New CPA

[CubbyGuy]

Hello,

I'm still new to these forums and not sure why I'm here but my son thinks I need to expand my tax business by training people to do tax returns and stop working so hard.

I work 4 months with over 1,000 tax clients and take the remainder of the year off.
This is an excruciating 4 months, but I do enjoy what I do. Perhaps I could train and hire more tax consultants and expand to 10,000 or more tax clients pay these tax consultants a 50% commision and just sit back and collect the other 50%.

Well, I'm here if anyone needs my help and if anyone has any ideas on how I can expand my business I'd appreciate it. I do business and personal tax returns and also do audit representation.

Mr Masser

 

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[wildambitions]

First, welcome to the forum and the boards. I am sure there are a lot of people that will take you up on your offer to help. How about a few posts of "nice to know information" to help those who do their own taxes, or why someone should NOT do their own taxes. I realize that until you make a few posts you cannot start your own thread, but be sure to visit some of the threads that you find interesting and share your take on things.

Hello,

I'm still new to these forums and not sure why I'm here but my son thinks I need to expand my tax business by training people to do tax returns and stop working so hard.

Ok, lets get you a few posts here. Do you think you are working too hard? Would you like to work less hard and have your money working harder for you? Or is it just your son who thinks this?

I work 4 months with over 1,000 tax clients and take the remainder of the year off.
This is an excruciating 4 months, but I do enjoy what I do.

This sounds like a pretty good deal. Consider though that it is you who is working excruciatingly hard. Sometimes it can be very difficult to move from that "S" (self employed) mindset over to the "B" (business) mindset. I know I have struggled with it, often.

Food for thought: Can you duplicate what it is you do, let someone else do the work and you get paid? Better yet, can you automate what you do and reduce the time it takes to do and then rent or sell your automated system to others while you get paid?

Again, welcome. Looking forward to hearing more.

 

[andviv]

... my son thinks I need to expand my tax business by training people to do tax returns and stop working so hard.

Smart kid you got

I work 4 months with over 1,000 tax clients and take the remainder of the year off.
This is an excruciating 4 months, but I do enjoy what I do. Perhaps I could train and hire more tax consultants and expand to 10,000 or more tax clients pay these tax consultants a 50% commision and just sit back and collect the other 50%.

What part of what you do with/for them is just mechanical/brainless work and how much of it is really "thinking" and value-added? You could farm out the brainless work and focus on the portion of what you do that really makes a difference for your customers.

Maybe listing and documenting all the steps you take for a typical customer should help you see where you can remove yourself from the picture and train others to do that task.

Well, I'm here if anyone needs my help and if anyone has any ideas on how I can expand my business I'd appreciate it. I do business and personal tax returns and also do audit representation.

How much of your business is personal? how much is business? How much each of those bring in revenue and profit?

Oh, and we all could use lots of tax-related info over here, so welcome to the forum!

 

[TaxGuy]

Or is it just your son who thinks this?

My mom thinks so as well, but as you mentioned, the only person whose opinion matters is his :smxB:

You know that mom and I(not too sure about Jeff though :nonod really appreciate all you've done to provide for us, however, the reason I'm pushing so hard now is b/c I know that if done right we can really streamline this business and make it an even bigger success :coolgleamA:

Smart kid you got

Why thank you Andres, not quite as smart as you though :smxB:

What part of what you do with/for them is just mechanical/brainless work and how much of it is really "thinking" and value-added? You could farm out the brainless work and focus on the portion of what you do that really makes a difference for your customers.

First great point here- whether or not your goal is to make millions, we can agree that you want to help others with their tax problems and at the same time be compensated what you are worth and get some appreciation and value from your clients. This is a point I have been trying to stress as the time you spend dealing with the needy/unappreciative clients could be better spent either doing something you enjoy or focusing on how to get more of the clients who truly appreciate what you do. With this, finding employees who can handle the customers who don't need your level of expertise and at the same time doing an 80/20 analysis to find out what is the 80% of your work(data input, client complaints, etc) that only yields 20% of the results(completed tax returns, tax representation, etc) and at the same time finding out that 20% of the work that yields 80% of results as Andres says the "thinking and value added" part.

A good place to start on the 80/20..

Maybe listing and documenting all the steps you take for a typical customer should help you see where you can remove yourself from the picture and train others to do that task.

