Clients are obviously the root of any business, whether it be a simple fruit stand or a bookkeeping service. Without them, you’re sunk. If you’re not servicing as many clients as the business can handle, and always growing your staff to accommodate constantly growing needs, your company is likely to get swallowed up by the competition sooner rather than later.
The big question almost always comes down to how a business can get more clients while keeping costs low. Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) need to be kept as low as possible to facilitate higher profits and more growth.
Below, you’ll find some easy and actionable advice to find more clients for your bookkeeping business, while keeping CACs and other marketing expenses low.
Set up a partner network with other service providers
If you’ve been in this business for a while, you likely have an intimate understanding of how new clients can roll in based on recommendations from their other trusted services. There are several to consider, but I’ll give you just a few ideas to get started:
- Legal services (often) run into clients with money and investment-related troubles.
- Investment advisers are rarely skilled enough to help their money-toting clients with tax issues and in depth cost-cutting advice.
- Recruiters of all kinds often run into people of all different financial statuses that may need advice after securing a new job with a higher salary and tax bracket.
You need to identify services that can help you land more clients by recommending your services. The easiest way to get started is by offering to send clients needing a specific professional’s services their way, and asking if that professional will reciprocate when clients who need your services come along.
The worst they can say is no. If they say yes, and you treat their clients well, things will only get better with time!
Focus on getting more referrals
Just focus on doing a great job for every client, and, ALWAYS ask for referrals. Ask satisfied clients if they know anyone that might be interested in your bookkeeping services. Hand them a card and ask them to keep you in mind the next time a friend or family member needs some accounting help.
It’s a great practice to offer those you’re asking for referrals from a discount on their future services for every new client they help bring in. Add in a limited 15% off discount to all new clients, and you’ll have so much business you’ll need to hire more people to do all the additional work you have on your plate in no time!
Set pricing based on what your ideal client would be willing to pay
You can’t service everyone, particularly if they’re on a budget. A single mother of two may need bookkeeping help, but if she’s making less than $30K a year, she’s not going to add much to your bottom line. You have to price your services according to the types of clients you want to attract, not the type you think you can land most easily.
If you move into the poorest part of town, you’ll obviously have to set your prices based on what the area can afford. This is the type of pricing funk most new business owners get themselves stuck in, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Identify your ideal client, price your service at a level where those clients can identify you as valid to their needs, market to them specifically, and watch your business grow to levels beyond your wildest dreams!
Seek professional help
Last but not least, there are definite times during an entrepreneur’s journey when they need to seek out help from experts in a given discipline or skill. If the answers aren’t there, then there’s no sense banging your head against the wall for ideas, or needlessly wasting money on marketing that likely won’t work.
When you need more bookkeeping clients and aren’t getting them, the time has long since passed where you should be asking a professional sales consultant, with accounting-industry experience, how you can land and keep more clients.
One of such pros is Andrew Argue. Offering his service via AndrewArgue.com, he has years of experience under his belt in helping accounting firms – big and small – to get more clients and increase income. You may want to visit Andrew Argue LinkedIn page to learn more about him.
Takeaway
Building a business is never easy. The best thing about the tips mentioned on this page is they always work, no matter what level you’re at currently with your bookkeeping business.
