Discussion:How did you get here?

1) What's the story of your practice and what single idea, practice, or change made the single biggest impact on your client base growth?

2) For you full-timers, is it the retail establishment that brings most of your clients in or is it word of mouth referrals? How much would you say having the brick and mortar shop affected client base?

Now that tax season is over, I am studying my options. Jobs are very tenuous at best these days so there is probably an equal chance of losing mine verses keeping it...the whale that swallowed my old, very stable company is constantly pruning. Since being acquired, there have been almost bi-weekly layoffs of a person here and a person there. They do it this way to avoid the notification processes and it appears to be a way of life. So I am preparing for the eventual fact that I may lose this job and if I do, I am going out on my own. Never again will I deal with this corporate nonsense....a merger or acquisition a year is too much to take.

So I am looking hard at taking the EA exam this Summer/Fall as a fail safe and to increase my knowledge and clout. Avoiding the EA was never the plan, I felt that having a few years experience under my belt would help me.

However, I am trying to gauge how much of a client base difference having a good retail establishment will make. It makes no sense to throw up a shingle if the client base effect is minimal and rent bills start coming due.

Thanks,

Michael

As most did, I started by working as a seasonal subcontractor for local CPA firms while at the same time building my practice.

The single biggest impact on my practice was networking with other CPA's and doing everything I could to help them, since I had some free time. I was a little ahead of the curve in terms of electronic research and forms products in the early 1990's, so I became the one to call for forms and research printouts.

Then, over the next 10 years, three of the part time sole practitioners I had helped closed their practices and referred all of their clients to me, without asking for anything in return other than someone they could trust to take on the work!

I don't know about retail establishments since I work out of my home.

Good luck with your job situation. I don't know a single person who isn't severely impacted by the current economic turmoil.