Jolene Loos, CPA Says Accounting Firms That Refuse To Market Will Die A Natural Death

“I believe that accountants who refuse to market their practice are ultimately going to end up either having to sell their practice or merge with another firm or as they get ready to retire they’re going to fade away,” says Jolene Loos a Certified Public Accountant and member of GoodAccountants.com since April 2007. One of the co-founders of C & L Value Advisors, Inc., an eighteen person full service accounting firm based in Tampa, Florida, Jolene has added an additional $100,000 to her annual billings exclusively from companies referred to her by GoodAccountants.com.

Loos says her firm has not felt the affects of the downturn in the economy because she believes in marketing which has paid dividends in the form of substantial clients with well established businesses that can help a small accounting firm stay solvent even during the worst of times.  While others are shutting their doors Jolene’s firm has actually experienced substantial growth.   Among the clients she has obtained from GoodAccountants.com is Fairfax Imaging, Inc., a $15 million, world leader in turn-key image-based products and solutions for the data capture, forms processing, document imaging, and check/remittance processing industries.

“I have been actively looking for some practices to purchase and a lot of the companies I’m getting are practices that say they just can’t get new clients anymore or they’re losing a lot of clients,” says Loos. Although she admits that the economy has had a lot to do with scores of accountants shutting their doors or selling their practice she and her partner Kevin A. Cameron who holds an MBA degree in addition to his certification have never had a problem sustaining their firm’s growth since joining GoodAccountants.com.      “But I think people have got to realize that they’ve got to move into the 21st century, they’ve got to be involved on the internet. They’ve got to be doing things that are the way young people and young entrepreneurs deal with their own businesses and if they don’t they’re going to die a natural death,” adds Loos.

Loos admits that she would have never landed Fairfax Imaging, Inc., as one of her clients, despite the fact that the company had relocated their headquarters to a facility within walking distance to her Tampa offices, had she not spent the $5,000 membership fee to enroll her firm as a member of GoodAccountants.com.  “I didn’t even know that this company existed until I got the phone call from GoodAccountants.com telling me that a $15 million dollar business had just relocated to my neighborhood and was looking for a new accountant,” adds Loos.   This one client represents a better than ten times return on investment for C&L Value Advisors, Inc., which beats by far the R.O.I. the firm has realized on any single accounting practice they have purchased to date.  “Not only did I land such an awesome client in Fairfax Imaging but the owners of the company referred me to their spouses who also operate their own businesses,” says Jolene.  “I am involved on almost every level of investment the company and the owners make and they are a joy to work with,” she stated as she ended her interview with one final statement.    “I love GoodAccountants.com!”

Steve Chahal, President & COO, of Fairfax Imaging, Inc.

ABOUT FAIRFAX IMAGING, INC.

Although it’s been a long ways from Bethpage, New York for Steve Chahal and Tony Cristofano where the two young engineers once worked for Grumman Data Systems until it was acquired by Northrop in 1994, it has been a road worth travelling. The pair relocated to Fairfax, Virginia taking the town’s name for the company they started back then that has now grown into a $15 million dollar enterprise with 60 employees in the U.S. and another 40 in Vietnam. Established in 1994 with offices in Alabama, Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Florida, Fairfax Imaging, Inc., provides state-of-the-art products and services to the document, forms and payment processing industries and includes among its client base the Internal Revenue Service, The California State Department of Motor Vehicles, the United States military along with a market share of more than 90% of the pharmaceutical industry. The company has garnered numerous leadership awards and recognition from every industry sector imaginable. So it wasn’t surprising to the folks at GoodAccountants.com when Fairfax Imaging’s President, Steve Chahal selected Jolene Loos and her company C&L Value Advisors, Inc., as the accounting firm that would lead them into the next decade of their development.

“We are very satisfied overall with the results that we got from GoodAccountants.com in finding us Jolene Loos and C&L Value Advisors, Inc.,” - Steve Chahal, President of Fairfax Imaging, Inc.

“If you know anything about Jolene Loos and her organization, the level of dedication she brings to her clients as well as her knowledge of business then you would know why they selected her, says Patty Schoenfeld, Senior Business Consultant with GoodAccountants.com.

To receive the upcoming full Reality TV Episode on Fairfax Imaging, Inc. subscribe now to GA Access click here

Bill Estes Engages $11 Million U.S. Subsidiary Company Referred by GoodAccountants.com

An important part of mastering the client acquisition process comes with the understanding that its success or failure cannot be defined by a single client.  At least that’s how Bill Estes, a Certified Public Accountant and sole practitioner based in Rochester, Michigan now sees it when it comes to engaging large clients who pay fees of $25,000 or more.

“When you set your sights on acquiring commercial clients who pay substantial fees you should also be prepared at some point to experience somewhat of an emotional roller coaster ride,” says Estes.  Recounting his own experience with the very first referral he received after joining  GoodAccountants.com, a potential six-figure engagement with a medical group that would ultimately decide to select another accounting firm, Bill Estes now says he regrets the lack of faith he displayed in the overall process.  “I was beside myself with anxiety when I first learned the owner of the medical group  had decided to move in a different direction,” says Estes.   “My only regret is the way I initially acted with some of the staff at GoodAccountants after I found out I was not going to be retained by the client they referred.  I know better now not to allow myself to be defined by any one client,” says Estes.

