I Just Engaged My First Thirty-Thousand Dollar Client From GoodAccountants.com

“Spending $5,000 dollars for the opportunity to meet with a potential client is not as fool hearted as it might sound,” says Joseph Charneske, a partner in a full service accounting firm based in Bannockburn, Illinois.   When asked how his partners felt about such a proposition Charneske admits they were somewhat skeptical at first however after some reassuring from him were willing to move forward.

“I basically received a phone call about a $7 million dollar medical equipment and supply company that was looking for a new accounting firm to outsource all of their accounting work to,” says Charneske, a partner at Goldberg Mechales Charneske & Schiffman, Ltd.   “We’re accustomed to receiving client referrals from other clients of ours who are happy with our work and not from a marketing firm,” says Charneske. However his awareness of GoodAccountants.com which spans a period of more than 18 months combined with the appeal of the fast growing medical equipment company presented to him by Senior Consultant, Al Chisolm was far too compelling for Charneske not to follow his intuition to invest the $5,000 dollars required to become a member of GoodAccountants.com.   The decision to do so has paid off handsomely in the form of a six-hundred percent (600%) return on investment achieved in little more than sixty days.

“I now have a contractual $30,000 dollar yearly billing engagement with a great client referred to me by GoodAccountants.com and believe it or not I just sent them another $5,000 dollars today,” says Charneske.

When asked by GA Insider if his partners were now ready to upgrade to a larger marketing program Charneske replied they would have been pretty disappointed had we not landed the client.  Charneske himself maintains however he is very comfortable with GoodAccountants.com considering the extensive research he has done on the company and having witnessed how far GoodAccountants has come over the years.

The fact is Joseph Charneske is a Certified Public Accountant and with all things being equal he certainly does understand what a good return on investment should look like.   A six times return on one’s money is not exactly chop liver especially when stacked up against the single digit rates of return that are being offered today by most other investments. “This is a great way to build an accounting practice and I also get to write off the $5,000 dollar membership fee as a marketing expense,” adds Charneske.

GA Insider’s very next issue will feature the $7 million medical supply company engaged by Joseph Charneske from GoodAccountants.com.   To insure you receive the full television reality episode filmed on location please click here.

Jagtiani & Kommareddy CPAs Bills $75,000 Using GoodAccountants.com

Something momentous is quietly unfolding in Chatsworth, California just as it is in cities all across America such as New York, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Tampa and Charlotte just to name a few. It’s bringing about a new wave of thinking and a new way of doing business for hundreds of accountants like Sabita Jagtiani and Brenda Kommareddy of Jagtiani & Kommareddy, Certified Public Accountants. The pair who are often referred to as the ‘dynamic duo’ by staff members at GoodAccountants as a result of their winning personalities have racked up more than $75,000 in billings to clients referred to them by GoodAccountants.com, the nation’s largest accountancy referral service and have become the focus of this month’s Insider cover story.

“GoodAccountants.com came to our rescue,” says Sabita Jagtiani referring to the sustained growth her accounting firm has experienced over the past eighteen months despite the recession which has ravaged the accounting industry. “Many of our other clients have packed up and gone out of business but we actually increased our overall billings during this same period of time as a result of all the clients we’ve landed from GoodAccoutants.com,” she explains.

“We’ve gotten a variety of clients from them ranging from 1040’s to a $12 million dollar commercial landscaping company based in San Pedro, California with more than100 employees,” remarks Brenda Kommareddy. “We recently engaged a $6 million, 25 year old, food safety and nutrition company based in Westlake Village, California from GoodAccountants.com that has become a $25,000 dollar annual client of ours,” says Sabita Jagtiani. The company referred to by Jagtiani happens to be one of only two companies in the entire country that hold government contracts in their field and are consultants to major hotel chains and casinos, as well as to sports and entertainment complexes across the country. “Their bookkeeper of more than 20 years had retired so they contacted GoodAccountants.com for a replacement but were advised by Patty Schoenfeld of GoodAccountants that our firm could do the same work for them on an outsourced basis more cost effectively so they agreed to retain us,” explains Jagtiani. “The folks at GoodAccountants.com are for real and they have worked very hard to match us with the type of clients we look for,” adds Jagtiani.

