Finding Clients For Bookkeepers

What do you think about a letter box drop to find bookkeeping clients?

Peter writes:
“I am looking to start-up a small bookkeeping business, with the objective of occupying me for say 3 days pw. My reason in writing to you is to obtain your opinion as to whether you think I am on the right track with regard to
my marketing strategy (just developed). I want to avoid any unnecessary wheel spinning.

My intention is to develop a one page letter, which I will use as a letter box drop in the local area. I have already approached the Accountants in my area and received some polite and positive comments, but I am not holding my breath! I believe a direct approach to end-users is more likely to be productive, rather than going through a third party. “

If you’ve read our book *Secrets to Finding Bookkeeping Clients* you’ll realise that we don’t really promote “cold calling”.

Have you thought about who your target market is? When I go down to the local hardware store to buy a drill, it’s not because I want to buy a drill – It’s because I need to hang a picture up on the wall, and need to put a hook in the wall, and need a drill to make the hole!

Business owners don’t want to pay for a bookkeeper – they just want their paperwork sorted out!

We’ve worked with accountants that have a tendancy to get caught up in the use of “jargin” when their clients are only interested in knowing if they’ve got enough cash left at the end of the week to buy a carton of coldies!!

You’re surrounded by potential clients – and end of financial year is a good time to source those clients – finding them is really quite simple with the right strategies

If you’d like some help then take advantage of our one-on-one coaching sessions

” You are a gem to all whom wish to start their Bookkeeping business.

“Can you help me? Thanks, Steph.”

Steph, thanks for your kind comments – we love to get feedback from bookkeepers.

To help people like Steph, we need to know whether you’ve had any training in using MYOb / Quickbooks software, and if you have any bookkeeping experience / qualifications.

Depending on your level of skills you may find that you can gain more experience by working for some local bookkeepers

All VERY GOOD bookkeepers in your area always have MORE work that they can handle – you’ll find that they have a number of off-site clients and there’ll be some basic data entry that needs doing – in many cases they’d be more than happy to pay a “junior bookkeeper” a low hourly rate to get the data entry done

Contact them by telephone to arrange a time to go around and see them, tell them you’ve got an idea you want to run by them. Then when you eyeball them ask if you can help them with their data entry.

We helped Steph with some other questions she had about getting her bookkeeping business started, as we’ve developed a program to coach and and guide you through the minefield of building your bookkeeping business.

We offer one-on-one consultations for bookkeepers who are struggling to solve problems, or overcome challenges in sourcing bookkeeping clients

You can learn more about the program by following this link http://www.bookkeepingteam.net.au/

Should you offer a free consultation to find bookkeeping clients?

Some people say “YES” – and we say “No”

Mark emailed us to say : ” I disagree in some respects to your comments regarding a ‘free consultation’. If I’m prepared to offer only the initial hour of my time free of charge to secure a long term client, I consider that this is cheap advertising? The prospective client has nothing to lose and I get my ‘foot in the door’ to sell myself and my services. People only need a plumber once every 10 years. They need a bookkeeper every 3 months (or less). There’s a huge difference.”

Of course the client has nothing to lose and everything to gain – and if it takes you an hour to get yor foot in the door, you’re probably doing something wrong – it takes us just five minutes (or less) on the phone

In our experience, giving a free consultation has not helped grow our business – there’s always people out there that want something for nothing – so it’s upto you how much / what you cover in that hour

We speak to new clients every day on the phone, converting around 80% of them, without offering our services for free – the remaining 20% just want the cheapest – or worse still find family/friend to “help them with their books”

The beauty about running your own bookkeeping business is just that – it’s your own bookkeeping business, so you call the shots !!!