By Linda A. Hunt

My answer none! That’s not entirely true. I enjoy the work that I do and the fact that the majority of the time I get to work and play when I want to. Life/work balance is what they call it and being entrepreneurs we actually have more control over this factor than our counterparts who work for others.

Back in 2003, I was in the process of re-tooling my business and began thinking how nice it would be to work 4-days a week and enjoy a three day weekend, every weekend, without decreasing my current level of revenue! At first I cast the thought off as a “pipe dream” – there is no way I could do that and I came up with all kinds of reasons as to why I could not:

• How will I sustain my current level of revenue?
• What happens if my clients need me that day?
• How will I sustain my current level of revenue?
• What if there is an emergency that my staff just cannot handle?
• How will I sustain my current level of revenue?

 I was letting the repetitive thought “How will I sustain my current level of revenue” dominate my thoughts. Obsessing over this thought kept me thinking inside of the box, making me unable to get out of the way of myself. One afternoon, I was so sick of thinking about this I stood up in my office and started doing the “Hokey Pokey”. That’s right, the song and dance we learned as children – “put your right hand in, take your right hand out…” It was such a silly thing to do that it helped me to break the obsessive thoughts about why I could not work a 4-day week and relax.

For the rest of that afternoon, I enjoyed peace and quiet within my mind. I worked on other things and then the next morning it hit me like a ton of bricks! In order to move to a 4-day work week I had to change my pricing model!

This time I started thinking about pricing from a completely different perspective – how much revenue I wanted to earn that was directly related to my billable hours. At that time I was still performing client work and billing out about 50% of my time. If I wanted to work 4-days a week, I had to evaluate the tasks that I could delegate and those that I could not within my new work week and apply that to my current level of revenue.

Here are the steps that I followed:

1) Determine the number of hours you want to work. You can do this on a weekly, monthly or annual basis.
2) Determine the percentage of those hours that are billable.
3) Determine the percentage of those hours that are not billable.
4) Calculate that number by your current billing rate.
5) Determine the shortfall and make the necessary adjustments. For example, delegate client work to staff, adjust your billing rate, etc.
6) Work your reduced work week!

PS - I bet you will be humming the Hokey Pokey all day long!

By Laurie L. O’Neil

Let’s face it everyone has had that difficult client that they stumbled upon. You know the one I am talking about, the one that makes you cringe when you see the number come up on the caller ID unit. So how do you recognize that vampire-like, energy-sucking client at first sight?

1. Watch for the warning signs. In that initial interview process you may recognize traits you do not like. It could be a behavioral issue, they may be needy, demanding, or just have unrealistic expectations. I recently was out on a sales call with a potential bookkeeping client. He was looking for someone to come on site weekly. He started to dictate to me how he was going to oversee and review everything we did and then told me how to write the proposal to him. In a very nice way, I told him really what he is looking for was an employee. He was not the type of client I was looking for.

2. Watch out for the drama! Let’s face it, all of our clients have drama but the ones who have constant drama are the hardest clients. Learn how to stay out of the drama. I recently terminated a client relationship because of all of the drama. He was an auto repair shop that had two employees embezzle from him. On top of that he had two previous bookkeepers that did not do him justice either; I knew about one of the bookkeepers but did not realize he had gone through two. One of them represented herself as a forensic bookkeeper – there is no such thing! He was being audited by the state as well. We cleaned up the books for his audit, but he just could not get past all the previous stuff that had happened to him to focus on moving forward. I did not want to be part of his drama.

3. Your client’s emergency is not your emergency. These clients can put you into chaos. I received a call the other day from a mechanical engineering company that was looking to get their books cleaned up in a day and wanted me to come in the next day to do it. One of my staff members took the call and nicely told him I book a week out and asked if he wanted to meet me then. It’s your choice whether or not you want to stay in chaos. People will only do what you allow them to do to you.

4. Set boundaries for your clients. When I take on a new client, I immediately set an expectation of when the client will send us the information or when we will be onsite to do the bookkeeping. If the client can not follow these simple rules, fire the client. These clients will run you ragged, with you constantly trying to chase down their information.

