One of the most important valuable benefits you bring to your clients is business knowledge. When you can establish yourself as an invaluable tool in a client’s business toolbox, you can advance your status to business advisor. However, it can be difficult finding a way to approach clients about your financial/commercial advisory services. One of the easiest “ins” is to remain up to date on industry news and use it as a stepping stone to reach out to your clients. Here’s how you can use the “Business Plus+” newsletter and SME Needs’ Analysis tool to start meaningful, productive conversations with your clients to grow your firm.
GAIN MONTHLY KNOWLEDGE
The articles in Business Plus+ are the perfect diving-off point to find relevant topics to discuss with your clients. Read through each edition and consider how the information you glean from the articles can apply to your clients. You can do the same for prospects you might have in the sales funnel needing a little nudge to commit. Send relevant articles to your client and give them three or four days to read them. Then reach out to them and ask if they would like to set up a meeting to discuss the information. The gesture shows your clients you fully appreciate the issues that are confronting them and have the experience and skills to help.
BE PREPARED FOR REJECTION
Don’t be offended if clients don’t seem interested in the first call. The best way to make this marketing approach work for you is to be diligent and thoughtful in the clients you target and the articles you send. Create a spreadsheet listing your clients and the articles that align with their interests or needs. Once you send the articles and make your call, note their comments and plan a follow-up strategy so you can engage them again.
Your follow-up should show them you listened to their comments and understand their issues. This approach takes patience, but can really pay off in the end. Remember you aren’t contacting them on a whim in a week. Instead, you will carefully consider the articles that will resonate with them, and use this as your next point of contact. Even if it means waiting months or a year!
LEVERAGE THE SME NEEDS’ ANALYSIS TOOL
Use the SME Needs’ Analysis tool (BAS017) included with ESS BIZTOOLS to find relevant, value-added concepts that will help the client run their businesses more effectively. This tool will provide fodder for pertinent questions to gather information from clients over a cup of coffee so you understand their concerns.
UNDERSTAND CASHFLOW CHALLENGES
Questions that keep a small business owner up at night often circle around cashflow such as:
- Is it the level of debtors and the debtors’ days outstanding?
- Is it their Cashflow Forecast, or lack of them?
- Do they need additional funding and don’t have security available to be offered to a bank?
Cash Flow Challenges allow you to discuss opportunities to raise capital. Under section 708 of the Corporations Act, a private company is able to raise up to $2 million in a 12-month period from a maximum of 20 investors. Companies with turnovers under $25 million may be able to meet the requirements to be deemed a Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising Company and then raise up to $5 million from the public in a 12-month period. Companies that qualify for the classification “Early Stage Innovation Company” (ESS BIZTOOLS Product Packages includes a detailed worksheet to assist in the classification process) are able to raise capital directly from the public whilst conveying significant taxation benefits to the investors in the status determination process.
ESS BIZTOOLS Product Packages supply working papers on the processes required for determination under section 708 of the Corporations Act, achieving the Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising Status, and achieving the status of an Early Stage Innovation Company to assist our subscribers to offer this advice, therefore creating an outstanding business opportunity for you and a potential answer to a Cash Flow Challenge that your client may have.
TEAM PRODUCTIVITY AND COMPETITION
Questions about team productivity and the competition are ideal opportunities to discuss benchmarking. You can bring up factors such as key performance indicators and help explain what it means. When business owners realize they lack knowledge in such an important aspect of their business, they’ll be more open to an offer to undertake an assignment to determine the key performance indicators for their business. Expand this offer to include training their leadership team, so they understand how to use the measurements to improve productivity.
SUCCESSION STRATEGY
The age and life of a client’s business might indicate they are ready to discuss a succession strategy. You can discuss the importance of drafting a succession planning strategy and offer to provide a training course for family members so they understand corporate governance.
GOVERNMENT GRANTS
Many SME owners are unaware of the government grants available. You can use this as an opportunity to offer financial/commercial advisory services and explain how you can help them apply for Australian and State and Territory grants. They take advantage of the grants and you take advantage of the professional fees available for alerting clients to what’s available. In fact, much work being funded by government grants is performed by accounting/bookkeeping firms offering financial/commercial advisory services.
PERSONAL PROPERTY SECURITIES REGISTER
Another issue for small business operators is ignorance of the Personal Property Securities Register. If you have tradie clients, they can easily get caught out by receiving “preferential payments” without even realizing it. As a result, they have to repay monies received from customers that had a liquidator, receiver, or trustee in bankruptcy appointed to them. In these cases, there is an opportunity to explain how your client can protect themselves by registering certain clients onto the Personal Property Securities Register.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT TAXATION BENEFITS
The ESS BIZTOOLS’ Research and Development Product Package is very extensive because there is a lot of work involved in offering advice on the full innovative journey from the original idea through to the lodgement of the annual “Research and Development Tax Incentive Application: Registration of Research and Development Activities” with AusIndustry and ultimately submitting the claim for the Research and Development Rebate in the company’s Income Tax Return.
We have developed the Research and Development Introduction Package, which is included within the Advisory Intro Product Package and the Starter Package, to assist subscribers to those packages to be able to offer initial advice to a client so that they have an appreciation of the key requirements of the Research and Development Legislation.
The Research and Development Product Package (complete package) is available within the Advanced Product Package and the Financial Forecasting Package and covers all of the requirements from the original idea through to the lodgement with AusIndustry and the Australian Taxation Office.
This package is extensive and includes:
- 46 specific forms
- 13 Flowcharts to assist in explanations to your client and your team as to how the research and development process operates
- 13 individual papers discussing specific components of the research and development system
UNDERSTANDING THE INDIVIDUAL PRODUCT PACKAGES ASSISTS THE MARKETING EFFORT
All of these conversations open up opportunities to market your financial/commercial advisory services in an organic way. When you understand client needs, your conversations become more productive, addressing “real business activities” that get your client interested in the type of commercial advice you can supply. As a result, clients are more inclined to treat you as their “Virtual Chief Financial Officer” and not just a tax advisor.