How to find your first clients
Building any business from scratch demands immense effort, especially when you are dealing with numbers. For CPA amateurs who are just stepping into the industry, raising the score of clients can be daunting initially. So once you’re done with finalising on a name for your accounting firm, designing a logo and making the online presence felt, the next step in creating a client base is getting in touch with them and turning prospects into leads. Here’s how you can find your first clients and keep them!
Split Your Marketing Plan
This is best divided between local and digital—makes reaching your clients way more convenient, streamlining your efforts in specific directions. Since the approach is different for both, you benefit from the two mediums.
Ask Yourself The Basics
What is the kind of clientele you are looking at? Brainstorm through some of the services you are really keen on providing. Whether you want to freelance, stick to basic bookkeeping or want to venture into larger businesses, make this choice in the very beginning. Find out what will benefit your business the most. When you define your clientele, your marketing efforts are more focused.
Set A Price And Stick To It
Now this can be tricky especially you’re still looking for potential clients at the very beginning of your career. Remember that there’s no way you can really put an accountant's service to an exact value, so this will be an experiment. Don’t overprice yourself. Research the market and stick to a competitive rate.
Make Your Website Interesting
Don’t sweat over the number of visitors through SEO activity in the very beginning. Instead, go with something that focuses just on the content on your website. The copy should not blabber about how great a CPA you are. Avoid fluff. Language should be simple, precise yet interesting. From target market, services, prices and a small note on why they should choose you, everything should be mentioned clearly. Use Google Analytics to know your visitors better. Also, link your website to your blogs, social media accounts, etc. Ensure your blogs are updated at least once in two weeks so that people know you are actively involved on social platforms too.
Target Local Businesses
The first question here is—what are the businesses you’d like to have as a client? Create a spreadsheet of these and find out what they have in common. Profile them under various heads and know the challenges they are facing. Connect with them on various platforms like social media groups, forums, meetups, personal interaction, coffee meets, etc. Get yourself known. Fair chances are that after meeting many of these businessmen, you might want to rethink your target clients.
Related Clientele
You can start with personal relationships. It’s a good idea to work with a business owner who trusts you just because you are related to him through someone. Be it a friend, relative or someone known to your through someone else, these relationships work well when you are establishing your practice. And needless to say, give this person discounts. Try and target at least 5 clients like this in the first two months!