by StacyK | Aug 20, 2014 | Mobile Maven, Move Online |
Hello Dear Readers! This is our last installment of our Moving Online series. You can check out the other installments here:
Step 1:Join the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program
Step 2: Find Technology that will allow you to work remotely
Step 3: Offer an incentive to your existing clients to go remote
Step 4: Bring new clients on as remote right away
Step 5: Provide flat fee/value pricing
Step 6: Specialize
Step 7: Market yourself
Step 8: Use video conferencing to meet with clients
Step 9: Create a Network
Step 10: Form Strategic Alliances
As I mentioned in the original article – you want to make sure that you have a website, and that you have a blog. Remember, you don’t have to write something every day, but you’ll need to be committed to keeping it current. Opening up a website and checking out the blog to find it hasn’t been updated in a year gives the impression that the person or business might not have their sh*t together. If you’re not actively keeping up with it, then update the site and remove the links!
That being said, I think once a month is a decent frequency and make sure that your content is written for the appropriate audience – your potential clients. No need to do lengthy articles, and trust me: almost everyone loves a list! Ask people in your network to contribute to it. Clients, vendors, your peers – it’s way for them to get themselves out there, can make it more interesting for your readers, and takes the pressure of you to keep coming up with ideas.
Why is this so important? (Here comes a list!)
- It’s one more aspect of your online presence
- It’s a way to establish yourself as an expert
- It forces you to keep working ON your business and not just IN it
So there you are, my friends. I hope this series has helped you – now go out there and go remote!
by StacyK | Jun 11, 2014 | Mobile Maven, Move Online |
When I say “create a network”, I mean that you have to find people that are smarter than you, that have not just MORE knowledge and experience than you, but also DIFFERENT knowledge and experience.
One of the steps in this Moving Online series that we’ve talked about is the need to specialize – what I call finding your jam, and what Darren Root refers to as becoming an Intentional Accountant. Part of the process for moving your practice online and working remotely with your clients is not just finding your gig, but also finding others that know what you don’t.
For instance, I know the construction industry really well. My dad was a builder, my brother is a carpenter, one of my brothers in law is a builder and another does heating and cooling. I worked for a plumbing company for 4 years before starting my practice.
You know what I don’t know really well? Car dealerships. So when I have a client that comes to me that buys and sells used cars? The first thing I’m going to do is tell that client that their industry is not one that we’re familiar with, but I know just the person. Then I’m going to email my girl Deb Kilsheimer, because I know she has a kick-ass way of setting this client up in QuickBooks.
Seek out others that do what you do, so that you don’t waste your time or your client’s money learning something that you may not want to learn, may not need to learn, and frankly, may not be that great at doing. This way, even if you can’t work with the client, they’ll always remember you as someone with integrity, someone that can be trusted – someone to whom they can refer new clients – because of your candor and for hooking them up with someone fabulous that DID know what they needed.
Creating this network is going to take some time and some effort, no doubt about it. You’ll have to utilize some of the tools I mentioned in Step 7 about marketing yourself. You’ll need to attend events to hone your specialty, and just as important – to meet other people that know different stuff.
Read Step 8: Use video conferencing apps to “meet” your clients
Read Step 10: Form Strategic Alliances
by StacyK | May 15, 2014 | Mobile Maven, Move Online |
Hey there! We’re in the home stretch of our Moving Online series. We’ve talked about the ProAdivsor Program, finding the right technology, offering incentives to get existing clients to move to the cloud, bringing new clients on as remote, providing flat fee billing, specializing, and marketing yourself. Here, we’ll examine using video to seal the deal.
This isn’t going to be a long post – it’s really more to reiterate the story I mentioned in my original article. I had a client that seemed ready to hire Kildal Services, but was stalling for some reason. I decided to ask if they’d like to do a quick Google Hangout so that we could “meet in person” and discuss any other questions they might have. The hangout went well, we covered a lot of ground during the session. After they signed on, they told me that one of the reasons they finally said yes was that they loved seeing that the human aspect – I have 3 cats, and as cats do, one of them kept continually walking directly in front of my computer monitor the entire time and I, of course, kept apologizing.
