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.

I am home-based and do no marketing other than a line in my email signature where I say that "I consider a referral the highest compliment, please tell your family and friends about the professional services I provide". I got that from a realtor, and I thought that if people know I want referrals maybe they'll send some, and they do.

But the big motor of my practice are a couple of clients. I put a lot of time and effort to solve some problems that they had, and didn't charge that much for that (they were underwater) and they tell everyone that care to listen about me, so I am getting new people from them every year.

I am looking forward to hear what other people have to say. Good luck!

The first order is to get the EA exam under my belt...part 1 in June or July depending on vacation. If I lose my job, I may just study full time and take all three parts instead.

I don't have any plans at this point to go it on my own. I don't have enough clients to even consider it.

The ultimate plan is to build my business over the next few years to the point where I need some assistants and I should have two kids coming out of school by then (high school) who can work part time during college.

Michael

My husband originally had this business. I helped him because I had done taxes on the side before and my job, as a computer programmer/analyst who specialized in financial and accounting systems, gave me a lot of knowledge in the accounting, payroll and tax fields.

After being laid off after many years in the field (and being burnt out because of the oncall demands), I took over his business, and my husband went back to work for someone.

I'd like to take the EA exam and just build the tax portion of the business and keep the accounting and payroll side small. I have a special needs daughter and her needs require a lot of my time, so I think this arrangement would be the best for us.

But that's why I have 100% retention, I answer the phone, I email ASAP, my clients know that I am here for them, and I CARE about them. That makes a huge difference. I may not know everything (or a lot) but I research, I read TA, and I deliver. I review the returns and I always find something that give my clients a better outcome (not necessarily a mistake), and I couldn't do that when I worked for the "chain", since it was done and e-filed on the spot.

I even answered the phone on the 16th!