4 Ways to Grow Your Accounting Practice

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1 4 Ways to Grow Your Accounting Practice without working any harder Build Your Practice and Increase Client Retention & Satisfaction

2 2 What s inside this book? Introduction 3 Growth Strategy 1 4 Offer Existing Clients an Expanded Menu of Services 4 Growth Strategy 2 5 Provide Expanded Services to Your Prospective Client Base 5 Growth Strategy 3 6 Become a Trusted Business Advisor 6 Growth Strategy 4 7 Get More Referrals from Your Best Clients 7 Conclusion 8 Bottom Line Results 8 Ready to get Started? 9

3 3 Introduction The recent AICPA report, CPA Horizons 2025: A Roadmap for the Future continues to indicate that growth is a key issue for accounting firms. In the accounting profession, where talent and intellectual capital are directly related to a firm s ability to attract new clients and grow its current client relationships, traditional thinking has held that you need to staff up in order to grow. The reality is very different. If you are serious about growing your accounting practice, you can either work harder or work smarter. If you want to work harder, you can invest more time and money into your practice... you can hire more employees and lease more office space... you can take on more managerial headaches... you can work nights and weekends... or you can simply work smarter. Each of these growth strategies relates to the intersection between core and expanded services, and current and prospective clients. The definition of a firm s core and expanded services are as follows: Core: The fundamental services for which the firm is known and has the capacity to deliver to all or most clients. In most accounting firms these are tax returns, audits and financial reporting. Expanded: Those services the firm does not deliver as widely because they are newer and/or the firm may not have the talent on staff capable of offering these services. In many firms, these include services such as asset protection planning, cost segregation studies, estate planning or wealth management. If you are interested in growing your practice, start by defining your core and expanded services and your target market for expansion. Once you have done this, you can evaluate these four strategic growth alternatives and identify the firm s best opportunity for growth. Accounting firms have four strategic growth alternatives: 1) Offer existing clients an expanded menu of services 2) Provide more services to an ever-expanding client base 3) Become a trusted business advisor 4) Get more referrals from your best clients

4 4 Chapter 1 Growth Strategy 1 Offer Existing Clients an Expanded Menu of Services When you have trouble with your heart, you go to a cardiac specialist, not a general practitioner. Similarly, when your clients need resolution of a 6-figure tax problem, financial planning, or investment management, they will call someone with proven expertise in their area of concern. All of these client problems are opportunities for you to introduce expanded services to your current clients. This is the easiest way to find growth because it is based on existing client relationships. How can you position your firm to attract this business? Educate your clients about the difference in advisors who adhere to a rigorous fiduciary standard versus the simplistic suitability standard followed by most banks, mutual funds, stockbrokers, and other self-styled business advisors. Ensure that they understand that everything you recommend must always be in the client s best interest and no one else s. The least expensive, shortest term, most predictable way to find short term and sustainable growth for your accounting practice is to look for opportunities to provide expanded services to your existing client base.

5 5 Chapter 2 Growth Strategy 2 Provide Expanded Services to Your Prospective Client Base One very effective way to position your firm to offer these expanded services is to partner with a trusted expert in this area. Done properly, these services can be white labelled so that your clients have no idea that they are not being provided by a core member of your staff. Most accounting firms are backward looking commodity providers in that they concentrate on tax returns, audits, and financial reporting. The accounting industry is, fundamentally, driven by trust and loyalty; today s reality, however, is that core services are becoming commoditized. CPA s who are able to provide forward looking advice and proactive planning expertise for their clients and prospective clients benefit from the revenues gained by providing additional professional services - especially for affluent, A List clients who have a high net worth and/or are business owners.

6 6 Chapter 3 Growth Strategy 3 Become a Trusted Business Advisor By establishing and maintaining such an advisory role, you build your clients trust and confidence in you...you build your professional reputation...and you build your year-round income. There has been a lot of talk in the CPA world recently about the need for CPAs to become their clients most Trusted Business Advisor. In fact, promotion of the CPA as a trusted advisor is one of the 10 main objectives of the CPA Horizons 2025 report released last year. Practitioners and firms that embrace this role and institutionalize a process to change the dynamic of the CPA-client relationship will be in the best position to emerge as the future leaders in the profession. Becoming a Trusted Business Advisor isn t about selling and making pitches. It s about showing an interest in your clients, asking the kind of questions that will help you learn what is important to them, and then listening. When you master these skills, you are more easily able to identify the kinds of services that will add value to your clients and position yourself as their go to guru for all business-related and financial-related issues. You also go from being seen as a vendor of tax and financial reports to a source of strategic business/financial advice and services and in doing so, you become your client s most valuable asset.

7 7 Chapter 4 Growth Strategy 4 Get More Referrals from Your Best Clients A critical element to growing your accounting practice is the ability to bring in new, high-quality, well-paying clients on a consistent basis. Think about how you re getting these clients today 1) Are they referrals from satisfied current clients? 2) What about referrals from other professionals? 3) Why should people be choosing you and your firm over all your competitors? While most accountants recognize the need to stand out from the crowd in order to generate new business, very few have been successful in being proactive about this. To create a steady stream of new, high quality, well-paying clients, you need to stand out as an expert in your field. CPAs who successfully become Trusted Business Advisors have a greater opportunity to help direct a client s business and/or personal finances in a positive direction. And a happy client is often eager to recommend their personal Trusted Business Advisor to their friends, relatives, and business contacts. And those referrals, in turn, can lead to more referrals, many of whom will be carbon copies of your initial A List clientele. The end result is a continual increase in advisory income... income that is not seasonal and less susceptible to fee pressure.

8 8 Conclusion Bottom Line Results There is no single magic bullet for CPA firm growth. Instead, firms should engage in a mix of these four strategies as part of their overall growth plan. The idea is to grow your practice through expanded services, improved client relationships, higher professional visibility, more consistent year-round revenue, more A List client referrals, less resistance to your fees, and better profit margins on your advisory income. How can you do this without continually staffing up? You can partner with a private label back office... like us, Grey, Ryan, Wayne & Company. Our team of experienced specialists will provide those services for your clients behind the scenes. We become your team.

9 9 When you partner with us you: Gain access to a team of world-class advisors with expertise in such specialties as income and estate taxation, financial planning, investment management, insurance, actuarial science, third party administration, plan design, medical underwriting, and ERISA legal matters. Eliminate the need to refer your top clients elsewhere to get services and expertise you do not have in-house. Benefit from higher revenue and greater client praise while we do the work. Maintain complete client control. Gain enormous personal satisfaction from playing an enhanced and pivotal role in your clients successes. Are relieved of the stress and time demands of dealing with non-accounting client issues, letting you concentrate on your core business while still getting paid for providing world-class solutions to those other issues. Most important, because our work helps your clients build and preserve their wealth, they will thank YOU for helping them attain complete financial peace of mind. Ready to Get started? If this appeals to you, click here to schedule a complimentary business strategy review. It s your practice, your revenue stream, your move. Click Here!