Five Ways To Grow Your Tax Practice

Accounting professionals, you have the ability to do a whole lot more than just accounting! You and your business are not confined to tax season and tax compliance. Give your clients the support they want and need, all year round. You and your business will benefit from growing your practice and your clients will thank you for expanding your services.

Here are 5 of our best tips to grow your tax practice: 

1. Create relationships with professionals in other fields 

Take the time to network and build strong and lasting relationships with professionals across various industries. You probably have connections with other accountants and tax professionals already and that is a good start.

You will also benefit from having professional relationships with experts in other fields. We encourage you to have a “go-to” lawyer, financial planner, insurance agent, Social Security advisor, Medicare expert, and more. This will provide your clients the extra support they may want and need while allowing you to focus on the services that you provide.

Additionally, as you refer more and more clients to these professionals it is likely that in return, these professionals will refer their clients to you.

2. Expand your advisory services with continuing education or by earning a trusted credential

As an accountant, your work may feel limited to tax compliance and to tax season. It doesn’t need to be that way. You are a trusted professional and a trusted advisor. As the expert, your clients probably rely on you for more than just their tax returns.

It is essential that you are able to provide trustworthy and genuine information and advice. Prove to your clients that you are an expert by getting the appropriate education and designations.

There are many paths you can take. If you haven’t already, you may choose to follow the path to earn your CPA designation. You may choose to take courses in financial planning and eventually become a CFP® (Certified Financial Planner). You may choose to earn a more specialized designation such as the RSSA® (Registered Social Security Analyst) credential to help your clients approaching retirement with their Social Security claiming decisions.

You may also choose to take courses in a variety of fields. CPAdirectory.com shares courses, books, webinars, and more for accountants and tax professionals. Whatever path you choose, do your homework and decide what courses or credentials would best benefit you and your clients. As you educate yourself or earn more credentials, you are earning more trust from your clients. As you support clients in other areas, you give yourself the flexibility of having more than one stream of income.

3. Modify and add services based on your clients wants and needs

As you grow your practice, you may notice trends and patterns within your client base. Do you mostly work with families? If so, they may benefit from you offering college savings assistance. Do you mostly work with small businesses? If so, they may benefit from you offering payroll services such as OnPay.

4. Go virtual and expand your client reach

We live in a tech-savvy, virtually-connected world. The current health crisis has also pushed companies to virtually serve their clients. With or without the pandemic, your business can benefit from going virtual (you can still have in-person services too).

By providing services via phone calls and video chats, you are able to reach a much wider potential client base. Your clients no longer need to live driving-distance from you and you both get the added benefit of seeing each other’s body language and faces.

Additionally, you and/or your employees may be able to work from home. Therefore you will need less office space or potentially none at all. Going virtual saves you time and money.

5. Take advantage of the internet and market your services

Do you need more clients? Do you want to make professional connections? The internet has everything you need to do that and you can get started without paying a penny. Post your tax practice listing for free on CPAdirectory.com. Social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter are the perfect outlets for you to share your business with others and to build relationships. It is never too late to market your services.