Close On The Account: Lessons Learned

Life Beyond the No (Part II of II)

Last week we discussed what you needed to be on the look out for during a meeting with your potential clientele. You have left nothing to chance, have been prepared all along the way, have taken the verbal cues and bee able to navigate them correctly. Most often all this will result in closing the account in your favor. Your newly acquired client would have seen the error of their ways and realized the overall solution you are providing them. They would have been able to see that expensing their cash into your services will not only get their company healthy but thriving. You should be able to leave there with the monthly billing understanding and a box full of their receipts (their old way of keeping tabs on their accounting).

But what happens when they just didn’t bite? No attempt to resolve their concerns is going to change their minds that what you have they need. To have something like that happen is certainly a blow to your psyche and can tank your motivation to move on to the next potential client.

The next 5 steps are ways you can take control of the situation and rise above the no or no’s you have received in the pursuit of building your business.

Look for the Lesson Learned
Keep in mind that every circumstance is a learning opportunity. Even if your appointment has a positive outcome, there is always a lesson to be learned. Ralph Waldo Emerson was quoted in saying, “It is defeat that educates us” and truly that is the case. Ask yourself;

• Why might this have happened?
• Could I have done anything else to anticipate it or prevent it?
• How can I use this experience to positive advantage?

Look back into your experiences even before running your own business. When was the time you learned the most? When you had the most pressure to perform? When you had that huge blunder at your previous workplace? When you did not receive that scholarship? Look for what you can do better, or what you could have missed in the interaction with the potential client. Often there is room for improvement and progress.

Turn Adversity to Your Advantage
When you fail, doors open for other opportunities. Defeat can create greater resolve, make the failure work for you not against you. When one business owner says no to you, go to their competitor and present yourself as the edge he needs to win over his competition, who already said he didn’t want the advantage. Use them as the example of what your potential client should NOT do if they want to stay or become financially well off.

The One “No” is a Step Closer to the “Yes”
The percentages for gaining accounts usually run a low 10%-20% closing rate. (In the Professional Bookkeeper Program you learn the tactics and strategies that have much, much higher rates than the industry average.) It’s all in the numbers, the more people you see the more opportunities you have to get the account. And with the Professional Bookkeeper Training you receive with Universal you will be able to present yourself and your services in such a way that to reject you, will be like the small business owner I don’t want to be profitable or successful.

Protect Your Mind
No one can be measured by one single failure. One failure doesn’t mean you are a complete failure, it means that one person said no. Keep yourself focused, monitor your ’self-talk’ and keep things positive. Many a person have come off what may be considered their greatest failure into their biggest success, so don’t get yourself in the “woe is me” victim mentality.

Recommit to Your Goals
If someone says no, it’s not the end of your world. You were following your Plan of Attack. You are a step closer to the goals you have set for yourself and for your company. Don’t allow yourself to be frozen in place because you got a no, move forward and rise up above recommitting yourself to the goals you know you can achieve.

It is true that our students experience the ‘No Factor’ less often, but it still can happen. When you have the right training you will be able to convey the message of your services being the small business owner’s solution to their accounting and financial headaches. You set yourself into a place where you can not only make the difference in your life and business, but also in the lives of those who you contract with to do their accounting.

Are you ready to take the next step in the process you have started in the accounting field? Are you tired of coming across those times when you know you could have done better if you just had the training in this or that aspect of the accounting and bookkeeping process? Don’t hesitate another day in getting the Accounting Training that makes the difference. Click here to get more information on what you need to know about becoming a Professional Bookkeeper!

Keep Clients Through Ongoing Contact

One of the more basic and least expensive marketing strategies that you can pursue is K.I.T. – keeping in touch with your clients, prospective clients and referrers.

Sounds as though it may take a lot of time and effort?

This need not be the case.

