When Should I Network

The fundamental recipe for success in networking is to take advantage of every business, sporting and social activity as a base from which to build your network. Some of us are sales-averse, feeling that when we approach someone with the intent of selling something to them that we are pushing something on them that they don’t want. The fact is that if you offer Accounting and Bookkeeping services, you offer something that MOST small business owners want. Most small business owners would rather engage in tasks that help to build their business and increase sales than do their own business books. As you do more sales, you will see that what you offer is a desirable product, one that you need not apologize for offering at a fair price. Before you can sell someone else on your services, you must sell yourself. Once you know that what you offer is a good and desired service, much of your hesitancy to network will disappear.

Become a Good Networker

Here are some tips that may assist you to become an even more successful networker:

Body Language and Facial Expressions

Your body language is critical. It has been said that most communication between two people is non-verbal. We pick up on all kinds of cues, from nervous fidgeting, which often shows a lack of confidence, to folding one’s arms when they are in a guarded or non-receptive mood.

You need to put on a happy face and look people in the eye. Direct eye contact tells others that you are concentrating on them and that they are important to you. There is nothing more transparent that the person who, while engaged in a conversation, is busily scanning the room for a more important contact.

Know Your Client

If you truly want to impress upon a potential client that they are important to you, do your homework on them and their interests. A good example of this principle is Theodore Roosevelt. Guests of President Roosevelt were often astonished at his range of knowledge that spanned everything from raising cattle to politics. How did he do it? The night before he was to meet someone, he would stay up learning what he could about the person, their hobbies and interest, and so on. When we speak of things that we enjoy, we automatically tend to drop our guard and become enthusiastically engaged in the conversation. Someone who shares a hobby or interest of ours will be seen as more of a friend than a business contact. If it is a job that you are interviewing for, be sure to know about the company that you are applying to and a bit about what they produce and even a bit about the history of the company. While it has become a trite phrase, the following is still very true, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

If you know the names of people who will be attending a function but you haven’t met them before, do your homework. It’s not a difficult task to research someone’s background with a little internet surfing with a search engine such as Google or Yahoo. If you know the name of the company that they work for, go to the company’s Web site and do a bit of detective work to see what the company sells or the service that they provide and you may even find the company mission statement on their site, which indicates the direction that management intends for the company.

Be Ready to Sell Yourself … Anytime

Always have your “30 second commercial” or “elevator speech” ready. This is where you prepare a short statement about what service that you provide, which can ideally be presented in 30 seconds. As you network in various informal settings, you will get the opportunity to use it frequently but it must sound natural rather than “canned”. When someone asks what it is that you do, having your elevator speech ready can prevent a lot of awkward silence as you attempt to put into words your value proposition. Make sure that you include a benefit in your statement, telling what service you do for others and why it might be important to them or one of their associates.

You Must Listen to Be Heard

Listening is an acquired talent and it’s one that you will call on in the course of networking. You must not only listen but also, make it abundantly clear that you’re interested in what your contact is actually saying to you. Listening and hearing are VERY different activities. Listening is an active thing, where you are not only storing away what a person says to you, but one in which you are analyzing what they are saying and why. Dr. Sigmund Freud stated that nobody does anything without a reason. The things that potential clients say are triggered by what they are thinking. Listening will also involve analysis of the client’s body language and their tone of voice, among many other non-verbal cues. Store these away as well.

When it comes to listening, we often are focused only superficially on what others are saying. We listen to get enough information to know what we will say next and how to spin it to our advantage. We may view this as a large part of the sales process, but unless we slow down enough to really understand what it is that the other person has for opinions and concerns, we will never know the correct approach to take with them. Also, when we listen attentively, we are showing that what the other person thinks has value to us, that they have value to us.

Your Business Card

Don’t make it difficult to locate your business card at the appropriate moment. You should ensure that you have an adequate supply available in the same position – a shirt or coat pocket or handbag. Brian Tracy, a well-known and successful salesman, teaches that you should have something to hand a contact. When you leave your business card with someone, it gives them a chance to internalize your name and/or the name of the business that you represent. When we give someone our name at the beginning of a conversation, typically they will not even really hear it, much less remember it later. As you hand them your card, normally a contact will take a second to look at the card, and often they will look at it once you part. This gives them a chance to get your name, to see you logo, and you can even put a short sales “tag line” on the card to tell what it is that you do. Ideally, you may have your picture on the card as well so that the contact puts a name with a face. Your business card is an ideal way to be remembered when you leave.

Their Business Card

If you meet a potential client in a setting where you do not know that you will be meeting in advance, such as on a plane, while shopping, etc., it is much to your advantage to ask the other person for their business card. It gives the impression that you are interested in them and what they do, and sets some expectation that you may follow up with them. After the contact with your potential client, jot down a few notes on the back of the business card for later reference. If they mentioned an interest in a sport or hobby, you may be able to reference that in later correspondence to help break the ice by talking about something less formal to start with.

