🚀The One Way Guaranteed to Attract Clients

Plus: How to start a CFO side-hustle... Cash flow driver of the week...

Hey there 👋 We’ve got three tips to help you escape the accountant’s trap (where you earn more without working more).

🚀 The one way guaranteed to attract clients
🚀 How to start a CFO side-hustle
🚀 The cash flow driver of the week

🚀The One Way Guaranteed to Attract Clients

Let’s face it, attracting clients is hard. Especially in our industry. Why? Because we have five major things against us.

There’s a ton of competition.
Most people don’t know the difference between a good accountant/bookkeeper or bad one.
Accounting isn’t sexy. Therefore, it’s hard to sell.
What most accountants are selling is a commodity.
Most accountants/bookkeepers are not great marketers or salespeople.

But…there is one way that, if you do it right, will attract clients to you so that you never really have to market and you never really have to sell.

Here’s the one way: Every time a prospect interacts with you, they must feel like you ‘get’ them.

People will do business with people they know, like and trust.

Put another way, you can be the best accountant or bookkeeper, but if someone doesn’t feel like they know, like or trust you, it doesn’t matter.

Put another way, you can be a moron, but as long as people know, like or trust you…you’ll win the business.

Here’s four tips to help people feel like you get them.

Tip #1: Be different.
Most accountants/bookkeepers tell the world “I can do your taxes/books better/faster/cheaper”. No one cares. However, if you can tell the world “I will help you have a better business”, well, that will resonate because that’s what business owners want - a better business. Your prospects will feel like you ‘get’ them.

Tip #2: Do not confuse.
Most accountants/bookkeepers confuse their prospects by talking to them about…accounting. And, accounting is confusing to most people. If you can speak in a clear language about your prospects’ business, they will pay attention to you. Your prospects will feel like you ‘get’ them.

Tip #3: Give prospects a “treat”, not “medicine”.
Like most humans (and every dog that I’ve met), people love getting treats way more than medicine. However, when most business owners interact with their accountant or bookkeeper, it feels as painful as taking medicine. But…if a business owner gets value (treat) from their interaction with you, they’ll pay attention to you. Your prospects will feel like you ‘get’ them.

Tip #4: Tell stories.
People buy on emotion and justify, later, with logic. And nothing stirs emotion as much as telling stories of how you’ve helped other business owners (just like them!) have a growing and successful business. This communicates to your prospects that you’re a “down to earth” accountant/bookkeeper and that you can also help them have a growing and successful business. Your prospects will feel like you ‘get’ them.

👉The Bottom Line: If every time a prospect interacts with you, they walk away feeling like you ‘get’ them, they’ll be way more attracted to you.

🚀Want to Start a CFO Side-Hustle?

Does having a day-job impact your ability to launch a CFO/Advisory service? One alternative is to start a side-hustle that offers advisory services.

This is where you can keep your day-job while offering a CFO service on the side.

If you're interested, The CFO Project has created a brand-new training called Side-Hustle CFO and it's happening this Friday at 3p ET | 12p PT.

In this 1-hour training, you'll learn how to start a business on the side offering CFO/Advisory services to small businesses.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

How to know if you're qualified to provide CFO/Advisory services
How to make $5k on the side per month with just 3 clients
How to package and price your CFO/Advisory services
How to market your CFO/Advisory services
How to delver an advisory service in less than 4 hours per month per client

Plus, if you're a CPA, this training is eligible for 1.0 CPE credits.

🚀Cash Flow Driver of the Week

There’s one way to help your client have a successful business: and that’s by consistently helping them improve their cash flow.

Getting your client to generate consistent positive cash flow is the only thing required to stay in business.

There’s fifteen drivers of cash flow. In previous issues, we’ve covered the first five drivers: leads, conversion rate, retention rate, purchase frequency rate, and average transaction value.

These five drivers all add up to revenue. The next driver impacts profit, and it’s Cost of Goods Sold.

Cost of Goods Sold (as a % of revenue)

This is how much it costs your clients to provide the ‘goods’ to each sales transaction and is measured as a percentage of revenue.

The Cost of Goods should include all of the direct cost needed to deliver the end product or service to a customer.

This drives profit because the lower your clients can get the Cost of Goods (as a percentage of revenue) down, the higher the profit.

An Example

Let’s say you had a HVAC client and they recently installed a new A/C unit in a customers home and charged them $1,000.

But, your client had incurred the following direct costs to provide this A/C unit:

Direct Labor (the tech installing the unit): $200
Inventory (the A/C unit itself): $600

Then, this means your clients’ total Cost of Goods Sold was $800. Expressed as a % of revenue, it’s 80%.

$800 cost / $1,000 revenue = 80% Cost of Goods Sold

Your goal, for your client, is to get this percentage (not dollar amount!) as low as possible.

🚀We Thought You Might Like…

Here’s some quick links just for you to help you escape the accountant’s trap.

📺Here’s a video podcast that discusses how to price your services and why you should be a terrible salesperson. Click to watch or listen.

📖Want to stand out from your competitors? Check out Seth Godin’s short book called Purple Cow. Click here.

🏛️Now that the tax deadline has passed, check out a previous issue of Escaping the Accountant’s Trap where we show you how to get advisory clients by leveraging tax season. Click here.

📺Here’s a video podcast that discusses the difference between an advisor and an accountant. Click to watch or listen.

🚀Upcoming Trainings

Here’s a list of the upcoming trainings, sponsored by The CFO Project.

Bookkeeper to CFO
Date: Wednesday, April 17th
Time: 3p ET | 12p PT
RSVP: Click here

How to Start a CFO Service (1.0 CPE Eligible)
Date: Tuesday, April 18th
Time: 3p ET | 12p PT
RSVP: Click here

Side-Hustle CFO (1.0 CPE Eligible)
Date: Friday, April 19th
Time: 3p ET | 12p PT
RSVP: Click here

CPA to CFO (1.0 CPE Eligible)
Date: Tuesday, April 23rd
Time: 3p ET | 12p PT
RSVP: Click here

We ❤️ Accountants.
We ❤️ Bookkeepers.

Escaping the Accountant’s Trap newsletter is created with love by a team of accountants, marketers and business experts.

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