Discussion:Starting my own bookkeeping/accounting/tax prep business

I am starting my own practice solely to make money on the side after my wife quit working last year. I have an Accounting degree BBA and an MBA (concentration was in IT electives) but I never completed my CPA. I will be running the business from my home and working a full time job.

I organized in an LLC for liability reasons and I will be getting my business license from the County tomorrow along with opening my checking account. Business cards are on the way from Vista. So pretty much I am ready to go, except for the little thing called clients.

My marketing plan is this: 1) I am the new treasurer for the Boy Scout Pack that my son is in....I will leverage that as much as possible and make sure that everyone knows I am in business now. 2) I know a local Accountant who farms out some of the really small stuff that he cannot make money on (simple tax returns and very small businesses) and I have been talking with him about taking those from him. 3) Network of friends, family, bulletin boards of our collective churches. 4) I am going to the County and will get a list of all the new businesses in the area and will hit them fast before they get another accountant. I have the added advantage that I am going to offer record pickup (I don't want people coming to my home). I really only can handle 5 clients per month to start with.

Once I get some clients on board, I can design processes that my wife can follow to allow me to get a few more clients and do those myself. Eventually, we should be able to replace my wife's income and have her work inside the home instead of her going out and getting another job. That's the big plan anyway.

My problem is pricing. Getting true information on what other Accountants charge is difficult. The Accountant I know said that it has become very cut throat in the past year and they lost about $20K in revenue by being undercut on price despite their prices not adjusting for more than 5 years.

Can some of you practitioners out there help me establish some baseline cost structures....I plan to offer the following services:

Bookkeeping/Accounting Payroll Tax Preparation

Thanks everyone! Michael

Fees will vary geographically. Small towns in Wyoming are not going pay the same as NYC. This topic has been beaten to death here, so perhaps you could look thru other posts for your answer. It basically boils down to: Whatever the market will bear. And there are so many variables.

IMHO: Always easier to discount than to raise your fees.

I understand that fees vary by State and area, I am just trying to get a ballpark for various areas and then I will customize from there. For instance, I don't want to tell someone I will do their books for $50 if the going rate is $250 for reasonable service.

If I could get some people to list what their service rates are for given services, I could get a range at least. Once you commit to a price it is hard to go back later and say "oops, I underestimated the price is now double".

Thanks, Michael

http://accountant.intuit.com/practice_resources/articles/practice_development/article.aspx?file=bt_intuit2007RatesCentral

These are the tax and bookkeeping fees by region, national, and even by some States.

Michael

Secretary of State also might have the newly formed corporations available online. Pay particular attention to the ones which don't appear filed by a lawyer. Under the theory that a lawyer has also probably already referred these corps to an Accountant.

Hmmmm. Might be good to market to small business lawyers as well.

Michael

I will fill out that profile, thanks.

New

The best clients will come from word of mouth, or customer referrals, but you have to have a first customer in order to earn a second customer via referral, so New Business Licensees can get you jump-started, in my experience. Plus it gives you some less complex clients to cut your teeth on, in preparation for higher quality clients down the road.

I was recently laid off and my husband suggest that I put my CPA to good use and start my own business. Since COBRA is more affordable he thinks I should use this time to start my own firm.

I have CPA license, as well as a license for a firm. I would need to get insurance ect. But how do I go about getting clients.

I am interested in helping with organizing small businesses. My husband has a small business and I organized everything. I used a payroll service and I handle all the book work for him.

I am wondering how do I market this skill as the "Wife of a Small Business". Organizing, filings (Sales & Use), Federal & State Income taxes, setting up software, trouble shooting, and helping them small business to flourish.

Good advice from the husband, IMHO. I am extracting myself from the Corporate world as soon as I possibly can, that much I can promise you. Never to go back.

Considering you have no income (little from unemployment?) any positive step you take forward is traction.

Clients are hard and good clients are harder. I would suggest that you contact your County to see if they publish a listing of new business licenses...you will make a lot of calls and get hung up on but you can eek out a few clients a year from this method. I personally found that advertising doesn't work and becoming an IRS Authorized e-file provider is useless. You didn't mention whether you were going to be home based or not. If so, clients will be somewhat harder to get because you don't have the walk-in traffic. I would suggest going to some Chamber of Commerce meetings, young entrepreneur meetings, business networking clubs in your area, etc. You can also have some cards printed up with your information and go talk to local CPA's or EA's to see about sub work.

I would look closely at setting up some Quickbooks as that has been an easy sell since most people are small and starting out and THINK they can do their own books. Then market high-dollar clean up work at the end of the year. All of my Quickbooks clients became tax clients.

Good luck,

Michael

http://www.oscpa.com/consumer/article.asp?id=14291

It seems that the majority of their 'system' relies on a direct marketing letter and a phone call...both of which can be accomplished without paying their fees by buying/getting for free your county's new business listing. You can also target specific industries you like and use the phone book or online search systems for your area. You can use the yellow box on the left to find out other members' experiences with direct mailing (I don't think it has been very good).

I don't have much faith in many of these marketing schemes. They generally give boiler plate common sense advice and charge crazy fees for them.

Michael