Personal Contact After the Meeting

Don’t forget the follow-up. An email or note indicating how pleased you were to have had the opportunity to meet and chat to a new contact goes a long way towards cementing the relationship into something more long-term. Follow-up shows that you are not only polite, but are truly interested in the contact.

Conclusion

Networking starts with basic conversations. It’s where those conversations lead which determines how successful you are in the gentle art of networking. When you are sold on your own product or service, you can sincerely approach prospective clients from the standpoint of solving a problem for them, even if it was not even a perceived need when you first met. Giving the personal touch to show how important that a contact is will go a long way towards converting casual associates into leads which will result in increased profitability for you.

Module 4 of the Professional Bookkeeper Course teaches marketing strategies to make your Accounting and Bookkeeping Service profitable.

Learn More About What Module 4 of Our Accounting and Bookkeeping Course Teaches About Marketing Your Business

Maintaining top service quality during the busy holiday season can be challenging. The holidays are among the most stressful times of the year because people travel, shop, and have family and business obligations all crunched into a two-week, very intense period with a lot of expectations and heightened emotions. Everyone’s in a hurry and expects prompt, courteous service despite the fact that there may be 10 or 15 other people demanding the same service at the same time from you.

There are steps you can take to minimize stress and keep clients happy and coming back:

* Be especially empathetic. Demonstrate genuine concern for clients’ problems. Use such statements as ‘I understand why you feel that way, ‘I see your point of view,’ and ‘I hear what you’re saying.’

* Go the extra mile. Little things mean a lot. Clients will really appreciate any effort you make to go the extra mile. For example: Give clients small gifts as tokens of your appreciation for their business, or mail them a nice
Christmas card.

* Underpromise and overdeliver. During the holidays, clients may make more demands than usual. By offering clients options and alternatives, you let them know what you can do for them, not just what you can’t.

The Running Your Own Bookkeeping Service portion of this site gives additional tips on the day-to-day operations of your Accounting and Bookkeeping business.
Learn How To More Effectively Run an Accounting and Bookkeeping service

Stay In Touch

To keep existing clients, they need to know that you are there for them. Keeping the lines of communication open with them is absolutely essential to keeping clients happy.

Objectives of communication with clients which email can facilitate include:

• Two-way communication of information needed to accomplish the tasks your clients are paying you for.
• Show your clients you are always there for them when they need you. Demonstrate that not only do your services cost less than if a client had hired their own bookkeeper, but that you are just as available.
• Show your clients that you are on their mind and that their success is important to you.

Your goals in communication with clients facilitate one of two goals. You want to keep the clients you have and find additional paying clients.

Advantages to Email Over Other Ways to Communicate

Email Is Time-Efficient

Phone calls and personal meetings rob you of time. Phone calls often result in spending large amounts of time socializing with clients. While you need to maintain a good rapport with your clients, they will appreciate you staying focused on the things they are paying you for. Their time is precious too.

Personal meetings are probably the worst wasters of time, since you not only have the time spent in the meeting itself, but the commute to and from a client’s place of business.

You can leverage from one email to another. You may find that you get the same questions by many of your clients. Look in your email client’s Sent box and see what you said last time. This will save you time and it ensures that you give consistent, well-researched answers, while keeping research time to a minimum.

You Get Time to Think

When you are face-to-face with a client or on a phone conversation with them, you often do not have the opportunity to take a few minutes to mull over the best answer. You won’t get time to research your answer if you need more information. While you can always tell a client that you will find out, if you use this tactic too often, you run the risk of your clients feeling like you don’t know what you are doing.

With email, you can take your time composing just the right response. If you are in doubt about how it may be received, you can always bounce the email off a friend to see how you can better phrase things.

Email Is Inexpensive

While postal mail costs money for envelopes and postage, if you already have Internet access (and if you don’t, you should), it costs you nothing besides your time.

Rules For Effective Emails

Communicating with clients through e-mail need not be a challenge. The best way to compose effective e-mail messages is to set up a basic format to follow.

Start by handling each of these areas:

The Subject Line

Write clear, specific, and concise subject lines. For example, rather than writing, “We have something we want to tell you about your profit & loss,” which is vague and wordy, write, “Your financials are done!”

Main Body of the Message

The first paragraph should restate the client’s question (if you are writing a reply to a client’s e-mail message).

The Closing

In the closing paragraph, thank the client again, and offer further assistance.

Be Polite

Because there’s no face-to-face contact in an e-mail communication, people tend to be more casual, outspoken, or even rude than they would be in person, or even on the phone. But good netiquette requires the utmost courtesy at all times.

