Category: Business Tips

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Nine Tips to Dazzle and Retain Your Top Customers

Your top customers are your most important customers in your business, and it’s important that you hang onto them if at all possible.  It’s much more cost-effective in most business models to retain repeat customers than it is to find new ones.   Here are nine tips you can use to dazzle and delight your top customers:

  1. Know who they are by name. 
    Do you know which customers generated the highest sales for you last year?  If not, let us run a Sales by Customer Summary sorted by descending revenue for you to be sure.  Your top customers will be listed on the first lines of this report.  These are the customers you should be contacting at least once a month, having lunch with periodically, or doing a few extra things for.
  2. Know who sent the most business to you. 
    Do you track referrals?  If not, you may want to consider adding a field to your accounting system if there’s room.  At the least, you can use the report generated above and add a column to it labeled referral source.  Drop in the person’s name that referred the customer to you.  Once you’ve completed the field, you can re-sort it to total up the dollar value of each referral source.

    You should be in monthly contact with these folks, just as if they were your top customers and even if they’re not a customer at all.  Make a plan to lunch with these individuals and/or do something extra for them periodically to let them know you appreciate their referrals.

  3. Ask customers how they would like to be contacted. 

    Do your customers prefer to be contacted via email?  Phone? Text? In person?  If a customer hates being called on their cell phone, wouldn’t you want to know?

    Everyone is different, so find out by asking, and make a note in their file.  Also find out how often they’d like an update.  Some worriers might want to know daily, others prefer a short monthly email.  The best time to do this is during customer onboarding or at the time of the first sale.

  4. Find out what customers need from you.

    At the end of each project, ask your customer two things:

    a. How could we have served you better?
    b. What else can we do for you?

    Then empty your mind and really listen.  Take copious notes, don’t defend yourself, and thank your customer.   Think about what they said, and implement what makes sense.

  5. Provide a customer service contact and great support. 

    Does your customer know who to call when they need to talk with someone in your business?  If the customer has a follow up question on their purchase or service, let them know what to do ahead of time so they won’t feel lost.  This will make the customer feel at home and will have them coming back because of your great support experience.

  6. Practice “consumption marketing.” 

    Consumption marketing is helping the customer fully consume their purchase from you.  The more likely they are to get benefits from your product or service, the more likely they are to come back for more.

    Help clients use your products and services to their fullest by creating a consumption marketing program that includes tips sheets, educational aids, how-to videos, instructional blog posts, and the like.

  7. Develop multiple relationships.

    If your customers are from large companies, strengthen that business by meeting multiple buyers within the company.  If one employee leaves, it won’t be such a crisis to your account if you know multiple people in the company.

  8. Say thanks promptly. 

    Send a thank you note to a new customer or referral source within a week of their purchase or referral.  Acknowledge their action quickly and generously so that you make a great personal impression.

  9. Create and implement a client retention plan.

    Be proactive about customer retention by planning touch points throughout the year and systematizing the contact process with your top customers.  This can be as simple as taking your top 12 customers out to lunch, one each month, or as complex as planning some kind of touch point – a newsletter, email, or thank you note – once a month for each of your top clients and referral sources.

    Try any of these nine tips to dazzle your top customers and boost your customer retention for stronger sales.

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Do You Know Your Weakest Business Link?

You’ve already built a solid business that you have great pride in.  Yet, if you’re like most entrepreneurs, you’re on a constant search for how to make your business better.   One way to focus your search is to look for the weakest link in your business.

From a return-on-investment standpoint, working on and fixing your weakest link is the highest payback thing you can do.  It lifts your entire company up and makes it stronger.   The key is to look as objectively as possible at what might be holding your business back from being even greater than it already is.

Here are four major areas where you can look for your weakest link:

  1. Client-facing interactions

    A great area to start looking is where you have interactions with clients.  These include things like phone greetings, email, websites, your storefront, your presence at networking meetings, client service interactions, your proposals, invoices, and thank you notes.

