This month’s Year End Strategies will feature tips on how to avoid exceeding the superannuation contributions cap, as well as articles on the ATO’s focus on taxation and Division 7A compliance, just to name a few.

Business Matters in April outlines the recent legal decisions surrounding discretionary bonuses. It also explores the new world of cloud computing, highlighting the benefits and dangers of outsourcing business IT requirements.

Orders for these newsletters will close soon, so get in quick to ensure that clients have the best information about industry developments.

A newsletter that is custom designed with your firm’s colours, a customised masthead, and a name that suits your firm’s brand, however, could be an even more useful marketing tool than any of our standard designs.

Customised newsletters help to give your firm a more professional appearance, while also building your brand image to help you stand out from the crowd. You can also use your customised newsletter as a space to cross-sell your services, giving your firm even more, and helping your firm’s name stay in the minds of your existing and potential clientele.

You can order your own Business Matters newsletter for as little as $925.00 per year. Business Matters is released quarterly, in January, April, July and October.

We are currently offering two options: a typographical (text-based) and non-typographical (image-based) logo. You can order a logo for as little as $195 – which is a lot less than you’ll see at any of the bigger design firms.

That’s why we are introducing improved newsletter customisation. Our newsletters will still be generically written, but for a small fee, your newsletter will reflect the look and feel of your firm.

Key features include:

• · Custom masthead – re-name, design and colour-match the newsletter masthead
• · Colours – colour-match the newsletter content colours to your firm’s colour scheme

During the last six months, we’ve been very fortunate to receive many referrals from firms who were very pleased with our work. Some referred us fellow accountants; others recommended us to their own clients. Each referral has been a great recognition of our team’s efforts throughout the past year – and now it’s our turn to say “thank you!”

We are excited to introduce a new Practice Advantage Loyalty Program, which will reward you for referring business to us and helping us grow. The Loyalty Program works on two levels, so both the firm referring and the firm to whom we’ve been referred will be rewarded. Gifts include either a US$50.00 or US$75.00 Amazon gift-card.

To find out more or send through a referral, see Refer Us.

Features include:

• Practical advice & tax-planning strategies for the lead-up to Christmas
• Special Christmas or holiday message
• Details about opening and closing hours over the Christmas period

We would like to thank our subscribers who in the past have bought our other products and have now taken onboard this new product.

Adding value. Show your existing clients that you really care about their business by adding value wherever possible. When things are slow, clients look for greater value from all of their service providers. Do not give them a reason to find a new accounting firm because you are reluctant to bend a bit on your fees or services.

Repackage your services. Look at your service offerings and see how they could be changed or repackaged to make them more attractive in this situation.
Upgrade or develop a website. If your firm has a website, spend time thinking about how it can be made more effective and take steps to upgrade it. If you don’t have a website, set one up and be sure to add your website address to your letterhead and business cards.

Renew your marketing efforts. Marketing during difficult economic times is always tough. But cutting back on your marketing efforts is the opposite of what you should be doing. When things are slow, use the time to review and re-energize your marketing efforts. While the suggestions above may require some creative thought, effort and money, they will help ensure the future growth of your firm.
Keep in touch with former clients. Send your clients something of value such as a report, survey results, an article of interest or other information, and then follow up to discuss it.

Attend to your prospect list. A down economy is no time to forget about your prospective clients. Just don’t spend a lot of time trying to sell and persuade. Instead, spend most of your time providing information — hands-on material that your prospects can really use. These types of activities will keep your name in front of the prospect and also help communicate the value that you offer.

Broadcast Your Message. When business is slow, you need to get your name, your message, and your ideas out there for prospects and clients to see and hear. Send out a newsletter, or give a talk at a conference at least twice a year. This will spread your name around and generate new leads shortly.

We have some big plans for the next 12 months. These will include re-launching Your Firm Online website (within the next two weeks), plus our equivalent sites in New Zealand. For our New Zealand clients we are working at the moment to accept NZ dollars.

In upcoming weeks you can expect to see some new offerings for our website products. Our client document centre has received a re-write and will be out with some very interesting features. In addition, our Marketing Resources Centre will be open - subscribers will be able to freely access a range of marketing tools from letter templates, marketing plans, checklists, firms surveys plus cheat sheets on how you can kick your firm marketing to the next level.

I plan to post a regular update on our site dealing with the questions that I get from accounting firms every day. I hope you revisit and as always welcome your feedback.

Nic Gadaleta