7 value added services you can add

Hi there, Linda Ardisani, Ardisani Bookkeeping. So for this week's video and accompanying blog post, I'm going to revisit an article I wrote a little while ago about 7 different value-added services that you as an accountant can add to expand your practice. It's something that because I'm starting to migrate into the this, the area of business where I'm into working with larger law firms, I'm able to add these services that maybe the smaller practitioner, although they need it just as much, would want to have as a service that you can offer to your client. And the larger firms tend to be more able and willing to pay for it. So if you start to work with mid-market clients, you're going to find that you'll have more of an opportunity. And a lot of it comes from multiple business owners. So you're not looking at one person owning a firm that feels like maybe they've got more of a control over the business. But when you get multiple partners, there's usually— they want that outside source to really analyze the data. And let's face it, most attorneys, they don't really— they don't understand the finances the way an accountant does, any more than I could practice law, right? They know their field and I know mine. So one of the things that will be coming up, and especially now in the times that we're living in with the virus and everything that's going on, is that some firms may need some financing to get through. There's multiple ways you can look at financing. Right now, the Fed just dropped the rate to zero. So the financing— if the firm's got a fluid or good, good set of financial statements and they get to go to a bank and look at getting financing, financing— the prices on the financing should drop. Is QuickBooks Capital is a great resource if you're needing money right away for whatever reason. There's multiple reasons why, and I've seen it with smaller firms that they need that bridge loan to get through. And with the times that we're living in that are a little bit uneasy, you might find that it's a good way to get some cash flow and maybe to pay your staff if you've got a paralegal, or the smaller firm might need it. Even the larger firm could need it. So just getting that financing them. You can get it through QuickBooks Capital, just a couple clicks right inside the program. There's other opportunities as well that you can look for to get bank financing. If you get a relationship with your banker, it's always a good thing. Smaller banks will have a more open relationship than the bigger banks, although we tend to try to navigate the firms to the bigger banks. Sometimes it's just by choice that the IOLTA— if you have an IOLTA account— has to go through specific banks depending on your your state where you're practicing. You may want to get a business valuation. A lot of times firms need to get that if they're selling. We've run into this a lot with firms that you start with certain partners and then one partner leaves the firm, another partner comes in and they just change the whole corporation altogether. So the name— not only the name change, but also the firm changes when business ceases to happen, ceases to exist, closes out, or maybe goes off on its own. and the other business takes off with different partners. So business valuation is something that a lot of people feel that their business, to value it properly, you need to hire somebody to help you do that. Your CPA or tax professional can be that resource, or they can direct you to someone that can help you find the person, the right person to look at when it comes to getting a valuation of the business. And that also will fall into the realm of getting the financing and then looking— financing and also looking into maybe succession planning. If the partners, the older partners getting on and maybe leaving the firm, these are all things you start to look at as a service that you can provide to your client to help. We're their business partner. We're here to, we're here to help. Cash flow management is a big one. And it's something that I find definitely helping firms with. When I take on a new client, I look at how their accounts receivable is, how quickly are they collecting? Is there a lot of open accounts receivable that we need to really tackle and get, get on to find ways to Help them get the money in, get the cash flowing. Sometimes it's just a matter of going in. I can be the hero looking in and finding that there is money to be had that they just didn't bill out of the trust account. They needed to— they've already done the work, the time is there, and they need to go and bill for the time so we can now move the money out of the trust account into the operating account. And I see that sometimes that the transactions have closed or have happened, but they haven't done the necessary paperwork to get those funds from point A to point B. So that's another thing that We as accountants can help our clients. You can also help with strategic business planning. A lot of these firms— I've talked to so many of them this year— they want to grow. They're expecting to grow. How can you help them grow in a way that's smart, that they're not expanding really quickly and then maybe not— it gets a little out of hand, it gets a little crazy? You can help them work through the steps to grow in the right way, not throwing money at things, but actually making good judgment calls along the way. And that's really where we work hand in hand with. And again, like I mentioned, succession planning, it's always a good thing to help businesses if one partner is leaving. You can help them with getting to that point. You can help a client with forming a new business. So that's another thing that you can help them with. We've got— we work with CorpNet. So there's ways that you can help them get the corporation set up. Of course, working with attorneys, they can pretty much do a lot of that on their own or have help with another attorney or another firm. But new business formation, just helping them decide what way to work. If you're not working with attorneys, helping them decide what entity to set up is really super helpful that we can, as accountants, help them with. You can become that part-time CFO. We have that ability to help with business forecasting and budgeting. And those are things that will help the business, again, grow smarter, grow in a more logical way so that they're containing growth and doing it in a way that will transition them to that place that they really want to bring the firm to. So that's it in a nutshell for this week's post. But I was hoping to really touch upon some of those things that as accountants, we can add to our repertoire of things that we can certainly offer to our clients. And I hope that maybe that helps. You can read the blog and see how I'm doing that in my firm. And there's a link back to where this post was really originated from, I think, Firm of the Future. But just take a moment to read through here and really see the benefit of adding some of these services, some of these things to your repertoire of things that you sell besides the bookkeeping, besides the accounting, maybe you're a tax professional, besides that, to help become the partner in the firm and help the businesses and your clients be happy and have a healthy growing firm. And on that note, I'm wishing you all a wonderful, wonderful week. Bye now. Bye.