    What jumps out at you as the weakest link when you look through the above list?  Perhaps it’s as simple as recording a more friendly voice mail greeting or as complex as getting your website redone.  Don’t get overwhelmed if a lot of these items need attention; instead focus on the one weakest link.  That’s the place that needs your attention.

  2. Your team 

    The toughest area to have a weakest link is when it involves people.  If you have an underperforming employee or contractor that is undermining sales or service, you’ve got a tough decision ahead of you.  If it’s your weakest link, don’t bury your head in the sand like we all want to do.  You need to act so that the person does not drag down your entire business.

  3. Internal systems

    If you feel stymied at the lack of information in your business, you might be in need of better internal systems.  As your business grows, this is the area that changes the most over time.

    Businesses that are newer or smaller need a great accounting system as well as a good point of sale or billing system.  As the business grows, it might need better inventory systems, a good CRM or customer relationship management system, a project management system, or more specialized systems depending on the industry it’s in.

    As the business matures, the functionality of the accounting system should expand to meet the growing data demands.   Integrating the accounting system together with the company’s other systems can become important to control costs and improve margins.

    If you feel like your weakest link may be in your systems, we’re happy to help.  Please reach out and let’s have a conversation about your needs.

  4. Skill set

    No one was born an entrepreneur; it has to be learned.  What keeps it more exciting is that new skills are required at each level you master on the entrepreneurial ladder.  Some of the skills that you need at the entry level include client service, delivery of your service or product, and sales and marketing.  As your business grows, you’ll need to master financial skills, negotiation skills, hiring, and supervisory skills.  Leadership and strategy skills will serve you well when your business is mature.

    Which skill set do you consider your weakest link?  If it’s finance, you’re not alone.   Let us know how we can help.

    5. Focusing on the Payback

    The good news is when you’ve improved your weakest link, you end up improving your entire company and lifting it up to a new level.  Once you’ve fixed your weakest link, congratulate yourself.  Give yourself a reward, and wait a little while.

    Your old weakest link is no longer the weakest area in your business, but something else is.  Since you’re on a constant search for improvement in your business, you can repeat this formula over and over again to keep lifting your company up using this low risk, high payback approach.

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Five Browser Productivity Tips

Most of us spend a lot of time browsing the Internet, and that means using browser software.  Google Chrome is the most popular browser with roughly 40 percent market share.  Internet Explorer follows with about a 30 percent share and Firefox is third with less than 20 percent.

Since most people use Google Chrome, we’ll use that browser to describe our five productivity tips.  If you don’t use Chrome, you can still look for the features we list on your browser of choice.

Better with Bookmarks 

Do you have a half dozen or so sites that you like to visit every day?  If so, bookmark them on a toolbar so that you have one-click access.  In Chrome, click the icon with three horizontal lines that is located on the web address bar at the top of your browser.  We’ll call this the Chrome Commands button from now on.  Mouse over “Bookmarks,” and make sure “Show Bookmarks Bar” is checked.

Type in your favorite site URL.  To add it as a bookmark on your bookmarks bar, click the star on the right side of the web address box.  It will turn gold, and then you can name your page as well as select whether you want it more prominently in the bar or simply in your list of bookmarks.  Repeat this for each of your most visited sites.

Now that all of your sites are listed on your bookmarks bar, you can visit them in one click.

Enlarge the Page

If a page is too small and you want to enlarge the entire thing, you can do so with your mouse wheel.  On your keyboard, hold down the CTRL key and roll your mouse wheel away from you while you’re on a web page.  The page will get larger.  Roll your mouse wheel toward you to reverse the effect and make a page smaller.

You can also customize your fonts by going into Chrome Commands, Settings, Advanced Setting, and Web Content.  You can find your font options there.

Download Redux

Do you need something you downloaded earlier today and forgot where you put it?  Access it again here by typing this into the web address box or selecting “Downloads” from the Chrome Commands.  Hey, even better, if you need this a lot, make it a bookmark.

chrome://downloads/

If you’re a history buff – that is, if you closed a browser screen and find you want to re-visit that page, then look for the History command under the Chrome Commands button.  It’s super-handy and will save lots of time when you need to backtrack.

