Accounting is an excellent profession for consistent and reliable work. You can expect solid work and good paychecks, for a very light workload of meaningful tasks.
Accounting is a popular profession for those with mathematics and detail-oriented skills, and many find themselves in an accounting firm or working for a company as primary accounting.
However savvy you may be with accounting, it takes a little more business flair to take an accounting firm from breaking even to high profitability.
If you are in leadership at an accounting firm, or you’re looking to strike out on your own as an independent accountant, you will need to follow these tested steps to achieve profitability.
- Minimize Costs. Eliminate as much overhead as you possibly can while remaining comfortable and functional. This may mean restructuring responsibilities, or choosing to cut a few things here and there. It may be permanent or temporary, but often the first step is giving yourself a little more margin by minimizing costs.
- Assess Current Practice. Where is your practice today? How many clients do you have? Are you retaining? How many new clients have you brought in during the last year? Taking a hard look at the current status of your accounting firm can open your eyes to the next steps to be taken.
- Client Retention. Treating your current customers right is vital to building an accounting firm that is profitable and long lasting. Regularly survey your clients to see what you could be doing better, and make each client a priority.
- What services do you offer? Could you learn a new skill or offer a new service that could change the game? Universal Accounting offers courses in tax preparation and other skills that could diversify your services for better retention and new clients.
- You have to know your ideal customer and find a way to target them. Marketing is the way you generate leads and bring in clientele for growth.
- Future Planning. Every profitable business needs to have a scaled plan for the future. It’s critical that you know what your business should look like in 6, 12, 18, even 72 months down the road. Having a mission statement, roadmap, and concrete goals can make profitability certain.
When you’re ready to maximize your profitability and create sustainable growth, check out Universal Accounting’s seminars, courses, coaching, and certifications. We personally help accounting firms increase their leads, annualized billings, client retention, profits, and more. Come see what we can do for you.
