Ask ten accountants how they secure most of their new clients and at least eight will say referrals and recommendations. Sometimes this is because they have a good flow of new clients and/or have actively cultivated and encouraged such mentions among clients and contacts. Mostly though it is because they don't actually secure many
My advice here re building and promoting your firm's brand is controversial. And of course there will be some exceptions. But I would urge you to read this post with an open mind before deciding whether or not YOUR firm really is one of those exceptions. Let's start with ten top accountancy brands. As
Should I reference my fees on my website? And if so, how can I do this given how my fees vary from client to client? These are very common questions I get asked by accountants, bookkeepers and tax advisers. And my answer is always: "It depends." ;-) It depends whether you are confident of
It seems I’ve not updated my generic advice on this blog about accountants’ websites for some time. So I have pulled much of that advice together into this post. I say pretty much the same things whenever websites come up in conversation with accountants. They know I do not consult on, build
I have never ‘swiped’ someone’s profile picture, as online dating didn’t exist when I met my wife in the 1980s. The whole concept of swiping is quite alien to me. I was curious though, so a while back, I asked a single friend to show me how the ‘swipe left’ and ‘swipe
This week I am sharing with you 15 of the key points I referenced during a recent conversation with an accountant who wanted to know what they should be doing in year 3 of their newish practice. Background The accountant had booked a one-off focused mentoring call, having started their practice just
Many accountants appear to approach the idea of finding new clients with conflicted emotions. If you do this you are probably making life harder for yourself than it needs to be. On the one hand your website and marketing activities try to promote you and your firm as able to act for
Over the years I have worked with hundreds of accountants. I have also judged hundreds of entires for multiple accountancy awards. Having completed the judging process for a recent competition I reflected on what it takes to win and to be successful generally. Let me be clear here. I am talking about
I have lost track of how many sole practitioners and two-partner accountancy practices pretend to be bigger than they really are. Some overtly claim that their firm is bigger than it really is by adding words like “and associates” to the name of the firm. Even though, in reality, it is only them and
In some respects this post addresses many points I have addressed previously on this blog from the opposite perspective. There are links at the end if you want to read more. I would stress that I do not design or supply websites. But I do get asked to help accountants who want
Many accountants who seek my input or advice want to know how to get more clients. Implicit in their question is the idea of identifying, attracting and securing the right type of strangers as clients. By which I mean people who did not know of them previously. Often these accountants want quick
It seems I've not updated my generic advice on this blog about accountants' websites for ten years. This is because I routinely say pretty much the same things to almost every accountant I talk with. And few of my views have changed. If anything I was ahead of my time and others
Whether you spent a lot or a little on your website I'm sure you hope that it will generate business for you and provide a return on your investment. How might that work in real life I wonder? Actually we know how it's supposed to work, don't we? Someone searches online for an accountant
If you are a regular reader you will know I rarely include guest posts on my blog. In this tenth anniversary year though I have decided to stop being so precious. As long as the content is both directly relevant and useful to my audience and I agree with the advice and tips, why not?
One of the thousands of accountants with whom I am connected on Linkedin recently posted a link asking what did people think about his firm's new website. I replied privately but thought I would share my feedback as it may be helpful to others. I have no desire to embarrass the accountant in question so
What follows is controversial as it challenges the conventional wisdom shared by many website designers and content marketers. I have long felt that a great deal of the generic advice you hear and see all over the web is misleading. I have explained before that: Only one website metric really matters to accountants. And that is, for
There are plenty of online tools that will help you measure various website metrics and analytics - such as visitor numbers, how long they stay, which pages they look at and so on. None of them, however, measure the most important metric so it is easy to forget that there's only one that really matters.
I saw an online promo recently suggesting that all accountants should be blogging. How objective is this idea and does it really make sense? Given that I'm still an enthusiastic blogger you might expect me to also advocate blogging by accountants. But I don't and it's not just because of my experience with the
I've been asked why I have a number of different blogs and websites. It's not something I would encourage many people to do so perhaps it's worth explaining my thinking. I accept it could be flawed, but bear with me. Firstly let me stress that in all of my writings for professional advisers (eg: on
A few weeks ago I posted the first of my observations and advice concerning websites for professional firms. When I consult with ambitious firms I invariably check out their websites beforehand. Some are good. Some are lousy. Some don't exist and some are almost indistinguishable from those of other firms who have bought the same
