Making a million bucks, by the numbers

One of the tasks I’ll be embarking on after settling down in Washington state next month is the updating, revision, expansion, and editing of all of my published books. Before the end of the year, I’ll have new editions of each book done.

The first of these to get the update treatment will be my book about building a million dollar taxpayer representation firm. A lot has changed in the 18 months or so since I last revised that particular work, and I need to update it to reflect the ever changing realities of doing tax resolution marketing.

One of those realities is that the cost of client acquisition has gone up a little bit. The primary reason for this has to do with the efficacy of small, cheap postcards. For years, these regular sized postcards were the workhorse of my direct mail lead generation efforts. Today, those same postcards just don’t yield the results they used to.

In general, we’re seeing about 1/4 of the response rate from SIMPLE direct mail compared to what we used to get. By “simple” direct mail, I’m referring to basic postcards and machine addressed letters with postage permits. What’s the reason?

Direct mail is still a great way to generate clients. In fact, since fewer companies use direct mail, there is less clutter in the mailbox to compete against. However, what I think is happening (and this is purely conjecture, by the way) is that mail recipients are more discerning when it comes to sorting there mail — in other words, they are more quick to discard anything that looks like “junk mail”.

My rationale behind this assumption is that dimensional mail and heavily personalized mail are working great. Most readers know by now that I heavily advocate sending 3-letter sequences in sync with the IRS notice cycle following a lien filing, and that these letters should be hand addressed and use real stamps.

Hand addressed? Real stamps? Geesh, that sounds like WORK! And yes…yes it is.

So with that said, what’s it going to take to hit the seven figure mark now?

One of the nice things is that, while marketing costs have increased, so have average fees. In fact, average tax resolution fees nationwide are up nearly $1,000 since I last wrote about this topic here on the blog over two years ago.

Assuming an average fee of $3,500 per client, we need 286 … Continue reading

Have you written your book yet?

It’s the final few hours of the NAEA national convention here in Las Vegas. It’s been a blast getting to meet some long-time Tax Marketing Tips readers face to face, plus being introduced to many new readers as an exhibitor here in conjunction with NTPI. Many thanks to everybody that has dropped by to chat!

This week I want to touch on a subject that is a little off the beaten path of my normal messages: Authority positioning.

We live in a culture that loves to love expertise and authority positioning. If you think about it carefully, it’s the reason NTPI itself exists. As a profession, we tend to embrace anything and everything that that let’s us display expertise (I’m quite opinionated on the subject of “credentialitis”…).

Within the general public, however, it’s a whole different ballgame. Our clients and prospects don’t have a clue (nor do they care…) about all the alphabet soup we put after our name. As an EA, for example, I’m stuck with the challenge of having to explain what I even AM — so I generally don’t bother (it’s rarely questioned by tax resolution prospects, by the way). CPAs and attorneys have built-in designation recognition, but anything beyond that, in terms of public perception, doesn’t mean anything to them.

But if you do something that positions you as an authority, that displays your expertise in a manner that is highly valued by the general public, then that suddenly becomes worth a LOT.

When you write a tax advice column in the local newspaper, or appear regularly on a local business talk radio program, or write a book — you suddenly attach to yourself much higher perceived expertise in the eyes of the general public.

When I wrote my first book over Christmas weekend at the end of 2011, it was driven by being snowed in. But in retrospect, it became one of the best marketing moves I’ve ever made for my tax practice.

After publishing “Tax Resolution Secrets“, it quickly became the best selling tax resolution book on Amazon. It began to routinely generate two to three leads per week coming into my tax resolution practice. With this steady trickle of free prospects coming in, I was able to pick and choose the clients I actually wanted to work with.

Did the book generate perfect prospects every time? Absolutely not. There were definitely a fair number … Continue reading

Where do you really want your tax practice to be in ONE year?

Most tax professionals that I speak with aren’t really sure where they want there practice to be. They’re doing this thing that they do, week in and week out, but don’t really have a vision for where they want to take it.

Many motivational speakers will talk about having a 5-year plan for your life. They talk in terms of very long-term goals and planning. But I think on a much shorter scale, and there’s no reason not to. Amazing things can be accomplished in twelve months or less, particularly in a professional services business like tax or accounting. There’s absolutely no reason for us to look on a time horizon longer than a year, especially if you focus heavily on tax services, due to the natural annual cycle of most things in tax.

Have you given any thought to where you want to be a year from now? If not, this is the time to think about it. We’re in the lull between tax seasons, and it’s convention and seminar time, so practice management and planning are probably near the top of your mind right now. In fact, if you haven’t yet registered for one of my live workshops, I’d encourage you to do so. See the workshop schedule here.

It’s completely possible to take an accounting practice from one person and $60,000 per year in revenue to 10 people and $2 million in revenue in one year flat: It’s been done. If your ultimate goal for your practice is to grow to this level, then what are you waiting for?

If your goal is to never have employees and remain a solo practitioner, but want to double your revenue and live full time in a foreign country while serving your American clients, that’s been done, too. There’s nothing stopping you from doing it, and it’s very doable within just a few months.

Go for a walk and give serious consideration to what you want your practice to look like a year from now. If it’s growth, then there is a marketing solution. If it’s location independence, there’s a practice management solution. No matter what you want out of your practice, you can have it.

Remember, you created your business to serve you, not for it to be the master of your life.… Continue reading