“I had never done any kind of marketing program before in my 30 years being a CPA other than taking out ads in the local yellow pages here in Rochester, Michigan,” says Estes.  Although he admits being able to count on both hands the number of clients he has managed to convert  over the years from his yellow page ads he remained even more pessimistic about clients who search the internet to find their accountant.

During the tax season Estes estimates he does about 400 individual tax returns whereas  the rest of the year he focuses on servicing physician groups as an outsourced CFO.    With all of the clients resulting from his ads in the yellow pages pretty much being small clients wanting tax returns done when presented by GoodAccountants.com with the opportunity to meet with the owner of a large medical practice  paying between $75,000 and $100,000 annually, although reluctant, Estes decided to take the plunge and became a member of the nation’s largest accountancy referral service.

“To think that here I was investing in a marketing program at a time when the health of the economy was worst than awful, especially in a city like Detroit already hard hit by massive unemployment, made it an even more difficult experience,” says Estes.  “I guess the specter of what I saw as potentially losing all of my money if I didn’t get another referral from GoodAccountants.com was more than I could handle at the time,” he adds.

Instead of thinking from the perspective that difficult economic times bring about the shifting of business alliances as companies look for more favorable pricing for the goods and services they must purchase, many accountants are missing out on the huge marketing opportunity that presently exists in the marketplace.

“Marketing is a process and accountants like everyone else who market their services must be patient and allow the marketing process to work,” says Johanna Laurent, Chief Executive Officer of GoodAccountants.com.   Also losing sight of the fact that bigger clients are generally more difficult to engage than smaller ones can often lead to a level of frustration that can drive even the most savvy of marketing professionals crazy.  “Bigger clients are generally more complex as well as more discerning when it comes to selecting their accountant and will likely want to compare the services of several accounting firms before making a decision,” says Patty Schoenfeld, a Senior Business Consultant with GoodAccountants.com.  “As professionals we are forced to live with this reality but it should never shake our resolve when it comes to landing new clients,” she adds.

In an effort to help demystify GoodAccountants.com’s marketing and referral process the current episode of GA Access is dedicated to documenting what really transpired with Bill Estes and the client that was the first referred to him by GoodAccountants.

“I don’t think two full weeks rolled around before they had me back out in front of another fantastic client,” says the mercurial accountant.  The second referral was an $11 million U.S. subsidiary corporation of a $1.2 billion, Sweden based, publicly traded company with more than 700 employees.  My first reaction to Patty Schoenfeld’s phone call was ”why me?”  “Why would a multi-billion dollar corporation using a ‘Big Four’ accounting firm want to meet with little old me,” says Estes.   The fact is many large corporations are turning to small accounting firms to handle their accounting and financial requirements  whereas in the past the reverse may have been true.  ”Companies today are more concerned with their bottom line and if they can save money on accounting costs by switching from a large firm to a competent, smaller, less expensive firm they will,” says Laurent.   “Many large corporations, universities and retail establishments come to us and ask if we can find a smaller accounting firm for them that will be more attentive as well as less expensive especially as a result of the downturn in the economy,” explains Laurent.

“When I first called Bill to tell him I was lining him up to meet with another great client he was very sarcastic with me,” says Schoenfeld.  ”He was still stuck on the client that got away and it was preventing him from moving forward,” she adds.   “I almost hung up on him because I thought at that point he was acting somewhat childish,” she further explains.   Somehow the two managed to set their mutual cynicism aside and Schoenfeld scheduled Bill for a meet and greet with the Vice President of Finance of the subsidiary company.

At this point we would love to report that Estes retained the second very large client that was referred to him by GoodAccountants.com and everyone lived happily ever after which is exactly what happened.  Notwithstanding, it would take another two weeks after the fact according to Schoenfeld for Estes to realize he had actually landed the client.  “When I called the V.P. of Finance she informed me of her personal attempts to contact Bill after their meeting having resulted with no response,” says Schoenfeld.   “Had I not followed up when I did and discovered she was having a difficult time getting hold of Bill and was preparing to scratch him off her short list there is a good possiblity we would have lost this one too,” she adds.

“The moral of the story is stay focused on the goal at hand and don’t become distracted by external forces that can sometimes play games with your mind and interfere with your overall marketing strategy,” says Patty. ”Accountants have to begin to understand that marketing is a process and not a question of pulling a rabbit out of a hat.  There’s nothing magical about it, it’s a process and they have to be willing to allow the process to work,” explains Schoenfeld.   ”I’m just so glad I didn’t allow Bill’s lack of confidence to interfere with me staying on top of the engagement for him and although he may have given up on me, I never gave up on him,” says Schoenfeld.

To watch the full reality television episode filmed on location at Bill Estes and Associates, P.C. and hear Bill  recount his personal experiences as a GoodAccountant you must become a free subscriber to GA Access.