My First Client From GoodAccountants.com Is $23,000 Yearly Billing
“They called me out of the blue and asked me to join their network and I did,” says Jim Williams, a certified public accountant based in San Jose, California. Like a growing number of accountants across the country, Williams has decided to try his hand at Internet marketing as a way to attract new clients to his accounting practice by purchasing a membership with GoodAccountants.com. Within days after the phone call from Senior Business Consultant, Kristin Palapoli, Williams engaged the international construction materials company that she arranged for him to meet with, for a total of $23,000 dollars in recurring annual billings. It would become his first referral and very first client as a member of GoodAccountants.com.
“Five or six years ago, a phone call placed to an accountant during the middle of the tax season from someone offering a business client paying $23,000 in billings would have been regarded as a prank call,” says Palapoli. “Today, as a result of the radical changes the accounting industry has undergone, it is more routine for an accountant to receive a phone call from us than from a banker or lawyer that may also be a source of client referrals,” adds Palapoli.
As the nation’s largest accountancy referral service more than 10 million business owners have used GoodAccountants.com as a resource for finding local accountants. The company specializes in Internet marketing that is targeted to business owners and individual taxpayers who require the services of an accounting professional for their business or personal needs. ”The power of social networking as a marketing tool can no longer be ignored in an era where governments are being toppled by the single most important force in our lives today which is the Internet,” says Johanna Laurent, President of GoodAccountants.com. ” Just as Egyptian protesters harnessed the power of Twitter to help bring down Hosni Mubarak, many accountants are using the power of the Internet in a similar way to grow their business,” she adds.
Accounting services like most everything else is something that is now predominantly searched for through the Internet which is why accountants like Jim Williams are increasingly taking advantage of the turn-key Internet platform that is afforded to them by GoodAccountants.com, which can connect them directly to dozens of new clients.
Widespread internet connectivity along with the proliferation of smart phones and computer tablets has not only changed the way in which we obtain everything ranging from books, movies, food and clothing but it has also changed the way in which we seek out professional services. A recent study conducted by BIA Kelsey, a Chantilly, Virginia based consulting firm reports that nearly all consumers (97%) now use online media to shop locally. Rudder Finn, one of the world’s largest public relations firms, recently announced a new survey that reports Americans are spending an average of 2.7 hours per day on the mobile Internet – connecting socially, managing their personal finances, and even as a means for advocacy. The report goes on to state the following:
“Mobile phones have become the way people organize their lives—managing finances, connecting with friends, purchasing products—and this trend will only accelerate,” said Kathy Bloomgarden, Ruder Finn co-CEO. “The mobile phone is becoming the most powerful online device, and the faster businesses can adapt their services to harness consumer mobile intent, the more rapidly they can capitalize on understanding their customers to drive growth.”
Kristin Palapoli, Senior Business Consultant, GoodAccountants.com
“Our system allows us to directly route clients, who search the Internet daily for accounting services, to thousands of accountants all over the country,” says Palapoli. “It’s an awesome thing to see a company come onto our website and ten minutes later an accountant in our network is submitting feedback to us, through our internal messaging system, informing us they have scheduled an appointment to meet with the company,” explains Palapoli. “Then to see that scheduled appointment turn into a $10,000 or $15,000 engagement kind of blows your mind,” she adds.
As a result of the colossal shift in the way goods and services are now acquired compared to the way they were ten years ago, advertisers today no longer limit their advertising campaigns to print, radio and television but more so are targeting social networking websites as a way to get their message heard by millions of potential new customers. “When you think of the fact that brick and mortar businesses like Block Buster and Borders Book Stores are now in bankruptcy as a result of their Internet based competitors, Netflix and Amazon, it is abundantly clear that consumers have abandoned the old ways of consuming goods and services and are totally preoccupied with the Internet,” says Laurent. ”If you’re an accountant operating in this Internet Age and are relying on ‘word of mouth‘ to sustain your practice while your competition is utilizing highly sophisticated technology to attract new clients the reality is your practice will only shrink,” says Laurent. “In fact they’re probably attracting your clients right now,” she quips.
