Expanding Business

[Girard Van De Lay]

I am a one man show and I am looking to expand for next year. Do any of you have any suggestion on how to expand? I think that I have tried everything such as advertising in local papers, postcards, mailers to new home owners and nothing seems to work. The drawback and challange that I face is that I work out of a home office and the county does not allow any signs to be posted. Have any of you had a similar sitution and if so how have you handled and succeed at you business.

I am located in a large town in Nothern CA and it seems that people out here are more comfortable with the big companies instead of the small indpendant guys. It has been a challange for us and slowly we build up every year but I am not close to where I want to be right now. Any suggestions or commets are greatly appriciated.

Girard

[margebk]

referral discounts

I give out referral slips to my current clients. It has my clients name and address on them. It also has a place for them to fill out the referral's name on it. If the new person makes an appointment, keeps it and has taxes done and pays for it I give my old client $ 10.00 off their following years tax prep fees.

This gets you a new client and keeps the old one cause they have to come back again next year to get their discount. They are each allowed to turn in 3 slips per year.

One year it worked so good I was afraid I was not going to be able to handle all the new
trade...

Marge

[Girard Van De Lay]

Referrals

I do pay for referrals $25 per referral. This generates about 15 to 20 new people every year. The difference on mine is that it is unlimited and when the new person comes in the old persons gets a check for $25.

[BOB W]

Search

There was a long thread back on 11/29/06 by TAXBIRD.

Click on "Search" above and type in "Cowardly CPA", It is a lot of reading but it covers some of what you are asking about.

[oceanlovin'ea]

Offer to give seminars

I haven't tried this myself, but I have heard that if you offer to give lectures or seminars to different groups and pass out your cards that this is good advertising and can bring in new clients.

Wonder if anyone else has done this?

Linda F

[erchess]

My Ideas

I intend to read the thread suggested earlier but I want to leave my reaction here and now.

Like OP, my business is not where I want it to be. I have advertised in small weekly newspapers, being unwilling to pay the exorbitant rates of the only daily in my area. These have gotten me very few people. I advertised on register tapes and this expensive project got me absolutely no new business. I advertised on phone book covers but got nothing from that. I printed signs on my computer and posted them on bulletin boards with my cards and got some from that. Most of what I have, however, comes from my ads in two of the three local phone books. The phone book that covers the area where I live would be too expensive because if I took out a business ad the second phone line to the house would become much more expensive. I don't much regret that because most of the people in the area are either rich newcomers who go to CPAs either in town or where they came from or they are poor and often self employed native folk who tend to make no secret of under reporting their income. Some even offer a cash rate and a check rate for their services. So I drive to areas covered by the other phone books and do returns in the homes of my clients. I gave a seminar once but we had bad snow on the day and only one person came. The store tells me that there had been a pretty good level of interest. I also offer a ten percent discount off next year's fee for each referral who pays for services. I have not yet found any takers.

[S T]

More in a couple of days

I am just too "buried" in tax returns and extensions to address this issue on 4/16, so more thoughts in a few days.

andy

[dyne]

Over the years I have tried TV advertisements and nothing is effective except perhaps
the yellow page add in the telephone directory. A month ago there was an article about
me in a local newspaper which explained that I found an error in my state's instructions
which cost many taxpayers over $150 each in tax. The story was picked up and reported
in newspapers in nearby states. The result was a deluge of new clients and telephone
calls. For years I wrote articles for the local newspaper on various tax subjects, which
were published. So, if you can get yourself in the newspaper somehow, you WILL
obtain new clients.

[margebk]

a couple of other things

I also had my advertising printed on refrigerator magnets that were sent to all people in my county by the company that made them up. They had all the emergency info on them and people just love them. My ad is the first one on it cause they go by the letter of the catagory of the business. I always pick accountant since tax preparer is way down on the list... lol

My local newspaper has a section called their "Business Directory" for $ 50.00 per month you get a nice size ad each week and once or twice during the tax season you get a big center ad with a picture etc.

This seems to work for me the best as people actually cut my picture out and bring it to me.

Marge

[RJM]

Try a website?

If you think part of the problem is a lack of "professional appearance" because you work out of your home, perhaps a professional-looking web site will help alleviate that. Unless you pay large marketing fees, you will not appear near the top in web searches, so the website will not generate any traffic on its own. But if you get your name out there in other ways like phone books, print ads, etc, and reference the web site, then you may have more luck reeling in the prospects.

Also, many accountants have success with Marge's method. You may want to tweak your coupon method a bit to match her suggestion. Although I think $25 is a good coupon level. This depends on your existing base, however. Larger returns I would guess would refer more often to other large returns, and smaller returns....etc. -Bob

[George Boutwell]

My Own Experience

You know how tax preparers sometimes have the image of being dull and boring and stuffy? And how many of them send out organizers that are more difficult to fill out than a tax return itself? Many years ago I tried something to separate myself from that stereotype and practice. I sent out a letter and three-page worksheet to my clients (I had bought about 300 from a retiring EA), both of which were --- and I know it will come as a surprise to some of you that I can write this way -- funny.

