Portrait of Success.
Today Jennifer and I had lunch with two friends who are also sometime clients of ours. They are one of those rare success stories - right off the bat.
They are two accountants who left a large regional firm to hang out their own shingle. Both are talented CPAs - that goes without saying. What sets them apart is their commitment to their clients and their focus on communication.
If you had told me 5 years ago that either of them were going to end up on starting their own accounting firm, I probably would have laughed. One of them was painfully shy. Networking to the tax accountant was something you did with a computer. The other was a diligent, hard-working audit manager - she didn't leave the office much because it meant a client might call and she'd miss out on helping someone with something.
Fast forward to 2006. It's their second tax season and they are rockin' and rollin'. I asked them today why they think they are successful. Both made a bunch of tongue-in-cheek sarcastic comments, but at the heart of it, they finally admitted that they always return phone calls, they give exceptional client service, and they look beyond the immediate matter of the day (i.e., a "tax return" is really chance to identify ways their clients can save more money next year by utilizing real "tax planning").
They have done very little marketing in the traditional sense. They don't even have a website (insert audible gasp of horror here). They have, however, done a lot of networking and when they left the big firm, they had rock-solid relationships - the kind that survive job shifts and market shifts - with their clients. I am so proud to know them and to have seen the kind of progress they've made from the early days of our acquaintance. And it goes to show that putting time and effort into your relationships is the key to the kingdom. That, and good tax planning.
They are two accountants who left a large regional firm to hang out their own shingle. Both are talented CPAs - that goes without saying. What sets them apart is their commitment to their clients and their focus on communication.
If you had told me 5 years ago that either of them were going to end up on starting their own accounting firm, I probably would have laughed. One of them was painfully shy. Networking to the tax accountant was something you did with a computer. The other was a diligent, hard-working audit manager - she didn't leave the office much because it meant a client might call and she'd miss out on helping someone with something.
Fast forward to 2006. It's their second tax season and they are rockin' and rollin'. I asked them today why they think they are successful. Both made a bunch of tongue-in-cheek sarcastic comments, but at the heart of it, they finally admitted that they always return phone calls, they give exceptional client service, and they look beyond the immediate matter of the day (i.e., a "tax return" is really chance to identify ways their clients can save more money next year by utilizing real "tax planning").
They have done very little marketing in the traditional sense. They don't even have a website (insert audible gasp of horror here). They have, however, done a lot of networking and when they left the big firm, they had rock-solid relationships - the kind that survive job shifts and market shifts - with their clients. I am so proud to know them and to have seen the kind of progress they've made from the early days of our acquaintance. And it goes to show that putting time and effort into your relationships is the key to the kingdom. That, and good tax planning.
posted by Right Angle Consulting at
2:18 PM
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