Hey guys, I am in a bit of a situation. I currently work for a large accounting firm in NYC where I was able to earn my CPA and I feel like I need a change. I have always wanted to start my own business but I just don't know how to do it, or if it will be successful. I am am nervous to make the plug so I feel that I can start my tax preparation service out of a home office (in Queens) but I have no clue how to reach potential clients. I posted an ad on craigslist but I don't have much confidence in that. I can reach out to family and have them refer me to their co-workers and friends but I also feel that only gets me about 20 -30 clients. Does anyone have any previous experience in starting up a home business and reaching potential clients?
Appreciate any thoughtful insight.
OP - I wish you All The Best in your plans! First things first.....correct the typo on your title.....you got not one but two alphabets off there......if you are going to run my numbers I would expect you practice checking and re-checking and cross-checking before my returns go to the IRS......
A Good Take-Off:
I get a feeling you are currently lacking 'confidence levels' and/or salesmanship skills needed even though you have necessary technical skills (coming from your current experience at the big firm).....so I will share what my buddy did when faced with the same dilemma....Once he identified he needs to set his own CAP practice, the first thing he did was he kept his regular job....the next thing was he started reaching out to friends and family and started doing returns during evenings & weekends with this offer...your returns are free but help me with your references......he figured there are a lot of Small & Medium businesses that need a book-keeper but don't have enough work-load to recruit an employee....so such SMBs were willing to pay this guy for a couple hours each week.....mostly it was things like invoices, receipts and such stuff on physical papers that need to be accounted for in the right manner so that at the end of the fiscal the SMBs would pay lesser to their respective CPAs.....most of the time it's family businesses, restaurants, mom-pop groceries etc,....... basically the need here is for a 'book-keeper' more than anything else, definitely not a CPA services.....he grabbed the opportunity and sold it to other SMBs in his area......
he started slow and organized it so that....one day in the week he would pick papers from a few SMBs....next day from others..and so on......then do the work in the evenings/weekends and at the end of the quarter hand it back to respective SMBs for their usual quarterly sales tax filings and stuff.....the SMBs continued to use their existing CPAs.....
he knew he was doing low-level-things than what he originally planned for.....but he let time go forward and with his organized work culture and after 2 fiscal years...a couple SMBs gave him more work ... they wanted him to do their annual returns because he wanted to charge less than what they currently pay elsewhere.....it only grew from there....and when it started to bring in good amount of revenues he said quits to his regular job.....
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