If you are a tax professional you will want to read this important post. TaxConnections has spent years building a network focused on raising the visibility of tax, financial and legal professionals online. This post is a road map to help you succeed because there are tax professionals acquiring many clients right now. I will share with you what we see tax professionals doing to acquire clients and connect with jobs successfully. It is all about how you market your tax expertise online. Inaction is not an option in this market! My goal in writing this post is to guide you through these times and show you the keys to unlock the door to success in the tax profession today.

1. START TODAY: Take action daily by feeding your mind with positive thoughts! Research proves positive thoughts will change your life. A positive attitude makes your life journey easier, attracts more people and business opportunities to you, and creates greater value for your professional life. Your mind is the most powerful computer in the world so feed it with positive energy that energizes you personally and professionally. One of my favorite books is Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking and the first line of Chapter 1 states “BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! Have faith in your abilities.” Start your day by reading from this free eBook of 250 Inspirational And Motivational Quotes. We built it to make you feel good each day!

2. Work smart by positioning your professional reputation in the path of others searching for tax and financial expertise. PAY ATTENTION TO Amazon Alexa Analytics Site Metrics to understand people searching for tax expertise are spending more time on www.taxconnections.com. They do not want to search around generalist sites and pay to find you. You must take responsibility to market your tax reputation to make it easier for people to find and connect with you online!

3. On an organic search, if you are a TaxConnections Member, your name will appear high on the search engines because all of our tax members are joined together on an authority site for tax professionals which pushes our members to the top together. It is important to understand what differentiates a professional profile on TaxConnections from any other site is that a Tax Professional Membership ensures everyone can see your full profile and email you for free. (When people are forced to pay to see your profile…you lose business opportunities)

4. We continuously reach out to executives in large, medium and small companies, high net worth individuals to introduce people to our tax professional members. We exist to drive new business opportunities to our members worldwide. Our repeat visitor return rate is 75% tax and financial professionals which tells us they come to find other members with specialty tax expertise to refer to their clients. They also come to read blogs and receive a great education from our Tax Professional Members. TaxConnections referral network drives a great deal of business to our tax professional members who follow the weekly training we send them. TaxConnections enables you to control your professional brand so people do not have to pay to find you. We have never sold your data either unlike other organizations who sell it to the highest bidder.

5. Over the past several years, I have listened and learned from insiders, board members, executive administrators running tax associations discuss the loss of memberships or the inability to attract new members to join. Social media was the beginning of the loss of new members in associations and now the pandemic may be the ending for associations(unless they change). There are a couple of issues at play here and I will give it to you as being told to me behind the scenes. The new generations brought up on social media have been telling us privately “I am not interested in paying for an association membership because its typically run by an older generation and if I spend my money it will be to meet people in my age group. Also, I do not want to pay for training as I know how to find training for free.” (Sorry folks, this is what I am actually hearing from incoming generations of tax professionals). Remember the new generation is like that little trout you are trying to catch. They chase shiny new things and will only bite if you have what they want!

6. On the other hand, you have the 50+ generation who has been brought up appreciating the value gained at association events. However, given social distancing, association events are now online and the in person contacts professionals enjoyed are no longer happening. Many professionals join associations because of the in-person conference experiences.

Unfortunately, we will continue to see associations lose members unless they deliver a new technology platform for incoming generations who expect technology innovation. As the CEO of TaxConnections, I have reached out to many associations offering the solution our technology platform offers for association that will provide the opportunity for them to survive and thrive. However, associations are very slow to make decisions. This has a lot to do with how they supported by Boards who move in and out of non-profit organizational roles every couple of years.

7. Training is about to experience a stunning metamorphosis. Recently, I was in the office of cognitive scientists who are creating training for organizations that enables one to gain 3 years of experience within 6 hours. In fact, it is scientifically proven and 100% guaranteed. For those firms with 500+ professionals, reach out to me and kat@taxconnections.com and I will introduce you to the folks who build accelerated training. This new virtual training technology is stunningly effective and the BEST TRAINING I have ever seen. It is the future of training thousands of employees all working from remote locations at any time of the day. The firms who employ this technology will attract the best tax professionals in the world.

Plan on budgeting in your training line item a one-time fee of 200K-250K to make it for your firm. It will be very cost effective for firms who want to attract the 0-5 years of experience tax professional and for grooming managers to consistently exceed their annual revenue goals. The firms who acquire this cutting edge technology will DEFINITELY OUTPERFORM all competitors for business and reduce overhead training costs. Remember they guarantee results.

8. There are many obsolete businesses that serve as a constant reminder to embrace changes (Telephones to iPhones, DVDs to Netflix, Savings Banks to Robobanks, Sears and Roebuck Catalogue to Amazon, etc.) You get the idea…the way of doing business is changing for everyone. Will you take action and make the changes…this is the question?

9. Sociologist Everett Rogers wrote a book titled Diffusion of Innovations in which he discusses how people are prompted, as part of a social system, to change. Adoption of a new behavior does not happen simultaneously in a social system, rather it is a process whereby some people are more apt to adopt the new innovation early versus those who become the laggards. According to Everett Rogers there are five established adopter categories. You need to decide what kind of adopter you want to be in the market.

Innovators – These are people who want to be the first to try the innovation. They are venturesome and interested in new ideas. These people are very willing to take risks, and are often the first to develop new ideas. Very little, if anything, needs to be done to appeal to this population.

Early Adopters – These are people who represent opinion leaders. They enjoy leadership roles, and embrace change opportunities. They are already aware of the need to change and so are very comfortable adopting new ideas. Strategies to appeal to this population include how-to manuals and information sheets on implementation. They do not need information to convince them to change.

Early Majority – These people are rarely leaders, but they do adopt new ideas before the average person. That said, they typically need to see evidence that the innovation works before they are willing to adopt it. Strategies to appeal to this population include success stories and evidence of the innovation’s effectiveness.

Late Majority – These people are skeptical of change, and will only adopt an innovation after it has been tried by the majority. Strategies to appeal to this population include information on how many other people have tried the innovation and have adopted it successfully.

Laggards – These people are bound by tradition and very conservative. They are very skeptical of change and are the hardest group to bring on board. Strategies to appeal to this population include statistics, fear appeals, and pressure from people in the other adopter groups.

You need to decide for yourself if you will chose inaction or take action now!. You need to decide what group you see yourself in right now!

10. Based on firsthand experience, our tax network generates new clients for our members; helps members connect to new business opportunities; educates tax professionals on software; and helps tax professionals build strong brands that build trust. The real secret to new business opportunities is building trust over a period of time. Paying advertising a lot of money for 10,000 clicks at 3 seconds a click on you does not build a business relationship. What builds business opportunities for you is having an online profile people can access without having to pay to see your profile, writing blogs in an open garden site(closed gardens keep everything in, look it up folks, TaxConnections is an OPEN GARDEN you want to be found), answering tax questions, and so many other strategies you will learn from being in our community.

As the Founder of TaxConnections, I have a great responsibility to all the tax professionals who support our network. It is important for anyone reading this to know I really care about you and your success in the profession. Join us as a TaxConnections Tax Professional Member TODAY. When you need a tax professional refer to our members and support our wonderful and growing tax and financial community. We are here to serve all of you and lead you on a successful path! We offer the only tax network like this in the world! What we bring you will be great advances for the profession.

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