Common Entrepreneur Mistakes

A good idea coupled with enthusiasm and knowhow are a great basis for a thriving business.  However, even the most talented and driven entrepreneurs make mistakes.  Are you making some now?

In a recent post to the Personal Branding Blog, author Brian Horn asks “Are You Making These Common Entrepreneurial Mistakes?”  Here we share three of five big entrepreneurial blunders:

1. Failing to market.  We get it!  Promoting services doesn’t come naturally to financial professionals.  But the truth remains: regardless of how skilled you are, your business won’t generate revenue without clients, and you won’t secure clients without a good marketing plan.  And as Horn mentions, the Internet makes it possible to market your business with little cost.

2. Ignoring your customers.  They know what they want, how they want it, and how much they’re willing to pay for it.  You must take the time to gather feedback regarding your customer service and your service offerings, both before you launch your practice and after you’ve been in business for a while.  They can best inform you on how to improve your approach so that your business can become the premier bookkeeping service in the area!

3. Failing to hire help.  The truth is many financial professionals prefer to work alone, but in order for your business to grow, you must hire a support staff that can handle some of the more tedious and mundane tasks for you.  While you may need to pay these employees minimum wage or more, think of all the time it affords you to make more money and possibly take on additional clients.

While there are many things you will learn as you launch and manage your own practice, you can avoid common entrepreneurial mistakes to ensure your business has the greatest chance for success.  If you find yourself struggling with any of these three issues, take time now to redirect your course.

Register for Universal’s FREE Start Today Seminar

If you have considered launching your own bookkeeping service but have yet to take the plunge, we invite you to attend our FREE Start Today Seminar!  Universal travels the country providing FREE 3-hour seminars teaching the secrets to establishing a successful accounting and bookkeeping service: from DC to Texas and Canada to California, and now even Australia, you can find a location that works for you!  There you’ll learn how to enjoy higher earnings while working from home!  Look at our schedule and register for one of our seminars in a city near you.  As attendee Dennis Shumway explained, “I have been involved in financial service for 20 years and have attended seminars all over the country. The quality of this class has been head and shoulders above any class that I have ever taken.” Take advantage of this FREE opportunity now!  Register today!

 

Resource

Horn, Brian.  “Personal Branding Blog.”  24 September 2014  PersonalBrandingBlog.com

Your First Meeting with New Clients

Many of your clients may not have worked with a financial professional before and are unsure what to expect.  The rest have worked with financial professionals and may be running on old expectations. 

It’s important to have a preliminary meeting where you define the relationship and your expectations, taking special note of what your clients expect from you.  You may need to negotiate some of these expectations so that both you and your client are satisfied.  Here are 5 things to consider when defining those expectations.

1.   Determine the information pipeline.  How will information be exchanged?  Do you prefer email?  Does your client prefer hardcopies?  This is something that should be determined before your first official correspondence.

You should also make it clear what information you need from your client, what format it should be in, and when you need it.  You don’t want to compromise your own work by reducing the time you have to do it in or by accepting confusing or faulty data.

2.   Methods and acceptable times for interaction.  When you have your own business, it’s important that you not place yourself on-call 24/7.  In order to preserve your own personal time, you should set up acceptable times for correspondence.  If the client calls after 7pm, and you’ve told them you’re off-duty after 6:30pm, he/she won’t be offended at being asked to leave a voicemail or call back during your business hours.

3.   Set boundaries and keep them.  If you tell a client not to call after 6:30pm and you still take the call, you’re sending mixed messages.  Set your boundaries and honor them.  Also respect any boundaries your client establishes.

4.   Determine the services they require. Do they just want you to manage their books, or are they interested in having you submit their taxes come April and give them advice on what they can do in the future to increase productivity?  Obviously, the more work you do the more you get paid; but you don’t want to assume your client expects typical accounting services only to discover they expect you to act as their tax preparer as well.

5.   Be realistic.  Don’t overpromise.  Be realistic when estimating the time it will take you to accomplish their requested services.  Significant underestimation of time and cost will result in client dissatisfaction once the invoice arrives.  Also be realistic in estimated deliverables.  

Building healthy relationships with your clients depends on clarity: they should know what to expect from you, and you should know what to expect from them.  Once those expectations are defined, you can work on fulfilling them.  And fulfilled expectations make for happy clients.  And happy clients make for happy financial professionals.  And who wouldn’t want to be a happy financial professional?

