Accounting and Book keeping Services Marketing Plan
Sorcerer's Accountant
Marketing Vision
Sorcerer's Accountant will fit the needs of transitional small businesses, dealing with the growing pains of leaving an owner-operator model to hiring employees and expanding. These clients will see that Sorcerer's Accountant is competitively priced, both compared with the market and with the substitute option of hiring their own bookkeepers. Clients will see that Sorcerer's Accountant is extremely flexible and scalable in a way that in-house bookkeepers cannot be.
To move forward with this new business line, Sorcerer's Accountant will make the bookkeeping services the core of its business and a source of leads for its additional accounting services, rather than the other way around. Over time, as this transition happens, the marketing plan will be revisited to see how these clients can be better used as a source for referrals and more business.
Goals
Sorcerer's Accountant's goals include Personal, Marketing, Business, and Client Satisfaction goals.
They are:
1. Personal - To reduce the time spent on the business by Max Greenwood to a more sustainable level over a few years and to achieve professional recognition
2. Marketing - Generation of large numbers of leads and press mentions
3. Business - Expand sales significantly over the next three years
4. Client Satisfaction - To achieve a high level of very satisfied clients
Purpose
Sorcerer's Accountant seeks to provide a full suite of tax and management accounting services for small businesses in Chicago, Illinois, allowing business owners to not only save money over in-house accounting and ensure their compliance with tax laws, but to make valuable management decisions from their numbers.
Picture
When clients come to Sorcerer's Accountant, the frustration of dealing with in-house bookkeepers and low-quality providers will recede. Clients will be given the time to have all of their questions answered and valuable accounting and systems advice will be given even in the initial meetings. The client will quickly understand that Sorcerer's Accountant will scale their services to meet the client's needs and can add to those services as the client's needs change. They will understand that they are not entering into an onerous contract and that the cost of getting started is low.
The client will be delighted the first time they receive a thank you card and small gift when they've made their budgeted numbers for the quarter. At this point it will truly sink in that Sorcerer's Accountant has their bookkeeping and accounting needs covered and that they can put away any worry that this area will be a weak link in their business.
Gap Dashboard
Weekly measurements of key metrics will be averaged for each month and entered in the Gap Dashboard. Personal goals will be tracked by Max Greenwood directly to make sure he is moving towards both professional recognition and a sustainable work/life balance. Marketing goals will be tracked by the CRM system and business goals will be tracked by QuickBooks. Client satisfaction numbers will be derived from the survey provider's database.
Whether numbers are met or not, the news will be shared on a monthly basis with the entire staff, with congratulations and discussion as to what is going right as well as a look at what is going wrong and how it can be rectified. These reports will be shared in full with the bookkeeping program manager and partially with the bookkeepers.
Gap Dashboard
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Personal
Invitations for speaking engagements 35 72 79
Hours spent on business by Greenwood 2,876 2,700 2,500
Marketing
New leads generated 6,367 7,004 7,704
Press mentions 26 30 35
Business
Sales $218,100 $295,950 $420,350
Net Profit $10,893 $42,591 $64,416
Client Satisfaction
Surveys completed 642 770 924
"Very satisfied" responses 465 577 693
"Unsatisfied" responses 42 38 46