Because a large percentage of communication is non-verbal, it is more easy to be misunderstood when you are not speaking directly to a client. Things like voice inflections and body language are often cues as to a client’s reaction to your statements. With an email, you never know the mood of the client when they read your correspondence, so you must be extra careful in your wordings and how they could be taken.

Formatting

Avoid using capital letters (except to punctuate names or the beginnings of sentences). In e-mail, capitalizing all the letters in a word is tantamount to shouting.

Accounting/Tax Terminology

Minimize accounting jargon. Avoid using financial acronyms and buzzwords unless you are e-mailing a true expert or long time client. Many clients will not understand this terminology, and may end up misunderstanding the message as a result.

Solve Issues the First Time

Resolve issues on the first contact. First-time resolution is just as important with e-mail as it is with traditional telephone interactions. It saves everyone time if you completely fulfill clients’ requests or resolve their problems in the first response.

Attachments

Use attachments only when necessary. E-mail attachments require readers to download the files, which can be annoying (or impossible if a client doesn’t have the appropriate software to open it with). Certain types of attachments may be blocked either by the email client (Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc.) or by the recipient’s internet service provider. Some kinds of files may contain viruses or other ill effects, so they may simply not arrive at their destination.

As silly as it sounds, it is very common to refer to an attachment in the body of an email, and then forget to attach the file you refer to. If you are going to attach a file to an email, it is a good idea to attach the file before composing the letter. Once you begin writing the email message, you can easily get involved in the message and simply forget to attach the file. This, of course, looks very unprofessional and is easily avoidable.

Proofread!

It’s critical to proofread e-mail messages before hitting the “send” button. Also, read sentences for clarity and accuracy, and look for any wording that could be misinterpreted. If your email client doesn’t have a spell checker, you probably want to consider using one that does. Few things look more unprofessional than misspelled words or other typos. If your email client does not support spell checking, consider composing your emails in your word processor and spell-checking with it. Then just copy and paste the text of the email into your email client before sending.

Know When Not To Use Email

When clients write with complex questions or several questions, it may save time if you reply by phone.

If a client expresses a preference to use another method of communication, respect their wishes, even if it takes more time or effort. Keeping existing clients pleased with your work usually takes less time and effort than finding new clients if they become dissatisfied.

Email: Just One Aspect of Running Your Accounting Service

Most accounting courses focus on teaching you the basics: debits and credits, general ledger, and so on. One thing they will never teach you is how to run an accounting service, much less how to make it profitable. That’s what we do, and why Universal Accounting training is so different. Sure, you’ll get the basics, but you will also learn how to find clients and how to sell your services for the highest possible hourly rate. If you want an accounting job making $10 per hour, go to a university for training. If you want to learn how to make $30 to $60 per hour, set your own flexible hours, and be your own boss, you owe it to yourself to click the link below and learn more. Hundreds of our graduates started down the road to personal and financial freedom with that same little mouse click.

Learn Why an Accounting Service Will Best Achieve Your Financial Goals

Changes in technology are occurring daily — changes that will make your life easier, and make you a more valuable resource to your client. Today’s clients are more demanding and sophisticated than yesterday’s were. Stay up to date on their ever-changing expectations by taking these steps:

* Be a voracious reader. Read everything you can about your client’s industry, new service techniques, and changes in the marketplace.

* Become ‘techno-savvy’. Spend part of your budget to stay ahead of the technological curve.

* Monitor technological trends. If you don’t receive customer surveys on an ongoing basis, find out what you have to do to get on the routing list.

* Talk to your clients. What’s the best way to find out what your clients want? Ask them. Keep on asking them.

It’s that simple.

Our newsletters will always work to keep you up-to-date on the latest in accounting technology and client relations.

The Software Questions and Comments section of the Forum gives advise on software and other technology questions.
Click HERE to Visit the Technical Section of the Forum

I’m excited to write to you today about the DVD and other materials that you have reqested. (Your DVD should be arriving any day now.)

You’ve taken the first step on the road to a new and exciting business. Let’s talk a little about why this is such a rewarding business.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts that for the foreseeable future, opportunities in the accounting and tax field will continue to grow. In fact, they say that as long as business regulations continue to get more and more complicated, the need for skilled and qualified accounting and tax professionals will continue to increase.

This Is Great News For You

You might be thinking, “I don’t have a college education, how does this affect me?”

Here’s the good news. You don’t need a college or university education. Yes, you need specialized training, but you don’t need to go to a college or university to get it. In fact, most college accounting programs don’t prepare you for the exciting and rewarding business of small business accounting.

College and university programs teach corporate accounting, finance and analysis. Not small business accounting. 85% of the opportunities in accounting today are with small business. The right education in small business bookkeeping and accounting will prepare you for the profitable and predictable income you will achieve with a bookkeeping and tax preparation practice.