As you grow your practice, it is not necessarily the quantity of clients that you are looking for but the quality of clients. The next time you are out on a sales call, stop to really listen to that client and think is this really a client I want to have and do not be afraid to say “NO”.

By Linda A. Hunt

One of the things that has always been important to me, is creating long-term relationships with our clients. Whenever, I meet with a prospective client, that is exactly what I tell them. I make my intentions known upfront by saying, “My firm and I are looking to enter into a working relationship with you that benefits both of us for the long-term.” This simple statement really sets the tone for our forthcoming working relationship.

Here are the 6 secrets I use in my own firm to create great long-term client relationships.

1. Be a good listener. Taking the time to identify the needs of your client by asking them questions and concentrating on what they are really saying gives you knowledge. Knowledge is power.

Listen to their words, tone of voice, body language, and most importantly, how they feel. Be careful to not make assumptions. Thinking you intuitively know what your client wants can get you into trouble. Do you know the three outcomes/deliverables that are most important to your client?

2. Identify and anticipate needs. Your clients are not buying your services – they are buying solutions to a problem they are experiencing. When we begin working with a new client, we review all of the requirements/deadlines they may experience throughout the year. This enables us to be proactive and anticipate upcoming needs well in advance.

3. Make your clients feel important and appreciated. In my firm we have created a client appreciation system where we are in contact with our clients throughout the year, letting them know how much we appreciate their business and care about what is going on with them. So when one of our clients obtained their 20th client, which is a very big deal for them, we automatically sent them a celebration cookie bouquet to share in their triumph.

People value sincerity – it creates good will and feelings of trust. Clients are very intelligent and will know whether or not you really care about them.

4. Help your clients to understand your process. You may have the very best process for getting things done and if your clients don’t understand what that is, they will get confused, impatient and angry. Take the time to explain how your process works, not the nitty gritty details, a broad overview so that they can visualize the way the work is being completed.

5. Get regular feedback. Encourage and welcome suggestions about how you can improve your services. This does not mean that you have to incorporate into your process what they are saying but it does give you good insight into what they are thinking. Find a simple way in which your clients can give you feedback. My computer host company actually sends me a short survey to complete each time a work order is completed.

6. Treat your staff well. Employees and subcontractors are your internal clients and deserve to be treated well. Thank them and find ways to let them know that they are important. Remember without them, you would be doing all of the work yourself!

By Laurie O’Neil

With a competitive work environment and changes in the economy, how do you keep the employees you have? You spend so much time and effort on educating your employees, replacing them can be quite costly. Your management style as a business owner can have every effect on your staff. Are you a manager that supports learning, growth, inspires loyalty and creates a work environment that people love? Or are you a Micro-manager who is so hung up on every detail that you are stifling your employees’ growth and inspiring your employees to shop the want ads instead? These are important factors for employees when they accept a position with your company.

Some key factors that inspire employees to stay at a job are:

1. How Supervisors Act: Are they a micro-manager who stifles employee’s growth capabilities or do they inspire hard working loyal employees?

2. Communication: Control your tone and pitch. Body language, expressions and pace of movement can tell it all. Look out!

3. Control Level of Stress: If you are stressed you will convey this to your employees. Stress can bring out the worst in you. Find better ways to deal with it. You may not even notice that you are stressed but your employees will. Do you think they will tell you? Mine do. This was an area I needed help in. I am very crisis oriented, but my staff is not. Be open to learning lessons from your employees. If you don’t you may have mutiny.

4. Motivation: This area is key. Employees want to:

      a. Have their talents on the job be utilized

        b. Do meaningful work

        c. Be recognized for a great job done

        d. Enjoy the work environment

        e. Have good pay and benefits

        f. Agree with the values of the organization

        g. Have supportive management

This is what makes the world go round. Employees spend the majority of their lives working. Make coming to work fun!

As you grow your company, management styles will have key effects on your growth. Constant turnover can reflect badly to the clients and clients will loose their confidence in your ability to hire right people.

By Linda A. Hunt

Last night I was talking to a friend who commented that I had become quite a marketer. I really don’t think of myself as a marketing person, just someone who knows a lot about finance/accounting and a little bit about marketing. Today I thought it would be fun to share with you my history as it relates to marketing. Read on for a good laugh!

