Question of the Day, July 29, 2015

My wife & I just started an HR & Accounting consulting business in the Philadelphia Suburbs. Other than Craigslist & Linkedin, what are some inexpensive ways for us to advertise?

www.Integritybusinesspartnersllc.com


Author: Back in PA Mike

Crotchety middle aged man with a hot younger wife dead set on saving this Country.

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kokoda
kokoda

Card Mailers (don’t know the exact term) – you work with the company to design the mailer; there are different sizes, but I’ll guess at 4″ x 7″ or 3″ x 6″.
Important: There are 3 Very Important rules for advertising. I forgot one of them, but that one didn’t seem that important to me.
Any potential customer that picks up the card from their mail:
The message on the card has to make an impact to the potential customer in 3 seconds.

The message must impart these items to impact in 3 seconds:
1. What is it.
2. What’s in it for me.

Administrator

An airplane pulled banner at the Wildwood beach.

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kokoda
kokoda

I’ll give you a few more details.

These companies can separate out specific areas via demographics (age, income, married, etc.). This is a targeting method. For example, Joe Blow painting contractor would only advertise to incomes above $75,000 (obviously, the amount depends on the general locale but the companies know this info) to eliminate the homeowners that would do the painting themselves (like me). I believe they can selectively target specific streets, etc.
The additional selective criteria costs more.

TJF
TJF

How does Angie’s List work? I’ve never looked at it because I refuse to pay for it, but I’d imagine the people who bother to pay for it rely on it, so getting on there may be a way to get customers. No idea on the cost of this from a provider’s point of view is.

Are there any start-up or entrepreneurial groups local to you? Perhaps some blowhard formed a group because their startup hit it big and now they are convinced they can help others. Seems like newer less established companies would be in the market for some HR and Accounting consulting.

zelmer
zelmer

I would suggest creating an inexpensive web site (just a single page to start) so that at least people using search engines could find you also. You must have some friend that could whip one out for you for a case of beer.

kokoda
kokoda

Mike…your web site home page:

Your business name is in BIG lettering and dominates the top half of the page.

Suggest: what should dominate is “what is it” = We run the Back Office so you don’t have to. Underneath that should be “what is in it for me” = Business owners can focus on the business of running their business.

Lower your importance (ego) of your business name; fix it and put it somewhere else.

Backtable
Backtable

Can you get the “new business license” lists for your area? If you can get data that lets you know how long they’ve been licensing as it gives you some idea if they’re viable. After a few years of being self-employed, most business owners recognize the need for accounting services. H&R Block already has name recognition, as well as competitive pricing. For business owners, taxes are generally an easy advertising topic to motivate with, especially for the possibility of an audit, etc. By the way, if you can get up to speed with negotiating settlements with the IRS, or bring in some who can, that’s a HUGE market with highly motivated clientele.

IndenturedServant

Administrator says:
“You can reach 5.5 million people per year with a free ad on TBP.”

Yeah but then he’ll be receiving a blistering exposé about how evil “Jim Quinn” is from one Robert S. Finnegan. Probably not good for a tender new business enterprise. He might want to wait until the media coverage dies down.

NickelthroweR
NickelthroweR

Greetings,

As someone that works with Fortune 500 Companies to increase brand awareness, I’d like to offer one or two suggestions.

1. Youtube Channel. Do some professional quality videos and put them on your brand new youtube channel. On these videos you are going to give away a business tip – a freebee. It could be about using Quickbooks or some other “secret” that will make people want to revisit your site. Keep the videos under 3 minutes. This can be done for very little money and if you want more info on exactly how to do so for very little money then I can offer some additional tips.

2. Make sure that all of these videos have some continuity to them by having matching opening and closing graphics that point them to your website. The same cheesy music will help brand you as well.

3. When you tag your videos, put in a made up string of letters as your final tag. Make sure all of your videos have this same string of letters so that if someone stumbles upon one of your videos, all of your other videos will appear in the sidebar.

4. Post these videos on your company’s Facebook page as well as your own facebook page and ask your friends to post them as well.

Finally, drive people to your site by being a guru in something – anything related to your business.

Oh yeah, I did not see a FAQ on your website – wrong! Make up some bullshit questions and answer them like the kickass professional that you are. People must see you as an expert.

Content content content.

Tommy
Tommy

Rent some strippers ass and plaster your logo on it. The audience is full of bankers with money.

Okay, okay…..emphasize tax avoidance vs. tax preparing, lots of business owners feel like their accountant is a ‘boy scout’ who stays out of trouble with others money. I don’t know the size of firm you wish to target, but the smaller-ish firms are the ones who struggle most with the ‘extra guy or not’. Like a child on stairs, up or down, sometimes the steps are too big.