Another application of the 80/20:

How much of your business is personal? how much is business? How much each of those bring in revenue and profit?

Oh, and we all could use lots of tax-related info over here, so welcome to the forum!

And after only 4 posts you already have 2 of the most respected members here looking for what you can offer, remember this is a give and take relationship, the more you give, the more you can take, however, it is very well worth it as the tax advice you give could lead to not only a rapid expansion of the business, but also a more targeted approach and who knows, maybe some of your future clients are here, much like Andres, whose valuable contributions and sponsorship of this site has led to increased business for his web development company :coolgleamA:

 

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[andviv]

well, thanks.

BUT....

Documenting what you do in a daily basis is hard. Very, actually.

We in general (I for one fall for this constantly), simply know too much but are not aware of that fact.

An idea to start documenting what you do is to do a case from beginning to end, ans annotate every single thing you do.

Then, have somebody else, like Clint, read the list and try to replicate everything you did. This will uncover all the knowledge you have and take for granted that others will have to have in order to do the same thing you do for your customers. Makes sense?

This is one of the things we do at my office. Creating an SOP is harder than what you think for this simple fact. You know a lot and are not aware of when you are using your specialized knowledge. Only when others that don't poses that knowledge follow your step you will see what's missing from your instructions.

So, in summary, write all the steps you follow for one "typical" customer.
Have somebody else try to do the same for the same customer by following the list.
Annotate what is missing from the list, add that information to the document.
Repeat.

Once it is good, move on to the next type of customer/case and do the same.

This is painful and takes time. In my experience, you get it right at the 4th or 5th iteration (the first time may take way longer than this), unless you are great at detailing and writing instructions. I Hope this helps, without being too overwhelming.

 

[wildambitions]

Creating an SOP is harder than what you think for this simple fact.

This is painful and takes time. In my experience, you get it right at the 4th or 5th iteration (the first time may take way longer than this), unless you are great at detailing and writing instructions. I Hope this helps, without being too overwhelming.

Then, you are a crazy detail person like me, LMAO.

Seriously, if you can accomplish this you already have skills that others want and need.

 

[CubbyGuy]

These are some very good ideas, I like the part about farming the brainless work out.
As far as automating the process, I believe I've done almost as much as i can. It would help if more clients of mine would just mail or fax documents to me and not insist upon the face to face meetings. As far as the 80/20 arrangement go's that may work fine but at times when it's slow I need to take whatever business comes along,
and if it's a deadbeat taxpayer who owes the IRS, I don't turn them away, I just get a retainer. Now if the 20% produce enough income and clientele for me that may be sufficient.

I think I should also get a Web Site put together for more exposure. The Craigslist ad probably needs a lot of work too. What are some good catch phrases?

I get some referrals from my networks, but I would like to get more. What should I do?
Offer referral fees? Hand out business cards? Other suggestions?

If anyone needs tax information, feel free to contact me. I have a Facebook account and I'm "Linked In" so buddy up with me if you need to keep in contact.

Bill

 

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[andviv]

I think I should also get a Web Site put together for more exposure.

Feel free to contact me, I'm sure I can help with this.
Palmera Technologies, LLC

 

[TaxGuy]

Can't believe it's been over a year since this thread started. Anyways, just a reminder for us to stay focused in our goals and hopefully I can get my dad to read and post here more

In the meantime, I'll use my own expertise and if I don't know the answer I can always ask him and take credit for it

 

[CashFlow]

Bill,

Offer your clients a discount if they do face-to-face meetings via the internet using Skype (free) or GoToMeeting (paid). This would also expedite receiving documents if they can simply scan and e-mail them to you during your meeting.

Needing to take "whatever business comes along" points to a marketing problem. Solution: generating a stream of prospects. Having a website is critical, and step one to doing this.

In terms of referrals, I'd craft a mini booklet on "The Top 10 Things You Need in a Tax Accountant" or "10 Tax Secrets Your Accountant Isn't Telling You" - something along those lines. You'll give this away free to anyone interested in your services.

If you need any further suggestions, send me a message here and I'll try to help. I've got some great marketing ideas to help you.

Best,

Andrew

 

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[Anon3587x]

I could train and hire more tax consultants and expand to 10,000 or more tax clients pay these tax consultants a 50% commision and just sit back and collect the other 50%.

This forum really helped me understand the importance of the quoted text and being on the correct side of the pyramid.

Late welcome by the way lol