Autofill

Tired of filling out forms?  Chrome will do it for you by remembering certain fields and matching them up with their form fieldnames.  You can have Chrome remember addresses and credit cards; however we can’t really recommend the latter for security reasons.  Manage this feature and its settings by clicking the Chrome Commands button and Settings.  Scroll to the end and look for Advanced Settings, then look for the Autofill area and Manage Autofill Settings.

Instant Dictionary

While browsing, have you ever come across a word or phrase you don’t know or want to know more about?  If so, highlight it right there on the web page and then right-click.  Select “Search Google for “the phrase you highlighted” to bring up the information you want.

Most of us have never had a formal class on our browsers, but it’s not a bad idea.  Hopefully, until you can get to that class, these tips will help you discover a little more about the browser you use every day.

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How Painless Is Your New Customer Experience?

Is your business easy to do business with?  Or is it difficult?   The answer could impact your revenue as well as your reputation for service.  Here are a few tips to help you stand in your customer’s shoes for just a few minutes to answer those questions.

First Impressions

What is the first image of your business that your future customer sees?  Is it your website?  A sign in your office window?  An ad?   Whatever it is, take a look at it with fresh eyes, like you’ve never seen it before.  You may have several images to consider if clients approach your business in many different ways.

What do you notice first?  Is the website simple or cluttered?  Is your sign rusty and crooked or new and cute?  Do you need to make any changes based on what you see?

Voice Time

If a customer calls, how many times does the phone ring before it’s picked up?  Does the voice sound inviting and excited that someone called, or is it as if you were just interrupted?  Or worse, did they get a recording?

If they walk in face to face, how are they greeted?  What does your waiting room look like?

Service

What is the interaction like with you?  Are you able to answer the prospect’s questions?  Do they feel comfortable with you or are they intimidated?    What do you suspect it’s like for your clients?

If the prospect becomes a client, what do they have to do?  Are there lots of forms to complete?  How organized are you in getting the client started and serviced for the first time?  Are you respectful of their time if they are in a hurry?

Mystery Shoppers

You’ve probably heard of mystery shoppers who are hired to give their opinions of what their client experience was like for them.  They go through a similar process, evaluating every client touch point and suggest ways to make it a smoother experience.

Almost every business could benefit from periodically reviewing the client experience to discover where the weakest links are and how they can be fixed.  Ask yourself these questions to see where you can improve your client’s experience and make it easy to do business with you.

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Five Ways to Go Green with Your Accounting

With St. Patrick’s Day and spring arriving, March is a great month to have “green” on the mind.  There are green shamrocks, green beer, the green of new vegetation, and there’s even green accounting too.  Here are five ways to make your accounting a little more green.

Business Receipts     

When you spend money on your business, ask for an emailed receipt rather than a paper one if you have an option. More and more vendors are providing this option.   Then when the receipt comes in your email, you can forward it to your bookkeeper and/or upload it to your accounting system.

Smile for the Camera

If the vendor does not offer an emailed receipt, do the next best thing:  take a picture of the receipt with your cell phone.   Some accounting systems allow you to upload the receipt right from your phone, and if you don’t have that feature, you can always email it or upload it to your PC.

PDF Invoices

If you invoice customers, send a PDF invoice via email.  More and more businesses are abandoning the snail mail and getting it to customers faster via email.  They’re getting paid faster, and speeding up your green is usually a good thing.

Online Banking

Many people adopted online banking about a decade ago.   If you’re still getting paper statements, you can get those stopped and download your statements once a month from your online account.  It’s better not to get your statement in the mail anymore; it reduces your risk of identity theft from stolen mail.

Software and Supplies

When possible, purchase your software online and download it rather than making a gas-guzzling trip to the store and purchasing a box.  You can also order your office supplies online and have them delivered.   As long as you buy local, it should be a green purchase, and it will save you tons of time too.

These five ideas will help your accounting become a little more green.

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How to Avoid Seasonal Bumps in Your Cash Flow

Many businesses operate with seasonal peaks and valleys.  Retail stores just completed their busy holiday season.  Construction contractors are busy when the weather is good.   Accountants are very busy from January through April, but also experience a quarterly peak in July and October.