Got to get ’em talking to you. Give them some free hours up front – not a lot, but give them a chance to take you for a test drive. This is the same time you’ll spend trying to find a guy to pay you from day one that’s been with another guy for years. It would take a lot to get me to switch, and I don’t necessarily love my lawyer or accountant, but they know me and my operation.

I have heard of a guy or two who answers tax questions on the radio over lunch time or such. I’ve heard an electrician and a butcher do it – but they gain a dimension on you that another form doesn’t offer. DO NOT advertise in a way you like necessarily. Love reading the paper? Not many do these days…you get the idea but try to protect yourself from yourself. Good luck.

Tommy
Tommy

I mean, come on…..it catches your eye, right?

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card802
card802

I loved how everybody but IS was ignoring admin, that’s usually me.

Stucky

1) Get your first client …. doesn’t matter HOW (fliers, cold calling in person or on the phone, newspaper ad, etc. and whatever).

2) KNOCK IT OUT OF THE BALLPARK!! Hit a grand fucking slam. Go WAAAAY above and beyond what the contract calls for. Even if you “lose” money doing so. In other words, FORCE them to just LUUUUV you.

3) Do the same for the second client. Then the third. You stop when people start calling YOU.

I met Ms Freud when her clientele list was … two people. Literally. Sure, she got SOME biz the traditional ways …. but, it was doing the above that NAILED it. She still gets new clients as referrals … from people she saw SIX years ago. It took about 18-24 months to get the snowball to become an avalanche, so a little patience is required. Today she spends a small pittance on advertising.

Stucky

Just to clarify …..

I’m not saying GIVE AWAY your business for free. Make what you provide better QUALITY than what anyone else can provide.

Quick example: One of Ms Freud’s services is a Psychological Assessment (PA). She charges $1500 – $2000. This is neither the cheapest, nor the most expensive, compared to other psychologists in the area. But no one gives a more professional looking and thorough report … and that, according to her clients.

What I did was ask Ms Freud to get me PAs from other psychologists. So, I took some ideas from this one, some from that one … added color, some easy to produce charts and graphs, better and simpler verbiage (most psychologists can’t write for shit), a much nicer and easier to comprehend format … and voila’ … something that completely stands out from the competition.

I do not know what that entails in your business …. but, I am 100% positive YOU do! Be a purple cow!
.
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Lastly, it seems a web page seems to be imperative these days. Not that it has to be super-duper awesome. Ms Freud’s webpage is quite simple, almost painfully so. You would be surprised at how many people ask her (75% or more), “Do you have a webpage?”. It just seems to lend legitimacy to the individual, or company. The real danger is NOT having one … “What? You don’t have a web page. OK, thanks.”. click

bb

Who says anyone should do business with you .Give us some Damn good reasons or take a hike Mike in PA.
What’s your experience?
What’s your educational background?
What’s your work background?
How’s your credit score?
You ever committed a felon ?
You ever been arrested , if so for what ?
You ever been addicted to drugs?
You ever cheated on your wife ?

Stephanie Shepard

Not to be an ass, but the best way to get clients is not through advertising. It is always word of mouth the builds a a great client base. Only lazy people advertise online to avoid going outside to meet people. I recommend spending some time at a bar. Specifically one that caters to blue collar people and potential business owners. Anybody who knows they need an accountant already has an accountant. There are several people who need accountants and don’t know it. I would aim towards meeting people who make over $50,000 a year but don’t think they need accounting. It is a way to build a small base and to market to their friends and family.

Rise Up
Rise Up

Stephanie Shepard says: I recommend spending some time at a bar. Specifically one that caters to blue collar people and potential business owners.
————-
Seriously? “potential” business owners? Why not REAL business owners. And they won’t be at the bar with blue collar types.

(WTF is with your weblink on your name to some guy named Muhammad?)

card802
card802

Get a website and make sure you are friendly with google or they will screw you over, they are godlike don’t cha know..

My son started a internet business were he offers different services all over the US and beyond, he generates new clients by nothing more than a website presence and uses key words that other people do a search for.
So in effect his clients seek him out rather than the other way around, he has 28 employees with four managers leading the teams and is so busy he is turning new clients away.
He’s a smart kid, while my wife and I continue to work in our business, he works on his, and now the little fuck just announced he has two potential buyers. Nah, I’m really proud of him.

You could say you are a virtual accountant, that way you find and service clients no matter where you live.