Here are a number of suggestions to help you keep in touch:

• Send your mailing list any articles that cross your desk that you feel may be of interest to them. They may be business related articles or ones which you know will appeal to the recipients because of their sporting or personal interests.
• Don’t overlook past clients who may be in a position to refer business if you indicate to them that you are still interested in them. Vendors should also be included. Because you are already conducting business with them, they are likely to be interested in some “quid pro quo” referrals.
• It’s amazing how well a brief handwritten note of encouragement or congratulations will be received.
• You should investigate the publication of your own monthly e-mail newsletter. It can incorporate information obtained from a variety of sources, especially the internet, as long as you acknowledge the source. This eliminates the need for you to regularly re-invent the wheel.
• Details of any new services you plan to introduce should be incorporated in the e-zine. If you don’t publish an e-zine, it’s prudent to advise your mailing list separately of this.

While there are no guarantees in business, a simple communication strategy like this one, is bound to provide handsome returns.

More Tips For Running Your Accounting and Bookkeeping Service

We have created many articles to help with the logistics of running your business and how to structure your business finances to maximize profit and to shelter your assets.

Learn Secrets to Making Your Business Efficient and Profitable

Patience is the key to great service. Clients can tell when those they are dealing with are patient and when they’re not. No matter how well you may think you’re hiding it when you feel impatient, your tension will generally show through–in the tone of your voice, a frown, or a quick roll of the eyes. So how can you make certain you’re giving patient, caring service every time you interact with a client? Take the following steps:

• Think before you speak. If you find yourself beginning to feel tense, stop and get a hold of your emotions before you say something you might regret.
• Talk in a calm, reassuring voice. Avoid allowing your voice to rise, even if your client is raising his or her voice. Instead, maintain an even tone. This will not only keep your client calm, it will help keep you calm as well.
• Put yourself in your client’s place. If you were having a problem, you’d want a business associate to treat you in a solicitous manner, wouldn’t you?

Patience is indeed a virtue, particularly when you’re talking about client relationships. So turn your annoyance into tolerance when you find yourself in danger of losing your cool.

Click HERE to Learn More Tips to Help You Run Your Successful Accounting and Bookkeeping Business

Client Secrets are Your Secrets

As accountants we are exposed often to our client’s sensitive proprietary information such as the names and status of our client’s customers, performance reviews, salary information, legal matters, research data, company reduction or expansion plans, labor negotiations, finances, and product development. It becomes are responsibility to make sure we don’t share this information with the wrong person or people.

To help maintain confidentiality…

* Never discuss confidential company business outside your client’s office unless the client is present or has given you specific authority to do so.

* Keep your voice low-pitched so that you won’t be overheard when talking about your client’s company matters in public. Be especially careful in restaurants, shuttles, at the water cooler, and on airport phones.

* Minimize client-related chitchat. Don’t initiate discussion of sensitive client information with other accountants, and change the subject if associates bring up such topics.

* Be on guard at social functions. That new acquaintance
you talk to shouldn’t be counted on to keep any information you may reveal in confidence.

By practicing discretion, you can help prevent sensitive
information from leaking out.

Other sections from this week’s newsletter:

• Purchase the Professional Bookkeeper Program and get the Financing a Small Business Course at No Additional Charge
• Make Your First Impression a Lasting One
• Keep Your Bookkeeping Service Flying High

The Client Organizer

You Stay Organzed, But Do Your Clients?

My second client was a contractor with checks, deposit slips, sales invoices, bank statements, and estimates spread from one end of the pickup truck to the other. I learned very quickly that a client’s lack of organization can create a lot of extra work for the accountant.

So what was the solution? The Client Organizer.

Help Get Clients Organized to Make Your Job Simpler

The Client Organizer is simply a filing system that can be installed in the client’s office, or in a file box that the client keeps on the road. Where this filing system resides depends upon where the bulk of the financial transactions take place. If the client is a retail store, then a filing cabinet is enough. On the other hand, for clients that are on the road most of their working day, such as a contractor, you’ll want the filing system in a light weight file box that you can get at any office supply store.

The Organizer must be simple with only a few categories, or else your client won’t use it. Here’s a list of the five sections the organizer should include:

Daily Cash Reports
Accounts Receivable Invoices (Alphabetical Files)
Accounts Payable Invoices (Alphabetical Files)
Payroll Information (If Applicable)
Banking File
Miscellaneous File

For a few dollars you can create such a box as a demonstration unit to show a prospect a simple system that will help their business keep on top of their source documents. They’ll appreciate it’s simplicity and that you showed it to them.

