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Glastonbury, CT - wayne@s-consult.com
These conference kits are a little pricey at $2,500 for a one day and $3,500 for a two day (the price jumps to $4,750 and $7,500 respectively if you want coaching on how to manage your QuickBooks conference).
Still - if I was a CPA firm I'd be all over this. The only way I found to make a profit on QuickBooks consulting was to group together a large number of people and hold a seminar. To this day several of the seminars that I held made more profit relative to effort than any single activity I've ever done.QuickBooks consulting works best when it's an ancillary service offered in conjunction with another recurring activity such as bookkeeping, accounting, tax or other financial services. As a standalone service I've always found it very difficult to earn a profit once I subtracted out the significant amount of free initial (go nowhere) meetings with people who were searching for nothing more than a free push in the right direction.
What I found is that once I landed a QuickBooks engagement that the rates typically were below market due to there not being any real barrier to entry to QuickBooks consulting. Just about anyone can call themselves a QuickBooks consultant.
Consulting on QuickBooks, in my opinion, is a great idea for CPA firms who have a built in market (their existing clients) to offer these services to.
The smartest way to offer QuickBooks consulting to the general public is via seminars. That way anyone who is not already a client can be told to register for the session as a first step (paid) and if there are issues or questions they still have then they can retain you for a paid follow-up.
See how you just converted a request for a free initial meeting into a paying engagement?
And you can make money by offering these seminars/conferences as well.
The site claims a potential profit of $11,250 based on 150 people attending and paying $150 each for a one day session. If you hold a two day session charging $295 the site claims you can reap $25,250. And you know what -- I believe them provided you can do one thing.
The hidden gotcha is putting people into the seats. Getting 150 paid attendees is tough (my highest was around 125 and that was marketed to an entire State CPA Society).
QuickBooks seminars work best for CPA firms with a built-in audience receptive to these types of seminars. Another great source of materials is Sleeter Group - http://www.sleeter.com
I have no affilication with either of these groups.
Source:
By day I'm a consultant working with a popular line of accounting software called Sage MAS 90.
My company web site is http://www.s-consult.com and we provide training, consulting and troubleshooting for all versions of Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 to customers located throughout the United States.
I live in Glastonbury with my two kids (aged 9) who bring special meaning to the concept that "all kids are cute when they're somebody else's".
In my spare time I love hiking, disco dancing, macrame, ping pong, and watching paint dry.
The thoughts and commentary on this page are my own and not anyone else's but shouldn't that be obvious?
