How to start a tax & accountancy business?? CTA & FCCA

How to start a tax & accountancy business?? CTA...

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I have always wanted to start my own tax advisory services and now that im qualified CTA (im also FCCA) with some few years of tax experience I decided to take the first step in launching my own business. Over the past months I have been struggling to get clients –low conversion rate ..i have more than 30 contacts, and after pursuing them for a couple of months, no business has taken place. Can someone please help and show me the rope here ANY IDEAS WELCOME…..

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By uktaxadvisors.com
26th Feb 2013 23:03

Tax website for sale

Firstly congrats for starting your own business. Yes the conversion rate in this industry can be very low. If have 30 contacts and get one client ; then try 90 contacts to get 3 clients-. However its not easy to have 90 contacts doing meetings and phone calls etc. The best way to do this is to use online services like a website. In fact I have an excellent tax & accountancy website available for sale that i recently developed which you can use as a launch pad- the name of the site is QLtax.com. I get at least 3 enquiries every week which sometimes convert to real customers and im sure this be useful to you if you need it. There are no clients on this site as all the clients are under my name but you can take over the site for a reasonable fee.. All you need to do is to market the site a bit and im sure you can get more leads and this can help. The alexa rank is great less than 1m and getting about 10,000 page views per day. If interested pm me or email me on [email protected]

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Replying to garakatsamol:
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By cparker87
27th Feb 2013 00:27

With respect....

uktaxadvisors.com wrote:

Firstly congrats for starting your own business. Yes the conversion rate in this industry can be very low. If have 30 contacts and get one client ; then try 90 contacts to get 3 clients-. However its not easy to have 90 contacts doing meetings and phone calls etc. The best way to do this is to use online services like a website. In fact I have an excellent tax & accountancy website available for sale that i recently developed which you can use as a launch pad- the name of the site is QLtax.com. I get at least 3 enquiries every week which sometimes convert to real customers and im sure this be useful to you if you need it. There are no clients on this site as all the clients are under my name but you can take over the site for a reasonable fee.. All you need to do is to market the site a bit and im sure you can get more leads and this can help. The alexa rank is great less than 1m and getting about 10,000 page views per day. If interested pm me or email me on [email protected]

Your QL Tax link does not work and if you are indeed uktaxadvisors.com without getting into a slinging match I really don't think that this is going to be a useful way to generate leads for this chap. It's not even a half way house to sites like choose-your-accountant.co.uk which allows for people to post for work and accountants to then tender for it.

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By cparker87
27th Feb 2013 00:27

Small trader
Needs a personable network which you nurture. If you have the contacts I have no doubt that you have discussed their affairs with them to some extent, what have you done to close the deals in these cases?

Perhaps if you offer to do a "review" for free and you can then find the errors or inefficiencies in their workflow - there will definitely be some - using that platform you can advise them that x, y , z is wrong and the consequenes of not correcting them. Of course that is your opportunity to offer your services and your price and close the deal. Big up your CTA. It is a differentiator in the small practice arena.

Once you get them on ask for recommendations etc. be cheeky.

As a supplement in the intervening period, have you considered subcontracting to other firms? Where are you based?

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Replying to dgilmour51:
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By mgmasiye
10th Jul 2013 22:04

Website for sale

Is your website still available for sale?

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By newmoon
27th Feb 2013 06:31

What's your market?
I think the marketing 'experts' would suggest concentrating on a niche and marketing yourself as the expert in that area.
I'm unclear whether you are concentrating on providing tax services to other other professionals, or more general accounting and tax advice to businesses. If the latter look around for a BNI group that doesn't have an accountant or tax advisor already in the group and really push your networking.
Good luck.

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By mikeyban
27th Feb 2013 08:48

Why not buy a practice.

If no funds available agree a standing order over say a 4 year period.

There are quite a lot of one man band ageing accountants who are fed up with the profession and RTI may well be the final straw.

They do not want to go into a practice for a year and would gladly hand over some of their clients for a guarantee of income.

Try it!!!

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Replying to Tornado:
Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
27th Feb 2013 10:02

Wish it was that easy.

mikeyban wrote:
Why not buy a practice. If no funds available agree a standing order over say a 4 year period. There are quite a lot of one man band ageing accountants who are fed up with the profession and RTI may well be the final straw. They do not want to go into a practice for a year and would gladly hand over some of their clients for a guarantee of income. Try it!!!

Where do you find such ageing accountants looking to step down and hand over the reigns.

i have been looking for close to a year and come up with nothing (north east retiring accountants feel free to contact me).

 

 

 

 

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By DMGbus
27th Feb 2013 09:01

Look for a niche - they DO exist

At the "low end" (income level wise) this will include advising on working tax credits and whether mileage based car claims are beneficial.   Many established advisors keep away from (or are in denial of) tax credits.  My last week's new client should be £6 a week better off having been enlightened about working tax credits.

Then there's cash accounting for small businesses (2013/14), I see a niche for advisors who see this as an opportunity to go and give beneficial advice where existing advisors have decided not to.

At the "high end" there are always clients who have business restructures to be advised on, many small or medium sized accountancy firms outsource such advice to specialists.

In between there's always VAT to advise on, flat rate for smaller clients plus cross-border transactions and property transactions that can be outside the knowledge of some advisors who should therefore seek specialist third party help.

 

 

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By thomas
27th Feb 2013 10:08

Maybe market yourself to sole practioners as a tax expert. I know I'd love a CTA to partner up with on tax issues and could assist the CTA with the accounts work. Where are you based?

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Replying to DMGbus:
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By videfa
27th Feb 2013 22:34

thanks

Thanks. Im based in Guernsey & Jersey - but studied UK tax and familar with offshore tax. Let me know  if this interests you.

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Replying to DMGbus:
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By videfa
27th Feb 2013 22:37

thanks

thomas wrote:

Maybe market yourself to sole practioners as a tax expert. I know I'd love a CTA to partner up with on tax issues and could assist the CTA with the accounts work. Where are you based?

 

Thanks. Im based in Guernsey & Jersey - but studied UK tax and im familar with offshore tax. Let me know  if this interests you.

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Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
27th Feb 2013 11:27

Are you still in employment

If so I would try and build up your work on a part time basis to say £15k per annum before you take the step to go on your own.

I am in same boat as had to leave my job and decided to return to practice, but have had a few private clients going back 10 years.

As Thomas says you could offer your services to others around you, I have agreed to do some one off assignments with 2 local firms of accountants as more cost effective than using own staff. I would welcome a friendly CTA to work with me on cases which were more specialist than my general practioner knowledge.

Were the 30 contacts you met just people you know in business who you probed for refferrals/work or were they people specifically looking for accounting/tax services and they had approached you.

I find converting clients when I am in front the easy bit, its getting the first meeting that is the holy grail which you need to crack.

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By videfa
27th Feb 2013 22:38

Thanks everyone

Comments appreciated:)

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