Day-To-Day Accounting Tips

We have compiled articles on key accounting issues to teach techniques and shortcuts to make you more effective in servicing your clients.

Learn How to Become More Efficient and Reap the Rewards

Come In For The Rescue, The Accountant “Hero”

If you have had any time under your belt in the accounting business you have surely heard of those nightmares that small business owners have experienced. It could have been the time when they tried to do it themselves and found that 6 months later that they were levied with liens and fees and penalties galore from the IRS. Or it could have been the time when an owner let their dear Aunt Sally “keep the books” and her way of doing it was trying to keep it all alphabetical in her hat box.

Better still you probably have heard that story that nothing at all was done with the accounting, and that all they know now is its a large jumbled mess for you to sift through and clean up. However you found those you now provide services for, they could be a mix of any number of combinations when you first signed on with them. Perhaps the worst scenario would be that the mess that the small business owner is in, was caused by one of our own. Another accountant that was careless and neglectful in what they were entrusted to do.

When you find this type of situation is it best to get right one it and become the Accountant “Hero”! With the training you have received (or can receive in the Professional Bookkeeper’s Program) from Universal you will be able to go in and identify quickly what needs to be done to clean up the disaster that was left. Here are a few tips that you can use to be able to turn the bad situation into a nice, clear and productive account.

An Accounting Road Map
Universal’s training will equip you well for this task. From the modules and the practice books you will be able to see and experience what a healthy accounting situation really looks like. You will be able to pinpoint the irregularities and the items that need further investigation and cut your “clean up” time in half. When you walk in to the potential client and you have already at his door a way to make things better, the owner will be all ears.

An Action Plan for Clean Up
Again this will be a product of the coursework you were exposed to in the Professional Bookkeeper’s Program. Because you know what needs to be done you can quickly put together the Action Plan that the owner can follow. This is done for two reasons, one so he’ll know the extent of what you are working on for him, but doubly important, that he can start gaining confidence and assurance in your competence as an accounting professional (since the last person they had took that away). Follow closely that Action Plan and if needed, make changes when the circumstances call for it.

Communication At All Times
Communication is key to the clean up process. Keep in touch with the small business owner on at least on a weekly basis of what you have found, what you have done to correct the mess, and what you need further to make it better for them.

You can be the Accountant Hero! Take it one full force and move your dreams of your practice forward and beyond what you can imagine… oh and make what you’re worth at the same time!

Are you ready to take the next step in the process you have started in the accounting field? Are you tired of coming across those times when you know you could have done better if you just had the training in this or that aspect of the accounting, bookkeeping process? If only you had a way to learn how to market your accounting practice from an accountant who has been successful?

Be the Profit Expert Professional for Small Business! Don’t hesitate another day in getting the Accounting and Marketing Training that makes the difference. Click here to get more information on what you need to know about becoming the Profit Center Expert for small business accounting and tax!

Universal Accounting Center is looking for ways to better serve your needs. We know you can succeed as you build your own accounting and tax practices, whether you’re in Ohio or Canada . Take that step to see it happen! Enroll today!

PC Housekeeping

It is a good idea to do a little computer housekeeping when you get a small lull in your business. Computer crashes never seem to come at a convenient time for some reason.

“Don’t I do enough housekeeping already?” you ask. Sure you do–but do you include your PC in your efforts? Like your house and office, things can get unruly with your PC if not tended properly.

Keep Keyboards Clean

To clear debris from your keyboard, spray canned air between the keys to blow out buried particles. If a key still sticks, unplug the keyboard and pop the key off, using the edge of a flat-head screwdriver or letter opener as a lever. With the key off, clean the underlying area with a cotton swab or thin paintbrush. However, note that unless a key is sticking so badly that you would need to replace the keyboard anyway, popping keys from a keyboard is risky. Depending on the keyboard type, you could break a key getting it out.

