As an accountant, you’re more ready to start your own business than most other professionals. In fact, you’re one of the people entrepreneurs come to in order to make sure they’re doing everything right from a financial standpoint.
Even though you have the financial acumen, there’s a lot more to running a profitable business than keeping a low overhead and monitoring profit margins. You have to become an administrator, marketer, customer service representative, and so much more. Starting an accounting firm requires a lot of hard work and planning, but here are some tips to make getting your accounting firm off the ground a little easier.
Business Plan
The moment you decide to start your own firm, you should start working on a business plan. Oftentimes, when newbie entrepreneurs think of writing a business plan, they get it confused with an investment proposal, but these are two different things.
An investment proposal is a presentation you put together to lure in prospective investors. A business plan isn’t for anyone but you. When you write your business plan, your main goal is to come up with a strategy to make your business profitable within the first few years.
Coming up with a plan includes tallying up your initial investment, choosing your business model, services and costs, and a plan for how and when you’ll recoup your startup costs. By the time you finish your business plan, you’ll have a better idea of your business’s chances of succeeding.
Business License and Registration
The first step you’ll take towards making your accounting firm an official entity is to register it with your state. When you register your business, you’re simply declaring its existence, but that doesn’t give you the right to operate.
Just like you need a license to drive, your business needs licenses to operate. What licenses you need to obtain depend on where you start your firm and what kind of accounting you intend to do.
Location
Choosing a location for your business is one of the most crucial steps any entrepreneur has to take. Many accountants choose to launch their business from home to save on costs, but there are benefits to buying or renting office space as well. If you do choose to go with an office building for your firm, then you should choose a location where there are other professional services such as attorneys’ and doctors’ offices.
Enterprise Infrastructure
Today, technology is one of the most critical components of small businesses. Utilizing the correct software is crucial to building an optimal company infrastructure and keeping up with your competition.
OKR tracking software is a tool that has quickly become essential to creating a comprehensive enterprise infrastructure. It’s software that you use to set company objectives and track key results. With OKR software, HR teams can enhance their performance management strategy as well as set individual goals and monitor the productivity of team members.
Marketing Strategy
Having a marketing strategy is one of the most important key factors in your firm’s success. Your main goal is to determine who your target is and put together a strategy to get their attention — preferably without breaking the bank. COLDEA Productions is a videography company in Los Angeles that provides premium-quality photography and video services at prices that startups can afford in order to help promote your business.
You also need to get a large supply of business cards so you can pass them out everywhere you go. As an accountant, you could meet potential clients anywhere, so make sure you always have something with your name and your firm’s name and contact information on it.
You should also get custom folders and envelopes with your company’s name and logo on them so your company can look the part of an established firm when meeting with potential clients. In short, act like you’re back in your college dorm — put your name on everything!