Phase I – Minimal Effort
When I first started my business, I was naïve enough to think I did not have to do any marketing or what I refer to as my minimal marketing phase. I made a few contacts, had a few clients and thought I was golden. When I found myself sitting around twiddling my thumbs, I then entered the stop/start phase.

Phase II – Start Again/Stop Again
This is when I would start marketing doing a variety of activities, get new business, stop marketing because I was busy, wait for the “busyness” to slow down and then start the cycle all over again. After I had repeated this a couple of times, I entered the “let’s run around like a chicken without a head” phase.

Phase III – Running Around Like a Chicken without a Head
In this phase, you probably met me because I attended every possible networking event that existed – no kidding! I was exhausted from all of this running around and completely discouraged because I was seeing very little return for all of my marketing efforts. Let’s not forget to mention all of the money I spent attending these events.

Phase IV – Peace and Consistency
Somehow sanity returned and I entered the peace and consistency phase! Ok, a mentor of mine sat me down and said “What are you doing? Take a look at what has worked in the past, what you like and don’t like about it and come up with a new plan.” That is exactly what I did.

When you are the owner of a small business, marketing is the lifeblood of your business. Without it, there are no clients - without clients there is no cash – without cash there is no business. Here are a few tips that helped me regain my marketing sanity, are effective and helped me to even out the flow of new business my company receives each year.

• Target Your Marketing Efforts – you cannot be everything to everyone, when you try, your marketing message is confusing and not effective. Take the time to truly define who you are targeting. The more you can niche your business the clearer your marketing message is. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean that you won’t work with anyone outside of your niche. The clearer your marketing message, the more prospective clients are attracted to you.

• Focus on Benefits, Not Features – your prospective clients aren’t interested if your services utilize the latest technology. They want to know the benefits – what will solve their problems – this is what will make them take action. Always highlight how your services will save them time and money.

• Tell Your Prospective Clients What Action To Take and How – To you it may seem obvious, but it’s not always to a prospective client. Walk them through all of the actions they must take to accomplish what you want them to – call you and hire you for your services!

• Track and Measure Your Marketing Results – you must track and measure your marketing results so you can repeat what works and stop doing what doesn’t.

• Market Consistently – you can’t market one month, then wait three months and market again. Your marketing efforts need to be consistent over time.

• One Thing At A Time – implement one new marketing strategy at a time. Make a plan for that strategy, assign a time frame and then breathe. By focusing your efforts on just one new strategy at a time, your attention is focused and you will be able to tell sooner rather than later if this is something that is working for you.

I would love to hear from you and find out about your experience with marketing! If they are anything like mine, we’ll have a lot to talk about. Email me at info@bkpr-network.com.
 

Hi – it’s Laurie this week. I am just returning from the beach in Rhode Island. If there is anything you will learn about me is I work hard and I play hard. I love the beach and enjoy riding through the country with my Harley. In the past week I have been able to connect with a lot of you. I have enjoyed learning about your practices and finding out more about you. As always, Linda and I love hearing from you so don’t be shy, drop us a line.

In this week’s article, Linda brings up a good question: What Marketing Phase are you in? This brings back so many memories for me. I was the chicken. What are you?

Last night we held the second part of How to Price and Package Your Services. What a fabulous call. It was great speaking with so many of you with and being able to answer your questions live!

Wishing you financial serenity,

Linda & Laurie

By Laurie L. O’Neil

In my second year of business, I was contemplating hiring an employee or hiring a subcontractor. I decided on the subcontractor. I had my first heartening experience as a business owner. I had a client that had a high volume of work that needed to be done quickly and a lot of back work. I needed someone to help get everything up to date, so I hired a subcontractor. Being of a naïve nature, I did not have any agreements with her. Well you guessed it; she cut me right out of the middle and took over the account. This was the beginning of compiling contracts for employees and contractors.

This is a difficult topic because not all states will uphold Employment and Non-Compete Agreements. Connecticut is a state that will and they can be enforced. Also you will need a good attorney to review these documents.