The Universal Practice Builder (UPB) Program 

If you would like to increase your clientele, we have the perfect program for you!  While financial professionals may be comfortable crunching numbers, they generally are uncomfortable marketing their services.  Wouldn’t it be nice to learn a proven system for increasing your clientele and your bottom line?

The Universal Practice Builder Program is designed to train you how to promote your practice in order to experience significant growth and profitability.  This program offers the following:

  • $30,000 in new annualized billings in only 12 months
  • Tactical goal planning and setting
  • The generation of 15 to 25 qualified leads per month
  • Phone marketing instruction and training
  • Training in the benefits of newsletters and websites
  • 12 proven marketing strategies
  • Financing options 

Build a stellar practice by enrolling in this program today!  Call 1-877-833-7908 today to make a positive change in your career!

Advance Your Solopreneurship

lead-purposeSo your little practice is thriving, with you, and only you, at its helm, doing everything from landing the clients to managing their books to taking the calls to emptying the garbage.  It’s all you—that’s the nature of a sole proprietorship.  And while that’s been good so far, you’d like to advance your business to the next level.

Anita Campbell, author and manager of online communities and informational websites, shares “How to Take Your Solopreneurship to the Next Level” in a guest post on the U.S. Small Business Association website.  Here we share three of her five suggestions:

1. Change Your Business Structure.  If you’re a solopreneur, than you’re running your business as a sole proprietor which is one of the easiest business structures to launch.  But as your business grows, it’s important that you protect your personal assets, which are left unguarded in this structure.  If someone sues your business, they’re suing you, making you personally liable for those expenses.  But if you change your business structure to that of a corporation or LLC, you separate yourself from your business, eliminating any personal liability.

2. Figure out Your Staffing Needs.  To truly grow your business, you must hire a support staff that enables you to serve more clients than is currently possible. While you may be weary of the cost, there are only so many you can serve on your own.  And expanding your business doesn’t necessarily mean you must hire a large, full-time support staff. Campbell suggests looking at the following options when considering your staffing needs: “freelancer, intern, agency or consultant, part-timer, full-timer.”  Each of these comes with pros or cons, and not all will suit your requirements.  Do a little research before your start the application process.

3. Be Willing to Invest Time.  As Campbell explains, “While yes, adding people to your team will lighten your load in some ways, if you’re truly ready to grow your business to be competitive with bigger players, you’ll probably have to spend more time working on that growth.  Let your family know that at least for the time being, you’ll be less available at home.”

If you’re thinking about advancing your practice, these three tips will definitely point you in the direction of increased capacity and profitability.  Do the necessary research and then act!

The Universal Practice Builder (UPB) Program

If you want to advance your business, one way is by increasing your clientele—that will help pay for the added expense of hiring a support staff.  The Universal Practice Builder Program is designed to train you to promote your practice in order to experience significant growth and profitability.  Imagine all that you could learn from our experience training thousands of individuals like you!

This program offers the following:

  • $30,000 in new annualized billings in only 12 months
  • Tactical goal planning and setting
  • The generation of 15 to 25 qualified leads per month
  • Phone marketing instruction and training
  • Training in the benefits of newsletters and websites
  • 12 proven marketing strategies
  • Financing options    

Enroll in the Universal Practice Builder program today!  We’ll teach you not only how to understand your clients’ unique needs, but how to satisfy them.  It will also enable you to increase your capacity by increasing annualized billings.  Call 1-877-833-7908 to become the premier accounting practice in your area!

Resource

Campbell, Anita.  “How to Take Your Solopreneurship to the Next Level.” 18 September 2014  www.sba.gov

Be Happier in Your Business

Closeup portrait of a happy young businesswoman isolated on white backgroundWe’ve given countless tips on how to be more lucrative and successful in your business, but we haven’t spent enough time considering how you can be happier.  In a recent SmallTrends article, author Aubriella Billig shares “10 Things You Must do to be Happy in Your Business.”  Here we share five of her suggestions:

1. Embrace Change.  We can’t experience growth without change, so it’s important to embrace it.  Resisting change ensures things won’t get better than they are this moment, and the truth is, in the current market only those business owners who are adaptable will succeed.  Your flexibility will enable you to smile through the uncertainty.

2. Focus on the Future.  We are often distracted by setbacks and hard days.  When we attend to the future instead, focusing all our energy on the positive vision we hold, those small obstacles become mere potholes on our path.

