Mark Lee encourages start-up practices to seek help from those who know and care for them best.
I have referred before to the large number of start-up practitioners who use the Any Answers section of AccountingWEB to ask for help as to how they could grow their new accountancy practice.
Much good advice has been shared there as well as in articles on the start-up in practice section of the site and in the start-up guides produced by AccountingWEB.
Talking with a start-up practitioner recently, I made a suggestion that I do not recall seeing mentioned here before. This is surprising as it seems so obvious – and I would hope that perhaps everyone does it automatically. But in case not:
Asking for referrals
How easy do you make it for your friends and family to refer clients to your start-up practice? Do you ask them to do this or are you scared that to do so might ruin the friendship?
Maybe your bigger concern is that you might not be up to the mark and you might let them down? If that is a serious concern then I suggest you should not be trying to build your own practice yet in any event.
In my articles on AccountingWEB about networking, I explain that there is no point in trying to sell to strangers, that no one refers work to a business card and that you need to build relationships before work will flow. You need to build relationships.
While these may not be fully-fledged close friendships, the only people likely to refer clients to you are those who have got to know you, to like you and to trust you. Who do you know who already ticks those boxes? Of course, your family and friends.
Once you are in business on your own account you need to develop the confidence to ask for referrals – unless you believe in magic.
In real-life, start-up practices do not generally find that referrals and enquiries instantly start to appear as if by magic. There is no trick to building a practice. You need to take certain steps and one of these is to make clear that you are available to work and who you are most keen to have as clients.
Different types of friends
One of the new challenges of the 21st century is that the word ‘friend’ has a wider meaning than ever before.
This is largely due to the growth of Facebook which describes everyone with whom we are connected as a friend. LinkedIn more accurately describes them simply as our ‘connections’.
I am not going to attempt to categorise all of the different types of friends we each have. Suffice it to say that the people I am referring to cover a very wide range.
The spectrum runs from childhood friends and family who have always been there, all the way through to people with whom you are connected online but have never met in person.
Ok, so those strangers who Facebook refers to as your friends do not know you or really care about you. The same may be true of some ex-colleagues with whom you were friendly before you set up your own practice.
But even if we exclude these so-called friends, there will often still be plenty of people who know you and may be well placed to help you.
How many potential advocates do you have?
Your list will start with your real friends, include a wider circle of friends of friends and then those people you don’t really know but who you have met with or engaged online.
You may not have contact details for all of them, but someone you know will do – and LinkedIn (or even Facebook) may help you fill in the gaps.
You’re not selling life assurance
Although less common than it was in years gone by, no one likes the life assurance salesman approach. Many was the time someone would approach me and seek to engage me in a conversation that was evidently intended to open me up to a discussion about life assurance.
These salespeople were motivated by commission and routinely sought work and referrals in a pushy unattractive way.
What I am suggesting is nothing like that, and you need to ensure that your friends understand that you are simply seeking their help and advice. To an extent you are implicitly complimenting them. You think sufficiently of them to ask for their advice and their help.
Make it easy for them
Making it easy for your friends to help you here does take a little hard work on your part. Are you clear as to who you want to be referred on to?
Someone who has never had an accountant before and who is worried about their tax liabilities? Or someone who is complaining that their bookkeeper isn’t giving them any business advice? Someone who is fed up with their old accountant charging more and more for doing less and less?
Even your best friends are unlikely to be able to keep a long list of possible targets in mind. Equally they may not be able to think of anyone off the top of their head. So make it easy.
Talk about one key target client type. Who do they know who [fits your target client profile]? Could they keep you in mind if they meet anyone like this or hear of someone asking about an accountant?
Start by helping them
You know what it’s like when an old friend gets in touch and just wants something from you. If you can help them quickly and easily perhaps you do so.
The more time and effort required however the more likely you are to put it off, unless they are a very good friend or unless you owe them something.
If you want anyone to refer you on to prospective clients it will always help your cause if you start by helping them before you ask for help yourself.
In person is better than on line
If you are especially shy you may be tempted to send out a standard email to all of your friends asking for their help.
I can all but guarantee that you will get far better results from talking with people individually either on the phone or, ideally face-to-face. Indeed, how you can help them first if all you do is send them an email?
Summary
Regular readers will appreciate that all I am really suggesting here is that you network effectively with your friends. This may feel odd if you normally avoid talking about business with them. But if that is the case, I suggest you ask yourself why that is a ‘rule’?
Turn things around. If someone you considered to be a friend was starting a new business, wouldn’t you want them to tell you about it? Wouldn’t you want to help them if you could? Wouldn’t you find ways to talk about them when with other people?
Of course the easier they make it for you to do this the more likely you will be to do so.
Why would your friends be unwilling to do the same for you?
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Mark Lee is consultant practice editor of AccountingWEB and writes the BookMarkLee blog and ebooks for accountants who want to save time and accelerate their success in practice, online and in life. He is also Chairman of the Tax Advice Network of independent tax specialists.