Your business many have its own calendar of busy and slow times.  If your business goes through slow times, then your cash flow may suffer at certain times of the year.  But having seasonal sales is only one of the reasons for a bumpy cash flow.

You might also have a business where annual payments are made for many items such as equipment purchases, software licenses, insurance renewals, and other large costs.  On the revenue side, it could be that your clients pay you annually, which can be hard to predict.

There are many solutions that can help to smooth out the seasonal bumps, and here are a few ideas for your consideration.

Plan for Prosperity

When income and expenses go up and down and up and down, it’s really hard to know if you have enough money for obligations coming up.  Creating a budget can help a great deal.  Consider creating two budgets:  one that shows the ups and downs and one that averages a year’s income and expenses into twelve equal parts.

With both budgets, you’ll be able to see which months will be deviating from average and by how much.  From there, it’s easy to create some forecasts so you can stay on top of your cash requirements.

Cash vs. Accrual Basis 

It might help your business decision-making to convert your books from cash basis to accrual basis.  This is a huge decision that should be made with an accounting and tax expert, as there are plenty of ramifications to discuss.

In some cases, the accrual basis of accounting will help keep those annual payments from sneaking up on you as 1/12 of the payment can be accrued on a monthly basis to a payables account.  This also keeps your net income figure steadier from month to month.

If your clients prepay their accounts on a yearly basis, you can book the income monthly and keep the difference in a Prepaid account.  This spreads your revenues out and recognizes them over time.

“Hiding” Money

If you feel accrual basis accounting is a little too much of a commitment, your accountant can still work with you to help you avoid the impulse of spending too much during the cash-rich busy season.  Perhaps the excess cash can be put into a savings account until it’s needed.  You can draw out 1/12 each month as you need it.  A little planning such as the above suggested forecasts will help you determine how much you can take out each month.   You can even name the Savings account “Do Not Spend!” or “Save for a Rainy Day.”

If it’s just too tempting to have all that excess cash building up in the good times of the year, try one of the ideas above to take back cash flow control and smooth out those bumps.

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Is Your Business Using the Right Accounting System?

Have you ever tried on a shirt or jeans and found they didn’t fit at all?  They looked great on the hangar, but that was the end of it.  Accounting systems come in all sizes, shapes, and colors just like clothing; and just like clothing, some accounting systems fit your business better than others.  It’s not that easy to spot in a mirror when an accounting system does not fit a business, but there are other signs that will give it away.  Here are five of them:

Numerous Workarounds

A workaround happens when your current system cannot do all the things you need it to do.  A workaround can take the form of a spreadsheet, a report, a program, or a database that is created with extra time spent every month so you can get the information out of your system and manipulate it the way you need it to run your business.

Since no accounting system is a perfect fit for any one business, it’s normal to have some workarounds in place to meet your unique business needs.  If you have too many, it might signal that you’ve outgrown your current system and need to find an accounting system that provides you with more functionality.

Downtime or Wasted Time

If you are unable to access your system when you need to do your job, then you are experiencing downtime in one form or another.  You may be waiting for a file to be fixed, or the system may actually be down.  If your system runs slowly, then that’s another form of downtime that wastes your time.  If you have to take time to make backups and perform restorations, this type of activity does not add value to running your business.   When you have too many of these time-wasters, it could be time to look for a better way.

Old Technology

If your accounting system is more than about three years old and you’ve chosen not to update it, then you may be missing out on newer time-saving features that could help you reduce the amount of time you spend doing your accounting.  If your accounting system is more than six or seven years old, then you are definitely losing productivity.  It’s time to bite the bullet and learn a new system so you can experience better profit margins in your business.

Limited Users or Security

If your current accounting system does not provide you with enough users, then you might have more expensive employees doing lower level jobs, which is costing you more in payroll expenses.

You may also need certain user permissions to be more granular than they are in your current system as you grant access to certain parts of the system to different users.   If you’re on QuickBooks, that’s a really easy fix, so please talk to us about this.

