sign in sign up
<<
Home , Bookkeeping, Revenue

’s Accelerator

Accountants, CPAs, Bookkeepers, Tax Preparers, QuickBooks® Consultants, and Software Resellers 60 Ways to Increase Your Accounting or

A Special Report by Sandi Smith Leyva Are you looking for ways to increase your business you. And tell them how much you’d appreciate their revenue in your tax or accounting business? If so, here are referrals. You have to say it out loud; don’t assume clients some ideas for you to consider. know.

For best results, read this when you are not hurried or 3. Stop giving away services for free. stressed. Have an open mind. You may have thought Are you offering clients advisory-level services while about or considered some of these in the past when it charging a bookkeeper rate? Are you acting as a coach to was not the right time, and maybe now is the right time. some clients without charging for your coaching services? If so, stop it. You’re giving away services for free, and this Don’t let fear or our natural dislike for change cause you isn’t helping your revenue! to think negatively as you read these. It’s easy for us to get lazy about changing things in our business, but you won’t get more revenue keeping things the way they are!

Think about the positives of these ideas before you think about the negatives, and you might actually have some ideas to choose from when you’re done. And remember, it’s all about helping the client and being valued and paid what you’re worth.

4. Add new features to your existing services. If you offer bookkeeping but not budgeting, add the feature of budgeting to your service and increase your rates accordingly. If you offer tax return filing but not tax projections, then add it. Your clients may already be asking for these things; listen to them and adjust your packages and services accordingly.

5. Provide software installation and setup. 1. Increase your price. If you don’t already offer technology services, this is a first The simplest way to add more revenue is to increase step. Whether the software is desktop or online, you do your price. You may lose a few clients, but if you do it this all the time, but the client only does this once in a right, are valued, and do a great job for clients, they’ll blue moon. The client will probably be willing to pay for pay more. Some may even say, “It’s about time; you were the time savings if you can explain it well. underpriced.” Bundle in selection and customization services and you 2. Increase referrals. have a whole new service line to offer clients. If clients or prospects are asking you if you take new clients, then it’s not clear to anyone whether you want 6. Try wholesale software billing. new business or not. Also, when you talk to a client and if This is where you are billed for the client’s software you complain or mention how busy you are all the time, and you bill the client for their software, with, of course you may actually be hurting your chances for referrals. a markup based on what you and the vendor have Greet clients happily and let them know you are taking approved. Your revenue will increase with volume as the new clients. Let them know what the ideal client is for markup will go to .

[email protected] www.AccountantsAccelerator.com 2 Some accounting professionals do this for other 11. Offer payroll services. accounting professionals that don’t want to mess with it, You may already offer payroll services with your so think outside your client base on this one. bookkeeping or accounting services, but if you don’t, it’s something to consider. It’s much easier these days as 7. Charge for phone consulting. employees onboard themselves, and cloud payroll can be Do your clients just have a “quick question” all the time? If processed in about five minutes per pay period. so, the answer probably took you years to learn. Charge for the phone time. 12. Earn affiliate fees. Many software products have affiliate programs where you earn a commission for referring your clients to them. You can earn a little or a lot this way depending on how much effort you put in selling the software.

13. Provide administrative services. One example of this is to copy clients' thermal receipts at year-end because you know they aren’t going to do it. Offer to do this as an add-on to your packages and you might be surprised at how many clients take you up on it.

14. Offer to help with accounting policy 8. Better yet, charge a support retainer. development. Do some of your clients need you “on call” for support? Many startups don’t have policies written like refund If so, charge them a monthly retainer fee for access to policy, shipping policy, or other policies that are required you on short notice. The charge is incurred whether the for e-commerce. Help them with these accounting- client uses the support or not. The value is in you being related policies as part of a service you provide. available on short notice whether they need you or not.

9. Offer training. Do your clients need to learn the ? If so, you have lots of options. One on one customized training is the most requested. Most owners don’t have all day to go to a class. This new service can be profitable if you have the knowledge, ability to explain, and the patience of a teacher.

10. Provide accounting software add-on services. 15. Propose entity compliance. Does the accounting software fall short of features the Making sure corporations have their board meeting client needs? When the alternative is to go to a more minutes in a book, have the correct address of the agent expensive accounting package, you may be able to on file, and other legal requirements can be a service you save the client a lot of money by suggesting an add-on offer. While it’s not directly related to accounting, it’s right application that integrates deeply with the accounting up your alley because you’re already more organized and software they are using. You can select, install, customize, deadline-focused than most entrepreneurs. and train clients on the add-ons.

[email protected] www.AccountantsAccelerator.com 3 16. Offer classes. 21. Consult with other accounting firms to do Some clients might want to learn more about accounting what you do. or their accounting software. Offer classes to teach Find an accounting firm that isn’t doing what you’re financial literacy, accounting for non-, how to doing. For example, if you have a booming QuickBooks read financial reports, and accounting software. bookkeeping business, many accounting firms are scratching their heads how to start one. Consider 17. Offer webinars. becoming their consultant to help them with their new Ditto the above, but instead of face-to-face, do it in division. a webinar. If you have an excellent turnout at your webinars, you could partner up with other instructors and offer a wider variety of classes. Consider your attorney, broker, referral partners, IT consultant, HR expert, and more.