Before upgrading to GoodAccountants.com’s $25,000 Marketing Program both Jagtiani and Kommareddy say they first learned of GoodAccountants from a radio commercial they heard while driving to work one morning but decided to get started with a smaller $5,000 dollar marketing program which they repeated two additional times. “When we first joined GoodAccountants we started to get worried because the first six months did not produce stellar results for us but then we suddenly began engaging much bigger clients from them,” says Kommareddy. “Marketing is something you have to commit to just as you commit to a particular profession; you don’t stop being a doctor because you may have lost your first patient,” she adds. “We’re so glad we kept renewing our membership because now we are seeing a two to three times return on our investment in the first year alone and the clients are staying with us year after year,” says Jagtiani. “So we recently decided to upgrade to their $25,000 marketing program which guarantees us $75,000 in billing,” she adds.

Among the clients that were referred to Jagtiani & Kommareddy is a 31 year old, 350 student, private Christian School located in Compton, California. “Al Chisolm at GoodAccountants set up the meeting for us to meet with them and they instantly fell in love with us and we with them,” says Jagtiani. “We also recently met with a medical doctor in Los Angeles that GoodAccountants referred to us which is still pending but looks very good,” she adds. When asked how she would at this point characterize the relationship between her firm and GoodAccountants.com her response was as follows; “To use the word ‘love’ is pretty strong however when somebody is giving you the kind of clients they’re giving us then I have to say I love them.”

To learn more about Jagtiani & Kommareddy, Certified Public Accountants please click here. To see the full reality television episode filmed on location in Chatsworth California featuring this firm and the clients referred to them by GoodAccountants.com please click here.

I Would Have Never Paid $5,000 Upfront For A Client

Charlie Jones once subscribed to a philosophy that espouses the only client referrals that are worthwhile are those that come free of charge through networking with local Chamber of Commerce organizations or from professional affiliations with banking colleagues and attorney friends.   Charlie Jones has since changed his way of thinking and is now convinced that the exact opposite is true especially after spending the last two months engaging several new corporate clients who have contracted to pay him almost $30,000 dollars annually in billings.   All of the clients, says Jones were referred to him by GoodAccountants.com, a national advertising and client referral service based in Lynbrook, New York. All of the referrals occurred within sixty days of Jones joining a national, members-only network of accountants that are referred by GoodAccountants.com to business owners that have turned to the internet to find accountants to service their business accounting needs.

“Two months ago you couldn’t get me to even think about doing something like this,” explains Charlie Jones as he reflects on the $5,000 dollars upfront membership fee that is required by GoodAccountants.com to join their national marketing and advertising network.  “The ironic thing about it was they were only offering me a six-month membership for my $5,000 dollars so I asked Patty what happened to the other six-months, don’t I get to be a member for a full-year for that kind of money,” says Jones as he recounts a telephone conversation with Patricia Schoenfeld, a Senior Business Consultant with GoodAccountants.com.    Schoenfeld assured Jones that six-months was more than enough time for him to ascertain whether or not her company’s marketing and advertising savvy would make him want to upgrade his membership before the end of the initial six-month period.    “The fact is I did upgrade to their $25,000 membership program which guarantees me $75,000 in yearly billings or a 3 to 1 return on my investment,” says Jones.

Based in Atlanta, Georgia Jones says he has received sixteen client referrals from GoodAccountants.com in the span of sixty-days and is prepared to handle as many companies GoodAccountants can send to him.   Jones is the co-founder of a 25 year old, twelve-person, full service accounting firm.   The death of his partner Harry Marshall last year caused Jones to rededicate himself to increasing his client base along with adding an additional $150,000 to his firm’s annual billings.  “GoodAccountants.com is a surefire way for me to realize my goal of adding an additional $150,000 in billing this year, I’m convinced of it based on the money I’ve made with them so far,” says Jones.

To see the full reality television episode filmed on location in Atlanta, Georgia featuring Charlie Jones and several of the business owners that were referred to him by GoodAccountants.com please click here.

Sole Practitioner Richard Hayes Bills $80,000 To First Two Clients Referred By GoodAccountants.com

“I don’t know anywhere else you can invest $5,000 dollars and get back $35,000 in annual billings,” says Certified Public Accountant, Richard F. Hayes about his annual billings to the first of two companies referred to him by GoodAccountants.com within weeks after he became a member of the nation’s largest accountancy referral network.   I’ve earned eighty grand in total from the first two clients that I received,” says Hayes about his first ever experience with GoodAccountants.com.

