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 the time necessary to spend on their taxes, leaving the burden to you.
However, working with small business owner taxes can also be very rewarding. In fact, for many tax professionals, small businesses are ideal clients.
Here are some of the reasons you should consider expanding your services to include small business owner taxes if you’re not already doing so:
- Small businesses have a genuine need for tax help. Small business owners wear many hats. They’re salespeople, assembly line workers, managers, and even accountants. It’s hard for a small business owner to be good at all of those things. One area where it just makes sense for the small business owner to look elsewhere for help is taxes. When you work for small business clients, you know that you’re helping someone with a genuine need.
- Small businesses have plenty of opportunities for tax advantages. There are plenty of deductions and credits available to small business owners. Finding those can be part of the enjoyment of working with small businesses, especially when you succeed in helping them reduce their tax burden.
- Small businesses know the power of recommendations. Chances are pretty good that your small business clients get a good bit of business via word of mouth. They know just how powerful a good recommendation can be. If they’re satisfied with your work helping them with their small business owner taxes, they’re more likely that some other types of clients to recommend you to their peers.
- Small businesses understand the way you work, too. There’s something of a camaraderie that can exist between small business owners. They know how much work they put into their business, and they also understand how much work you put into yours. Working with small businesses can, in many cases, be like working with a peer for that reason.
- Small business tax problems are rarely complex. Some small businesses face complex enough tax problems that they don’t want to (and shouldn’t try to) handle them on their own, of course. However, small business tax issues are usually fairly straightforward for the tax professional. If you’re a tax professional who works primarily with or even exclusively with small businesses, time and experience will give you insight that’s truly valuable to the client, too.
- Small businesses are more profitable than individual tax clients. There’s more work to do with a small business, so you’re going to make more money. That means fewer clients and more revenue for your business. While you could probably make more money doing taxes for larger businesses, you’ll also face a significantly higher investment of time and the need for much deeper knowledge, as well.
- There are many tools available to help you handle small business owner taxes. There is all sorts of software that you can use to assist you in preparing small business taxes. Most of that software will connect with the major accounting packages, so you should have very little difficulty getting the data that you need from the client.
- Small businesses are good candidates for additional services. There are a number of value-added services that tax professionals may offer that are especially suited to small businesses. From retirement account services to standard accounting, small businesses can form multiple streams of revenue for the tax business.
- Working with small businesses can be highly rewarding. When you work for a small business, you develop relationships. It’s not like individual taxes where you see the person once a year, or corporate taxes where you might deal with a dozen different accountants. Small businesses let you get to know your clients, and establish real rapport and relationship.
Small business clients can be wonderful for your tax business. Spend some effort to gain some small business clients, and you’ll see exactly what we’re talking about.
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