Stop Mouse Skipping

Cleaning your mouse is also easy. You’ll need some cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol for this task. To start, turn your mouse upside down and locate the plastic locking ring around the mouse’s roller ball (it will have directional arrows on it). Using a cotton swab, wipe the entire surface of the chamber; if there are any sticky spots, lightly dip the swab in alcohol and clean the area. To clean the ball itself, dip another swab in alcohol and run it across the ball’s surface. You’ll need to let the ball and mouse body air dry for at least two hours, so make sure you do this when you won’t be needing the computer.

Note that the process mentioned above is for mice with a ball inside. Many newer mice are “optical” mice, which work by actually taking hundreds of pictures of your mousepad or the surface beneath the mouse every second and comparing them to pictures they just took. By comparing the before and after pictures, they can detect movement. If you have one of these types of mice, the only maintenence that you will have to do for your mouse is to clean the top of it where your hand and fingers contact it.

Also, does your mouse have a cord that attaches it directly to your computer, or is it a “wireless” mouse. In most cases, wireless mice contain batteries to allow them to communicate with your computer. If so, you will need to replace these occasionally, though most have fairly long battery life.

Monitor Cleaning for Better Viewing

Your monitor not only attracts dust, it also attracts fingerprints like a television screen in a house full of toddlers. Every time you point to something on-screen you leave a fingerprint behind. To remove fingerprints, accidental felt-tip pen smears, and dust, nothing works better than a chamois cloth and glass cleaner. If you have glasses, the solution and cloth for cleaning your glasses work well on monitors as well. Whatever you use, make sure that you go light on the cleaner, as excess cleaning solution can leak down into your monitor, potentially causing failure.

Remove Dust and Spend Less on PC Repair

Not content to live under furniture, dust bunnies also like to gather around the vent on the back of your computer. During normal operation, your PC’s components generate heat that is blown out of the vent by a tiny fan designed to keep the temperature down inside your computer’s casing. If the vent is blocked off, the computer can overheat. To clean, simply swipe at the area with a brush or paper towel.

Additionally, if you have access to compressed air in a can or otherwise, open your computer case and blow off the dust from the inside of your PC. Dust acts as an insulator, heating up the components of your computer. This can cause them to have reduced life due to overheating.

Click HERE to Learn More Tips

What Are You Waiting for?

The Future is Wide, Your Potential is Limitless: Change Your Life Today

Your past is not your potential. In any hour you can choose to liberate the future. - Marilyn Ferguson

You were born with the ability to probe the world in unique ways, and your challenge is to realize this potential. - Roger von Oech

Success is living up to your potential. That’s all. Wake up with a smile and go after life . . . Live it, enjoy it, taste it, smell it, feel it. - Joe Kapp

You know how your mother used to tell you that you could do anything you put your mind to? How she said you had limitless potential if you only learned how to unearth it? So, have you done her proud? More importantly, have you done yourself proud?

The truth is you can accomplish more than you now imagine. But if you’re not working to accomplish what you can imagine, the unimaginable is unreachable. Your challenge, as Roger von Oech said, is to realize this potential. How better could you spend your life?

Grow Your Business

You took a great leap in starting your own accounting practice. Be it modest or majestic, it’s still possible to grow your business beyond your current clientele, becoming a thriving firm with a far-reaching reputation. Why settle for less than your business’s full potential? Would you really want less than that?

Universal Accounting Center has created a new program with your potential in mind. For years we’ve been offering the Universal Practice Builder Workshop, designed to train you how to market your practice in order to experience significant growth and profitability. You had to attend a two-day workshop in order to glean all the amazing information offered. Now, to accommodate students and make this information more convenient, we have turned this workshop into a DVD program. Imagine all that you could learn from our experience training over 30,000 professionals like yourself.

This new program offers the following:

• Guaranteed $30,000 in new annualized billings in only 12 months
• Tactical goal planning and setting
• The generation of 15 to 25 qualified leads per month
• Phone marketing instruction and training
• Training in the benefits of newsletters and web sites
• 12 proven marketing strategies.
• Financing options

With this new and convenient DVD format you can watch and re-watch portions of the program that resonate with you. You won’t have to miss one profit-building tip; they’re all yours and they will stay in your library where you can return to them again and again and again.

