You took the time time to learn how to become a bookkeeper and how to do it right but what do you do now? Now, your final step is to learn how to get bookkeeping clients.
I understand that this may be a little intimidating, scary, or may even feel impossible. The good news is that it isn’t really all that hard and it doesn’t have to feel impossible if it’s done right. My goal is for you to understand that finding clients doesn’t have to be any of those things. You simply need to learn how to go about it.
How To Get Bookkeeping Clients
Although it isn’t critical to do, one of the best things that you should do is to focus on a particular niche for your bookkeeping business. Why is this so important?
By picking a particular group to focus on, you are able to refine your marketing to cater to those businesses and in return, you come across as an expert in that field.
This is one of the big reasons why you need to focus on a particular niche when marketing your bookkeeping business. Not only will that attract the type of businesses that you are focusing on but will also steer away from those businesses that you are not.
In other words, if you focus on bookkeeping for drywall businesses and a business owner that runs a used car dealership runs into your website, more than likely they will move on since you have made it clear exactly the type of clients that you are searching for.
Do not paint yourself into a corner by serving people that you never should have served to begin with. You need to remember that it’s quality, not quantity.
Find Clients That Need You Now!
You can generalize that there are two types of potential clients. Ones that need a bookkeeper and ones that need a bookkeeper NOW! Your focus should be on the ones that need you now. By doing this, you are going to accomplish a couple of different things.
First of all, they are going to be much more receptive to your information about your business. Notice I said information and not a sales technique.
Don’t become a salesperson. That is not what you want to do. All you do is supply information about you and your business.
We all hate being approached by a salesperson to one degree or another and this is no different. Simply provide the information on what they can expect and what you will do to help them out and you will be in good shape.
If you can do this, then those clients that need a bookkeeper now will see the value in you as a bookkeeper and more than likely retain your services as such.
Creating Content
The next thing that you need to do to get quality clients is to create content. Creating content that your prospective clients are going to consume. When all is said and done, content creation is really value creation.
You’re helping somebody to avoid a pain point or to solve a problem. That’s all content creation is. As an example, what you are reading right now, is exactly that, content creation for you.
Content can, and should, come in many forms. Whether it’s online, offline, on social media, a blog, a networking event, or a 1-on-1 meeting, all are forms of content.
Explaining to them how they can do something or overcome some sort of obstacle or problem can be the best content that you can provide.
Most business owners simply won’t do as you say… but love what you are saying. What tends to happen is that the business owner says, “that makes perfect sense but I don’t want to deal with it so why don’t you do it for me”!
Of course, it’s a little more involved than that, but you understand what I am getting at.
In addition, understand that an overwhelming majority will do nothing with your content and that is fine. Remember, you are after the clients that need a bookkeeper NOW. The 2% that need you now will be the ones that value your business and services.
In the end, you simply provide hope for this 2 % of clients. And when you can provide hope, that can become a very powerful tool and can lead to potential clients beating down your door for your services.
Providing Training
As a bookkeeper, when you provide your potential clients with content you are basically telling them the “whats” of your business. When you provide training, this is when you get into the “hows” of your business.
Again, don’t be afraid to tell them too much information here. The more you tell, the more you are showing them the value that you provide.
For example, let’s say you set up training online to provide potential clients with information about your business. You open up a Q & A session where you allow them to ask anything they like.
This is providing training to your clients and can be very powerful in obtaining the quality ones that you are after. Remember, you are only driving the potential clients that are related to your niche.
Referral Marketing
The last way to gain those pivotal quality clients is through referral marketing. All you are simply doing here is asking yourself, “Who is already in front of my market”?
What I mean here is this. Let’s say you just moved to a new town and you are looking for a good doctor for your kids. You have gotten to know your new neighbor some so you ask them who they recommend and they say that you need to take them to doctor so-and-so because he is super caring and amazing with the kids.
That, in a nutshell, is referral marketing. In the world of bookkeeping, who might these referral contacts be?
Simply think about the type of people that your niche would have to deal with. Once you know your niche you’ll be able to figure out exactly who your referral partners are.
Referral partners are nothing more than building up the trust with them and the potential clients that they will lead you to. This does take a little time to do, but the leads that you will gain from your referral partners will be amazing!
You have to keep in mind that there is a process and system involved with referral marketing and that it doesn’t happen overnight.
Statistically, you have a 92% chance of securing clients referred to you by a trusted source. That is a pretty amazing stat if you really sit back and think about it.
How To Get Clients And Market Your Bookkeeping Business?
Hopefully, I have shed some light on how to get bookkeeping clients and that it really isn’t as difficult as you think. So, where do you go from here?
If you are new to bookkeeping you are probably wondering how to learn to do all this. Check out my full review of the best online bookkeeping course around! Not only are you going to learn how to market your business but also learn everything about bookkeeping itself.
I have yet to find a more complete and detailed bookkeeping course online. If you are considering having your own bookkeeping business then you owe it to yourself to check out this course and see what all it has to offer. I promise you that you will like what you see!
If you are already a bookkeeper I hope that you found this useful and maybe provide a little insight as to how to take your marketing efforts to the next level to help you get those quality clients to make your bookkeeping efforts as smooth as possible.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please don’t hesitate to drop a comment below and I will get back to you ASAP!