it's something that comes up again and again on the site that people have the training and (sometimes) the experience but cannot find any clients.
From old posts it would seem that the concensus is that Yellow pages doesn't work. A website is useful but only if people can actually find it and more often than not it's word of mouth that does the real sales work for your business.
Networking is an important aspect of making a success of the business but don't expect there to be an immediate return on your time invested. You may not see any return on your weekly attendance for six months or more but the time invested gets your faces known in the business community.
Nothing sells your business as well as happy clients so regard every client no matter how small as your unpaid sales force.
do a few searches on the site based on "how do I get my first client" or something similar and you should get lots of excellent advice.
First quarter of last year before we had a change of government was a particularly bad time for the industry so you might want to filter out some of the quite depressing posts from that time.
When setting up, sure that I'm teaching my grandma to suck eggs here but don't forget that you need to sort out MLR registration.
Good luck with the new venture,
kind regards,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
If you're both CIMA members with a practicing cert, then CIMA will supervise your for MLR purposes. (The practicing cert application process isn't too bad, all things considered, and you'll need it before you take on clients).
Unfortunately, there's no magic formula and what works for some might not work for others. Yellow Pages seemed to work much better a few years ago, but not in the last couple - I think this is also reflected by the fact that the Yellow Pages is now really much smaller than it used to be.
Networking also takes a bit of time, as Shaun says A website, if you have one, will also take a while to get "up" in the Google rankings (and a fairly consistent SEO effort to keep a website there), but you could pay for Google ads in the meantime.
My first client actually came via the Elance website.
By the way, CIMA do some MiP workshops (on marketing, financial reporting, running a tax practice among others) which you might find helpful - and you'll meet other CIMA MiPs who will be in the same boat.
Planning is key. Highlighting which types of clients you want to target is crucial as this will affect the marketing strategy.
For me networking was really important. Get along to as many of the free/ cheap ones as you can. Face to face means you will be linking up with potential customers and getting great contacts.
When I started trading I set up my own networking group in my local area. This certainly increased my profile.
If you are in practice already I guess you will have some relationships with current clients at the firm you work for. Keep those relationships going, with discretion and contractual issues in mind, as they may well want to move with you.
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Phil Hendy, The Accountancy Mentor
Are you thinking of setting up your own practice or have you set up and need some help?
If so a mentor may be the way forward - feel free to get in touch and see how I can assist you.
Planning is wise but not key in my situation. I am early days and learning all the time so there is plenty I have done and will do that I could have done better. My advice would be target old employers and colleagues and try to specialise in an area you have knowledge in. I spent a lot of time in Social Care and although at the time it did not appeal to me, I used all the training, PDP and workshops that came my way. I now target Personalisation and because I know the area plus the financial side I can offer more than just a finance function and can offer basic advice about benefits and schemes before passing them onto the professionals. It limits you a little as you can specialise in one area but then you fall behind in others. It may be a taboo subject but you can build up a healthy amount of cash whilst working
Would echo Louise's comment about the MiP workshop, I went to one a couple of years ago given by Diane Pilling about developing your practice, and there were some great ideas - not just on marketing, but all aspects of running a practice.
