Navaal Mahdi – Page 6

#TechTips: The Small Firm Advantage

Posted on October 31, 2018March 12, 2024 by Navaal Mahdi

By Jonathan Rivlin

The funny thing about aging is how non sequiturs trigger associations that link to long dormant memories. I recently saw a picture of and that took me back to the summer of 1991 when he appeared in the movie “Doc Hollywood” staring Michael J. Fox and Julie Warner.

In that movie, Michael J. Fox played a young doctor, saddled with student loans, who was on his way to Beverly Hills to join a large medical practice and presumably a life of fast cars and serial marriages (not that we judge). On his way out to Beverly Hills, he had an accident in a small town in South Carolina (how he intended to get to Beverly Hills from Washington DC via South Carolina was never explained). As part of his punishment for the accident, he had to perform community service hours at the local hospital.

This movie isn’t a perfect analogy for our profession, but until we get a movie based on accounting and tax prep, we’ll have to make do with this one (and I’m not counting the recent Ben Affleck vehicle “The Accountant” — don’t get me started).

Many members of the MSATP work for, or own, small practices. In many cases, they are their entire practice. That’s how I started — I was my own admin, junior, senior, manager, and partner. There’s an old saw that small firms can’t compete with large firms in terms of billable hours, salary packages, etc.

I don’t buy that.

Many taxpayers specifically seek out small firms because they want a relationship with a trusted advisor. They don’t want to be pawned off to a rookie charged at hourly rates that will make you blush. Clients may not know the latest tax rules, but they aren’t stupid: they know that they are subsidizing that rookie’s training on their own dime.

Over the course of the movie, Michael J. Fox’s character learned the value of that trusted relationship and, spoiler alert, eventually eschewed the big salaried job and moved back to the small town.

I’ve written many columns on technology. Our profession needs to embrace the coming innovations if we want to survive, but there will always be that need for a real human interaction — the kind that only comes from a small firm.

To that end, I say don’t worry about the large firms. Celebrate the aspects about small firms that your clients appreciate. We are that calm, steady hand guiding them through these rocky waters!

Now for the other side of our business: staff.

Large firms offer signing bonuses, take home laptops, casual Fridays, retirement plans, PTO, and happy hours. It’s a lot of flash and I’ll admit that I fell for it as a college graduate.

I lasted sixteen weeks to the day at that big firm. I hated every. Single. Second.

Small firms can offer something that large firms simply can’t offer:

Variety – we can assign different types of projects from excel analysis to tax return prep to correspondence work to payroll and systems management. Compare this to the large firms where you spend time working on a single issue. Is there anything worse than being a FASB 133 expert?
Impact – The work we do matters in the lives of our clients, and in our communities. Compare this to a large firm where one can spend way too many hours making one person just a half a percent wealthier, not that they’ll notice, and certainly not that they’d say, “Thank you.”
Client contact – We enable our team to interact directly with the client. This single thing goes a long way towards building confidence and competence. Compare this to large firms that shunt their juniors off to the conference room, bull pen, or cube farm while the partners manage the client contact offsite (FYI – those golf club outings and martini lunches won’t be deductible any more…).
Succession – The best person to purchase your practice is the staff member(s) that you’ve spent 5-10 years training.Compare this to large firms where some small % of new hires actually make it to the rarified partner level; it’s almost like a lottery.
True Entrepreneurship – Clients expect us to be all things to them. In the movie Doc Hollywood, Michael J. Fox’s character would read letters that his patients received. Not saying that our clients are illiterate like the characters in that movie — rather, I’m saying that we do more than provide financial statements and tax returns. I’ve engaged in projects well outside the realm of traditional accounting and I see that becoming the norm over the next 5, 10, 20 years out. Compare this to large firms and ask yourself this question: Even if one makes partner at a large firm, do they really know what it’s like to run a business? In our world, running a small business isn’t for the faint of heart. We are our own marketing, admin, compliance, HR, and production team.
True work flexibility – The large firm states that junior staff only need to hit 35 billable hours a week. Sounds great to a college graduate who has no clue what that entails. The reality is it takes a bit more hours that aren’t billable to get those 35 billable hours.
In our practice, with enough notice, we can accommodate our staff’s schedules. We work to live, not the other way around. While there are the inevitable periods of overtime — thanks Congress — we realize that our staff needs to have a balanced life, and we can offer that.