We find that user access is a hot button with a lot of business owners, so if it’s true for you, please reach out and let’s have a conversation about this.

Limited Physical Access

If your accounting system is located on a private PC or server in your business, this limits access to your files.  If you have more than one business location, you like to work from home, or your employees work from their homes occasionally, then you may want to look for a system that accommodates “anywhere, anytime” accounting.  This is a pretty easy fix too, as this requirement is now quite common with business owners today.

The same can be said for mobile access.  New apps enable many accounting features to be completed from your mobile phone, such as checking bank balances, approving a bill, and taking a picture of a receipt and uploading it, to name a few.  If you want to do you accounting from your mobile phone, ask us about mobile apps that we can link to your system to enable this functionality.

Boosting Your Accounting Productivity

We might be a little biased, but accounting has gotten to be a lot more fun in the last few years with advancements in technology.  If you see any of the signs listed above, it might be worth a conversation to see if your accounting system is the best fit for your business.   Just reach out anytime.

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Five Ways to Reconnect with Your Passion for Your Business

As business owners, we are a highly self-motivated bunch of people.  We love our businesses, we love helping our customers, and we work very hard at what we do.  Sometimes we work so hard, we get disconnected from our passion.  Occasionally, it’s a good idea to step out of the daily details of business and get ourselves re-energized, reconnected, and rejuvenated about what we do.  Here are five ways to do just that:

Remember Your “Why”

Do you remember why you started your business in the first place?  Many people saw a need and created their business to fill that need.  Others want to help people with the services and products they offer.  Still others have a wonderful skill that when shared, leave people better off.

To help you remember your “why” on a regular basis, consider posting visual clues around your office.  It could be pictures of you and your partner, you and your first sale, you and a product you’ve created, or you and a customer.  Posting these pictures will leave you feeling great and remembering why you sometimes work so hard!

Start a Long Desired Project

It might be time to give your business a gift and get around to that project you’ve wanted to complete.  The project might be a website update, a new internal system, some new equipment, or that new employee you are ready for.  Take the leap and make the change that will breathe fresh air into your passion.

Receive Gratitude

Gratitude always feels great – when we give it and when we receive it.  Ask your customers for testimonials of how your product or service has impacted them.  Then just receive and enjoy.

It always feels great when you know you are appreciated and are recognized for doing a good job.  And since we don’t have bosses, who else will tell us how we’re doing except our customers?

Take a Break

Stepping away from work brings perspective and fresh ideas.  Take a day off, or go on vacation.  Unplugging allows our brain to rest and relax, and when it does, you’ll have a whole new set of creative and passionate ideas to consider when you get back.

Give Yourself a Raise

If you’ve lost passion for what you do, then you might just be due for a raise.  Take a good look at your books, and see if you should increase prices or can find a way to improve your profit margin. Either way, you’ll boost your profits and be able to keep more of what you make.

Try these five ideas to restore the passion you have for your business.  When you are refreshed and rejuvenated, your customers will feel it too.

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Six Business Topics and Trends to Study for 2014

Happy New Year!  The New Year brings new areas to benefit from and be aware of.  You’ve likely heard these topics mentioned in the news.  The question is, have you stopped and thought about how they will be impacting your business this year?

The Biggie:  The Affordable Care Act

This new law impacts both employer insurance and taxes of small businesses.  The law is complicated with many definitions and varying effective dates.  It impacts self-employed individuals, business with fewer than 25 employees, and businesses with fewer than 50 employees.

You may be eligible for tax credits, and under certain circumstances, you could be subject to penalties if you don’t act.  It’s best to consult with a tax professional to sort out what it means to you.

Big Data and Data Transparency

In large businesses, big data refers to all of the data that is collected from customer’s habits and purchases.  In small businesses, we do not collect data on the scale that large businesses do, but we do collect customer information.  It will become more important than ever to be transparent about what data is being collected and how it is used.

If you do not already have a privacy policy that you provide to your clients, this may be a good first step in becoming more transparent with your clients about data collection.

