Category: Client Management

How to Fire a Problem Client Cleanly (Without Torching Your License)

One question, and no flinching on the answer. How many hours did you lose last month to one client? Not a good client. THE ONE. The one whose name on your caller ID makes your stomach drop. The one who emails at 11pm demanding answers, ignores every document request for three weeks, then blames you when the IRS deadline gets tight. The one who still owes you on two invoices and somehow thinks that is your problem to feel bad about.

You know exactly who I mean. You thought of them before you finished reading this paragraph.

Here is the part nobody says out loud. You are allowed to fire that client. Not “should you tolerate them better.” Not “how do you manage the relationship.” Fire them. Cut the cord. Get them off your desk and out of your head.

But you cannot just stop answering the phone and hope they go away. Do that with an active IRS matter or a filing deadline bearing down, and you trade a bad client for a bar complaint, a malpractice exposure, or a return that blows past its date with your name still attached. So, in this post I am going to walk you through how to disengage cleanly: when to do it, how to time it around deadlines and active matters, the exact mechanics of the letter, and how to protect yourself on the way out. This is the kind of practice-protecting work we coach inside Tax Resolution Academy®, and getting it right is the difference between a clean exit and a year of regret.

First, Be Honest About Whether It’s Really Them

Before you fire anyone, do a gut check, because firing the wrong client is its own expensive mistake.

A client who is scared, confused, or slow because they have never owed the IRS forty grand before is not a problem client. That is a normal client having a hard year. Your job is to lead them through it. Patience there pays off.

A problem client is a pattern, not a moment. You are looking for the repeat offender:

  • Chronic non-payment. You have invoiced twice, they have paid zero, and they keep asking for more work.
  • Won’t produce documents. You have requested the same 433-A backup four times and they keep promising “this weekend.”
  • Abuse. Yelling, insults, threats, or treating your staff like dirt.
  • Asking you to cross a line. “Just leave it off
… Continue reading

The Onboarding Process That Screens Out Problem Clients Before They Sign

Every bad client you ever fired told you who they were in the first conversation. You just had no system built to listen.

Of the last five clients you fired, regretted, or wished you had never signed, how many of them gave you a warning sign in the very first conversation?

I am going to guess all five.

The guy who argued about your retainer before you had even quoted it. The woman who said “my last accountant was a crook” about the third preparer in a row. The one who could not find a single piece of paper but was certain the IRS was wrong. You felt it. A little knot in your stomach. And then you talked yourself out of it, because the revenue looked good and the calendar had a hole in it and you needed the work.

Here is what is actually happening. You do not have a bad-client problem. You have an onboarding problem. The bad client was standing right in front of you, waving a flag, and your intake process was not built to catch the flag. It was built to collect a credit card.

This is the fix. Not how to say no to the wrong client after you have spotted them. How to build an intake and onboarding sequence that does the spotting for you, so the wrong ones screen themselves out before they ever reach your engagement letter.

Why your gut is not enough (even though it is right)

Your instincts are good. After ten or twenty years of doing this, you can read a problem client in about ninety seconds. That is not the issue.

The issue is that ninety seconds happens on a phone call, at 4:45 on a Thursday, when you are tired and behind and the prospect is being charming because they want something from you. Your gut whispers “this one is trouble,” and your mouth says “sure, let me send you the engagement letter.” Memory is not a system. A feeling you override is worse than no feeling at all.

A real onboarding process takes the decision out of that exhausted Thursday moment and spreads it across several deliberate steps, each one a gate. A problem client has to clear every gate to reach you. Most of them will not bother. That is the entire point. You are not trying to convince good clients to sign. You are building friction that … Continue reading

How to Raise Your Fees Without Losing Your Best Clients

Every year you hold your price steady, you quietly give your clients a raise out of your own paycheck.

When was the last time you raised your fees? Not “added a line item.” Not “charged the new client a little more than the last one.” I mean actually went back to your existing book of business, the people you’ve carried for years, and told them the number was going up.

For most of the tax professionals I coach, the honest answer is “I can’t remember.” Three years. Five years. One guy told me he was charging a client the exact same $400 for a return he first quoted in 2014. Same client. Twelve years. Same four hundred bucks.

Read that again. Twelve years of inflation, twelve years of harder returns, twelve years of your time getting more valuable, and the price never moved.

You are not running a practice. You are running a charity, and you’re the donor.

Here’s the promise. In this post I’m going to walk you through exactly how to raise your fees without watching your best clients walk out the door. The math behind why you have to. The real reason you haven’t. The script, almost word for word. And what to do with the handful who push back. This is the same kind of practice-building work we teach inside Tax Resolution Academy®, and the willingness to send one letter is the only thing it costs you.

The Math You’ve Been Avoiding

Let me do the arithmetic out loud, because the numbers are uglier than you think.

Say you’ve held a client at $400 a return since 2019. Feels loyal. Feels like good service. Now run the inflation on it. To have the same buying power as that 2019 $400, you’d need to charge somewhere north of $500 today just to stand still. So you didn’t “hold your price.” You gave that client a raise every single year, out of your own pocket, without them ever asking.

Now stack it. Say you’ve got 200 clients and you’ve been underpricing the book by an average of $150 each. (Your numbers will vary. These are illustrative, not a promise.) That’s $30,000 a year. Gone. Every year. Not theoretical money, not “potential.” Real revenue you earned the right to and chose not to collect.

And here’s the part that should sting. That $30,000 isn’t sitting in a drawer waiting for you to redeem it … Continue reading