If It’s Not at the University, Where Do I Get the Right Education?

You’ve already started in the right direction. Universal Accounting is has been called the small business experts since 1979. We’ve been teaching small business bookkeeping and accounting for over 25 years. We know the ins-and-outs of small business bookkeeping and tax preparation. We know it better than anyone else. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Click on the link below and listen to what some of the successful graduates of the Universal Accounting Professional Bookkeeper Course have to say about it.

Click Here to Listen to What Others are Saying About the Professional Bookkeeper Program

Hands-On Learning is Hands-Down the Best

Most courses will only offer you an eBook or other text book to read… not Universal. With DVD and written course materials you’ll find the best information in the finest medium for distance learning. You will actually do the books for several different small businesses. Nobody I’m aware of offers you as comprehensive an education in practical, hands-on, small business accounting.

With the included DVD instruction, if you need to repeat a subject, simply rewind and replay. Move ahead at your own pace and enjoy the best possible learning environment available.

But that’s not all. You’ll have a personal coach to help you. A live voice at the other end of the phone. That’s a Universal Exclusive. Whether via telephone or e-mail, you can get your questions answered.

The finest course materials, a personal coach and online testing to ensure confidence that you’ve attained mastery of the concepts taught is only part of what Universal Accounting has to offer.

Find and Keep Clients

Universal Accounting is the only school I know of that will not only teach you everything you’ll need to know about small business accounting and tax preparation, you’ll also master the skills you need to find and keep clients. By utilizing the same tools that professional marketers use, you’ll find the qualified clients that will pay from $30 to $60 per hour for the services that you provide.

You might be thinking, “I’m not a good salesman. I don’t know if I can do that.”

You don’t have to be. Over the years, we’ve tested hundreds of different marketing methods and have hand-picked those that we’ve found to be the most successful, and will show them to you. Finding and keeping clients is achievable, profitable and easy… if you follow Universal’s outline for success.

In fact, for 6 months after you’ve completed the course, you’ll have access to not only technical bookkeeping and accounting help, but marketing help too. At Universal, we employ some of the most talented and skilled marketing experts in the business. And they are here to help you achieve success.

The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with the First Step

Congratulations on your first step. While you wait for the video to arrive, feel free to sign-up for our Accounting and Bookkeeping Tips newsletter. It’s full of valuable information on how to start and build a successful bookkeeping and accounting practice. You’ll learn about establishing an office, finding clients and the nuts-and-bolts of running your practice. To sign up for this FREE newsletter, click HERE.

If you’re ready to take the next step, simply click on the link below to find out more about how exciting and rewarding a business in professional bookkeeping and tax preparation could be for you. Earning $30 to $60 an hour is only a couple mouse clicks away. Don’t delay.

Click Here and Learn About Earning $30 to $60 Per Hour

Attention: E-mail Marketing Increases Profits for Bookkeepers

Three Steps to Make E-mail Work for Your Bookkeeping Practice

Banner ads are not as effective as e-mail. “Internet users are visually discounting the presence of banner ads,” according to Paul Baudisch, president of NetMarque (a marketing agency based in Needham, Massachusetts). In other words, they aren’t looking at them.

Click-through rates (the number of people who actually click on the ad to see what it is selling) are going down too. In a recent survey, people who claimed that they never look at banner ads anymore rose from 38% to 48% in one year.

E-mail is Effective

More and more marketers on the Web are turning to the direct marketing model, sending personalized e-mails to highly targeted lists of prospects. Just like the personal sales letter, personal e-mails are changing the way people market on the Web.

There are three steps to making your e-mail marketing campaign very effective. And there is good news. An effectively run e-mail marketing campaign can be accomplished for a fraction of the cost of direct mail. Let’s take a look at what it takes to save money by contacting your clients and potential clients via e-mail and how that will generate additional income for your bookkeeping business.

Three Steps to Effective E-mail

1. Send the Right Message- For many e-mail marketers, it make sense to soften the sales pitch sent via e-mail. Make your content more informational, with a softer sales message. Many companies find that a newsletter is a very effective tool to reach out to clients and potential clients. By offering valuable information via a free service, (your e-mail newsletter), you can build confidence with your clients and create a natural venue for offering your services.Many marketers find that coupons and promotions sent by e-mail are very effective. These kind of e-mails are usually very well-received. “Nearly one third of respondents to a DoubleClick consumer e-mail study said they’d made an immediate online purchase as a result of receiving an e-mail, and close to one-third said they’d clicked on messages for information and later made an online purchase as a result,” according to Kim T. Gordon, the marketing coach at Entrepreneur.com.
2. Look and Act Like a Pro- The two most important elements that contribute to the “open rate”, (how many people actually open your e-mail), are the “from” and “subject” line. Make it very clear who the e-mail is coming from. Your clients will know if it’s coming from you, a valuable source of information, or not. If they don’t know who it’s coming from, it will more than likely not get opened.In your subject line, make sure that at the very least it will give them an idea of what the e-mail will tell them about. Better still, make your subject line read like an interesting headline that will pull them into the body of the e-mail. If you don’t make it interesting enough to open, nobody reads it.