Hayes describes the two companies he engaged through GoodAccountants.com as clients every accounting firm in the country would want as their own.   A sole practitioner based in Orlando, Florida he landed the first of two clients literally within a week after joining GoodAccountants.com for an engagement of $35,000 in annual billings only to be followed a few weeks later with the engagement of another client paying $45,000 in annualized billings.   “My return on investment in the case of the first client I landed from GoodAccountants.com was seven times my investment,” says Hayes.  I immediately upgraded to their $25,000 marketing program which guaranteed me a minimum of $75,000 in annualized billing for a 3 to 1 return on investment,” explains Hayes.

“We have signed commitments for $80,000 dollars in billings just from two introductions to two companies referred to us by GoodAccountants.com within weeks after we became members,” explains Hayes.    “Had I bought a practice for $80,000 dollars or had I bought these two clients from another practitioner they would have cost me $80,000 or even $100,000 or more,” he adds.   Now convinced that GoodAccountants can help him grow his practice in the most cost effective way possible Hayes plans to upgrade to a guaranteed marketing program that is offered by GoodAccountants.com that will net him in excess of $500,000 in additional billing.

“Frankly it makes sense that it seems too good to be true because the return on investment for me has been terrific,” says Hayes.  “I think what I’ve learned from this process is people are looking for accountants in non traditional ways,” he adds.   Although Hayes believes accountants should not completely abandon relationships with  financial or legal associates who have largely been a main referral source for the profession he also believes the downturn in the economy has created an urgent need for more proactive ways to offset the high client attrition rate that has been sustained by most accounting firms in recent years.

“What GoodAccountants has done is they’ve created a presence in the business place and when a client has decided to make a change which is the key, and they see the GoodAccountants.com presence and they go to GoodAccountants and they say ‘we need someone to help us find a really good accountant,’ that’s very different than a referral from a friend or business associate that may or may not be a good match for your practice,” explains Hayes.   “It’s because they’re not being solicited or sold, they’ve decided to make the change on their own and they’ve gone to GoodAccountants.com which is what makes the meeting so pleasant, so effective, because the client is ready to commit to make the change to a new accountant,” he adds.

“I think the presence that GoodAccountants.com has is the value they bring to the table which your average practitioner just can’t generate….that presence in the marketplace,” adds Hayes.   GoodAccountants.com is very helpful to business owners as well as they are non threatening to them and so they don’t get the feeling they’re being sold anything as they would if they were approached directly by the accounting firm.” Hayes further explains.

When asked how he first learned of GoodAccountants.com Hayes says he received an email which normally would have been discarded however something about it caught his attention causing him to read it.  He later received a phone call from Patty Schoenfeld, a senior consultant with GoodAccountants.com during which she informed him she had a client in the area that was looking for a new accountant.  “I’m glad I listened and kept an open mind,” says Hayes.

To receive the upcoming full Reality TV Episode on Richard F. Hayes’ unedited interview subscribe now to GA Access click here

Wendroff & Associates, LLC Embraces Internet Marketing

Wendroff & Associates LLC, a full service CPA firm based in Arlington, Virginia with more than 60 years of combined experience represents a new wave of accounting firms that rely heavily on Internet marketing as a way to attract new clients and reach new markets.   Among a growing number of accounting firms that employ a Director of Communications, a position that would have been non-existent in earlier times due to  old school conservatism that relegated accountants to pursuing new clients strictly by word of mouth, Wendroff & Associates embraces cutting edge technology as a part of its overall marketing strategy.

Wendroff & Associates, LLC also has offices in San Diego, California where it employs fifteen accountants with a combined 100 plus years of accounting experience.  The firm is so highly technologically based that it provides monthly webinars for its clients who benefit from a corporate philosophy that engenders extremely proactive outreach.  Wendroff & Associates also offers outsource bookkeeping as an alternative way to lower their client’s accounting costs.

With the emergence of firms such as Wendroff & Associates, LLC the accounting profession is rapidly undergoing dramatic change despite the fact that accountants in general are still regarded by most marketing specialists as being fifty years behind the times when compared to other professionals such as lawyers, doctors and dentists who rely heavily on advertising and marketing.  Darren Wendroff who serves as the firm’s Communications and Marketing Director says his firm has been quite happy with the level of client referrals it has received from  GoodAccountants.com since joining the nation’s largest accountancy referral service earlier this year.   “Since we’ve joined GoodAccountants.com we’ve received more than fifteen referrals that have ranged anywhere from $1,000 dollar individual clients to $30,000 dollar annual billings for business clients and they’ve also  been very good about  meeting our criteria for what we were looking for in the way of a client,” says Darren.

