Can't do another Jan like this year again?

I was reading the comments from the Sole Practitioner's blog post It's all over, and for all of you who are happy to finally be in Feb, well done for surviving self assessment season.

It looks like there has been a huge amount of accountants:

• Eating too much
• Eating the wrong stuff
• Skipping the gym
• Not walking the dogs
• Working very long hours
• Putting the marketing and business development tasks to one side?

Were you one of them? What has been the personal cost to you of January this year?

What can you do differently for next year? Here are some tips we give to our clients:

1. Plan ahead and give clients who return their self assessment tax information before the 1st October a discount. (Or raise the price for everyone else, who doesn't want to give you their information before the 1st October)
2. Have a program of automated reminders (email and text) for clients who haven't sent you the information you require by the 1st October. 
3. Employ a VA [virtual assistant] to help you with the chasing for outstanding tax returns - that way you and your team can focus on processing them
4. Take on some outsourced/freelance resource, to help you process the tax returns
5. Be prepared to be firm with your clients - particularly the one's who turn up in January with a big bag of crumpled receipts
6. Tell your clients that the 1st December is the last date at which you can guarantee that their tax return will be filed before deadline. 

However, while you have had your head down, your competitors may have planned better this year and maintained their marketing activity during December and January. Your clients don't stop having queries and questions for you just because it is SA tax return season. 

We help our accountancy clients not just survive, but thrive in Jan. Whilst we can't promise you that we will help you triple your monthly revenue in 12 months (which we did for one of our accountancy clients), we can promise to put you back in control of running your practice - even in January. Take the first step and get in touch with us.