Mobile Accounting

Mobile everything is as hot as any trend out there, and mobile accounting is certainly keeping up.  You can now do so much on your phone:  swipe credit cards to take payments, scan receipts and upload them to your accounting system, check credit card and bank balances, pay for things, create invoices, and pay bills.

The days of men with green eye shades and long paper receipts in the back office are long gone.  Accounting goes where you and your phone go.  If you have not downloaded your mobile bank and accounting apps, let us know how we can help you get mobile.

Government Budgets, Shutdowns, and Last Minute Tax Laws

Last year’s tax filing season was compressed due to laws that were enacted at the last minute.  As you might imagine, last-minute tax law changes put the tax software companies and the IRS into a tailspin.  Once forms are finalized and interpretations are published, the accountants then get busy figuring out what’s changed.

Many forms were not finalized last year until early March, but the April 15th deadline remained fixed.  This makes tax accountants have to do a year’s worth of work in about six to eight weeks.  And it’s going to happen again this year because the government was shut down during a key time that the IRS needed to get their systems ready.

To help avoid adding stress to this year’s tax season, you can help your accountant as well as yourself by having your books up-to-date and accurate, getting as much as you can ready early by scanning key documents into digital files, and having a checklist of questions you want to cover at your meeting.

Nexus

As states scramble to balance their budgets, they are constantly looking for new ways to tax businesses, and sales tax is one of their favorite ways.  Nexus means “presence.”  If your business has a presence in a state, you may need to collect and pay sales tax in that state.  If you hire employees or contractors that work from home and are located in a state other than where you are located, you may have nexus in those states.  Check with a sales tax expert who can guide you on these issues.

Engagement and Collaboration

Products and services in the accounting marketplace continue to experience a renaissance in accessibility and enhanced functionality.  This is exciting because small businesses can benefit most by the increased ability to collaborate with their accountant.  Gone are the days of once a year tax consults and never hearing from your accountant.  Now accountants can reach out more often, learn more about your business, and provide valuable collaborative advice to help you reach your financial goals.

If we can help you monetize any of these current events in accounting, please contact us, and let’s have a conversation.

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Create a Theme for a Prosperous and Meaningful New Year

It’s almost 2014, and at this time of year, it’s natural for us to pause and reflect on where we’ve been and where we want to go.  For business owners, it’s especially important to raise our minds above the daily fires for a moment, take in some fresh air, and elevate our perspective.  Creating an annual theme is an easy and fun vehicle to do just that.

Deciding on a theme for the year will give you a focus and a new perspective on your work and your routines.   It can be highly rejuvenating to look at things through the lens of your new theme.

Ideas for themes are limited only by your imagination.  Some possible themes include:

  • Organizing, detoxing, or cleansing.   Consider cleaning out your garage (or your office), upgrading your systems, re-designing your filing system, or going on a cleanse or a vacation or a retreat that will leave you feeling clutter- and worry-free. 
  • Growth.  You might want to consider a growth-related theme, such as productivity or profitability.  You might also want to develop a new skill such as learning a new language, developing your computer skills, or taking a philosophy class at your local junior college. 
  • Abstract themes, such as abundance, creativity, or diversity.  At the risk of sounding a little fluffy, an esoteric theme might be just what you need in 2014.  A theme with abundance will allow you to think big, be abundantly generous with others, and search for large contracts.   A theme with diversity will challenge you to be more open-minded.  You may also want to consider forgiveness, gratitude, humility, or service. 
  • Relationships.  Your year might be dedicated to meeting new associates and building business relationships.  Your action item might be to spend more time networking, participating in groups, or going to your industry conference.
  • A new service.  Perhaps you’re launching a new service and need to focus on developing this new line of business. 
  • Giving back.  On a personal note, you might value volunteering and decide to organize your year around a couple of volunteer opportunities. 
  • Exploring.  If you’ve retired or the business is starting to run smoothly without your day-to-day input, it might be time for that trip around the world.

As you choose you goals for 2014, make sure the majority of them support your theme for the year.  Themes can bring an overarching focus to our practices and our lives.

What’s your theme?  Let us know what your theme is and we’ll share ours!