I have sorta a love-hate relationship with my accountant.
On the one hand, she’s provided an invaluable service to me, my freedom, and making sure my beloved government doesn’t steal every last penny to my name.
On the other hand, she’s always busy with clients (who love her and continue to work with her even after moving states) and running a bit last minute, which can cause an enormous amount of stress for me.
For example, a few years back, I hadn’t heard back from her about my taxes until April 14, where she told me she filed an extension. This was after a few solid weeks of sending emails and calling her without getting a response.
Or more recently:
This past year, when I went to hand in my info, I learned that she had a stroke. As such, she filed an extension for me this year too—partly because I wanted more time and partly because she needed more time, especially with how busy she gets during tax season.
While she’s doing leagues better in October than she was when I went in in March, this tax season was a bit different for el John-o-rino. The stroke she suffered took a toll on her ability to talk. Her brain still functions as if she didn’t have a stroke (which is the important part here), but it takes her a bit longer to spit out some words.
As such, I’ve dealt with her daughter this tax season. She’s not an accountant, but she’s provided a ton of help to her mother (and to your humble narrator here).
Anyway, I went into the office yesterday, squared up my taxes, happily paid my accountant’s fees, and then Peanut and I even visited the bar her daughter works at (because I wanted to give her a nice tip, alas, she wasn’t working behind the bar last night).
Which brings me to the point:
Despite the mountains of stress I cause myself during tax season (and my accountant usually doesn’t dissipate this stress because she’s busy herself and doesn’t respond immediately), my accountant always comes through.
Always.
And that’s how you provide real value.
Not by being so responsive to your clients or customers that you morph into a Customer Service Super Hero that responds within an hour of them reaching out…
Or by offering free content or “value” because you’re afraid asking for money to run your business makes you look bad…
Or even by discounting your products and services because, again, you think it makes you look bad to charge an arm and a leg…
Just by providing something that’s actually valuable to your clients and customers (instead of what you think is valuable).
In this case, helping me avoid jail for not paying my taxes and handling everything for me so I don’t even have to think about it, save for a week or so each year.
Alright - that’s enough.
If you want to see how dramatically I can grow your revenue with emails kinda sorta like this one, hit reply, and let’s chat.
John
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