Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Rebuild Failure

I had a client this morning whose data file was corrupted (i.e. Verify Integrity failed). QuickBooks recommends that you Rebuild the data file. However, sometimes rebuilds don't work. If you want to look like a pro, you need to learn to use the built in diagnostic tools for QuickBooks - secret keystrokes that let you know what's going on behind the QuickBooks scenes. These are:
F2: to see what version and updates are installed and other numerical info on the file.
F2-Ctrl2-Open File, QBWinlog: shows the results of the last Verify Integrity check.
Usually when a rebuild fails, it's only due to one or two errant transactions. The Winlog helps you find those transactions. Then you can delete the corrupted transactions and re-enter them. Then run another integrity check and viola!

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Empower Your Clients

You may find that you have clients that depend on you to tell them everything to do in QuickBooks. They are afraid to try anything themselves for fear of making some irreparable error. Hopefully, you are good enough to clean-up errors that your clients may make, so you should assure them that it is safe for them to practice and experiment while you're not there. An important part of being a consultant is empowering your clients.
To do this, you should space your visits to give the client time to practice data entry. Encourage them to enter data while you're gone, with the understanding that everybody makes mistakes but you can fix them. Then, when you return, you can see the types of errors being made and clearly show the client what they're doing wrong and how it should be done with real life examples. This applies to phone calls too. Yesterday a client phoned me and left a message to the effect that her accounting world was coming to an end unless she knew right then how to enter a certain transaction (in this case, an in-kind contribution). I could've called back immediately and told her what to do, however, it is often best to let them try to figure things out. By the time I called back, she had figured it out and just needed me to confirm and praise.
The downside of empowering your clients is that they are slowly weaned away from you, and you have to find new clients to keep making money. This blog isn't about being selfish though - it's about being a good QB consultant. How do you empower your clients?

Monday, September 19, 2005

Learn and Get New Clients

I'm looking forward to spending tomorrow at a full-day seminar learning about stress management. Okay, so I'm not particularly stressed, but I know that I will enjoy learning new things and will pick up a few new clients while I'm there. Conferences and local seminars are great ways to pick up clients even if you're not the one giving the seminar. People are there to learn and are happy to learn about QuickBooks as well as the topic at hand. I highly recommend you go to any QuickBooks seminar in your area offered by "outsiders" such as Real World Training. Not only will you pick up some QuickBooks tips, but you should get A LOT of clients since the seminar just whets their appetite for more QB knowledge, and Real World Training can't follow up on a personal basis. When I went to a Real World Training two-day workshop, they let me leave my business cards (those precious little advertisements) on their table so people could take them with their workshop materials. Give lots of free advice while you're there!

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Pricing for Stability

Once you've gotten your consulting biz up and running and have a good number of clients, you want to start making more money and maintain your client base. It's time to hone in on your specialty. By now you should be competent and have a fair amount of experience with different types of businesses and what their QuickBooks needs are. Think about specializing in a specific area and raising your prices for being a "specialist". You could work only with QuickBooks POS and become specially certified for that. You could specialize in construction companies, legal firms or nonprofits (as I do). Get the word out you are specializing and raise your rates for everybody. A 10-20% raise is reasonable. Now you know what you are doing most of the time and should be able to handle your competitors. Your specialty will now set you apart from them. Keep working at it, but keep those other clients not in your specialty to further gain experience (and cash flow!). Eventually you will move to the next level when you Price for Optimization (coming soon...).

Monday, September 05, 2005

Working Holidays

Happy Labor Day! I have two clients today which brings me to my next point. It would definitely help your clients and help grow your business if you opt to work irregular hours sometimes. Several of my clients have showrooms and/or multiple people using QuickBooks at once. Therefore it's difficult to schedule time to be in single-user mode to make alterations to their QuickBooks file. Or it's simply difficult for them to get time off to work with me on their QuickBooks file. In these cases, it's good to be flexible and work before their business opens(6-8a), after their business closes (5-7p), maybe some weekends and holidays. This is good added-value to your clients and will separate you from more rigid competitors. Gotta go to work...

Friday, September 02, 2005

Growing Your Client Base

Now that you've priced for growth, you need to get the word out. There is the expensive route: put ads in papers, print and mail fancy fliers, etc. Then there's the cheap route which I prefer. You can't beat word-of-mouth. Hand out business cards to everybody you know, leave them at banks, post them on free bulletin boards. I even drop some periodically at the QuickBooks displays at Office Depot, etc.
Of course, this means you'd better have some advertising on your business card. Aside from my biz name, my name and contact info, my cards say "We make QuickBooks work for you!" and "Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor" and "QuickBooks discounts and help guides at www.realitycheckonline.com". Go to VistaPrint.com, find a card you like and then customize it. Their quality is great and you can't beat the prices.
If you have the time, you can offer a free seminar or teach at your local community college. I did and got lots of clients and got paid for teaching! You can get an article written about you and a friend in the local paper's business section (mine was "Business Mentors Help Start-Ups"). I could go on forever, but you get the idea. There's lots of free advertising out there - Go get it!