I am ready to buy anything of the best value that you can sell to me – whatever you can deliver in an hour or may be two.
Not a physical product though. As an accounting and/or tax professional, what is it that you can deliver in an hour that you can charge me the most for?
AND what one thing will you deliver for which I will be happy to pay a higher fee based on the value of that one thing being more than other things you can do?
If a buyer comes to your doorsteps and tells you this, what will you sell that can give you the highest possible return on your one hour of time?
Is it a quick analysis of financial statements to tell that the buyer’s money was blocked in inventory in six months turnaround cycle? That their cost of goods sold was too high? That their pricing was too low? Are they doing something different than their stated business strategy?
Is it the tax return?
Is it the tax planning advice?
Accountants and tax preparers have the “financial health data” of the businesses and of individuals. From this data, entrepreneurial and insightful accountants can connect the dots real quick and figure out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for their clients.
Whatever that one thing that gets you the most return per unit of your effort; don’t you think you should be doing that one thing more often?
Lets say you sell (hypothetically at the mentioned rates) the following services:Time TakenPrice Per HourMonthly Accounting5 hours$ 70Tax Return Preparation2 hours$ 125Financial Statements Analysis2 hours$ 125Part-Time CFO Services15-20 hours/month$ 185-200
Lets say you work 160 hours a month. And lets say you bill 40 hours (25%) doing CFO services. You cannot easily delegate this “knowledge and experience intensive” work.
However, if you can leverage time of others to get accounting and tax work done by others (your staff or anyone else to whom you can delegate that work), to free up 20 more of your personal hours per month, you would earn a minimum of 20 X (185-125) = $ 1,200 more per month i.e. $ 14,400 extra revenue a year, on just your own time.
So if you can duplicate, rather multi-plicate what you do, essentially tasks that do NOT need your level of experience and expertise, you will unlock your real earnings potential.
A $ 1,500 freebie!
An experienced CPA is offering tax return preparation for FREE to his clients, when clients hire him for his tax and financial planning services for the year. Why? Because this CPA has intricate knowledge about the benefits under the tax code which his clients can leverage in their business-specific situations. Most of his clients have relatively complex financials and he often charges $ 1,500 a return. Now, if he offers to give $ 1,500 worth of service for free, imagine what he must be earning in lieu of it.
Automatic assured compliance!
Another award winning CPA is focusing on a niche based on his years of expertise developed in a particular industry, so much so that he would help his clients in a heavily regulated industry sleep peacefully.
How?
The CPA’s industry specific internal operating processes are so precisely developed for that niche industry that just by doing the day to day work, compliance is assured! And he is earning far more than an hourly rate for the peace of mind that he delivers to his clients.
What will YOU sell?
What will you sell, more regularly than before, at the highest possible return on your efforts?