18. Sell templates. Have you got a lot of forms, samples, and templates that could benefit a new entrepreneur? If so, consider selling these in a package. This would work best when niched to 22. Set up mobile accounting. a specific industry. Include things like , Do clients want to do accounting on their phone but credit card authorization forms, collection letters, and the struggle with the setup? Add a new service that helps a like. client setup their online banking, accounting software access, payroll and/or timesheet access, and other add-on access. Walk them through making an online deposit and the correct endorsement: “For electronic deposit only” and maybe even order them a new stamp.

23. Teach at community colleges. Earn a little extra money by teaching at your local college. It can be great for marketing to new clients too. 19. Hire bookkeepers. Did your client just lose his bookkeeper? If so, offer to 24. Write and sell a book. help him through the interview process to get a new This one’s a little harder, and you won’t get rich as an bookkeeper onboard. You can offer interview questions, author. But a book is the best “business card” ever and will job descriptions, technical tests, and much more get you great credibility for long-term revenue growth. expertise to a client’s hiring process. The typical search firm gets about 30 percent of the first year salary, so this is 25. Be a part-time supervisor for clients. not a trivial service. For clients with full time bookkeeping staff, you can offer supervisory services. This might include a package 20. Provide workflow efficiencies. of services that includes managing the bookkeeper’s Do you find that a client’s accounting services are work product, assigning tasks, training, giving annual especially cumbersome? If so, they’ll benefit from your performance reviews, and setting salary. You have more review of their workflow and suggestions to streamline expertise than most entrepreneurs when it comes to their accounting processes. This is a sought-after reviewing the work of a bookkeeper, and clients might consulting service, so your fees can be profitable. appreciate the time savings this service offers.

[email protected] www.AccountantsAccelerator.com 4 26. Train other accountants. Creating strategic plans, helping with budgeting, and If you have deep knowledge into accounting software, a general business consulting will always have a market for particular industry, or you’ve simply figured out how to owners who want to grow their and do things do something you think most other accountants haven’t, right. you can put together a course for your peers. 32. Sell hosting. 27. Help others pass software certifications or Desktop software is often hosted to make it more the CPA exam. accessible. You have the knowledge to tell clients about Have you earned a software or accounting certification? this option and to move the files to a hosted solution, If so, design a review course to help others pass, or work with a markup for yourself. with a vendor to create courses to get certified. 33. Write articles. You can get paid to write articles, but it can be tough to do so. Whether you get paid or not, getting them published will provide you with great exposure and will boost your reputation.

34. Save a corrupted file. Have you got a client who has a corrupted file? If so, your restoration services could come in handy. There are only 28. Accept speaking engagements. a few experts nationwide that provide this service, so if Speaking fees can be earned for someone who has public you have this skill, let people know. speaking skills. You can speak at accounting conferences or your local Chamber meeting. Sometimes the pay 35. Offer coaching services. is low, but if you get really good, some speakers earn Are you great at helping clients with mindset issues as thousands of dollars per speech. well as business and accounting issues? Then you might make a great coach. Create coaching packages for your 29. Charge for data conversions. clients. Do you have clients who need to either clean up existing data or convert from one accounting system to another? If you’re data-savvy, you can offer this service which includes exporting, cleaning up, reformatting, and importing data from one system to another.

30. Earn commissions. One of the best ways to earn commissions is to partner with a merchant service provider and refer them to clients. For each your set up, you get a small 36. Help clients take additional payment percentage of revenue that is run through the merchant methods. account, which adds up to a lot over the years. Many of you have helped clients set up ACH. You can also help them through merchant account applications, 31. Provide business consulting. setting up Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe, PayPal and other Most owners of small businesses have expertise in what payment methods. This is also a way to help speed up they sell, but not so much about running a business. flow for clients.

[email protected] www.AccountantsAccelerator.com 5 37. Be a Mac expert. 42. Add a niche specialty. There are not too many accountants using Mac Learn the ins and outs of a particular industry so that you computers compared to PCs. Make sure clients know you can serve clients more in-depth than you do currently. are Mac-savvy if you have that skill. You may also want to set up benchmarking as part of your niche services. 38. Become a trainer. If you like speaking and traveling, there are lots of 43. Learn one part of accounting in depth. opportunities to be hired by an accounting software There are many aspects to accounting, which make it so vendor that does training road shows and conference interesting. One example is . There’s so much sessions. You may also be able to train for a CPA state to know about re-order points, carrying , obsolete society or go into CPA firms as a trainer on a wide variety inventory, FIFO, out-of- items, back orders, drop of topics. ship, assembly items, lot numbers, Class A items, and more. If you have this knowledge, you can go to town 39. Provide a review service. offering in depth services. Other areas might include Most new clients who start using your bookkeeping point of sale, field service, fixed , job costing, services need their files cleaned up first. Especially if they , and more. are doing it themselves, it’s probably wrong. You can provide two services here: first create a cleanup plan by reviewing their accounting files or system, and second, to actually do the work of cleaning it up. Many accountants don’t charge for the review but they should.