My letter and worksheet got passed around the office and posted on bulletin boards and copied for family and friends. It generated dozens of new clients. More than one new client told me, then and now, that their reaction was "I want someone with that guy's sense of humor to be my tax guy." (By the way, this was before I had any letters after my name.)

The problem with this approach is that people expect the same effort the following year. Now the most difficult part of my practice is writing the annual letter. I start sweating blood in October, mulling ideas and approaches. Then when I least expect it, I find myself in the right mood, and I get it down on paper. Another couple weeks of editing and revising, and I am ready for an early January mailing.

One unforeseen advantage of a humorous annual letter is that it will weed out the clients who don't have a sense of humor (or at least, one that matches your own). You will find that these are the ones that will cause you the most problems, if you keep them.

I'm not suggesting that everyone use this approach, but that practitioners seeking new clients figure out how they can distinguish themselves from the crowd.

A second thought: Over the years, dozens of my clients have moved to your state of California, where tax return preparation services cost 50% to 100% more than where I live. This is especially true in high-overhead urban areas. Many of these clients continue to mail their work back to me, and I do their returns by phone and email.

If you have a low-overhead operation in a less expensive part of the state, why not try marketing to people that find it more convenient to mail their stuff to someone anyway, especially if it saves $50? I'm not sure how you would reach that market, but you have six months or more to figure it out.

[sea-tax]

My humble advice has nothing to do with advertisement.
I think you have to broaden your services. Integrate financial planning and insurance planning into your business model. Also include payroll check writing and bookkeeping services. Or become known as the QB guru.
Basically you have to give the client a reason to want to come see you outside of 1/1/XX through 4/15/xx.
The more the client sees you as a professional and realizes that you can help them with most financial aspects they will come to you and refer to you alot.
This type of business model takes a couple years to develop. Don't expect quick returns for your time and money.
For example to make a successful financial planning biz it might take 3-4 tax season to establish. But once you have it, you may ask yourself if doing taxes is really worth the headache.
Now you must advertise as others have said , and I do not disagree with them on that point. I just wanted to add a little different spin. Good Luck

[George Boutwell]

Integrate financial planning and insurance planning into your business model.

Sell stuff! Get a percentage of your clients' assets!

[Roberts]

Jmho

I'm already in the financial planning / investments arena so if you are in my area - it's a horrible idea. If you don't live in my area - it's well worth it. I single investment client can be worth 50 tax clients. I offer tax prep free for clients with $250k or more in investments through our firm.... The problem is that it doesn't really generate business as much as it keeps our business from leaving.

My greatest number of tax clients have come from classified ads in local news papers. This year I ran two ads offering free house calls (of my office) and it returned about 700% on the investment over the course of the season. I'll be ramping that figure up next year to about 6 local newspapers.

My biggest problem is finding more consultants who need their taxes done. I don't have enough schedule C clients with extensive income (they are awesome retirement plan prospects!). I'll probably be ramping up that segment in my advertising also next year because that's a lot more important that mom and pops calling in with $130 returns...

[Black Bart]

Get a big sign.

...exorbitant rates...the only daily in my area...gotten me very few people..advertised on register tapes...expensive...absolutely no new business...phone book covers...got nothing...printed signs...posted them on bulletin boards...got some...phone book that covers the area...too expensive...gave a seminar...bad snow...one person came...offer a ten percent discount off next year's fee...no...takers.

You've got me trumped, e.c. And I thought my luck was bad. Still, you might give this a shot. Put a flashing sign out in front of your office. Yeah, I know, it's something a hillbilly would come up with and it's garish, gaudy, unprofessional, etc., etc., etc. BUT, it lets them know you're there -- which is part of the problem now; they don't know you're there. The sign tells them so.

My business increased $10,000 the first year I put one out (in '84 - $10K was still $10K). Lots of people are impulse customers -- many younger people don't even read the papers or ads (they get everything off the Net and TV) and they just look for the easiest, fastest thing available. That can be you if they're driving by, see you're there handy, and pull in.

Traffic like this isn't always your hoped-for clientele, but many will evolve into good business returns or become fast, easy, bread-and-butter W2-only clients. The ones that fall away won't be missed. Either way, good service for two or three years will keep them with you. The thing is, you have to handle a lot of people to get your volume up high enough that the survivors become repeat customers. A sign gets 'em in the office in the first place, which has to happen before anything else can.

Obviously if you're an old, established CPA/EA with dignity, a rep, and a roll; then you don't want something which lends the appearance of a seasonal Jack's Tax. On the other hand, you have to have money first before you can afford that dignity (there'll be plenty of time to develop an ego and put on airs later).