Setting up a practice from home

[mutaf76]

Hi all,
I am trying to set my practice from home. I just want o find out what is the best way winning clients as I do not belive purely an newspaper ads.

Thanks to everyone for their support and their time.

mutaf76

 

[soupz]

It depends on your target customers. What is your business? I am sure if you can provide more information, other heres will give you some useful advice!

 

[mutaf76]

Basically, I am providing a accountancy services as well as acting as a introducer of mortgages and financial products including commercial insurance. The idea is to create a brand within my community (Turkish) in north London with a distinctive brand name. I also have a different trading name to attaract non-Turkish clients.

I'd be grateful for new ideas to get more clients as wll as new opportunities that can be provided trough my company.

 

[DFL]

mutaf76

You are correct in that newspaper ads don't always bring good results. That said, you could try the London Turkish Gazette if this is the community that you want to attact.

Try also some networking groups in you area, speak to some predominantTurkish buisnessmen/women - get your name out there and get known. The more within the community that you attract then the quicker your word of mouth referral rates willl grow.

Offer free financial health checks for businesses where you can go through their business and personal finances and that will give you opportunities for accounts work and financial products / mortgages etc.

Send mailshots out, use trade mags, speak to local and Turkish banks to get recipricol arrangements in place and to develop relationships with key introducers.

Set up a website: turkishaccountants.co.uk

Optimise it so you are easily found.

Great potential to corner a close knit market.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Hi all,
I am trying to set my practice from home. I just want o find out what is the best way winning clients as I do not belive purely an newspaper ads.

Thanks to everyone for their support and their time.

mutaf76

You've had some great advice so far - have a look at AccountingWeb too. Its focused at accountants and you'll find a huge number of postings from people such as yourself.

Good luck

 

[mr. mischief]

Good luck! i set up a year ago and so far have 61 clients. The results of my marketing have been:

Personal approaches to known business owners 13
Start Ups Plus 4
Find accountant.com 1
Networking - chamber of commerce etc 7
Leafleting near my home 2
Mailshots to desired clients 6
Website 2
Referalls from other accountants 2
Anti-bullying poster 0
Lavora website optimisation 0
Sister of local accountant who died 23 (mostly small)
Thomson Local -start up businesses 3
Posting on various tax websites 1 (started 1 month ago)
Ad in local paper 1

So everything has paid off except the two "zeros" which have been axed. I hope this helps. Note also that some clients have mentioned the effect of seeing my name in various sources. So whilst they might be down as "sister of local accountant who died" the fact the client has seen my ad in the paper, or other marketing activity, has also helped.

I hope this helps you. I think your idea of having 2 different approaches is spot on, good luck.

Also I recommend going "Fixed Price" as this has been a key aspect of my key client wins from local accountants who tend to be sneaky with their charging.