3. Stop Making Excuses. It’s easy to start pointing the finger of blame when you encounter difficulty.  But this creates negative energy which is counterproductive.  If you made a mistake, take responsibility and learn from it.  And if someone else makes a mistake, see what might be learned from that as well.  But don’t dwell on it. 

4. Have No Fear.  Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Always do what you are afraid to do.”  Fear is completely in the mind, and the more we focus on it, the greater it becomes.  You mustn’t give fear the attention it’s clamoring for.  At first this may require you to “feel the fear and do it anyway” until you become accustomed to moving forward and realizing your dreams.  But you’ll find that doing so will make you much happier. 

5. Create Your Own Expectations.  Billig explains, “Although you are serving your customers, remember this is your business.   Make it everything you want it to be.  Set attainable goals.  Expand your horizons, and create an environment where you and your customers will both be comfortable.  Remember, this is your business.  What do you want it to be?”

Denis Waitley said, “Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.”  This is a great guideline in moving forward in your business without become too preoccupied with outcomes.  In this, you’re more likely to enjoy the happy journey that’s certain to follow your proactive approach.

Register for Universal’s FREE Start Today Seminar 

From DC to Texas and Canada to California—Universal travels the country providing free 3-hour seminars teaching the secrets to establishing a successful accounting and bookkeeping service.  There you’ll learn how to enhance your service offerings while increasing your bottom lime!  Look at our schedule and register for one of our seminars in a city near you.  As attendee Dennis Shumway explained, “I have been involved in financial service for 20 years and have attended seminars all over the country. The quality of this class has been head and shoulders above any class that I have ever taken.” 

Take advantage of this FREE opportunity now!  Register today!

 

Resource

Billig, Abriella.  “10 Things You Must Do to be Happy in Your Business.”  8 September 2014  SmallTrends.com

Quitting Your Day Job

Are you ready to quit your full-time job?  Perhaps you’ve gotten a stellar offer from another company or you’re finally ready to take the plunge into self-employment.  Whatever the reason, there is a proper etiquette for job resignation.  While you may never expect to go back, burning bridges is not a very professional exit strategy.   

Here we provide 5 tips in gracefully quitting your job:

1. Give proper notice.  Depending on your contract, you may be required to provide more than the standard two-weeks’ notice.  If no other policy exists, plan on working for two weeks after you resign.

2. Write a resignation letter.  The formal process for resigning requires proper documentation which comes in the form of a resignation letter.  This letter should include your intent to resign and the final date of your employment, the reason for your resignation (avoid negative rants), appreciative statements regarding your employer and any offers to assist in hiring and training your replacement.

3. Request a letter of recommendation. While you can always plan your future, there’s no guarantee that life will adhere to your plan.  That’s why it’s good to leave this employer with a letter of recommendation in hand.  That way you have proper documentation of work history and performance of your employment.

4. Offer to help with the transition.  It’s just good manners to offer your help in hiring and training a replacement.  Whether or not your supervisor accepts this offer is another matter.  In this case, it’s the thought that counts.

5. Work until the end.  It’s natural to get antsy when moving from one job to another.  It may be difficult to focus those last couple weeks as you wrap up loose ends and complete important tasks.  Make a concerted effort to be present, both physically and mentally.  It will leave a good impression with the employer, something you will never regret.

6. Collect contact information.  From colleagues to supervisors, the landscape of this company is likely to change significantly over time.  If you don’t collect contact information now, you may be hard-pressed to secure it later when you need it.

7. Say goodbye.  And we don’t mean a nasty “good riddance” on your way out the door.  Take the time to say goodbye to everyone you worked with and, if possible, express gratitude for the opportunity to work with them.  An office lunch is often an effective way to wish everyone well at the same time, generating positive and casual conversation in a professional context.

Regardless of your experience with this employer, it’s important that you exit the job with dignity and grace. Taking the time to applythese 7 simple suggestions will ensure that you accomplish that, behaving as a professional until the very end.

Create a Customized Professional Website

If you’re thinking about launching your own practice, a professional website is the perfect way to promote it!

Universal Accounting Center (UAC) offers you Accountweb, a website development tool, available exclusively for financial professionals.  Within a number of business days you can create a personalized professional website.

To see a sample website developed from the Universal Accountweb platform, go to.

Whether you run a full-time practice or perform financial services on the side, you need a website that tells prospective clients about your business even when you are unable to.  If you haven’t yet developed a website for your business, or if your current site is in need of reform, today is the day!  Order your subscription now—your website will be up and running by the following business week.  And if you are a Universal Accounting student you will receive a free six-month trial!

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