Chapter 1
How to Start a Tax Business
Chapter 2
The Fundamentals for Tax Preparers
Chapter 3
How to Setup Your Office
Chapter 4
Getting Your Office Tools
Chapter 5
Outsourced Suppliers
Chapter 6
Investing In Your Own Office Space
Chapter 7
Acquiring Your Clients
Chapter 8
Chapter 5: Outsourced Suppliers
When you start a business, you don’t have to hire a lot of professionals to work for you immediately. Recruiting and paying a staff might be too onerous an expense in your early days.
For small businesses, it’s highly recommended to outsource services that are not in your field of work yet. The main goal is to work on your businesses’ core services and strengthen these. You’ll want to work on the essentials of your tax preparation services: acquiring clients, setting up your tax software, understanding the market, and expanding into other tax-related services.
Whether you have a home office or your own commercial space, you can outsource services like shredding services, computer IT, and printing services.
Internet Service Provider (ISP)
In today’s market, there’s no business that does not deal with the internet. You use the internet to connect with your clients using email and messaging services. Banking and marketing are also done on the internet nowadays. Most importantly, you’ll need an internet connection to file your clients’ tax returns via UltimateTax.
What kind of internet service do I need?
In some towns, you might have only one ISP. But it’s more likely that you have a number of ISP options. When it comes to internet service providers, location can matter.
Whether you have one ISP option or several, getting a broadband connection will be crucial to your new tax preparation business. The IRS recommends that preparers use a high-speed internet connection for e-Filing returns.
According to Speedtest.net, as of October 2020, the US has registered an average upload speed of 62.11 Mbps and download speed of 165.88 Mbps on fixed broadband connections. The comparable average speeds for mobile connections are 11.8 Mbps on uploads and 53.44 on downloads. However, local average speeds also vary depending on where you are in the USA.
You’ll want a minimum upload speed of 50 Mbps and a download speed of 100 Mbps. That would be acceptable for a small business.
Try to find an ISP that provides excellent customer support. Your tax software and e-File transmissions rely on dependable internet service. When your internet goes down, you want to be able to talk to someone from your ISP who can promptly resolve the issue.
TIP: Since most of your transactions will take place online, you definitely need an ISP with reliable quality service. Ask your friends, especially the business owners, if they can recommend a good ISP in your area. Also, find out recommendations from small business owners near your office or home.
IT Services
Nowadays, many businesses need IT services. When you’re starting your business, however, you
might not require a great deal of IT support. Prioritizing the services which you need first can be the
key to maximizing your ROI with a small budget.
Work Station & Equipment Set-Up
After purchasing your laptop or desktop, you might need IT support to install the necessary applications. They can ensure that your systems will work as they should. In many cases, your retailer can provide such a service, which would include installing the basic applications, such as your device’s operating system.
What about the other applications that you’ll need? You might want to install Microsoft Office or iWork Suite. You also need business communication tools such as Skype, WhatsApp, Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and Slack.
Additionally, you’ll have to install any specialized software for running accessories. This could include your printer, scanner, headset, signature pad, etc.
Then you need to ensure that your data server delivers a high level of data security. You want all your devices to connect to the internet for maximum efficiency, while ensuring security.
Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about the tax software installation process when it comes to UltimateTax. Our customer service will guide you through the installation. Our support team can also help you with any problems related to UltimateTax, all-year-round. UltimateTax also has many support articles on installation that you can consult.
If you only have to install UltimateTax on one workstation, you can get it done by yourself. If you’ve got many installations or doing a network installation, you’re dealing with greater complexity. It might be worthwhile to hire an IT person to do it. You can avoid frustration and save time, especially if you are not too adept in electronics. The time you save can then be spent acquiring new clients, building your brand and reputation, or some other productive activity.
Big companies often have an in-house IT support staff. This may not be feasible for most small businesses. According to Glassdoor, the average pay of an IT professional is $101,999 per year.