Stephanie Shepard

Look there are plenyt of middle agers with 15-20 years experiences that were chewed up and spat out my their corporate jobs. Welcome to become a goddamn Millennial. If they are going to start their own business they need to pull from their past clients as well as get out of the damn house and do the nitty gritty work of hustling to build their business. I am getting so damn irritated with the 40+ washed up Gen Xers and Baby Boomers who think I will just build a website and they will come.

For starters, Their website is shit. No nice way of saying that. They spent the money on a long winded domain name that is not easy to remember and looks weird.

They built the website themselves and it looks like they built it themselves. It looks dry and boring like every over cheaply produced corporate website.

They wrote their own experience section instead of hiring a writer to make them interesting people. Every time I hear somebody say they have experience in HR I just roll my eyes because of all the nitwit prissy HR women I’ve met in my life. I would find ANY other way to describe myself instead of saying HR because of the negative association with the word.

And yes, potential business owners because we are going to be going back to personable business relationships soon. And I say blue collar workers because I’ve met plenty of plumbers, electricians, construction people who make over $50,000 a year but do not year own their own business and they need accountants. They need them because they are going to get severely fuck without an accountant because of all the Obamacare mess. These are the types of people who unknowingly give away free money to the government every year because they don’t think they have an accountant.

I learned the bar trick from my grandfather. If he needed ANYTHING or to met a specific type of person he went to the bar. He learned the same trick from his father and so on. So yeah get out of the fucking house and go to a bar. Or a diner. Or go stroll through the park. ANYWHERE to meet a person. You won’t meet them making a social media profile.

End Rant.

I don’t know Muhammad but I had that blogger address and later deleted it. I guess Muhammad had the same idea for a website name.

Stephanie Shepard

Ha ha, don’t rant without proof reading…

Stucky

Stephanie approaches Avalon in a bar. “Hey, do you need a GOOD accountant?”.

Avalon’s response
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Stucky

Avalon’s response

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Stephanie Shepard

Stucky- Lol, way to take me too literal.

What’s a void and a business need Mike and his wife can fulfill? The fuck over of Obamacare on mid income earners. There is a need and there are a lot of people who now need an accountant. If I were him I would study the mandate until my eyes bled.

Potential Business owners also a need beccause of the 70,000 page tax code. You cannot start ANY business today without first having an accountant.

llpoh
llpoh

Make it a topless HR and Accounting. You will get free media coverage world-wide. I am sure your wife will understand it is purely a business decision and will jump right on board.

I have even come up with a name/slogan for the firm:

Big Jugs HR and Accounting – When You Have Something to Hide, Come to Us – We Hide Nothing

llpoh
llpoh

Steph says above: “If they are going to start their own business they need to pull from their past clients”.

Sounds like they were screwing their last clients, now doesn’t it?

Stephanie Shepard

Llpoh- No, calling themselves Integrity Accounting Partners makes them sound like they were screwing over their last clients. If you have integrity you don’t need to advertise it. Quite frankly, I would advertise myself as an accountant that whose sole job is keep his clients money out of government hands. That would be my business. I wouldn’t be bashful about it either. I would advertise myself as somebody who caters to mid income earners and small business people who HATE, HATE, HATE Obamacare and giving away their money to talentless government shrills. I would come right out and say it too.

“You work 80 hours a week as a plumber? Do you have an accountant? Well, you need an accountant to keep your money in your pocket. I can help!

llpoh
llpoh

Steph – the comment was a joke – you said “pull from their existing clients”. Get it? Yuck yuck. Sigh.

Stephanie Shepard

That was lame and you should feel bad.

starfcker
starfcker

Stucky wins this one. Word of mouth, superior to anything. Clients come pre-screened, and with some knowledge of what you do, how you do it, and how much you cost. When I was a contractor, I never even had a business card, and was always booked six months in advance. I never had to compete on price.

llpoh
llpoh

Steph – someone has to amuse me. If no one else will I am always happy to amuse myself.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran

Keep it down you guys, I’m trying to amuse myself here.

NickelthroweR
NickelthroweR

@Starfcker

Exactly. I do not have business cards either. People do not seek me out because I advertise but because I am seen as an expert in my field. I also throw out lots of freebees to people or I will do a day by day of a fun project and post it online on various forums.

Check out the following post that I did that had 3400 views from industry professionals. It may not seem like a lot of views but it is a very tiny industry. Notice how I call out all the vendors that I used. Do you think those vendors put links up to it? You bet they did. I also did this in a forum where people could participate as well. How much business do you think this one post generated? How much work could I have acquired if I went into a bar instead?

