Preliminary numbers are in,
For various reason I terminated my relationship with 14% of my client base.
27% of my “stable clients” either no showed or used Tax prep software. (Hopefully Turbo Tax.)
I also showed a 23% grow with new clients.
Overall:
Compared to last years completed returns, to this years completed returns I am showing an overall loss in revenue of 17%.
I find this disturbing giving my track record:
2006-2007 revenue increase + 18% / Client increase + 117%
2007-2008 revenue increase + 25% / Client increase + 125%
2008-2009 revenue increase + 34% / Client increase + 171%
My losses are minuscule compared to my pears across the country who have lost as much as 62% of their tax preparing revenue.
© 2010, Bruce Mc. All rights reserved.
Bruce:
I retained about 90% of my client base from a year ago, and picked up enough new clients to more or less hold where I was from a year ago. But I expect to see an impact next year.
What I saw this year was people with relatively simple tax situations choosing to do their taxes themselves. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, mind you – I encourage my clients to understand their own tax situation because ultimately what’s on that return is their responsibility, as far as the IRS is concerned. But I do think as a result that tax professionals will have to focus more on tax advice, and less on the actual return preparation.
Thanks for the open information. I have received several response with others numbers, none of whom are willing to make public knowledge of the downed volume in clientele. Sadly, people, still see “image” as key and feel declining numbers might cause a downslide of the same.
As I touched on above in the post I am positive clients are choosing (have chosen) to do their own. I offer my clients’ tax advice throughout the year as it pertains to their individual situations. I find this time consuming, yet proactive in maintaining my clientele. Consequently a necessity. Next month when I go back to “work” I will be posting my actual numbers as I did last year and I am happy to say, that given the clients I dismissed, and those who didn’t come in this year combined with my new clients, my numbers are about equal to last year. Not the growth I had hoped for given my growth factor from previous years.
As to a trend for next year, I am much more skeptical than I have been. I project an increase in clientele for many if not most of us thanks to the coming tax preparer regulation.
I am happy to hear that you maintained, you did better than a lot of others this across the country.