Really, the only thing I have to say here is to have a few tricks up your sleeve for this – be ready to throw out a few options, so that you can use a video tool that the client is comfortable and/or familiar with. There are many – Fuze, Google Hangouts, Skype, FaceTime, Oovoo, Webex, Join.me – get acquainted with a number of them.
Some pro tips – make you have a good webcam, you’re familar with the video application, and that your office is uncluttered behind you.
Read Step 7: Market Yourself
Read Step 9: Create a Network
by StacyK | Apr 14, 2014 | Mobile Maven, Move Online |
Ten years ago, when I decided to join the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program and start my own bookkeeping practice, doing any sort of marketing was, quite literally, the furthest thing from my mind. I had no idea that I was doing it already on a small scale, nor was I able to foresee the changes that would be coming to make it so much easier.
So much has changed since I started Kildal Services LLC in 2004. Back then, marketing meant brochures, some static ads and a webpage. Regarding the webpage – you were good to go if you had a webpage that had your contact information and described your services. The interaction was pretty one way – you telling potential clients what you did. These days… there’s a little more to it, and I know that it can seem a bit overwhelming.
Which puts us here, at Step 7 in the Moving Online series. It can also be titled Leveraging Social Media to Get Help Clients Find You. But really, that’s sort of cumbersome, don’t you think? Thanks to all of you for following along on the journey – it started almost a year ago and we’re a bit past the halfway point.
I cannot express the importance of having an online presence enough. And not just any online presence. You need to have a plan. There are questions that you need to ask yourself:
What is my target audience?
What channels do I use to reach my target audience?
What are the best tools to manage these channels?
Who will be the one to manage them?
Once you determine your target audience, you need to do some research to find out where they are (there are a ton of websites that will help you learn about social media demographics). Look online for industry forums, support sites, LinkedIn groups Now you find out where they are, then take a look at what channels you’re comfortable utilizing and start there – pick 1 or 2 channels to start with and begin by establishing yourself as a thought leader, an expert in that area. Don’t constantly hit them up with HIRE ME HIRE ME HIRE ME.
Write an article on how you solved a problem for a client, or in your own practice, or link to an interesting article from which you think your target audience might benefit. A how to video or document is always good. I wrote a blog piece a year ago about job costing in QuickBooks Online from which I still get new 1-2 new clients a month. You can also start your own group, like my fellow Michigander, Reesa McKenzie did, on LinkedIn.
I spoke with a few colleagues about how they’ve used social media to create their presence, establish themselves as experts, and ultimately grow their audience and business.
Cathy Iconis, of the Iconis Group, does a weekly QuickBooks Online tweet chat, and tells me how she got started: “Just like chat rooms, twitter was a place to meet and connect with new people. I started out by following the people that were following some of the people I already knew. From there, I tried to engage people and build relationships with them online. In the end, it worked! For the first year or two of my business, I could say that all of my clients came from my efforts on twitter.
Since then, I have evolved on how I use the different social platforms, but the intent is always the same. I am there to engage with people and build relationships. It is no different than any other in-person networking event. You don’t want to be the one constantly passing around your business card and moving on to the next victim, I mean person. Instead, you talk to people, you listen to people, and you do what you can to help people without expecting anything in return. Without building that connection, it will be really hard for anyone trust you with their more personal part of their life – their finances.”
Woody Adams, one of my co hosts and cofounders of Radio Free QuickBooks, uses YouTube videos to help our listeners and grow our audience. He tells his story here: “When Radio Free QuickBooks came about, we created a Youtube page and I began uploading all the videos I had on my site to share with a broader audience. Currently we have nigh 200 short videos on the YouTube page, covering topics from QuickBooks Pro, Premier & Enterprise Solutions as well as QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Online Accountant and QuickBooks Accountant feature sets. Again, the goal to build awareness of what any one product can do. Our Radio Free QuickBooks goal is to provide a free resource to help any QuickBooks user be more effective, and QuickBooks consultant really be the hero for their clients. I hope it helps you.”
