Big Mistakes Tax Pros Make – Giving out your personal phone number… Back when I first started my tax practice (two decades ago after working for other CPA firms for 16 years), I, like most tax pros, was looking to save a buck. One of those things I did was use my cell phone as the office phone number while I worked from home. After two years, I decided to get an office phone and phone number. I used a VOIP phone service (Voice Over Internet Protocol). But I still kept giving my cell phone number out to clients as it appeared to give value. Then in year three, I met a coach/mentor, that was also a CPA with a tax practice, who told me to stop giving out my cell phone number to clients. He then explained to me that there is no reason that anyone (outside my wife and family) that needs to reach me at any time of the day or night. There are absolutely NO financial emergencies that need me to answer a question at any time of the day. It made sense to me, so from that day on, I changed my business cards, removed my cell phone number from the website and any other marketing materials. I have not given it out my cell phone number since. Since then, I have not had one client or prospect ask me for my cell phone number or get upset that they cannot reach me at 7pm or 7am. Although in those early days, I did have a few clients call me at both of those times. I love my clients, but that is my time. I take long walks with my wife and the dogs. I coach my daughter in her U12 girls soccer team, and I use this time to read or do projects around the house. Obviously, it is your practice and you get to do what you want to, but I suggest you seriously think about no longer giving your cell phone number out. Get a FREE Google voice number and forward it to your cell phone. Learn to take back YOUR time. One other thought, if you still do use your cell phone for business and clients call you after hours, do NOT answer it after hours (although I can make the argument to not answer it ever). Otherwise, you are training them that if they call |
Big Mistakes Tax Pros Make – Not firing employees that cause you grief/stress
How many employees have you fired? Not ones that quit, or disappeared; I mean FIRED? Quit tolerating it – both for you and for your other people! Big Mistake Tax Pros Make – Not firing employees that cause you grief/stress My last post of the Big Mistake series, I mentioned that not firing clients that cause you grief/stress is a HUGE mistake. The next biggest one is not firing employees that cause you grief or stress. Yes, we have been in a hiring shortage and finding good people is always a challenge … But, if you have someone working for you that is just not getting it, gives you poor quality work time after time, then you need to get rid of them. I ascribe to the philosophy, slow to hire and fast to fire. If they are not performing well, then they need to go. They are probably costing more time than they are saving you. It would even benefit you to use a service like Paro. While most of their professionals are not cheap, they are good and best of all, they are not your employees. You don’t have to deal with drama, whining, or benefits. Yes, if you are like most tax pros, you are kind hearted and a people person. Firing someone to you is a form of cruel and unusual punishment and it feels horrible. Having done it a few times, I am not going to disagree with that. But, you and they will be much better off in the end. If you have someone on a short leash, they are not doing you any good. In fact, you are probably holding them back. Maybe public accounting is not for them. I have seen some employees in a public accounting firm get fired and then go on to great careers at a company that was a better fit for them. Not only that, but them occupying the space is keeping you from looking for someone that may be a much better fit for your firm. So, seriously think about it if you have a low or underperforming employee. There are temporary alternatives if this leaves you short handed, but trust me, you will be better off in the long run. If you fire someone, let me know how it goes. How did you feel about it? What did you ultimately end up doing to replace them? Make it a great |
Big Mistakes Tax Pros Make – Answering your own phone
The phone rings in your office. Who answers it? If the answer is you, you really should stop. Why? Well, there are multiple reasons.
1) It takes time to answer the phone 2) The person on the other end is a prospect kicking the tires, thereby wasting your time and asking you a bunch of freebie questions 3) The person on the other end is a client with the “got a minute” question, with the call being completed 45 minutes later (of which you probably don’t bill them for the time) 4) The annoying person on the phone is a sales guy you have been trying to ignore 5) It is a robocall or some telemarketer These are all time wasters. Your time is very valuable. If you don’t guard your time, who else it going to guard it for you. Remember, time is the one thing that when it is spent, you don’t get it back! How much would you say an hour of your time is worth? For most of you, it could range from $50/hr to $300+/hr. So, let’s do the math. My office phone rang 4 times today and 6 times yesterday. Three were existing clients (one had a scheduled appointment), two were prospects, two were robocalls, one was a salesperson I have been ignoring, one was a telemarketer, and one was a networking associate call for a scheduled appointment. The two calls that I took were an hour in total. If I were to have answered all 10 calls, that probably would have been about 2-3 hours worth of my time. One hour was the scheduled appointments. The other 8 calls would have wasted at least 1+ hour of my time, maybe more. I routinely earn about $250/hr (or more), although, please note I do not bill by the hour. That means that I would not get to bill that $250 for the wasted hour. Now this will go into another mistake, but couldn’t I have paid someone $10-20/hour to answer the phone, screen these calls and limit my time on the phone? The answer is YES! I do have staff that answer the phone. I only ever answer the phone if I am actually expecting a call. I generally don’t even answer the phone if I were the only person in the office. It goes to voicemail. If they don’t leave a message, then it wasn’t important. But what |