Instead of hiring a full-time IT employee, you may find it more cost-effective to outsource IT services to a third-party company. You can choose between a monthly subscription of technical support or a one-time work contract.
| Type of Outsourced Work PROs CONs | PROs | CONs |
|---|---|---|
One-time Work Contract |
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Monthly Subscription |
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Consider getting technical support from companies that also provide laptop or equipment repair services. That way, you won’t have to find a different company when you have hardware issues.
Depending on your location, you may have a few options for IT services. Always check the company’s ratings before deciding which one to trust your business with. Remember, whomever you choose will help you set up a huge chunk of your business.
Marketing services
It may be smart for you to focus on your core business and outsource the bulk of your marketing
efforts. One advantage of outsourcing marketing services is that you won’t have to pay for a salaried
full-time employee. Plus, you get to work with experts in the industry.
You may still handle other marketing aspects of your business, such as marketing events and face-
to-face meet-ups with your target market. But you can delegate your digital marketing to a third-
party company. Here are some marketing aspects that you can easily outsource:
Logo and Brands
Unless you already have a specific idea of what your logo and brand would be, you can outsource and hire a graphic artist to render it all. A better idea would be for you to share those ideas with your graphic artist and let him make it visual or improve on it.
Depending on the graphic artist’s rates and agreed work, you’ll get at least three options for your logo and brands. You can further discuss revisions to get a logo you are happy with.
Remember, your logo is also crucial to your marketing. It’ll be part of your business cards, official stationery, and ads. So when choosing the graphic designer that will handle your logos, familiarize yourself with their previous work. You need to find someone whose visual style resonates with your preferences.
Keep in mind your target market, too. Tax preparation is a serious and professional business. Do you think the previous works of the graphic artist shows this kind of professionalism? You’ll need to partner with an artist that can get this message across through design.
Website Design
Your website is equivalent to your business card. A client who wants to know more about your business will look at your website. If you don’t have a website, the client may think twice about the legitimacy of your business.
Unless you are a former web developer, building a reliable website can be quite a challenge. Instead of spending hours figuring out how to build one, hire a company that does website design.
Search for companies (or freelancers) that offer this type of service. Find out what services they provide and their rates.
Also, browse through their portfolio. Find out what websites they’ve made. You’ll often find that their website designs carry a certain look and feel. You can decide whether that fits your business image.
Now that you have your website and your logo design, consider getting someone to handle your online marketing. The next step, in terms of marketing, is getting people to visit your website.
This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in. It’s the process of achieving quality and quantity in web traffic using keywords. Given finely-tuned SEO, when someone googles “tax preparer” or “tax preparation near me,” your website should show up as one of the top results.
If your website places in the top search results, it will benefit from more web traffic, giving you more chances to land a client. Now, your website must sell your tax expertise and convince the client to hire you as a tax preparer. Web marketing services take care of the SEO of your website, so you can get more clients to hire you.
SEO optimization and companion processes like link building are time-consuming activities. You don’t want to spend too much time away from your core business to work on that! You’re better off outsourcing such tasks to industry experts. To web marketing specialists like The Gallas Company.
The Gallas Company is a digital marketing agency that develops online marketing strategies for companies, building up their web presence through SEO optimization and SEO link building. While it is based in Florida, The Gallas Company caters to companies anywhere in the USA. It’s a no-fluff, results-driven, versatile web marketing service that builds relationships with each client.
You’ll get access to regular reports on SEO Strategy, KPIs, Google Adwords, Google Analytics, and Facebook Ads. Get key consultations on your web marketing through Competition Analysis & Review, Strategic Product Offering, Search Engine Optimization Strategy, and Social Media Strategy.
Consider looking into their Partnered Marketing strategy. It means that The Gallas Company will work with you to understand your business, your goals, and set up a long-term marketing strategy. Client engagement is tailored according to your business needs.
Get a web marketing service that produces results. Then you can spend more time running your business’ daily operations and working on other client acquisition strategies.
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