Interested in taking your firm to the next level but feeling bound by historical firm structures or professional stereotypes? It’s time to take a new approach to marketing yourself. The spring 2024 issue of NewsAccount, now available digitally, profiles two COCPA members, each based in Grand Junction, who transitioned their firms away from traditional billing models and marketing strategies.

When Kelly Johnston, CPA, EA, MSA, founded JFS Consulting in 2016, she initially provided bookkeeping services. She launched using a traditional hourly billing model, but things quickly spiraled out of control. Client work continually expanded beyond the original scope, eating away her profit margins. At one point, Johnston was so busy that she slept on the floor of her office.

Johnston also found herself apologizing to clients for billing them outside the original scope of work. “Why did I feel guilty?” she reflects. “I did the work they asked me to do. That’s when I realized strictly using hourly billing wasn’t going to work, and that I had to change my mindset.”

Today, her firm provides a full range of accounting services with 14 team members in eight states and three countries, often serving as interim CFOs and consulting strategists for health care and construction organizations.

At RoseCap Tax and Accounting, principal Nancy Harward, CPA, also took a hard look at the firm’s services and billing structure, and wondered if there was a better way to not only serve clients but also increase revenue.

She realized that clients weren’t making a connection between the value she was providing and the prices they paid when a client commented that he could get the same results from using H&R Block. “They don’t understand the extent of our work and how much goes into it,” she says. “As CPAs, we’re just not great at selling ourselves and letting people know what we do.”

In the article, Johnston and Harward share lessons learned from their journeys, including the importance of relying on data, establishing a support system, engaging outside experts, and spending time on client communication and onboarding activities.

Click here to read the full article, “Embracing a New Mindset: Learning to Market Your Value,” in the spring 2024 issue of NewsAccount.