, marketing is an essential component of your business success story. You really cannot build a thriving business without it. After all, if you don’t control the way your business shows up in the marketplace, someone else will. And considering … [Read more...]
How To Turn Email Subscribers Into Paying Clients
The million dollar question is, if a conversion for you is getting people to sign up for your email list, what do you do once you acquire all of those email addresses? We’re going to share some tips that will help you stay softly in front of your prospects without a lot of pressure and eventually, turn some into paying clients. If you think email marketing is all about pitching what you sell, think again. Email marketing helps people get to know, like and trust you. This happens because, over … [Read more...]
Top 7 Value Added Tax Business Services
One of the basic truths about running a tax business is that you’re going to be busiest during tax season. The rest of the year, things can be slow, and if you’re planning on having a steady income you need to find other ways to bring in money. While some tax professionals can live off what they make during tax season, most of us like the comfort of a regular revenue stream. Creating that revenue stream means adding service offerings to your tax business. Here are some ideas for … [Read more...]
Leveraging Current Clients For Business Referral
I've done hundreds of new member consultations. One question I always ask is "what's your best source of new clients?" The answer is almost always, "business referral." But lately, I've been pulling a bit of a Columbo and asking "just one more thing." Specifically, I'll ask "what systems do you have in place to generate those all-important referrals?" And then there's an uncomfortable silence on the other end of the phone. After all, they don’t teach this kind of stuff in accountant … [Read more...]
Top 6 Tax Business Mistakes
Running a tax business is like running any other business: one misstep and you can find yourself closing your doors for good. It’s not enough to be smart, to understand your trade, and to work hard; you’ve also got to make good business decisions, as well. One of the best ways to stay in business is to understand what pitfalls you might face and prepare for them. Here are some of the most common mistakes tax professionals make in business, and a little bit about what you can do to avoid … [Read more...]
Staying Current with New Tax Laws
More than many other professionals, tax professionals are constantly faced with the need to keep their knowledge and their skills current. Tax laws change – sometimes dramatically – from one year to the next. If you’re not up to speed on the latest changes, you’ll wind up making more work for yourself and potentially costing your clients money. What makes this situation even more frustrating is that the government often makes changes at the last minute, and that it takes time for new tax law … [Read more...]
Tax Business Tips for Success
It takes more than a thorough knowledge of tax law to build a successful tax business. In fact, some of the markers of success for your business will have little – if anything – to do with your knowledge of taxes. And, while every tax business is different, there are certain common threads that seem to run through those businesses which have been able to stick around. Here are some of the common characteristics of a successful tax business: The owner of a successful tax business is … [Read more...]
Working with Small Business Owner Taxes
As a tax professional, you’re in business to help your clients. You want to see them in the best possible tax situation they can be in. When your clients are small businesses, you know that you’re working hard to protect someone’s livelihood, and that you’re helping to fuel the great engine that is the backbone of the country’s economy. Working with small businesses can be challenging, at times. Small business owner tax records can be disorganized. They can be very busy, and reluctant to take … [Read more...]
Tax Blogs Can Help Your Tax Business
The world has changed. There was a time when all a tax business really needed to do was place an ad in the Yellow Pages, get those first few clients, and just sit back and watch the business roll in. Today, consumers are much less likely to open the yellow pages than they are to turn to the Internet when they’re looking for a service like tax preparation. That means your tax business needs to have a strong Internet presence. One of the best ways to boost that Internet presence, establish … [Read more...]
Client Relationship Management Tips
Tax professionals know that the most important part of the year is between December and April. That’s when you’re the busiest; that’s also when you make most of your money. In fact, the business you do during tax season will, in some cases, need to carry you through the rest of the year. This is a challenge, of course. There are only so many hours in a day, and there are only so many clients you can handle and still give each the attention they deserve. If you’re smart about it, however, … [Read more...]
