941 Marketing Challenge Day 15

Our theme for the past couple days has been where you should be seen.

Yesterday, we discussed where you should be seen physically. The day before that we discussed where you should be seen digitally.

Today, we’re going to discuss where you should be seen in the media.

You may not think of yourself as a media darling, and you certainly don’t need to be. What we’re really talking about is being visible in some way, shape, or form in the media that your target market reads, watches, and listens to.

So that’s the first piece of today’s task. You need to sit down and figure out what stations your target market listens to locally. What local TV station do they watch? What publications do they read?

Since we’re primarily targeting business owners in this challenge, take into consideration the industry that they are in. Are their trade publications that they read? Perhaps you’ll be the only tax professional that ever writes articles for and whose ads appear in Architectural Digest, making you the go-to 941 resolution practitioner for architecture firms.

Whether local, regional, or national, do a hard analysis of your chosen niche market and catalog the print publications, podcasts, radio and TV, and other media that your target market pays attention to.

Then, call a few of them. Can you get to an editor and ask to write a monthly column? Do they need a tax professional to come on to the 30-minute drive-time business radio talk show in your local area? Can you get cheap local ad rates in the Home Builders Association newsletter?

This is what you’re doing today. Find media outlets that your target market pays attention to, and get into those media outlets by contributing time and content or paying for advertising.… Continue reading

Using Audit Protection Plans & POA Monitoring to Boost Bottom Line Profits

Chances are you’ve already heard of this offering, but perhaps never given much thought to it. It goes by various names, such as “Audit Defense Service”, “Audit Protection Plan”, and probably the worst possible name, “Audit Insurance”.

Quick tip: Do NOT call it insurance. State insurance regulators will have a field day with you.

Pricing for this service can range all the map, from as little as $30 through services that Block and TurboTax offer, to $200 and up from bigger audit protection plan companies and bigger CPA firms.

What exactly are we talking about? Audit Protection Plans.

Firms have been offering some variation of audit defense, either packaged and sold directly with tax return preparation or as an add-on, since at least the early 90’s. Typically, an audit protection service offered along with return preparation applies to that return only, and provides a certain amount of work that will be done on the client’s behalf in the event they are chosen for an IRS or state examination of the return. Plans typically impose one or more limitations, such as to the number of hours of representation that are included, or excluding certain credits such as EITC.

By offering audit protection plans to all or most of your tax preparation clients, you are essentially spreading the cost of audit representation for whomever needs it across a large number of people, akin to an insurance program (but again, never call it insurance!). Since the IRS audits less than 0.5% of all tax returns, the overall odds of being selected for examination are about 1 in 200. Additionally, over 70% of examinations are correspondence audits, meaning that the representation work is actually done asynchronously (not in real time with an IRS employee), making it far easier to schedule such work around the rest of your day.

If you have 200 tax prep clients that each paid $99 for an audit protection plan, just as an example, that’s an extra $19,800 coming in to your practice from your existing clients. If only 1 in 200 requires audit representation, on average, then you can easily see that just offering the protection plan becomes ones of the most profitable services within your practice. In addition, you can charge different prices based actual audit risk. For example, since Schedule C filers get audited at a higher rate, your audit protection plan rate for that kind of return … Continue reading

941 Marketing Challenge Day 14

In yesterday’s challenge task, we discussed the two most important places that you need to be “showing up” digitally in order for your 941 tax resolution services to be found.

Today, we’re going to talk about the one place you need to show up physically.

If you’re already a subscriber to The Profitable Accountant, you saw me write heavily about this in the November issue.

Where do you need to physically appear?

Ready for it?

On your feet, standing in front of your target market.

“Nooooooooooooooooo!” I hear you scream.

Yep, I’m talking about public speaking.

You already know that you need to be niched. I’d like to think that I’ve sledgehammered that point home enough around here.

And now I’m telling you that you really, really need to be the person standing in front of groups of people in that niche, lovingly talking to them about payroll taxes.

Today’s challenge is, therefore, pretty straightforward: Call ONE business or organization in your niche than you know does events, meetings, or seminars, and ask to be on the program.

It doesn’t matter if they can give you 5 minutes or 5 hours.

It doesn’t matter if you have a presentation prepared.

It doesn’t matter if you’re scared to death of public speaking.

That can all be sussed out later.

Today, just make the call. Go speak at a seminar, trade show, or other industry event. Go speak in front of the only four people that show up for the Western Valley Independent Gift Shop Association annual meeting. Whatever your niche B2B industry is, find a thing, any one thing, and call somebody to arrange to speak at it.

Don’t think. Don’t fret. Just call.… Continue reading