Discussion:Help! need new clients.

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Discussion:TO TAX PROFESSIONALS - PLEASE READ

Networking is the best way. Join a club, civic group and spread your name around. If you belong to a church, social club advertise there in those publications. I took out an ad in the phone book and it netted two clients. Big waste of money in my opinion. I don't think people read it anymore. My best ad: the church bulletin. Weekly exposure, people know me and it's less than $10 a week. Over 2/3rd's of my new clients come from that. It more than pays for itself.

BEGooding has some good ideas as well. Keep in mind that word of mouth is sometimes the best way as well. Do a good job for your clients and they will take care of you by telling people about you.

Tom

Visit their website for more info www.bni.com It's basically a networking organization where you and 20 or so other business owners (only one from any business category....ie., no other accountants in the group) partner to help each other gain new client through qualified referrals.

Second best: telephone every new business owner that files for a new business license in your area. I have gained as many as 12 new business clients per month using this technique. In my area, you can get names and phone numbers of new business filings online for free. One caution: there can be lots of churn, since 40% of new businesses fail in the first year, even with a good accountant. But they stay with you at tax season for years even if they eventually go work for someone else.

Please shoot me an email at Mike@sbscpagroup.com

Thanks in advance

In our area, two local government offices actually publish the New Business Licenses list online. You can go to the website and download a PDF or Excel copy. A third local government actually emails the list at month end to anyone who requests it, free of charge. A fourth local government actually sells the list for $20. I don't bother with that city; it's not a primary target area for me anyway.

One caveat. There's a lot of churn. 40% of new businesses won't make it past the first 12 months. But you'll at least have some quantity of names to sort thru and qualify. Best candidates are contractors or retailers with a handful of employees--they have immediate need for an accountant and know they can't do it all themselves, unlike a lot of the home-based business start ups.

Cold calling new businesses from the county list.....well, how can I put this diplomatically? Most are simply pure idiots and it is a miracle they could figure out the application for the business license. First, they answer the new business line with 'hullo?'. Second, they generally haven't started doing any business yet and I find many have filed their business license app on the HOPES of starting a business. The remainder tell me "I haven't made any money, I don't need an accountant". The few professional business owners I run across already have an accountant. I quit calling them the day the listing comes out because a) they get about 200 calls that day from people doing exactly like me and b) they don't have a business at that point. I am printing the listing, selecting the hot prospects out of all the immigrant contractors, and then I call them 3 months later. I did net two clients from this process but I have probably made 300 calls. Very discouraging. I also learned that some of these folks will string you along for some time just in case they need an accountant....I give maybe 2 follow ups based on their suggested timetable for doing so and then cut them loose.

Flyers....I printed up 350 fliers and had my wife drive me around while I thumb tacked them to mailboxes during the first couple weeks of February for tax season. No calls...not ONE, all I got was a very nasty deep bruise and blister on my thumb.

Walk ins....I scoured the local towns doing walk ins for businesses. All either were too poor to afford an Accountant, did their own stuff, or worked with an Accountant already. No success at all.

Referral bonuses....to my existing clients, I give referral bonuses. Amount varies based on the new client's needs, but tops out at $50 for a business client referral.

Referrals....really the only way. I have a 100% referral rating for each of my clients. I treat them right, probably underbill somewhat, but I take care of them like a business coach. I NEVER treat them like most of the gimme your records and get the hell out of my office Accountants in the area do.

Networking....I ALMOST had a large trade association's bookkeeping job until the husband of my friend got himself fired from the director position. Almost only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear warfare as they say. But networking is the best way.

I have no bookkeeping clients yet (I thought they would be the easiest to get). Of my tax clients, two came from the cold calling, three came from a wonderful person here who referred some to me, four came from coworkers, one from church, and about five others came from referrals from the above clients.

I hate to say it but getting your first will help.

Good luck,

Michael

You're exactly right that telephoning new business owners can be very very rough. Same with walk-ins. And mailers. And yes, at the end of the day, referrals are truly the number 1 way to get clients

Only problem with referrals... ie., getting clients to refer you... is you have to have one (client) first. It's the absolute best way, but at first it's slow going. So you've got to do something more to speed up the process. Unfortunately, 300 phone calls and 350 flyers alone won't get the job done.

I was working a full time job, taking masters level accounting courses at night... AND working part time as a self - employed bookkeeper (sound familiar?) I couldn't stand my full time job, and I couldn't afford to wait till things developed at their own pace before I made the switch to accounting full time. So I did what I had to do. I made phone calls before work started at 8:30, during lunch hour, and then again after work. Thousands of calls over a two year period. I walked into businesses on Saturdays when not on my full time job. Lots of rejection, lots of the same undignified answers you mention above. It was brutal, but I didn't have time to wait, and didn't have money to send out 5,000 mailers like Frank Salman recommends. But I was determined not to quit, and eventually was able to develop a client base.

The reality is, however, you can't do just one or two things, as most on this topic seem to suggest. There are about a dozen things you should do marketing wise: 1. Send out about 250 letters to everyone you know asking them to pass on your card to business owners 2. Write articles to get published in local newspapers and 'shoppers' 3. Speak at local civic groups, church groups, etc. 4. Join the Chamber, join BNI, etc and attend networking events on a regular basis 5. Send out 10 letters each week - no more and no less - to existing businesses 6. Telephone 20 business daily -- both new and existing businesses 7. Design a website 8. Send out monthly email newsletters via Constant Contact or similar email services 9. Walk in businesses and introduce yourself 10. Ask your current clients to refer you, and reward them with discounts or incentives to do so 11. Do excellent quality work--beyond what clients expect. 12. Ask every business owner you bump into two simple questions: "who takes care of your books?"... "are you happy with their service"?

I've got a lot to learn and a long way to go. During tax season, I did zero marketing, and need to pick things back up again. But I'm not where I used to be, and I'm getting where I want to be step by step. And I think everyone of us can if we'll work a similar "12 step" program on a consistent basis.