With the end of self assessment season firms around the country are breathing a collective sigh of relief - and wondering what's next.
It's still early on in 2013, but once many firms put aside the year's tax returns, they start to think about strategies and techniques to develop the business.
Recently, PracticeWEB ran a survey of almost 400 accountancy firms and found that almost 40% were planning to review their marketing strategy towards new and existing clients. More than three-quarters (76%) wanted to improve overall on what they are currently doing.
According to the survey, most firms ended 2012 on a slightly pessimistic note, with over half saying they hadn’t quite reached their goals.
Nearly a third (30%), however, said they had reached all their goals and were feeling “pretty smug about it”.
Just under half of firms planned to expand the range of services they offered to existing clients this year and a further 33% wanted to develop a niche or specialism.
Specialisation could be the "future of the profession" according to Mark Lee, who covered the topic in a recent article.
Under a quarter of firms said they would like to increase their fees this year, another recently debated topic on AccountingWEB.
Coming last on firms’ 2013 to-do lists was investing in new blocks of fees, with only 10% showing an interest in this.
The survey also provided one lucky respondent with an iPad Mini. Ian Haynes of Springfords won the tablet after being randomly picked out of a hat.
PracticeWEB is a sister company to AccountingWEB.co.uk that specialises in building websites and supplying digital content to accountancy firms. In a separate study into online engagement within the profession, PracticeWEB found that more than half (51%) of respondents had gained a return on the investment in their websites and referred to them as central to their marketing activities.
Social media has also surged within the profession: 83% currently have some kind of online presence, with LinkedIn leading the way among 97% of those who use social media sites. On average these respondents spent 6 hours a week networking online.
For further reading to help you with your 2013 growth plans, see the following items on PracticeWEB's supplier page:
- What we've learned from our online engagement benchmarking report
- What our clients can expect in 2013
- Trends in accountants' websites over 12 months
- Are you speaking to your clients in the right way?
What will your firm be focusing on in 2013?
Replies (1)
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Networking
I am surprised that networking events are not mentioned as they are an important platform for growing prospects and connecting with many start-ups and SME's. It's those events where the likes of cloud accounting companies are rampant and it's important for accountants therefore to be on top of their game than ever before..