Friday, July 29, 2005

Get Yourself Certified

I've been emailing some QuickBooks support to a person in Indonesia that's volunteering with the tsunami relief work. They're using QuickBooks and tracking many of the nonprofits involved as subsidiaries. I won't go into the details, but this brings me to the importance of getting yourself listed on Intuit's QuickBooks Referral database. Certification is not cheap, especially for those starting out in consulting, however you get your money back in software, support, visibility and credibility so it's well worth the effort. I'm thrilled to be doing at least a little part for the tsunami relief work and am sure they would not have found me if it weren't for Intuit's database. I can't tell you how many new clients just check in the database to see how credible I am. It gives you that one step up over your competition. Good Luck with the tests!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Phyllis - what happened? are you still blogging or did you give up? I hope not...it's hard but stick in there!
Paul

reality check said...

Dear Paul,

Thanks for the encouragement! I haven't given up. There will soon be a blog on how to get rid of difficult clients which I have been grappling with, and I'm starting a new business.

Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

Hi realitycheck,

I just found your blog, and I really, really, like it. It's incredibly helpful for someone who's just starting out (me!) and is struggling with the juggling (certification and new client acquisition, fees - how much should I charge anyhow?), and diversifying my business while trying to become more efficient all the while. The Treo info was really timely, as Earthlink Wireless (new biz for them, I guess) has a $199 offer for a Treo 650, that I now think I'll go ahead and get. Thanks for this altruistic and expository form of experience sharing, please keep it up!

reality check said...

The Treo is definitely the way to go. I'll post more info on pricing and growth soon.
Enjoy!