Articles by Michael Alter

Practice

Tips for Running a Productive Meeting with Small Business Clients

Handling a client meeting with professional efficiency does not mean ticking through agenda items with military precision. The meeting needs to be handled with efficiency and finesse. Preplanning ensures the meeting will be productive and efficiently managed.
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Practice

Are You At Risk of Losing Clients?

Knowing just how satisfied clients are with your services might be difficult if not impossible to gauge on a daily basis. For accountants, recognizing whether clients are considering shifting to another service provider is not always blatantly obvious.
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Practice

New Client Auditions: How to Know if a Prospect Is Right for You

To ensure a new client audition is successful, you must know the profile of your existing client base. Knowing why your most successful clients are a positive fit for your business will help you weed out potential clients who would not be a good fit.
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Practice

What You Need to Know Before Recommending a Financial Advisor

Being able to offer sound financial planning advice for clients will require an accountant to gain certification, designation as a financial advisor, or to partner with someone who can be entrusted to serve clients well in this area.
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Practice

Teaming with a Financial Advisor

Recommending a financial advisor to a client is one of the most important recommendations you can make. Customers will trust your recommendation; therefore, there is a potential your future with that customer could be impacted.
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Technology

Stand Out and Stay Ahead of the Competition

When you know who your competitors are and what services they provide, you can better plan your marketing efforts and messaging to stand out among your peers. A quick review of competitors' websites will reveal a lot.
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Technology

Using the Web for Marketing

Using the Web for marketing is popular for good reason. There are many low-cost tactics that require little to no cash outlay, such as e-mail and social media. All marketing initiatives take time, and these options are no exception.
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Practice

Seven Tips for Branding Your Firm

Branding your firm means putting your firm’s reputation, people, expertise, and knowledge in front of clients and prospects. It means building new relationships, strengthening old ones, and working to keep your firm in people's minds.
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Technology

Establish Your Business Presence Using the Web

Internet-based tools have become so varied and easy to use that almost all firms can take advantage of them to build a professional presence using their websites, e-mail, social media, blogs, videos, and SEO.
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Technology

Creating a Branded Signature in Microsoft Outlook

An e-mail should be handled with the same level of care as a message leaving your office on company letterhead - it should include a signature that's professional and branded to promote your business.
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Practice

Tips for Improving Your Website

This is part one of four of a "Marketing Your Practice" series. Websites, which initially served as "glorified business brochures," are no longer acceptable as such. Today, visitors and clients expect much more.
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Practice Development

Top Ten Ways to Take a Consultative Approach to Client Meetings

When meeting with clients, accountants may be most comfortable getting down to business by crunching numbers and going through reports. This approach may seem logical, but it's not always the best approach for relationship building.
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Practice Management

Maintaining Work-Life Balance during Busy Season

Accountants can expect to take only so much strain when putting in seemingly endless hours during busy season, but firms can offer ways to help. In addition, staffers can take measures to ease stress during a time when being overloaded with work tasks can be an everyday occurrence.
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Voice of the Editor

What would you do if one of your clients won the lottery? We asked several accountants to weigh in with their advice for the lucky Powerball winner, and the tips we received are useful for anyone who receives a windfall, whether it's a lottery win, an inheritance, a big bonus on the job, or a killing in the stock market.
Read more
Gail Perry, CPA
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, AccountingWEB
editor@accountingweb.com
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