Here’s How To Recession Proof Your Accounting Practice

“Acres of Diamonds” is a story that was purportedly recited more than 5,000 times by Russell Conwell, a Baptist Preacher.  The story is about a Turkish farmer, Ali Hafed, who sells his farm to pursue his fortune after becoming enthralled with a Buddhist priest who convinces him that diamonds hold the ultimate key to great power and wealth.   After many unsuccessful and exhaustive years searching the world for his “Acres of Diamonds” in frustration Ali Hafed throws himself into a river and is never to be seen or heard from again. While at the very same moment the man to whom he had sold his farm stumbles upon a huge diamond just beneath his feet as he walks in a garden planted years earlier by Hafed.

Had Hafed remained at home and in his own garden instead of trekking across strange lands only to endure hunger, pain and suffering he would have found his “acres of diamonds” which had been right under his feet all the time.

Most of us at one time or another have become Ali Hafed and have looked everywhere for success instead of looking for it right underneath our feet.   Today for many accountants across the country like Russell Nay, a sole practitioner based in North Las Vegas, Nevada, the Internet has become a personal ‘acres of diamonds’.   Nay says he has found success so close to home that he rarely ever has to leave the house except to meet new clients that are delivered directly to him by GoodAccountants.com through his laptop computer.   “I became a member of GoodAccountants.com on February 17th of this year and here it is March 20th and I’ve already received about $10,000 in potential billing and it has more than doubled the amount I paid in and things have been going very well,” says Nay

For accountants operating accounting practices that have fallen on hard times as a result of the current economic recession which has robbed them of as much as 30% to 40% of their client base the Internet may be the answer they’re looking for.   Increasingly plagued by slow payment from cash strapped clients along with the stress of long grueling hours that must be endured each tax season many accountants are looking for alternative ways to sustain their income year round.   Accountants who wish to attract new clients can do so by tapping into the ground swell of tens of thousands of key word searches that are conducted each month by business owners who search for local accountants throughout the year using the Internet.

GoodAccountants.com offers a cost-effective, high-tech solution for accountants who wish to expand, maintain or rebuild their client base and generate income year round through its new GA Access portal;  a new platform designed for accountants that delivers website users to them minutes after they request a referral from GoodAccountants.com.

To obtain more information on how your accounting practice can take advantage of this new technology to increase your billings call 1 (800) 505-7861.

To watch the full reality television episode you must become a free subscriber to GA Access.

Twelfth Largest Accounting Firm Joins GoodAccountants.com

When one of the world’s largest seafood companies retained GoodAccountants.com to find new accountants that could replace the Big Four accounting firm whose services they had been using the search would require the careful vetting of a number of large regional accounting firms.   With sales of more than $300 million and operations in the United States and Canada, the world-wide seafood distributor would require GoodAccountants.com to identify a firm that could provide the same level of professional services as a Big Four accounting firm including having an international reach while also having a capability of maintaining a more personalized relationship than most large accounting firms are capable of providing.

“Our client had told us they were paying in excess of $700,000 annually in accounting fees but felt they were just not getting the service,” says Johanna Laurent, President of GoodAccountants.com.  “I immediately assembled our top people and we began very intensely researching all of the large accounting firms in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut tri-state area that we felt could provide our client the highest level of service and it was Amper, Politziner and Mattia, Certified Public Accountants and Consultants who kept coming up for us,” adds Laurent.

Ranked by Crain’s as the twelfth largest accounting firm in the New York regional area, Amper, Politziner and Mattia is one of the fastest growing accounting firms in the country.   With more than $120 million in revenues and 600 employees, Amper’s chairman Phil Politziner is quick to point out that his firm has grown organically which is a direct result of its ability to attract top talent and deliver an array of key accounting services to its clients among whom are some of the nation’s largest corporations.  Headquartered in Edison, New Jersey the firm has offices throughout New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania and is a prominent member of Baker Tilly International a professional network of 147 accounting firms in 104 countries throughout the world.  Amper, Politziner Mattia is also one of the top audit firms in the country and provides audit services to private and public corporations of all sizes.  The firm also services a long list of not-for-profit organizations and is the only accounting firm in the history of the state of New Jersey to guide a major hospital out of bankruptcy.

