In this Fiverr gig video, Evan Carmichael reviews the website freshstartcpa.com, an accounting firm. He praises the clear presentation of services and professional design, but identifies several areas for improvement: the site relies heavily on stock images and lacks personal branding, missing a compelling story about why clients should choose them; he suggests showcasing team members with real photos, adding storytelling, and possibly a video intro to convey personality. He highlights the resource section with recommended books as a positive personality cue. He audits social media links, noting a broken Facebook link and an active Twitter account, recommending fixing or removing the Facebook link. Overall, he advises injecting more personality, clarifying the unique value proposition, and leveraging social media to improve client conversion.
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Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. Welcome to another edition of Ask Evan. Today I'm doing another one of my Fiverr gigs where I review somebody's website and showcase it on my YouTube channel. And today we are going to be reviewing freshstartcpa.com. And so let's check it out. So this is the website. It is an accounting firm, so from first glance it's easy to tell what they do, which is great. A big problem for a lot of websites and entrepreneurs, you hit their website and you have no idea what they do and if it's for them or not. So for me, if I'm looking for an accountant, then I know that these guys are clearly accountants. They are in We're a mobile accounting firm in Parkville, so if I'm in that area, then I might consider looking them up. Phone number at the top, great. Logo is clean, easy to read. Website design is pretty professional, I guess what you'd expect from most professional services types of companies. The one thing that is missing here, so I see a lot of information, I see your services, a little bit about you. This is the about slide and it's showing showing a picture of a pencil. All the pictures seem to be very stock photography, which is very common. But what I would try to do is inject a little more personality and show your pictures. So who are the people behind Fresh Start Tax and Accounting? Entrepreneurs like to deal with people as much as possible, and so if you told your story, why you got started, what you're all about, then that will convince more entrepreneurs to want to sign up with your services instead of everybody else. What's missing from this page is why you. So I would try to address one of the common frustrations that most entrepreneurs go through and why they seek out advice from accountants. If you look at the very, you know, startups, it's do I need an accountant or not, and how can you help me? And there's a lot of education involved in training, you know, new entrepreneurs on how to work with accountants. And if you're further along, then it's more about, you know, switching them from one accountant to another And it's getting them to understand that you really understand their business. You know, a big problem with entrepreneurs and their accountants is they meet with their accountants once a year, they go over their financial statements, you know, and fine, I'll see you next year. But the accountant is not a critical part of their business. And if you are the type of accountant that really, you know, cares about your clients and, you know, take the time to invest into understanding their business and giving them advice beyond just showing the numbers, but saying here's how you can use this information to grow your business, then that's a value-add that not everybody will do and maybe a way to separate yourself. So what's missing from the page is— it's great in that it tells us what you do, how to get in touch with you, you know, where you are, but it doesn't tell me why I should go with you instead of somebody else. So if I am shopping for an accountant, It's a little bit unclear as to why I should go with you instead of anybody else who's also in the area. Let's click on the About and see what more information you have here that talks about yourself. So our values: professionalism, responsiveness, quality. So fine, I'd love to learn a little bit more about the people. So okay, good, you have a Meet Our Team. And so Latoya Ray, great, you know, you've got a good picture here smiling. Not stock photography. I put this more front and center, you know, show the people on your team and tell the story, you know. So she fell in love with accounting. That's great. Tell the story of some of the entrepreneurs she's helped and why she really likes it. And maybe there's an interview with her. You put that right on the home page. Let's see who else you have here. Damien Ray. Okay, not there. Danielle Martin. You know, again, good smile. No picture of this one. So at least the ones that you do have pictures of, put that on the homepage and be proud of your team. I think that's something that if you tell your story, why you got started and why you're passionate about accounting, that's something that entrepreneurs are going to be able to relate to because they are really passionate about their business and they want to work with people who are also equally passionate about what they do. Now I did see somewhere on here, you know, for— there's not too much personality on this page, so you can definitely amp that up a little bit. And it's great that you're sharing information, resources. What I like here is the recommended books. And so this is where we're starting to show a little bit more of the personality of your organization because you're sharing stuff on here. And these are books that are not just about accounting. So Delivering Happiness, you know, if that's your favorite book, visionary CEO of Zappos explains how an emphasis on culture can lead to unprecedented success. That's great. You know, these are great resources for entrepreneurs, and this list goes on and on and on and on from the sidebar here, which is awesome. And if you've read all these books and you personally advocate them, this is a way of showing that you care about entrepreneurs and you care about your customers, and you're showing a little bit more personality beyond just saying, "Here's what we do." And so somebody who steps outside of just the "here's what we do" more likely to win the hearts and minds of people and are going to get the clients. So if I had a choice between going to one accountant who just shared, you know, their services and another one who shared all these great resources with these books and why they liked it, I'm probably going to go with the one who gave me more, who showed me more of who they were. So I try to inject a little bit more personality, use your pictures a little bit more, Showcase this stuff a little bit more. Maybe there are other components to it that you really want to share about yourself and why you started your business. Maybe you can do a quick video intro if you are comfortable in front of a camera. It will really win over people, and if they are trying to decide between you and somebody else, then it makes it easy to say yes to you. Maybe one quick look, we will check out the social media profiles. We have got Facebook and Twitter here on the side, so let's look at each. See what we got. So Facebook is just going to the Facebook homepage. So the link is going to Fresh Start CPA, but it looks like it doesn't work. So I'd either, you know, look at fixing that link or taking it down. If you don't have a Facebook page, you don't want to be linking to it because people will expect to see something on there. And the Twitter, you've, you've got a Twitter account. This is great. You're tweeting out, which is great, and it's pretty active, and you have some good information, and you're retweeting and talking to people, so that's great as well. It's good that you're staying active on here. A lot of people set up these accounts and then they don't do anything with it. So you've been posting regularly, that's great. I'd look to expand that on Facebook as well. Or if you don't think Facebook is your market, then just take it off and don't include it on your sidebar anymore. But overall, it's pretty good. You know, you're fortunate, I guess, you're in a market where typically financial service companies or financial professionals, if you're looking at accountants, lawyers, are typically very bad at promoting themselves and the websites are not great. So it's good that you have a clean, fresh website, easy to follow, easy to understand. I just try to inject a little bit more personality into it and showcase why we should go with you over to somebody else, and I think you'd have a much better response rate from the people who are visiting your site. So for everybody watching, thank you for joining me on this latest video. Uh, if you liked it, please give it a thumbs up. It makes me want to do more for you. And if you have a comment about this video or question about your own company, feel free to leave it in the comment section below. I always read those and I'd love to hear what you have to say. Uh, so thank you and I'll see you on the next episode.
