The One Benefit of Tax Season
I’ve yet to meet an accountant who looks forward to tax season. I mean, I can see why. There’s plenty of downsides…
You work long hours. Really long hours.
You’re at the mercy of your clients to provide you documents.
You’re providing a service that’s a commodity (in the eyes of a taxpayer, all accountants’ work product is the same).
You’re doing work that’s not really scalable.
You have no life for 4 months out of the year.
Add that to the fact that most accountants only make around $70k a year and it makes sense why accountants don’t love tax season.
You see, most accountants are deeply rooted into something we call the Accountants’ Trap, and they don’t even realize it. There are three challenges facing accountants in this trap:
Challenge #1: To get paid more they have to take on more clients (and work more hours).
Challenge #2: They have a ton of competition.
Challenge #3: Other companies are trying to automate their job away.
Think about it, to make more money you have to take on a lot more tax clients as well as work more hours.
And, because you have a ton of competition you won’t be able to charge a lot for your service. When competition is high, prices go low. Not to mention, other companies are trying to ‘automate’ your job away which drives prices even lower.
This is a trap.
But, accountants fall into and stay in this trap all the time. Because it’s safe, it’s comfortable and it’s what they’ve always done.
So, what’s the solution?
Become an advisor to your client. And get paid for being an advisor.
This is what they want anyways.
If you can be the person your client trusts that can guide them towards a growing and more profitable business, you will leap out of the accountant’s trap so fast you might get whiplash…
You’ll be able to charge way more (because you’re charging for your value — not your time).
Which means you won’t have to take on a ton of clients to make a decent income (in fact, all you need is 4 CFO/business advisory clients to make the $70k average salary of an accountant).
Which means you won’t have a ton of competition — you’re separating yourself from everyone else.
And, it will be incredibly difficult (downright impossible) for software to replace you.
So, assuming you’re still stuck in the proverbial accountants’ trap and buried deep in tax work, there is a bit of good news.
There’s one main benefit to tax season: you have a legitimate and non-salesy reason to talk to your clients.
And why would you want to (gasp) talk to your client?
To upsell them to your outsourced CFO service!
Think about it — your business owner clients want direction on how to have a successful business. They’re overwhelmed, scared, lonely, and unsure of themselves. They’re facing all sorts of challenges.
And… you’re ‘doing their taxes’. You’re pulling back the curtain and looking at their numbers — warts and all. This is one area of their business they guard more than anything else, and they’re sharing it with you.
Because of this — they trust you.
This is the best time to reach out to them and explain that you can help them. You have a real and legitimate reason to have a conversation about your outsourced CFO service.
You have a real and legitimate reason where you can explain how you can help them have a growing and more profitable business.
This helps them because they crave this sort of help.
This help you because you’ll be able to not have to go through another dreaded tax season. (Keep in mind, one outsourced CFO client is worth, at minimum, $18k per year. You just need a handful of these clients to make a real salary).
So, practically, what does this look like? When you reach out to your clients, what do you say? Well, here’s one idea:
“While I was looking over your tax return, I saw some opportunities to help you grow your business and increase your profit. Can we book a call right after tax season?”
What client would say no to this?
Not one.
This is powerful. This is how you can kickstart your outsourced CFO service. This is how you can make a big difference in your life (by making more money) and in your clients’ lives (by helping them make more money).
So, the question is do you want to be in the same place next year still stuck in the accountants’ trap?
If not, the way out is to take advantage of the one benefit of tax season. And now’s the perfect time to do it.
Want to become an outsourced CFO to small businesses? Click here.
Take an upcoming Masterclass on starting a CFO service. Click here.
