Marketing Tips & Tricks for QB Professionals

Marketing Tips & Tricks for QB Professionals
Issue 2.38 October 7, 2003

We have grown our business by focusing on what we know, doing it quite well, and finding others with specific areas of expertise to “partner” with us.
       
Are you looking for some ideas to move your marketing efforts forward without a lot of time and expense. We have several suggestions we would love to share with you.

As a QuickBooks professional, the first suggestion is to decide what your area of expertise is. Over time this can expand, but especially at the beginning it is important to be able to clearly and concisely articulate what it is that you do. Although QuickBooks is an easy program, there are many little idiosyncrasies for each industry and work around to discover to best serve the client. By limiting your focus, you become the expert, rather than just another bookkeeper or consultant. Do what you can to shine as that expert. Teach a class, be a speaker for a bookkeeping organization, volunteer with a small business development center or SCORE office, be involved in the Chamber of Commerce, or anything else that seems interesting to you.

This leads into the next suggestion. Network and develop strategic alliances with other professionals. Take that one step further to develop a referral program or other incentive for current clients to provide referrals. For 10 + years in business, almost all of our clients have come as referrals. This provides a higher quality client, as well as eliminating much of the trial and error (and related expense) of other types of marketing.

Anytime you can leverage off what someone else is doing is also helpful. There is no need to re-invent the wheel. Developing a relationship with other professionals provides expertise to save time and aggravation. In addition, in the event of a large influx of work, or an unexpected emergency, these relationships can provide manpower in times of need.

For additional tips and tricks on working with the client’s file as well as ideas for marketing your services consider downloading our free 28-page eReport and attending our free tele-class.
As a resource for this and other questions, submit a question via “Ask the Expert” or attend our free, monthly discussion forum tele-class.

Bonnie J. Nagayama, CPA (925-247-0100) has been featured by Intuit in their QuickBooks Advisor Spotlight and frequently teaches and consults on using QuickBooks to its maximum advantage. For a FREE weekly newsletter of QuickBooks tips and tricks, plus many free and low cost QuickBooks resources visit www.4luvofbiz.com.
      
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For further information, visit the following articles:
Ask the Expert – Tracking Advertising Spent Versus Results (Free!)
Ask the Expert – Just Getting Started (Free!)
Direct Marketing (Subscription required)