Receive a Free Gift

We want you to take advantage of this offer so you can realize your potential. And what better way to help you accomplish that than by combining this new and amazing program with another profit-building program, QuickBooks Made Profitable, for FREE!

And if you don’t recognize what a valuable offer this is, let us tell you! Over 80% of the small businesses that use accounting software have chosen QuickBooks. But knowing that is not enough to build a bigger client base. UAC has created this program to teach you how to use QuickBooks to generate more clients. You’ll be trained in a proven system of how you can use QuickBooks to a attract larger number of clients offering expert QuickBooks services. Learn how to leverage your time, meet potential clients and offer them services that will help them reduce taxes, increase profits and put money in the bank in such a way that you will be asked the question that we are all longing to hear: “How much do you charge for your services?”

With this one investment you’ll not only achieve your potential but you’ll surpass it! Your practice will grow and become more profitable than you could have imagined. Take advantage of this special package quickly, before we run out of inventory. We expect them to go fast, so order now!

How Resilient Are You?

A Business Owner’s Guide to Stress and Change Management

The key to change is to let go of fear. - Rosanne Cash

There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction. - Winston Churchill

Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become. - Mahatma Gandhi

A new year brings with it lots of opportunity and excitement. It can also introduce change and with it, stress. Often the way you manage stress and change can indicate whether or not your business will thrive in a competitive market. It’s natural to feel anxiety now and then, especially when managing your own business. But when you’re better equipped to manage the stress and change that comes with it, you’re more likely to weather the storm that often accompanies the gradual climb to success. Here are seven tips that will help:

1. Don’t resist.
Change often feels uncomfortable, even if it’s positive change. As you move forward recognize that while change is different it’s not necessary bad. Take a moment to evaluate the situation and determine where the change will take your business. When and if you decide the change is moving your practice in a positive direction, stop resisting the change. Allow it to propel you forward where you and your clients belong.

2. Tackle one change at a time.
When experiencing rapid success or handling a significant obstacle you often encounter numerous changes all at once. It’s important that you not allow them to overwhelm you. If possible, sit down and list the changes. Determine whether or not you can tackle them one at a time. Often in putting these changes on paper you can visualize what must happen and in what order.

3. Take charge.
Change causes stress because individuals often feel powerless in its wake. As you tackle one change at a time you can also make a list of action items that would enable you to take charge of the situation and feel empowered. Could you better direct the course of the change or, if necessary, prevent it altogether? For example, perhaps you’ve decided to move out of your home office and into a commercial space. You have made this decision yourself but are anxious about how things will turn out. In this situation you might take charge by providing all current and potential clients with a change of address so they’ll know where they can reach you. This also gives you the opportunity to promote your services while demonstrating the growth and success of your business.

4. Remain positive.
When overwhelmed and stressed with business worries it can be difficult to remain positive, but the more you entertain negative thoughts and emotions, the larger they’ll become. Pick a positive mantra or two and repeat them anytime you find yourself thinking negative thoughts; you’ll be surprised at how quickly the negative energy dissipates.

5. Be patient.
Change takes time so you’ll weather it much better if you sit back and try to relax your way through it. Exercising impatience will only cause more stress and frustration.

6. Consider how the change affects others.
You’re probably not the only one stressed by the change. Whether it impacts them directly or indirectly be aware of how your family is managing the situation. Try to limit the impact on them and anyone else, including clients, who may be affected.

7. Avoid complacency.
It’s important to recognize that complacency can be your greatest enemy. The more comfortable you become with your current situation, the more likely you’ll remain there. In order to expand and grow you must welcome change and all that it entails. So when change enters your life, celebrate; it means you’re headed somewhere and that’s always better than nowhere.

It’s important that you take an active role in managing change and the stress that usually results from it. When you do so you start acting on events in your life rather than reacting to them. Consider that all change will take you somewhere and in most cases it will prove beneficial to your business. Just stay alert and remain strong and chances are your business will do the same.