40. Offer a green service. Do you notice any clients with a lot of paper? Let them know how to go paperless with your new service. They’ll be helping the planet as well as feeling good about themselves. 44. Focus on a particular size of business. If you prefer working with mid-market or larger 41. Add a software option. businesses, make it clear that you do, and design If you know QuickBooks, go out and learn Xero or Sage additional services for them. so that your clients will have multiple options. This also helps your business reduce enterprise risk so that you’re 45. Focus on a type of entity. not tied to one accounting software vendor. Especially for tax preparers, let people know what types of entities you prefer working with. Do you like C corporations, nonprofits, partnerships, LLCs, or S corporations better? Or maybe you prefer working with individuals, trusts, or estates.

46. Learn one part of tax in depth. Are you expert at helping expats? Perhaps you really understand the Section 199A rules well. Or perhaps you’re really good with tax planning for real estate investors. If you have the knowledge, design a service around that and let people know about it.

[email protected] www.AccountantsAccelerator.com 6 47. Offer advisory services. 52. Offer product comparisons. In another article, I’ve listed 39 advisory services If you know several software solutions in depth, you you can offer, so you can see that here:https:// can create a comparison chart. People won’t pay a lot accountantsaccelerator.com/ultimate-list-advisory- for this, but you may be able to charge a little bit if you services-accountants/ have an excellent reputation. You can also bundle it in with training, templates, or other services and mark the 48. Manage client software licenses. services up. Are your clients in compliance with their software licenses? You can be hired to do an “” of sorts to 53. Partner. make sure your client has the right number of licenses Sometimes the synergy of bringing in a partner or and is using them legally. partnering with someone for a particular aspect of your business can create new for you. All of the above ideas and more can be done with or without a partner. Bring in a partner when they have something you don’t – a skill or resources – that will shorten your learning curve and bring you revenue faster.

54. Offer a membership program. Bundle your services together by offering a membership program which might include coaching and training as 49. Profit from your content. well as other services. It’s an additional service line and If you’ve generated a lot of content on a blog or on a more revenue for your business. YouTube channel, you can run ads and get money for running them. You’ll need to work on building a huge 55. Provide CPE to CPAs or IRS approved following, but some of the top YouTubers make millions courses to EAs. every year. CPAs need 40 hours of CPE each year. You can get accredited through NASBA and a few other states to 50. Run mastermind groups. provide this educational training. A mastermind group is a group of business owners that come together for the purpose of improving their businesses or working on a specific skill. The group has a facilitator that guides the meetings. Running these groups can be profitable as well as life-changing for the members.

51. Provide test companies. A lot of accounting professionals need a place to try new features or integrations on a test basis so that if something happens, they don’t damage the live file. 56. Offer a VIP program. Building a good test company takes a lot of time and Do some of your clients want to cut to the head of the effort. People will pay for the use of a test company that is line all of the time? Offer them a VIP service where they already built and saves them a lot of time. can pay extra for faster service, even during tax season.

[email protected] www.AccountantsAccelerator.com 7 57. Create a support package to offer 60. Charge a trip charge. troubleshooting. Your plumber does. If you have to visit the client these If you don’t want to charge for every phone call, you can days, you should be compensated for all that work create various levels of support packages for clients that you had to do: driving time, gasoline, wear and tear on are bundled in with your bookkeeping or tax services. your car, dry cleaning, putting makeup on, and getting dressed up. Charge extra to visit a client and less to work 58. Change your pricing method. remotely. If you’re charging by the hour and not feeling like you’re getting what you’re worth, your rate may not be the Did you get some ideas to boost your revenue? problem as much as your pricing method. Other pricing I hope your mind is buzzing with ideas. methods, such as fixed fee, packages, and value pricing can earn you higher revenue. If you need help implementing some of your ideas, we have an entire toolbox of learning opportunities available for you at Accountantsaccelerator.com

Check us out and let us know what your specific needs are.

59. Charge a late fee. Demand and supply rules. If a client comes to you on April 10, don’t turn them away. Charge them more than the client that came to you in February. Some businesses charge double for a rush fee; this is similar.

[email protected] www.AccountantsAccelerator.com 8 About Accountant’s Accelerator

Accountant’s Accelerator, a division of Sandra L. Leyva, Inc., offers training, coaching, consulting, and outsourced marketing for CPAs, accountants, bookkeepers, tax preparers, and other self-employed accounting professionals who want to grow their practices, earn more, work less, and serve their clients better.

We offer a full set of marketing services, including training, website design, SEO, newsletters, and social media support, as well as a full range of self-study products in our store.

Sandra L. Leyva, Inc. is a Texas corporation with offices in San Jose, CA and Plano, TX. Other divisions include Accelerator Websites, Accelerator Newsletters, and Accelerate Small Biz.

Sandra L. Leyva, Inc. 6965 El Camino Real #105 PMB 683 Carlsbad, CA 92009

http://www.AccountantsAccelerator.com

Questions? Call us at 408-550-4325 or email [email protected]

[email protected] www.AccountantsAccelerator.com 9