   Make sure to comply with all CAN SPAM regulations by including your company’s name and physical address in the body of the message as well as an unsubscribe option at the bottom.

   Designing your e-mail doesn’t have to be difficult. You don’t have to go it alone. In fact, if you’re sending out more than 50 e-mails at a time, you should look at some of the marketing services that cater to small businesses. Topica, 1Shopping Cart and Constant Contact to name a few. Many of these companies will allow you to e-mail up to 5,000 names for under $50 per month. The service will maintain and clean your list by removing invalid e-mail addresses of people who choose to unsubscribe.

   Choose an e-mail marketing service that provides design templates for e-newsletters, promotional offers and coupons that are easy to customize. Since only 56% of people online have broadband, it’s essential to design full-color, high impact HTML content or promotions, but still give recipients the option of receiving a text-only version.

   Best of all, most of these services will provide you with the tracking information that helps you determine just how effective you e-mail is. You’ll be able to see how many people open and click on links in your e-mails and track the sales and inquiries that come from them.

3. Build a Better List- If you already have a Web site, you’re part of the way there. By putting a sign-up button or screen on your site, you can collect your own names for mailing. “When companies use their own homegrown lists, online direct marketing works even better,” says Robert W. Bly, author and Internet expert. This advice is consistent with my experience too.Sure, you can rent e-mail addresses, but most e-mail servers treat those names as spam, (the Internet version of junk-mail), and they normally don’t get read. In fact, depending on where you got the list of names and who sends them out, it might not accept your e-mail at all. A homegrown list is the best list.
   
   To help you get the names for your list, offer a promotion of some kind. As a bookkeeper, you might want to offer a book or some other premium to your clients for giving you their personal information.

   If you don’t have a Web site, you can still market via e-mail. You still need to collect names and e-mail addresses to reach out to your current and potential clients. Anytime you get any interest in your service, make sure and collect the name, address and e-mail address. You might even consider a direct mail campaign to get folks e-mail addresses. Make sure and give them a reason (a premium) to sign up with an e-mail address, and you’ll be well on your way to building a powerful list.

   But remember, most people who will respond to your e-mail will expect that you have some kind Web presence. As part of Universal Accounting’s Professional Bookkeeper Program, you’ll have a customizable Web site to get you started with your Web marketing efforts.

Will My E-mail Marketing Really Get Read?

You’re reading this, aren’t you? If you provide the right information to the right people, yes… it will get read. If done properly, e-mail is a very effective tool for marketing to your clients and potential clients. The Professional Bookkeeper Program is full of valuable insight into how to spread your sales and marketing message the most effective way possible.

Learning about the ins-and-outs of small business bookkeeping and accounting is only part of creating a professional bookkeeping business. Your education should also give you the tools you need to build and grow your business too. The Professional Bookkeeper Program is the only program I’m aware of that provides that type of instruction. Click on the link below and find out for yourself how you can create the income and lifestyle that you and your family deserve.

Click Here to Learn How to Pay Yourself What You’re Worth and Build the Lifestyle You Deserve

If Timing Is So Important, When Do I Describe the Fee?

If you talk with ten sales professionals you’ll get ten opinions about when to mention the fee to your prospective client. The advice will vary depending upon the type of product and service, or the expensiveness. In my opinion, there’s only one time to mention your accounting fees: at the end of the presentation.

Here’s the reason: accounting is a professional service requiring trust on the client’s part, and personal knowledge of the client on the accountant’s part. The success of the interview is dependent on both being present. Therefore, mentioning fees before both have been achieved will likely result in fees becoming an excuse for not signing on.

Additionally, accounting is often times misunderstood by small business owners. It’s perceived by the inexperienced entrepreneur as simply a means to the tax return, and not a tool for greater control of their business and improved profitability. Therefore, we need time to educate the prospective client on how our services can solve their problems and help them make more money. Once the client knows we’re on his/her side and are working to make the fee his/her best investment, the fee is simply a formality.

Occasionally you’ll have potential clients prematurely ask you “How much do you charge?” Whenever possible dodge the question by telling the bargain hunter that it will depend upon a number of factors such as how big their company is and what services they want you to perform. If they push harder tell them, “It could be as low as $75 per month, but I need to know more about your business before I answer further” and leave it at that. Of course, if it’s only going to take 30 minutes to do their accounting, then $75 would be fair. Otherwise, it will cost more.

