wkstaxprep wrote:Any thoughts on why there is such minimal discussion on these boards regarding how we can build and grow our tax practices and how to increase overall business?
In addition to what makbo said, I'd add that it seems to me that a strong portion of this board is very confident in who they are as a professional and what their practice is. We have developed our unique selling proposition (USP), defined our target market, and we cater to it. What we need more than anything else is someone to bounce ideas off of.
Also, some of us might wish to keep some things private or secret on a completely open, internet-searchable forum.
wkstaxprep wrote:feedback/ideas may be this season for increasing revenue and decreasing expenses.
Sounds like you have some good ideas already.
(1) Your retention rate is extremely good, but depending on the size of your firm it might be borderline too high. Some turnover of clients is important.
(3) Whether this is a good idea is probably dependent on the reason(s) you lost those clients in the first place.
(7) This will depend on your USP, of course. I draw a distinction between tax estimates and tax planning. If I run a tax estimate
as a part of the tax return preparation engagement, it takes just a couple minutes and the service fits neatly in to my USP so I don't charge separately for it. If there is actual tax planning to do, or if the client wants me to run a lot of different scenarios, then I bill. In addition, you should be speaking/meeting with all of your business clients after October 15th (as Taxalmanacer also pointed out). Midyear QuickBooks clean-up with an eye toward doing another projection near year-end saves time in January/February and delivers real value to the client that they will appreciate and pay for.