“I believe one of Amper’s greatest assets is their chairman, Phil Politziner,” says Johanna Laurent.  “Phil has an amazingly friendly personality and his smile is disarming and more than anything he engages as well as relaxes people which is a powerful attribute to have when you’re first meeting a potential client,” adds Laurent.  “When we obtained feedback from our client after their meeting with Phil and his team they told us Phil’s first question to them was ‘how can we help you?’ which meant a lot to them,” she adds.    “I’m very comfortable referring Phil and the folks at Amper to our clients because personality sometimes is a big factor in the equation when a client is considering retaining the accountants that will guide them through the myriad of tax and accounting issues that affect their business,” says Laurent.

To watch the full reality television episode filmed on location at Amper, Politziner and Mattia in Edison, New Jersey and hear Phil Politziner recount the early days at Amper you must become a free subscriber to GA Access.

When Does Accountant’s Blog Violate Ethics Code?

When accountants post derogatory and defamatory comments about a client online are they violating professional ethics rules that govern the accounting industry?

The answer should be fairly evident when blogs you post online are potentially damaging to your client’s personal reputation or corporate image and can pose undue harm to their business operations.

Making derogatory comments about clients or prospective clients and posting them online can lead to lawsuits that drag on for years, deplete your cash reserves, rattle the trust of your existing clients and detract  from your ability to run a successful accounting practice; not to mention financial judgments that can result from unfavorable court findings.  All are just some of the risks that accounting professionals face when they express hateful speech online about their clients, employees, independent contractors or about marketing firms they hire to find clients for them.

Internet blogging can become a dangerous proposition for accounting professionals even when they talk about their clients in internet chat rooms as anonymous entities or without mentioning them by name.   The likelihood of a client becoming aware of derogatory comments that you have posted online about them may be more real than imagined.   For example if your blog mentions your client in the context of something that actually happened involving a third-party and that third-party becomes aware of the comments you have posted on an internet bulletin board then there is a good chance your client will also become aware of them too.

But not only can internet blogging land you in court it can also land you in jail. When Virgie Arthur the mother of the late Anna Nicole Smith became the subject of a blog she felt was defamatory she sued the blogger who subsequently landed in jail for contempt of court upon failing to turn over a computer to the judge hearing the case. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/celebrities/6442644.html

What bloggers must realize is when they post something online it becomes public information for everyone to see and not just the person or persons they may want to view their ranting.   An internet blog can memorialize forever what you may be thinking at one particular moment and may regret expressing so publicly only minutes later.  “Imagine if the entire world were privy to every crazy thought that you may have had at one time or another about something or someone which turned out not to be true and you couldn’t take it back afterwards,’ says Johanna Laurent, President of GoodAccountants.com. “Unfortunately there are no redo’s when it comes to comments you post on the Internet,” says Laurent.

Also seen as a form of cyber bullying, some bloggers who attack corporations or other business entities also are coming under the scrutiny of many state and federal courts and are being found liable for comments they make and post on the Internet. “We too recently became the target of a blog which was completely false, that was posted on the Internet by one of the accountants in our network,” says Laurent.   “The accountant was later forced to retract the negative  comments he made about our company and also about the prospective client that did not immediately hire him after a meeting had been arranged only a month earlier by GoodAccountants.com,” she further explains.  ”He also flamed GoodAccountants.com by calling us a scam and encouraged other accountants to contact their State Attorney General’s Office and Consumer Fraud Protection Agencies to lodge complaints against us,” says Laurent.  

“The accountant had already posted his very hateful comments about us on the internet when days later the client we had referred him to and whom he had blogged so negatively about actually called him back and retained his services.   He was forced to eat his words,” says Laurent.  “He never gave us a chance when he rushed to post such negative comments on the Internet about us only thirty days after joining our network.   He met with our client two or three days after he joined our network and then raved about the wonderful client we had found for him only to go ballistics when the client took more time than the accountant may have felt was necessary to make a decision,” explains Laurent.

“I think a lot of this stems from ignorance.   A lot of accountants just do not understand marketing or the marketing process.   You cannot expect to engage a client paying fees of $20,000 or $30,000 annually based on what you may feel should be their timing and then impose some arbitrary time line in which you feel they should have already hired you.    Many of our clients are large corporations who have several layers of management participating in their decision making process which may take some time.” adds Laurent.

“Patience is a virtue that is sometimes scarce among some accounting professionals which is why I always tell my accountants to sit back and let the process work for you instead of working against the process,” advises Laurent.

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.

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