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/geekslutz-forum/575674-day-i-lost-my-mind.html

NickelthroweR
NickelthroweR
starfcker
starfcker

Great stuff, nickel. You and my dad are basically the same person. Pre-digital electronics were his expertise and what he lived for. I never got it like he did, but now with the internet, my interest in guitar tone and sound is one of my favorite things to read about.

starfcker
starfcker

I spend way more time than I care to admit looking for interviews and little vids on how some of the real gearheads figured out how to get the sounds they wanted, out of some primitive stuff, and then get it recorded. A lot of californians in that group. Must be domething in the water.

starfcker
starfcker

So many pieces of retro equipment are famous names, but were tiny companies, or just one guy tinkering on his workbench. One of my friends got a floyd rose pretty early on, tracked down his phone number, gave him a ring, his mom answered, and had to go wake him up.

TE
TE

I hope you come back and read this Mike!

My background is public accounting that then turned into sales and eventually headhunting/hr for both outside agencies and medium sized corporations (funded by Cisco), so I know a thing or two.

My first break in accounting came from my bugging the living crap out of every public accountant in a 40 mile circle. It included two “larger” cities but was pretty rural so we are talking about a dozen offices.

During the tax season the year I had had enough of my factory job and wanted to take my education (non-degreed) and my skillset and get an office job.

Its a great story of how I finally got a job, but I’ll cut it short and tell you I was hired in as a copy girl but within a month was either teaching, fixing or doing the actual bookkeeping (the girl was not educated in accounting, nor did she have a brain) for my boss. He wanted to hire me full time but couldn’t meet my (very sucky) wages and benefits from my factory job.

He ran across a business model where he partnered with a company that charged (well, tried) upwards of $30,000 (in early 90s dollars) to grow his business. He went from less than 20 monthly/quarterly clients to well over 100 in less than four or five months.

The gist was that we were providing a drop by service where you actually speak with your “adviser/consultant” on a monthly/quarterly (some cases weekly) basis, we fixed all the crap issues that pop up when you stick with the same accountant to long, and we provided service above and beyond.

The clients were all found by cold calling into businesses in the area. You can buy lists of businesses (by zip, by size, by industry code, I personally use http://www.melissadata.com/ my hub’s screw machine shop does postcard advertising on the cheap. I designed the cards, he prints them and cuts thems, smacks the labels on and mails them in his free time. Easy peasy and not very expensive.)

The accounting deal came up with a package of info, including a couple “free” hints (for making/saving money), the offer of a free profit/tax consultation (go over old stuff looking for errors you can capitalize on) and lots of marketing basics like hitting on fears and issues. In today’s regulatory nightmare climate it must be a goldmine of stuff you can scare people with.

Over the years I’ve learned/heard that it takes a minimum of five “touches” to make most sales. I would suggest you do mailings, calls and web stuff. There are independent contractors up for sale in different parts of the web, from writing your content to designing your cards to making the calls.

Well, that is what I have. Good luck to you both!

NickelthroweR
NickelthroweR

@StarFcker

“So many pieces of retro equipment are famous names, but were tiny companies, or just one guy tinkering on his workbench.”

This is very true. I’ve met the owners of some of these companies and more than a few are still in a garage.

My partner and I are do electronics on the side. He works with some of the biggest entertainers in the world and I work with many of the biggest corporations in the world as well as the occasional film or music project. Building electronics was something we started doing for fun and because we couldn’t find the tools we wanted to use. We also did it because, well, anyone can push a fader around but building the things that we do instantly made us “experts” in our field. It threw us out in front of 99% of our competitors.

Check out my commericial line of products – all built by hand in my little shop down by the beach here in sunny California. http://www.blackboxanalog.com

Westcoaster
Westcoaster

I used to own & operate a medium-size full-service ad agency.

I’m guessing you don’t really have an ad budget since you’re a start-up, but since you already have a website, first step is to complete it. Call your home page something other than “Home”. That’s a red flag that you’re a start-up and nobody wants to be an “experiment”. Label your pages with words you want to be searched under. And for God’s sake put your phone number prominently on each page, don’t make people look for it because they won’t. Most prospects will call you, not enter info on your contact page. Your “services” page is pretty blank and you’re not posting any prices, which is backwards. Post your prices, clients are cost-sensitive and want to know they can afford you. Most important of all, state a compelling case for why the prospect should do business with you.
After you’ve finished the website, don’t assume you’re done. You won’t get any free traffic from the search engines, so you’ll need to promote your website. SEO is a vast waste of time, there are a couple of million websites ahead of you, so you’ll need to do search marketing, it’s the cheapest advertising for the little guy. DON’T try this by yourself, you’ll waste A LOT of money, time & effort. My company offers this service; just ask Admin to give you my email address.

d
d

Time to attend every ‘professional’ meeting in the area you can get into — real estate groups, small biz groups, etc. Make some new friends, and some will become clients.

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