It’s also important to remember that you need to do in person marketing as well. Look to local Meetup groups, conferences, or chamber meetings & networking groups. Again, avoid the hard sell – I’ve found that I get more referrals by letting people know they can contact me with quick questions – and then answer them without charging if they truly are quick questions. They’ll remember that you helped them, and will you’ll get word of mouth references. Just make sure that you let them know exactly what type of clients you’re looking to take on. If you work mainly with attorneys as an expert witness, like my friend Dawn Brolin, odds are you don’t want them to send you someone looking to have their payroll cleaned up.
Obviously, the goal of any marketing plan is to create awareness about your business and attract new clients, but other benefits are there as well: establishing yourself as an expert or enabling your practice to provide transparency and customer service.
One of the most important parts of all of this – regardless of whether it’s online or in person, is interaction. The flow of any plan is to engage the audience, which will build their trust in you and your practice and eventually hire you or refer you to potential new clients.
Your call to action for your marketing plan:
– Determine your strategy: What is your goal? Who is your audience?
– Find your audience? Choose 1-2 channels to connect with them
– Evaluate and Adjust – Examine metrics and analyze what’s working, what isn’t and make changes as needed
One last parting thought on all of this – have fun with it. Everyone loves cat pictures.
Read Step 6 – Specialize
Next: Step 8 – Use video conferencing to meet with clients
Next:
by StacyK | Feb 19, 2014 | Mobile Maven, Move Online |
I hear the term “Jack of all trades” quite often, but I never seem to hear the last half of it – “Master of none”. I don’t know about you, but I do not want to be thought of as a jack of all trades. I want current and potential clients to know that I am an expert in just one or two key areas. And I say this after accidently making exactly this happen.
Welcome to Step 6 in our Moving Online series. There are the previous installments if you haven’t already read them. This won’t be a long one, but I really believe it is one of the most important parts of the process.
When others in my industry hear my name, they think of 2 things: QuickBooks Online and the Appcenter. I’ve spent the better part of a decade trying to make people love QBO as much as I do, and in the process, I’ve made a name for myself as an expert in the product and analyzing what 3rd party add on will be the best for a small business to acquire the tools they need to run their back office. The motto of my company is that we help clients leverage technology to work better, faster, smarter. As I tell my husband: QBO is my gig, that’s my jam.
My advice to those of you working at moving towards on online practice, gaining clients with which you work remotely, is to determine your specialty. Find your gig, right?
I think there’s 2 steps to this, and while this might sound simple, it might not be as easy as you think.
My first bit of advice is determine what your ideal client is, and I’ll be honest: I found this really difficult to do. You have to take a look at all the clients you’ve worked with, both current and past. Who were your favorites? What did you love about working with them? It could be a specific industry, it could be they were all family owned, it could be they all needed help with a certain aspect of their business, such as inventory, or integrating systems. Were they all brand new startups? Take some time to really examine your client list, and find that common denominator that connects your favorites.
The second part is to think about things you’re passionate about – both personally and professionally. What do you love to do? What are you great at doing? What are the things you LOVE doing with and for your clients? Once you have a few ideas here, try to think of ways you can combine them with your ideal client..
When you combine them, you’ve got your specialty. THIS IS YOUR GIG, MAN. YOUR JAM.
Read Step 5-Provide Flat Fee/Value pricing
Next: Step 7-Market Yourself
by StacyK | Jan 6, 2014 | Mobile Maven, Move Online |
That’s right, folks! Glad you’re still with me on this journey – we’re almost half way through it! If this is your first visit, please check out the other articles in the series.
There are so many reasons for moving from hourly billing to flat fee, or value, billing. For me, it was a change I made before I started working remotely, and it came from something as simple as the fact that I was just really, really bad at keeping track of my hours and then remembering to bill for them. It was a solution that made it easy for me to create a recurring transaction in QuickBooks Online that was automatically created then emailed to the client, and made it easy for my clients to budget for the work each month.
When I made the transition, the idea of offering “packages” hadn’t ever occurred to me, so what I did was looked at each client’s 6 month billing history, then used that average for the monthly fee. For new clients, I tried to compare them to an existing client and base the fee that way.
These days, I approach it a bit different – partly because I’ve realized that I’m not just selling my time. I’m selling the 20 years of experience I have doing books, payroll and running an office. I’m selling the knowledge that I’ve gained through working with a variety of different businesses and clients, years of trial and error. I’m selling the best customer service I’m able to offer, based on communicating with clients and finding out what worked, as well as what didn’t. I’m selling my innovation – the passion that I have in seeking out technology that allows people to work better, faster, smarter – then fine tuning the processes associated with that technology so that I can pass that along to help my clients do the same.