Don’t forget, that you want to state the fee as a fixed retainer fee for the next six months, not an hourly rate. Those of you that are students of ours have the fee calculation form from the learning materials with which to calculate the retainer fee based on number of transactions. If you’re not a graduate of the Universal course then estimate how much time you think it will take, multiply the hours by $45 (or whatever rate you are charging) and give the client that fee.

With the right preparation, the fee will be the best part of the whole presentation.

Module 4 of the Professional Bookkeeping Program teaches how to market yourself and your Accounting and Bookkeeping Business.
Learn More About the Marketing Module of the Professional Bookkeeping Program

Freelance Bookkeepers and Accountants enjoy an incredibly strong place in today’s market. As other industries find freelancing a very viable option, Bookkeepers and Accountants have been successful at it for years.

In fact, Daniel Pink, in his book, Free Agent Nation says, “Nearly a decade ago freelancers were heralded as exemplars of a new way of working. These highly skilled workers had been liberated from traditional employment, partly by information technology, and enjoyed unprecedented autonomy, setting their pay rates, their work hours and even the location of their jobs. Journalists and economists saw the future in freelancing (and freelancers) and it was bright.”

As you think about what owning a freelance Bookkeeping and Accounting business can do for you, let’s talk about six habits that will make your Bookkeeping and Accounting practice more profitable. As we discuss these habits, don’t let their simple nature fool you… these are powerful tools that will make a difference in your bussiness.

Habit #1: Be Prepared

This might actually sound familiar to some of you. But don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to put on your Boy Scout uniform and help elderly women (or men) across the street. But Habit #1 really is be prepared.

In any meeting, conversation, phone call or e-mail, be prepared. Know what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it before you begin. If you don’t know where you want to take the conversation, you aren’t going to get there.

If a visual aid will help make your case, be prepared with it. If you’re going to talk about statistics, make sure you have them at your fingertips. Being prepared is often the difference between a successful interaction with your clients and an unsuccessful one.

Be prepared.

Habit #2: Don’t Wait for Your Clients to Find You

Everyone gets lucky once in a while; you might find a client without too much effort, but that’s not always how it happens. Now, don’t misunderstand, there are a number of very effective and simple ways to build your client list. Some of which we’ve talked about already. Click on this link to see how to build your client list through networking, for example.

As you decide what kind of marketing you’re going to do to bring in new clients, consider those that just “happen by” to be the icing on the cake. Don’t wait for your clients to find you… they want you to find them!

Habit #3: Don’t Let Your Sales Cycle Get You Down

Every business experiences seasons of plenty, when everything seems to be flying on auto-pilot, and dry spells, when closing a sale is extremely difficult.

Dry spells are a normal course of business and shouldn’t be cause to be discouraged. The beauty of marketing is that it’s a numbers game… and we’re numbers people, right? Don’t give up, follow your marketing plan and keep going.

Many of our graduates tell us that often the difference between finding the new client and going home empty handed is simply hangin’ in there. Winston Churchill said, “Never, never, never give up.”

Make that your mantra every morning and you’ll keep your practice busy and profitable.

Habit #4: Use Evidence to Influence

It’s always a good habit to back-up what you say with evidence. Habit #4 goes hand-in-hand with Habit #1. In order to get the most out of using Evidence to Influence you need to be prepared. Use testimonials, statistics or demonstrations to help reinforce your talking points with your clients.

When I was in school I found that the more senses I could employ in the learning process, the easier it was to remember. Reading out of the text wasn’t enough. If I could write it down, or otherwise use additional sensory information it was easier to remember. You will find that your clients are the same. The more involved you can get them, the more invested they’ll be in the information you’re trying to give them.

Habit #5: Look Successful

I have a friend who is a commercial artist. He works out of a studio in the basement of his home. I have come to admire him as one of the most disciplined people I know. Despite the fact that he is working out of his home, he gets up in the morning and gets ready for work, just like he was going into the office and heads downstairs. If you stop by and see him during the day, you’d find him dressed for work and in his studio.

I don’t think it matters if you are seeing clients or not, start the day as if you were. I think you’ll find that you are better prepared to start the day and get more accomplished than if you started work in your PJ’s.

The freelancers who find the most success working out of a home office, have created a “work-place” inside their home. When they’re at work,they’re at work. A little bit of discipline will make all the difference.

Work at maintaining your health as well as your appearance. If you maintain the appropriate level of health and fitness you’ll find yourself better able to cope with the stresses of the work day and your clients want to work with someone who looks and acts successful. Habit #5, Look Successful.

Habit #6: Invest in Youself

Are you a student of accounting? When was the last time you attended a seminar, or read a marketing book? Look for and attend conferences and seminars that will add to your knowledge of marketing, and of accounting. Proactively invest in your career and your future.

