marketing

the five essential skills accountants need today

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above and beyond accounting, you need business know-how.

by sandi smith leyva, cpa
accountant’s accelerator

we’ve worked super-hard on gaining our accounting, tax, and auditing skills.  those skills alone will keep us working as employees for someone else, but what if we want to go out on our own or grow our business beyond what we have now?

more for soloists and small firms: the seven essential components of a simple marketing plan for accountants  | take six big steps to go beyond compliance services     |     when your business needs to be rebooted  |   two steps to easy cross-sells   |   the hot new tech product for automated data entry   |   five value-add service areas to take you beyond bookkeeping   |   six money-making strategies to take you beyond quickbooks   |   proactive ways to get more referrals   |   the three biggest money leaks in your practice   |   new client opportunities with mobile apps   |   six questions to launch your summer strategy sessions   |   what most accountants miss in the five simple steps to get more clients   |   accountants, do you know your opportunity number? | five ideas to reduce client price-sensitivity | rise to the top with a fresh elevator speech | four ways to practice entrepreneurial perseverance | 5 mistakes to avoid when seeking new clients  | the top 12 business card blunders accountants make | seven tips to keep the clients you have | how to attract clients like a magnet | eleven easy ways to deliver more value to clients

here are five skills to consider adding to your toolbox so you can get ahead faster. how do you rate in each of these areas?

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getting to the next stage

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sometimes change is improvement – sometimes it isn’t. but it’s always inevitable. by bruce w. marcus professional services marketing 3.0 the movement to replace hourly billing with value billing is accelerating. firm mergers, consolidations, new boutique firms that bear little … continued

the seven essential components of a simple marketing plan for accountants

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start with an excel spreadsheet.

by sandi smith leyva, cpa

it’s quite common for accounting firms — even the regionals — to have no marketing plan in place. the marketing plan might very well be, “get as many referrals as we can.” or it might be a number for each partner — which is not a marketing plan. or it might be, “if it’s not busy season, i’ll go to my networking group.” none of these are plans. they are individual marketing tasks and components.

the number of companies that do not have fully functioning marketing plans is certainly not surprising because marketing by cpas was illegal – and considered quite sleazy — in most u.s. states until about the 1970s. so we are a profession that has always been behind on our marketing skills.

now that most of us need to market, the relief is we can do it on our terms, using excel spreadsheets, with a bunch of numbers, adding in some deadlines, and creating a very organized process, just how we accountants like things.

so here are seven components of the kind of marketing plans i like to create. we start with an excel spreadsheet. read more →

what i’ve learned from my clients

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by sandi smith leyva
accountant’s accelerator

i feel extremely fortunate to have such a wonderful set of clients that i have learned much from the last few years.

more for soloists and small firms: take six big steps to go beyond compliance services     |     when your business needs to be rebooted  |   two steps to easy cross-sells   |   the hot new tech product for automated data entry   |   five value-add service areas to take you beyond bookkeeping   |   six money-making strategies to take you beyond quickbooks   |   proactive ways to get more referrals   |   the three biggest money leaks in your practice   |   new client opportunities with mobile apps   |   six questions to launch your summer strategy sessions   |   what most accountants miss in the five simple steps to get more clients   |   accountants, do you know your opportunity number? | five ideas to reduce client price-sensitivity | rise to the top with a fresh elevator speech | four ways to practice entrepreneurial perseverance | 5 mistakes to avoid when seeking new clients  | the top 12 business card blunders accountants make | seven tips to keep the clients you have | how to attract clients like a magnet | eleven easy ways to deliver more value to clients

here is a list of lessons learned that i hope will inspire you to work with your clients in new ways.

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is more publicity better?

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or is better publicity better? by bruce w. marcus professional services marketing 3.0 in the early days of publicity, when it was low-down press agentry and not high-blown public relations, the idea was to get your client’s name in the … continued