Here are some things that should be covered in Non-Competes and Employment Agreements:

When it comes to a Non-Compete agreement be sure you cover: 

1. Geographical area – within reason
2. Timeline of non-compete needs to be reasonable
3. Terms of employees/contractors soliciting your clients.

When it comes to an Employment Agreement or Contractor Agreement:

1. At-will employment for employees
2. Termination clause for both employees and contractors
3. Discussion of general duties and expectation
4. A clause to not solicit employment from clients
5. Breach and liquid damages
6. In case of any issues, what state will enforce the breach

The important part of business growth is protecting the time and money you have invested into the building of your company. Employment/Subcontractor Non-Compete Agreements protect that investment. You do not want to be in the job of being a recruiter for your clients nor do you want to continually find clients for your employees to take away.

By Linda A Hunt

A couple of months ago, I referred a prospective client who was not right for my firm to another bookkeeper who I thought would be a better fit. I sent him an email and then I followed up with a phone call so that I could give him all of the details that I had learned in my initial conversation with the prospective client. I had not referred anyone to this bookkeeper before. I found it interesting that I was doing most of the follow-up to give him business and this of course, got me thinking – is following up a lost art?

Since I had told the prospective client that I would pass their name along, I set up a reminder in my calendar to follow up with both the prospective client and the bookkeeper in a few weeks time. When I did I ended up having a lovely conversation with the prospective client from whom I learned that they were working with my referral and very pleased with the outcome. When I called the bookkeeper, who I referred the business to – no response!

This is not the first time I experienced this and I am sure it will not be the last. Life, these days, seems to move at the speed of light and we have tons of technology to help us keep up that speed. To me, technology represents a double-edged sword. While on one side it can make our lives simpler by automating time-consuming tasks, it also keeps us running at a pace where we forget to slow down to be people and connect as people.

Following up takes discipline. Sending a handwritten note is the most powerful and least expensive way to deepen a relationship. A handwritten note denotes a relationship and leaves a lasting impact.

Over 80% of my business comes to me through referral. I have spent a great deal of time forming relationships with my colleagues and have to do very little other types of marketing. The day I receive a referral, I send out a handwritten thank you. I don’t wait until or if it turns into business. I believe that my referral rate is so high for two reasons:

1) All it takes to receive another referral is a simple acknowledgement to the source of the referral to keep them coming, and:
2) I ask them to keep referring to me.

It’s that simple. Remember to incorporate personal touches in all of your networking and you will set yourself apart from the pack and watch the referrals start to roll in. Following up is one of the easiest ways to distinguish yourself from others. Don’t under estimate the power of tangible appreciation.

Hi – this week it’s me Linda.  Last week I had my first coaching call with my new coach and I am so excited to be working with her!  We have entered into a year long private one-on-one coaching program designed specifically around my needs.  She is an extremely talented business woman and I know that what I learn working with her I will be able to take my businesses to new heights and also share with all of you what I learn along the way.

It is really important that we nurture ourselves and seek out and find the resources we need that will help us achieve success – whether that be coaching, self study courses or hiring employees.   We cannot do it all by ourselves nor should we!  In this week’s article, Laurie talks about how to find good employees.

Wishing you financial serenity,

Linda & Laurie

We got so many great responses to our question “What is Your Biggest Question About Making Money as a Bookkeeper?”  Below is a breakdown of the most frequently asked questions.

• How Do I Price and Package My Services - 63%

• How to Collect a Retainer - 13%

• How to Pay Your Staff Including Benefits - 12%

• How to Increase Your Customer Base – 12%

Here’s our answer to YOUR biggest question:  How do I price and package my services?

Setting fees is probably one of the toughest areas.  Many of us struggle trying to determine whether or not it is better to charge an hourly rate or a flat fee.   We then struggle with knowing whether or not we are pricing ourselves to high or too low.  Here are our general thoughts on setting fees:

  • Fees are to be based on value, not the task.

  • Never use only time as the basis for your value.

  • Don’t stop with what the client wants.  Find out what the client needs.

  • Provide at least 3 options every time:  the choice of “yeses”

  • Ensure your client is aware of your full range of services.

  • Fees have nothing to do with supply and demand, only value.