The quest for knowlege doesn’t even have to be limited to accounting or marketing issues either. Read and study about anything that is of special interest to you. The better your understanding of the world around you, the better you’ll be able to help your clients. Keep your mind fresh and young by keeping it engaged with learning new things. This simple investment in yourself will pay off in a better quality of life, an engaged outlook on the world around you and the monetary rewards associated with being at your best.

Universal’s course is a terrific place to start investing in your business. The Professional Bookkeeper Program is a great way to complement your knowledge of Accounting and Bookkeeping. Click here and find out how the Professional Bookkeepers Course can help you find the quality of life that you’re looking for.

I’d also like to share with you some day-to-day things that can help you create an effective and profitable freelance Bookkeeping and Accounting business. Click here to learn about additional ways to create a productive working environment.

“A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don’t have a J.O.B.” -Fats Dominoe

Fats is right. The degree isn’t the goal. The income to create the lifestyle you want is the goal. Unfortunately, a college or university education doesn’t necessarily guarantee you’ll get a job, much less a job that will provide a great income and lifestyle. The same is true of the “wrong” education in bookkeeping and accounting.

Speaking to university graduates, Michael Mandel in BusinessWeek:Online wrote on September 8th, “I’m sorry for obsessing about this, but I can’t help it. I really do wonder whether we’ve passed over a critical threshold where a college degree alone is no longer enough.”

With the “right” education you’ll “make your own luck.”

Most bookkeeping and accounting training programs only teach you enough about bookkeeping to get a data-entry job making $8 bucks an hour, but I don’t think that’s the lifestyle that most of us are looking for. The “right” education must give you the tools and training to help you “make your own luck.”

Introducing what makes the “right education in Small Business Accounting the “perfect” education.

Maybe we should be a little more specific about what you should demand from a curriculum on bookkeeping and accounting. And that includes Universal Accounting. If we don’t measure up, don’t buy our training either. These are the basics. If they aren’t in the course, don’t take it! That said, let’s see what you’ll need.

1. The nuts-and-bolts of small business accounting. You should expect to learn T-Accounts, the General Ledger, Journals and the other Ledgers. You should learn about how they interact with each other and the information they provide the business owner. This is where it starts.

2. The Balance Sheet and what it tells you. You should understand where assets, liabilities, accruals and capital fit on the balance sheet and understand what they are telling you.

3. Business entities. What makes a corporation different from a proprietorship? What difference does this make your client? You should expect to have a complete understanding of the different business entities and how they effect the accounting process.

4. You should become an Earnings Statement Expert. For most small business owners, this is where the rubber meets the road. With a complete understanding of the Earnings Statement, the value of your service gets powerful. You might be surprised to know that most business owners don’t have a complete understanding of what the Balance Sheet and Earning Statement are really telling them.

5. You should know payroll. There are payroll services out there, but many small business owners don’t use them. As a small business bookkeeper, if you understand payroll, you are way ahead of your competition. One of the biggest monthly headaches for small business owners is the payroll process. Make that easier for your clients and you’re worth your weight in gold. If your bookkeeping education doesn’t teach about payroll, it’s incomplete, and not the right education.

6. You should have hands-on experience. Like most things, hands-on learning is hands-down the best way to learn small business bookkeeping and accounting. It takes more than a text book and a lecture to enable you to “master” the tools you need. You need experience doing the books for a variety of different small businesses, to become a small business profit expert.

As you search for the “right” education in bookkeeping and accounting, if these 6 areas of instruction are not a part of the curriculum, it isn’t a complete education and is not the “right” education for a successful bookkeeping business. Knowing that, I should tell you, I think these 6 areas of instruction are only a part of what you’ll need to have a successful and very profitable bookkeeping business. There’s still more you’ll need to know to create a truly profitable and rewarding bookkeeping and accounting business.

Okay… show me what the “perfect” education must include!

Now let me introduce you to the half dozen things profitable tax services know that will turn the “right” Bookkeeping Education into the “perfect” education. Realize that this is not offered everywhere. (But don’t worry; at the end of this e-mail, I’ll give you some information on where you will find it.)

• In depth marketing strategies. Time-proven techniques save you years of experimentation and frustration and teach you how to attract and keep the most profitable clientele. Since the best knowledge only turns into a great income when you have paying clients, learning how to quickly find and keep clients must be a part of the “perfect” curriculum. A library of prospecting letters and fliers to help you jump start your Professional Bookkeeping Business with sufficient clients should be in your course material.

• Coaching from marketing experts. If there’s not someone on the other end of the phone to help you with your efforts to attract and keep clients, it’s not the “perfect” education.

• How should I charge for my services? How can any school that would make you guess what to charge for your services consider itself to be the “perfect” education?

• How should I interview clients to get the information I’ll need? Without the right information, it will be difficult to really service your clients. Any school that doesn’t offer instruction on how to interview your clients to serve them effectively and efficiently is not the “perfect” education.

