$100,000+ in Year One

Targeting Another $100,000+ in Year Two

Goal:

I attended Build Your Firm’s Level I program while in the process of writing my business plan, before I had officially started my practice. At the time, I had set a gross revenue goal of $25,000. I only had one client at the time and wanted to bring in more accounting and tax work, but wasn’t sure what type of clients I would target. I figured I’d probably bring in your typical small business clients with revenue in the $100,000 to $500,000 range.

Background:

Prior to starting my own practice, I had some legal experience and worked for a Big 5 firm.  Then, I took some time off to stay home and raise my two young children.  Making the transition from a stay-at-home mom to professional business owner was a mind game that I needed to get over. 

My biggest concern was how I was going to bring in new clientele. I wasn’t sure how I would come up with references if asked. I didn’t know how to sell myself as a professional business owner being as young as I was compared to my other colleagues. I didn’t want to portray myself as limited in knowledge because I was just starting out.

To help with this transition, I decided to attend Build Your Firm’s Practice Development program and opened my office soon after.  

Results:

By the end of the year, we will easily exceed $100,000 in annualized billings and project to double our size next year. 

I opened my office in mid-January and quickly acquired over 50 new tax clients during tax season – mainly by setting up our internet marketing campaign and asking for referrals. From May through September, I acquired an additional 30+ clients.  Approximately 30% of these clients are business clients; a large handful of which are in the $1M - $7M range.  I have brought in audit, review, payroll and complex accounting clients, which has kept me incredibly busy from May through now.

The Build Your Firm program inspired me to market myself as the professional that I was. The Build Your Firm program enabled me to employ very easy strategies to overcome my worries. The best thing about the strategies BYF teaches is that they are simple in and of themselves. The success of the strategies depended on my level of commitment. There isn’t one specific way to proceed; no “do it this way or you’ll fail.” Instead BYF armed me with many tactics, which when combined together in a way that made sense for my firm, proved to work and assisted me in bringing in the clientele I now have. What I also like is that once a strategy is in place, I’ve continued with it continuously as part of the way I do business.

In addition to these services, I obtained my securities licenses and have employed financial planning into the practice as well. I’m hoping that many of Build Your Firm’s rain making techniques used to build my accounting practice will also assist in building up the financial planning portion as well. 

Even after the workshop program, I’ve continued to use BYF as a resource for marketing and practice management advice.  I absolutely recommend BYF to other CPAs, EAs and bookkeepers.

Note - Jelena was featured in a Journal of Accountancy article about her experience starting a CPA practice from scratch. 

PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT COACHING FOR ACCOUNTANTS – If you would like to operate at a higher level, call BYF at 888-999-9800.