Just Being Myself
Volume 13, Number 15
Issue 615
An entrepreneur needs to define their target market more than any other single requirement.
I decided that one of my target markets would be the type of people who wanted a CPA that they could identify with as a real person and not a suit in a marble office. I figured that the worst thing that I could ever do would be to try to be something that I wasn't. If I tried to be slick or "a brain," I would come across as being fake, which is the last thing a CPA needs to have themselves thought of when you are working in a business that depends of the 100% trust and confidence of clients being placed with their professional advisor.
I figured that one of my primary target markets would be the type of clients who would recognize that preparing taxes is a cooperative effort between the taxpayer(s) and the professional-a relationship that demands and requires "gives" and "takes." I figured that if clients identified with me as part of their family, they would enjoy the process of having their taxes prepared and they would actually look forward to the process of coming to my office each year.
I want people in my target market area to see me in the grocery store, at a restaurant, at the symphony, attending a play, driving the car and out in front of my house or rental properties cutting my grass. I want people to like me as a person who cares first and foremost about their situation because, above all else, I value and cherish the relationship that I have with them.
If I can become my client's great confidant, I will have their patience and understanding focused on the difficult and technical process of tax preparation and financial advice because, above all else, they admire and trust me.
If I obtain their friendship, they will be even more patient with and tolerant of me if problems arise and they will pay their bills on time and I will never have to worry about collecting what I have earned.
The casual at-home atmosphere also gives rise to an attitude of stability and works to keep overall stress down. The fact that I operate my business like a family--first and foremost--at all levels, especially with my employees, makes my clients realize that I am not going anywhere-which means that I am here to stay.
I've always worried that I will appear to be "too big" or "too successful." The family approach to running and furnishing my office like a house and the idea of having staff members being brought along while they are students (cycle them in for a few years and then cycle them out) lessens this fear. It lessened it so much that I have been able to continue the expansion of my firm--still a one-owner firm--from 5 original clients in 1990 to 1,300 now.
I have a goal of hitting 95% or more of my appointment times "on the mark." If someone has a 9:30 a.m. meeting with me on a day where I have 26 appointments in half-hour increments (the normal for me during busy season), they will see me precisely at 9:30 a.m. I don't keep anyone waiting. The 9:00 a.m. knows that our meeting will end at 9:30 because they were seen precisely at 9:00-not a minute sooner or later. I will pay the one behind them the same courtesy that they were paid. The absolute worst thing that I could ever do is to keep anyone waiting. Clients have always said that this is one of the best things about my level of professionalism-simply seeing them on time.
I always try to let the clients know that I am glad to see them and that I remember them, not because it's good for business, which it is, but because that's who I am. I spend a lot of time letting them know that I am just as upset about the level of taxes and the conduct of our governments (Federal, state and local) as they are and that I empathize with them. After all, I'm a taxpayer, too.
The clients love watching my young administrative assistants grow-up. They watch me find a superior young person and then they watch them for a few years and then they see them leave and continue their career elsewhere after graduation. The next time the client comes, there's a new 16 or 17 year-old to meet and they know that I have started the cycle of tutelage over again.
Running the office in a house with a real family that "lives" here makes my clients feel like they are part of the family, which they are. The sincerity of me "just being myself" flows freely in the family atmosphere.
My clients love the superior level of very personal service that they receive while I do what is usually a very impersonal and stressful thing-preparing their annual monetary tribute to our governments.
But, as a truly impassioned entrepreneur that is driven, I never rest on my successes very long. I always want to keep growing my professional family by expanding my circle of influence to include exciting new clients that will bring me fresh experiences and tangible and intangible wealth.
To do this I need a never-ending line of new generations of employees to mentor as well as fresh ideas that constantly re-define my target market.
David B. Robinson, CPA
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