• Accounting Support. Your first six months as a professional bookkeeper, you’ll likely have questions you need answered. If your education doesn’t include access to experienced professionals for that critical start-up time, I don’t think there’s anyway it could be the “perfect” education.

• Proven management techniques. If your education doesn’t teach you the proven management techniques that will best optimize your time, you guessed it, it isn’t the “perfect” education. Running your business like a pro makes it possible to live the lifestyle that you and your family deserve.

Now you know what I consider the “perfect” education in professional bookkeeping and accounting. If you are able to find the right education, you’re on the right track. But if you want to “Make Your Own Luck”, you’d better demand the “perfect” education.

Did We Set Our Sites Too High?

Does anyone really provide this kind of real-world bookkeeping and accounting training? Yes, but most of them are called a “franchise” and can cost up to $80,000 to start. There is one exception. Universal Accounting’s Professional Bookkeeper Program is that exception.

Click Here to Learn More About The Costs of Buying a Franchise and Why You Don’t Need to

Most people don’t have the money to buy a franchise, but they can still create a profitable bookkeeping business. Universal Accounting has been teaching the ins-and-outs of small business accounting and tax preparation for over 25 years. And yes, the Professional Bookkeeper program meets every single criterion of both the “right” education and the “perfect” education… but you probably guessed that already. We’ve been called the small business accounting experts. Click on the link below and learn more about how to start your bookkeeping business with something even better than a franchise.

Show Me How to Start a Lucrative and Exciting Bookkeeping Business Today

Ask for Referrals Without Really Asking

Ask without asking? “Just about every course or book that deals with referrals teaches you one single method… ‘asking’ for referrals.”

David Frey, President of Marketing Best Practices Inc., goes on to say, “…there’s a HUGE problem with this approach. People HATE to ask for referrals. You hate it, I hate it…”

Mr. Frey also says, “Asking for referrals is right up there with asking your friend to come to church with you on Sunday. It’s downright uncomfortable.”

Although many of us might agree with Mr. Frey, he obviously didn’t read the first article in this newsletter. Nevertheless, if you don’t like to ask for referrals, that’s OK. There is a way to ask… without actually asking. Keep reading and I’ll teach you how.

The Automatic Referral

You build the automatic referral right into your workflow.

A system is a process that has a predictable result because it happens the same way every time. The automatic referral needs to be systematic and transactional, not relational. In other words,the referral is created as a part of the transaction, not by your relationship to your client.

It’s easy to build your referral system into your transaction. It could be as easy as a coupon on the back of your statement or invoice. Thank them for the order and at the same time ask for a referral. “I sure appreciate your business. For every client you refer to my office, I’d like to give you a dinner for two at [name of restaurant here].”

Of course you don’t have to use dinner at a restaurant as the reward for a referral. It could be cash, a credit on their next order, anything that might entice them to refer you to a friend. I’ve seen a $5 gift certificate to Chili’s Restaurant bring bank managers out of their offices to sign up new checking accounts. When was the last time you saw a bank manager stop what he was doing to order new checks? These kinds of incentives really work. And if you make it part of the transaction, it’s easy.

How Much Is a New Client Worth?

How much are you willing to spend to get a new paying client? Determine how much they’re worth and how much you’re willing to pay, and come up with some kind of offer that your clients can’t refuse.

To show you what I mean, let’s take a look at some of what we’ve discovered over the years at Universal Accounting. The average bookkeeping client is worth $300 in monthly billing each and every month. Over the course of the next two years, you’ll find that a single customer is worth $7200.

The graph below will show you how valuable each client will become in a very short time.

I think that’s worth a dinner or two for a client who gives you referrals… don’t you? Now, let’s make this even more interesting. Let’s look at this scenario and include doing their taxes along with their bookkeeping.

Over the years we’ve discovered that the average business client who adds tax planning and preparation to bookkeeping services increases that $300 per month to $400 per month. Over the course of the same two years, that client is now worth $9600! At this point, a referral is worth a lot of money to your bookkeeping and tax practice.

Making the referral process a regular part of how you do business, gives your clients an incentive to give you a referral, and you’ll watch the referrals pour in.

“Automatic” Referrals Without Asking… What Could Be Better?

It really does get better. Referrals are only part of creating a successful bookkeeping and tax business. You’ll also learn everything you’ll need to know to do the books for any small business.

There’s never been a better time to become a professional bookkeeper and accountant. You won’t find a better place to begin than with Universal Accounting. Be prepared with all the educational tools you need to learn small business bookkeeping and accounting and all the marketing education you’ll need to have a successful business. Simply click on the link below and learn how to start your successful and profitable practice today.

Show Me How Achievable, Profitable and Easy a Professional Bookkeeping Business Can Be