Here is a monthly calendar for running your practice and marketing to clients. These have been updated from similar calendars posted in January 2019 and consider the new realities caused by the COVID-19 lockdown and acceleration of virtual business.
January: Raise all your fees 5 percent across the board, or whatever percent makes sense for you, but increase your fees. However, do not include clients who are struggling to survive. I know you are busy, but there are many ways of having client contacts without seeing or talking to clients. Postal mail or email a letter to your clients welcoming them to 2021. Keep it short and give them an update on your firm (similar to the “
February: Tell your staff that errors on returns will no longer be tolerated (and mean it). They must check and double-check their work before handing it in for review. If you haven’t done it already, book your post-tax season vacation now and hopefully you’ll be able to take it. Alternatively, block out the time for a non-travel vacation — and take the time off. Make the time now to mail a postcard or email to clients with a short note that you are open for all your clients’ business and financial needs, in addition to their taxes, and they are welcome to call you with any questions or anything else they wish to discuss. Also ask for referrals. The important thing with this is to indicate your availability.
March: Close the weekend after March 15. This way your staff can catch their breath, catch up on family duties and have a “whole” weekend to chill out. Whether your staff works virtually or in your office, they could use the time off. You can skip marketing activities in March — clients might think that if you had time to send them a marketing pitch, you are not too busy, so then why will they be getting their return at the last minute?
April: File your own return on time with no extension! Close the day after tax season ends; this year it will give staff a three-day weekend. Schedule a lunch, two hours maximum, on April 22 for a tax season retrospective while everything is fresh in everyone’s minds. A virtual lunch is OK. Give your staff a voucher to buy themselves and their family a nice lunch. At the end of April, send clients a letter similar to what you sent out in January updating them on how you did during tax season.
May: Send your clients an email with one of my “tax season checklists” that you can adapt from the Word file that I distribute at the end of every January. Two that come to mind are “Getting rid of tax preparation clutter” and “Ways to reduce tax preparation fees.” Take your well-earned vacation. Start scheduling monthly off-site partners’ meetings, or if you are a solo, then with yourself and key staff if any. An updated checklist file will be available at the end of January. If you want last year’s, request it now at
June: Start reviewing your clients’ tax returns and any notes you made about additional services they might need. Try my 1/20th rule, which is to provide additional services to 5 percent of your individual tax clients each year. Continue with your monthly partners’ meetings. Try taking off every Friday from now until at least Labor Day. If you are that busy, then work harder and longer the other four days, but take Fridays off.
July: Send a July 4 card or email to your clients. If you want to get a little corny, have a photo taken of you and your staff, each holding a flag. Visit or meet or schedule a Zoom-type meeting with every business client that you haven’t been with since April. Meet with them and show your availability. If you reduced your in-person meetings, then make it up with twice as many, but shorter, virtual meetings or phone calls.
August: Continue the client meetings and the 1/20th calls. Get started with the returns with extensions so September and the first half of October won’t be so burdensome. If you take a vacation at an exotic place, send a card with a preprinted message. Have the cards printed and addressed before you leave for the vacation. When you arrive, buy stamps and mail them. An alternative is to write a letter describing your (or a partner’s) vacation to an exotic place, or one of your hobbies or some charitable project you or one of your partners or staff were involved in. Make it personal and share the experiences.
September: It’s a busy work month, but do not stop your monthly partner or owner meetings.
October: Toward the end of the month, your CPE should start up again, as should calls to tax clients to find out what changes took place with them during the year that might have tax consequences. Anything that has happened that can be worked on before the year ends will have that work shifted from the busiest part of tax season to a less hectic November or December. Make that call! You could also send a letter asking clients if they need any year-end tax planning, saying you should be made aware of anything that happened during the year that would need to be reported on their 2021 return and that it should be worked on now. Even better, make the call. Keep in mind my 1/20thrule.
November: See last month and make the calls you didn’t last month. It’s also a good time for a second vacation. And you need to get started planning for next tax season. Send a Thanksgiving card with a message that you made a contribution on behalf of your clients to the local food pantry or a similar organization.
December: Be a realistic business person. Did your firm do the best it could this year? Are your staff growing the best they can? Are you keeping up with your clients? Are they keeping up with your growth and increased and improved and expanded capabilities? If the latter hasn’t happened, then determine why not and make it happen next year. It’s also a good time to review your clients and determine if work was done that was not billed, was out of scope or was done inefficiently or should not have been done at all. Bill whatever you can, review your job-planning procedures and cut out nonessential services. Send a desk or wall calendar to all of your clients and contacts. It should be something nice and tasteful. If it ends up on a wall, you have just acquired a 12-month “billboard” for very little cost. Another thing you can do is to send an email or postal letter asking clients for referrals. One of my colleagues mails a $100 gift certificate to be applied against a client’s tax return fee for every new client they refer; he has received over 150 new clients from this tactic. Another thing you can mail or email is a listing of what records can be discarded and what should be retained.
There are many other ways of keeping in touch with clients in a regular and unobtrusive manner. During the year you can send clippings or reprints of articles or book excerpts, or even give them a magazine subscription. Make frequent “just checking in” calls to see how your clients are doing, and if there are any major changes in their lives. Notice that I did not refer to any form of social media — this should already be fully integrated into any regular regime.
Use the above as a starting point to develop your monthly client contact schedule. Contacts are “touchy-feely” activities and will strengthen the client’s relationship with you.
Have a happy, healthy and peaceful new year.
Do not hesitate to contact me at
