Some of my clients pay only about half of my normal fee. Why? I spent some time analyzing my client list and my own behaviors, and came up with these ten observations of the clients who pay lower fees with my full support. While most accountants would likely say that it is a bad business practice to offer variances in pricing, the reality is that it happens in many or most firms. This blog post takes a closer look. The reasons I compiled, in order of frequency:
1. They are a joy to work with and make me feel happy (the best reason).
2. They make referrals to new clients (a great reason).
3. They write online reviews and social media posts of endorsement that favorably influences my attitude toward our work.
4. I like to support certain industries (local farming, fishing, nonprofits with aligned causes).
5. I have a soft stop for supporting startups (but need to cut it off after about 2 years).
6. We have other joint projects (real estate or marina activities).
7. We have a barter arrangement (tax aspects of barter not addressed here).
8. They are elected officials who do political favors (arguably not a good reason, but a reality).
9. They are older and I don’t want to spend my time pushing a fee change (also not a good reason).
10. They are friends of friends or family (definitely not a good reason, but often the case).
The simple point of this post is that being easy to work with can save a ton of cash in accounting fees.
(This post is inspired by my current reading of the book “Accountant Marketer” where author Karen Reyburn CPA says that we should be talking about fees in a productive context more often).