It is easy to let your bookkeeping practice simmer rather than boil. Any business, regardless of the industry, can easily stagnate and while we are not talking about failure, we are not talking about an upward trajectory. Should you wish to push your practice into a growth stage, and why wouldn’t you
1) Build your personal profile
I’m sure you have heard of a thought leader at this stage of the game, right? There is a power behind such raising of the personality in an era of social media led marketing. To do this well you need to start thinking of yourself as an adviser, a business coach or mentor. Stop thinking of yourself as a bookkeeper or accountant. Start by building killer social media profiles with focus on Linkedin and facebook. Focus on creating and then distributing blogs, podcasts, videos and interviews which allow you to share your expertise. Be active, be visible and be consistent, these profile raising activities will not only attract clients and possibly raise your prices but will also be a great way to retain loyal customers by providing expertise and a sense of safety with an industry expert as their adviser.
2) Long term modernised marketing
Marketing is a long game these days and the game has changed so make sure you have too. Print advertising and traditional mail outs and emails are a dying practice that has been replaced with digital solutions. As with many businesses, first and foremost you should attend to your website. By using online resources and studying at ‘YouTube University’ you can do much of this renovation yourself, with some extra help from web developers and SEO experts. This involves creating a smooth UX, clear branding, marking your website up with relevant SEO tags, adding social buttons and adding in a blog if you don’t have one. Make sure you have a year long marketing plan involving regular production original content – such as blogs and advice videos. Make sure you have a calendar of social posts and ideas. For extra tips on cheap and modern marketing ideas check out this e-book: 5 low budget
marketing hacks.
2) Update your and your client’s systems
Your systems are the tools you use to do your job, interact with clients and organise your practice. One sure fire way to stagnate growth is to persist with outmoded technology and processes. Embrace solutions and apps that allow the following:
- Face to face meetings online
- Instantly chat to your clients
- Manage documents and collaborate online
- Modern CRM
- Elimination of manual processes
Furthermore, if your clients are not up to date with their own systems, your efficiency will be shot and your chances of growth will be greatly diminished. Encouraging your clients to modernise their own technology will pay massive dividends, not only on your bottom line but also in time savings you can use to pursue new business to grow your practice. Try writing blogs, sending emails, writing advice columns and using any means available to get your clients on modern accounting software and updated system technology so they can:
- Stream accounting data directly into the ledger
- Instant message through apps like slack instead of long emails
- Provide hands-off, clean and reliable numbers with no manual work
So once you have cleaned up, automated and modernised your practices’ systems, get your clients to follow suit and the efficiency will allow you focus on growth and profitability.