GoodAccountants.com Helps Company With IPO
Energy Edge Technologies Corporation is an eight year old energy engineering company run by Robert Holdsworth who says he has always envisioned himself one day taking a company public. Having held a series 7 general securities license with the National Association of Security Dealers (NASD) as well as numerous past managerial positions with prominent financial institutions together have provided Holdsworth a clear path to fulfilling his dream. His entrepreneurial spirit combined with a penchant for spotting market trends have provided Holdsworth the impetus to start his own company.
Long before the words ‘green energy’ became a part of popular vernacular Holdsworth realized that unbridled levels of energy consumption by large corporations would one day force them to undergo radical change. Today, Holdsworth shows companies how they can significantly cut their operating costs by reducing energy consumption through the deployment of as many as two dozen different engineering and technology solutions. For example, when the folks at 3M saw how much money they could save through cutting energy consumption by almost 30 percent in just one of their plants they immediately hired Energy Edge as consultants. The company has found its primary customer base among companies that have large energy consumption footprints.
Along with making green energy a valuable revenue stream of ’green dollars’ for some of America’s largest corporations, Robert Holdsworth has also found his greatest ally within the U.S. Government. As federal regulators turn their attention to enforcing clean energy legislation, a focal point of the Obama Administration, Energy Edge has also captured the attention of Wall Street. “By this time next month we’ll have our trading symbol for the NASDAQ,” says Holdsworth. Having already completed a private placement memorandum Energy Edge has taken the steps to join the ranks of our nation’s publicly traded companies. Below is a transcript of an Interview that was recently conducted by GoodAccountants.com with Energy Edge Technologies’ founder and CEO, Robert Holdsworth:
Question: How important is green energy technology to Americans?
Answer: First and foremost it’s critical to the cost of doing business. When we talk about green energy there are really two aspects to it; there is the green of the environment which it’s critically important that we leave the world better for our children than the way we’ve received it and then there is the green of the dollar especially in these hard economic times, anywhere that a company can reduce that bottom line cost they’re increasing their profits by the same amount, which is critical to businesses out there.
Question: When did you first come into contact with GoodAccountants.com?
Answer: As we were taking the company public we realized pretty early on that we really needed a new accounting firm that had the experience working with public companies and we looked online and found GoodAccountants.com.
Question: What role has GoodAccountants.com played with your company?
Answer: I love GoodAccountants.com because they did such a great job for us by first listening very closely to what our needs were. They studied our industry as well as our business model and were able to bring to us the perfect accounting firm that fit our needs perfectly.
Question: What do you think has made Energy Edge Technologies Corporation such a compelling story for Wall Street?
Answer: Energy Edge does whole facility energy projects for our customers where we’re able to bring to bear several different, literally more than two dozen different engineering approaches and technologies to treat the various energy consuming loads across a facility. Whether it be lighting loads, HVAC, refrigeration, production loads, water and gas systems and really the idea is to get moderate saves across those different energy consuming loads but really have the aggregate of savings add up for our customers. Typically we’re going to get anywhere from eight percent to as much as thirty percent or more in reduction of that bottom line utility bill for our customer and even better all those financials of the project; here’s what the customer is spending, here’s what we’re guaranteed to save, the project cost, the payback, the return on investment, the carbon foot print reduction, the financing terms so there’s no out-of-pocket expense for our customer, all those numbers, we guarantee them. We guarantee them in writing but more than that we also back them up with an insurance policy and the insurance policy is underwritten by Lloyd’s of London. Really the whole idea is to take the financial risk out of the buying decision for our customers. We’re very conservative and we’ve never missed our numbers yet but if there were a shortfall, instead of saving let’s say $200,000 dollars for our customer we only saved $190,000 dollars for them, if that were to happen, that $10,000 dollars shortfall, that $10,000 dollars gap is literally made up with a check from the insurance company to our customer to make them whole.