At Kildal Services, we don’t have standard “packages” for services. We use a method we call “Base Plus” When a new client contacts us, we explain how the billing works and let the client customize services to fit their needs and/or budget. There are always going to be exceptions to this method, clients that require something more customized. Regardless of how we come to the monthly rate, I have a detailed conversation with the client – learning as much I can about their business, and have them complete a worksheet to detail what they’re doing now (if anything), what they like about it, what the pain point(s) might be, and what they WANT it to be. If they’re already using QuickBooks, I ask to review the data file.
Some clients know what they want, some don’t, and some will tell me flat out that they don’t even know what they don’t know. For that last type, I usually suggest working hourly for the first month or so. This gives everyone a chance to see what is going on, to determine what tasks the client is comfortable and capable of doing, and what he/she wants us to do.
Once we determine the set fee, I make sure the engagement letter includes something about “scope creep”. I had no idea there was a term for it, until just recently, and I love the phrase. It states that the pricing dictated is based on information provided by the client and that should the scope of work changed in any way, we reserve the right to revise it before performing any further work. Once in while, I underestimate the price because despite our best efforts, the client hasn’t been forthright or has simply forgotten to mention something (like having a PayPal account that needs reconciling). And every so often I get it wrong and overestimate the work, or the client ends up taking on more than originally planned. When any of these situations comes up, a simple phone call or email to let the client know that we need to sign a new engagement letter – for more or less – and a new credit card authorization form.
The key to flat fee/value billing is communication. Talk to the client, talk to your staff. Ask what’s working, AND what’s not. Ask for suggestions on making improvements. Let them know when something isn’t working on your end as well, but offer some possible solutions for them to choose from that will satisfy everyone.
One example I give during my live training: I had gone through the discovery process with the client (a non profit), determined pricing, signed the engagement and began work. The first month went off without a hitch; everyone was happy. The next 3 months is when the wheels started to wobble a bit. The board members had started reaching out to me for extra reports that weren’t included in the original scope. The first month, I didn’t really think about scope creep too much – I just assumed it was because it was a new fiscal year, a new bookkeeper. Then when the requests started increasing the next 2 months, I realized I had to address it before the wheels completely fell off. I met with the entire board, and explained that I was now spending double the time I had allotted for their account and had 2 solutions to choose from:
1. I could continue to pull the reports as requested by the board members, but would have to double my fee
2. I could convert them to QuickBooks Online (they were using Pro 2012, in a hosted environment) and charge them as needed to customize and memorize reports, and make each board member a report only (free) user
They were very appreciative of the feedback, and that I had come to them with options that were win/win situations for both parties.
I’ll be honest – not every client and not every project is a candidate for flat fee/value billing; I generally charge hourly to clean up a client’s QuickBooks data, or for one-on-one remote training – but I do offer that training in bulk hours at a small discount (i.e.: 5 hours at 5% off the regular rate).
I consult with other accounting professionals to determine the best approach for their practice and their clients. These accountants provide a wide variety of services, and I explain that they can offer bookkeeping/write up, payroll and annual tax prep for a monthly fee.
One recent client was at a point where she could no longer take on any new clients unless she hired someone, and she didn’t want to manage any employees. I helped her transition to a remote model, and package everything as a monthly fee. By doing this, she was able to manage time better by eliminating the need to travel to multiple clients each day, increase her revenue by 30% within the first 4 months and provide a year round revenue model. Her clients were ecstatic because they no longer had to worry about higher quarterly bills while she prepared payroll returns, or a large bill at year end for tax prep – they knew that for one flat fee every month, she had their back for all of it.
The bottom line is that implementing flat fee billing simplifies client invoicing for a practice, establishes clear expectations between the accounting professional and the client, makes budgeting easy for everyone, and doesn’t penalize the accounting professional for being super efficient and therefore working fewer hours.
Read Step 4-Bring New Clients On to Work with You Remotely Right Away
Read Step 6-Specialize
