I am quite new on here and have just set up my own bookkeeping business in Worcestershire. I am trying to get some more clients and I wondered if anyone had a good methods that worked for them? Or does anyone they could refer to me? All help would be greatly appreciated!
This has been the subject of many a discussion before...have a route round the site and you will see a fair few threads on the subject.
For referrals people will probably want to get to know you better on here first, so perhaps some background by way on an intro as a good starter, including perhaps life before your current position.
Good luck with it. I can say that as you are not on my patch
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
The best advice I can give you is to understand who your ideal client is. Without this you'll end up trying to market your services to everyone and wasting a lot of valuable time and effort. If you get any clients from this type of marketing it will be luck. For every person who gets lucky with this, there are a handful who don't.
By understanding the clients you want, and how you can solve their problems, you stand a far better chance of attracting them and setting yourself apart from everyone else.
Good advice Kris, I've narrowed the focus of my ideal client base down to those who are willing to pay me.
I think that the issue with many new bookkeepers is that there is a belief that sales materials and pumping money into websites and SEO converts to clients where the reality is that people need to think for a minute as if they were buying a product rather than trying to sell one.
How many of us read the unsolicited sales emails that hit our inboxes everyday? how many of us would dream to read one of the bits of junk mail that the postman delivers relentlessly.
Why do we assume that others will buy when we use the same tactics?
There are to my mind only two ways to sell.
1) Networking. People buy people, not marketing.
2) Your clients acting as your sales force. Do a good job for your clients and they happily introduce their freinds, colleagues and relations to you. Think that it must be over five years back now that I first used the snowball rolling down a hill analogy but it's one of those early things that I said on here that I still think is true today.
Of course, networking leads to its own set of problems such as trying not to break down in hysterical laughter at people when they start trying to explain to you that what they are doing is to their minds actually a legitimate business.
Also of course finding your way into groups on a permanent rather than just a visitor basis when the groups only allow one person representing each industry.
Jokes aside I do actually agree that if you can gain a good understanding of a sub group of potential clients then you put yourself in a better position to win their business. However, there is as I mention the issue that just because one is focused upon a business area does not in itself help to gain access to that sector unless you already have a foothold in it and to do that needs face to face meetings which you will be lucky to achieve via tradiutional marketing channels.
Networking is to my mind the only way to really start to get your name out amongst the local community and from there its word of mouth.... But in itself business network seems designed to restrict the number of financial profesionals who have access to quality networking groups.
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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.
One of our qualified students got hold of her local Yellow Pages and started to call local businesses to where she lived. This method gained her 20 appointments and 8 clients, she then went on through word of mouth to gain several more clients. She did all of her training, set up in practice and gained her clients relatively quickly and duly went on to win the inaugural ICB New Practice of The Year award. Which was nice.
I think networking is always important and if a member of an awarding body using any resources they have available for their members. Attending awarding bodies branch meetings, industry seminars and conferences.
I have spoken with a lot of Accountants and Bookkeepers over the years and all of them say the majority of clients come from word of mouth.
Keep at it I am sure you will get to where you want to be. :)
when I started I put magnetic signs on my car made with Vistaprint. in the first few months 30% of my clients came from them. I got my parents to put them on their car too. I would get calls from people saying they were following my dad's car (I had to apologise for the driving in that case). Another one saw the car in Waitrose car park. Another one saw it in my parents' drive. Another one saw my car outside my house. Another at the petrol station. and so on. they were really good. I had to take them off in the end because I got too busy.
be careful if you have metallic paint as the magnets on the signs (the whole thing is a magnet) move the flecks in the paint around so when you take them off you can see where they were. In extreme cases it makes metalic paint into plain paint by basically removing the relfective specs.
i.e.
Basic coloured paint suffers much less but if left on for any time the exposed paint will fade where that under the sticker will remain protected so on removal you end up with a big square of darker paint.
As I say. thats only if left on for a long time but it's something that you need to be wary of if you go down that route.
The above said my eldest boy had them on the side of his car and they worked for him as well so swings and roundabouts as finding just one client should more than cover the cost of a door respray.
Also I think that its the sort of thing that works on some cars but not others. i.e. something like a Mini or Nissan Juke advertising bookkeeping services on the side would look fine but hanging it on the side of a Merc or Beemer would just look wrong (and totally out of place on the side of your Ferrari Daytona John, lol).
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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.
Also I think that its the sort of thing that works on some cars but not others. i.e. something like a Mini or Nissan Juke advertising bookkeeping services on the side would look fine but hanging it on the side of a Merc or Beemer would just look wrong (and totally out of place on the side of your Ferrari Daytona John, lol).
Lol Shaun.
I just did a mock up with my logo on the side which I was going to post but then realised I might be infringing copyright. It actually looked quite good!
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John
Any advice given is for general guidance and professional advice should be sought applicable to your circumstances.
you can buy magnetic paper which you can print from your normal printer. no idea if it would be strong enough to stay on a car! I've thought about doing it but Hubby won't let me
One other thing to bear in mind is that this can count as a modification so ask your insurers.
you can buy magnetic paper which you can print from your normal printer. no idea if it would be strong enough to stay on a car! I've thought about doing it but Hubby won't let me
One other thing to bear in mind is that this can count as a modification so ask your insurers.
Never knew that about 'modifications' - another reason for insurers to use as a kop out. Appears that even some stickers can be classed as such by some of the insurers.
I looked at the idea a couple of years ago but was worried about them taking the paint off my car, just looked at some of the reviews and one thing to also do is take them off if you plan to go speeding down a motorway as it appears quite a few have had theirs fly off.....wouldnt like to be on the receiving end of one!
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Mine didn't leave a mark on my car. I had a black pearlescent one before and now a white one. I did have one fly off when I was going a little too fast on the motorway but other than that they are pretty good. I liked them because I could just take them off when I was going away or very busy and just put them on around town when I needed new customers.
Thanks for all the help on here! I have been away and studying and working so not been on here much, but will try and join in with the forums more. So exciting to be about to be getting myself up and running!!