Group Interviews are More and More Popular-Make the Most of Your Group Interview

Get you the job you want. A well-rounded skill set and the ability to work well within a team environment will make you shine in a group interview.

Group Interviews or “Cattle-Calls” give a prepared job-seeker a real opportunity to demonstrate his or her ability to work well within a group to problem solve. In fact, many hiring officers use group interviews to determine who is the most qualified with that particular skill set.

Before he retired, Curtis Hanson, former chief deputy of the enforcement division of the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office in Portland, Ore., utilized group exercises, testing up to eight candidates at a time. He found it very effective for demonstrating who worked best in a group.

‘‘We wanted to determine how the candidates performed in group settings … and the most important … was the ability to respond appropriately, contribute to the growth or forward movement of the discussion and to seek consensus,” Hanson said.

Candidates who tried to impress the assessors by interrupting others revealed they were not team players, Hanson said. ”I’m also an actor and have endured numerous ‘cattle call auditions.’ Believe me,” he said, ”there is no comparison between them and a group evaluation exercise!”

Being a Part of the Group Interview is a Good Sign

Many employers use a group interview to pick the best two or three candidates from the hundreds of applicants and resumes they receive. Director of admissions at Westwood College, Bruce Jones typically schedules two group interviews for about 15 applicants for jobs.

”I let them know they’ve made the cut from over 100 candidates,” said Jones. The group sessions are ”mutually beneficial” because they save everyone time, the applicants get important information about the job and the institution — and each job seeker ”gets a chance to stand up individually and give a two-minute verbal resume.”

Jones likes this method because he gets to meet in person more applicants than he otherwise would have time to interview. ”I’ve had resistance to the format up front because of the ‘cattle call’ connotation,” he said. ”But afterwards, almost every applicant genuinely thanks me for the opportunity …”

Accounting Professionals Play a Critical Role and Are in Demand

According to *Robert Half International, the worlds leader in staffing for accounting professionals, “As companies strive to enhance corporate governance and meet escalating customer demands, they are expanding their accounting teams. Hiring activity has accelerated nationwide, leading to increased competition for skilled accountants at all levels.”

“Small companies are hiring bookkeepers to handle their basic accounting requirements, including processing payroll, managing general-ledger reconciliation’s and overseeing accounts payable and receivable.”
-Robert Half International

According to Robert Half International, “Businesses seek applicants who take proactive steps to build their skills and knowledge through classes, seminars and membership in professional organizations.” 86% of hiring managers surveyed described this type of preparation beneficial to an employee’s career.

If you want to advance within the accounting department in your present job, this is valuable information. There isn’t a better and more complete program to build your small business accounting skills.

The Professional Bookkeeper Program Will Prepare You for Working in Small Business

Since 1979, for over 25 years, Universal Accounting has been teaching the ins-and-outs of small business bookkeeping and tax preparation. We’ve been called the small business accounting experts. The Professional Bookkeeper Program has been used by thousands of very successful accounting professionals to learn the nuts-and-bolts of small business accounting.

Whether you want to advance your career or start your own bookkeeping and accounting practice, the Professional Bookkeeper Program is the most complete education in small business accounting anywhere.

The Professional Bookkeeper Program Creates Successful Careers

Earlier this year, Universal Accounting Center informally surveyed 100 graduates a year after they had completed the Professional Bookkeeper Course. 74% were working in the accounting field, had been promoted in their current job or had started their own bookkeeping and accounting practice.

You don’t have to take my word for it. Click HERE and find out what some of our graduates are saying about Universal Accounting and the Professional Bookkeeper Program.

Advance Your Career with the Professional Bookkeeper Program

Accounting is an important part of any business. In fact, businesses must do accounting: it’s required by law. Follow the link below and find out how the Professional Bookkeeper Program can help you advance your career.

Learn How To Advance Your Career with the Professional Bookkeeper Program

*2006 Salary Guide
Founded in 1948, Robert Half International Inc. is the world’s leader in specialized consulting and staffing services.