It’s true that working in a small firm is not for everyone — there will be those that are better suited for life in a big firm. But there are other people who will do better in a small firm with us. Make it a point to find them and tell them!

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We’d like to hear from you! Please submit your own tech tips to us at techtips@msatp.org! We will award a free subscription to The Tax Book to the person who submits the best tip.

Thanks, and catch you next time!

20 Conversation Starters To Make Networking A Little Less Awkward

Posted on October 31, 2018March 12, 2024 by Navaal Mahdi

Even the most social people dislike networking events because of how awkward it is to have to walk up to random strangers and make conversation. There’s one important thing you have to remember though: Everyone feels as awkward as you do.

Here’s a compilation of serious and laid-back conversation starters that will take the initial awkwardness out of talking to a complete stranger:

Career-Related Conversation Starters

What’s your story?
If you had to create a new job title and the words that you currently use to describe yourself didn’t exist, what would you call yourself?
What do you love most about your line of work?
Are you originally from [wherever the event is], or did your business bring you here?
What’s the worst business advice you’ve ever received?
What brings you to this event?
What was the best piece of advice you got early on in your career?
How do you measure your own success?
When you hit your income target for the year, how are you gonna celebrate?
What’s the biggest epiphany you’ve had over the last year in terms of attracting your ideal clients?

Laid-Back Ways to Start Conversations

Compliment someone on their clothes/accessories/hair.
What are you passionate about?
Do you know how much a polar bear weighs? Enough to break the ice! Hi, I’m _________, and it’s nice to meet you.
If there’s one question you don’t want me to ask you, what question would that be?
Have you fulfilled any childhood dreams?
Have you ever been so grateful for something you felt like a thousand thank you notes just wouldn’t cut it?
Have you ever experienced something so extraordinary that it shifted your entire perspective on life?
If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Do you prefer hosting events or attending them?
If you had to switch outfits with one person here, who would it be?

Sources:

Should I Move My Business Onto the Cloud?

Posted on October 24, 2018March 12, 2024 by Navaal Mahdi

Being a cloud-based business means that all of the applications you use to run your business are on the Internet instead of being located on a computer or server. In essence, through the cloud, you may access your files and applications from anywhere at any time — you don’t need to be in a traditional office setting.

If you haven’t moved your business, or at least a part of it, onto the cloud, here are some reasons to make the transition:

1. You no longer have to invest in expensive servers.

Instead of investing thousands into purchasing the hardware you need to build a server and then also having to pay someone to manage it, you can simply subscribe to a cloud service. There will always be someone available to help you when you need it, and your software will automatically go through updates without you having to pay an additional fee.

2. It’s a great tool for disaster recovery.

When another company is hosting your files, you can sleep easy at night knowing that they have your data backed up securely. If there’s a power-outage at your office, know that you can access important files from a different location and they won’t be impacted.

3. It will increase collaboration between your team without sacrificing security.

Because your team members can access files from any part of the world at any time of day, they have the ability to collaborate with each other on projects — even if they’re not working right next to each other. Collaboration will also be more secure on the cloud since you and your team members won’t have to constantly email documents back and forth. You can simply share where they are located on the cloud and when someone else needs to check or make an edit to a document, they can just pull it up on their own computer.

4. Your business will become more environmentally friendly.

Moving onto the cloud is great for the environment because based on the amount of business you have at a certain time of year, you can change the amount of server space you need with the company hosting your files. This means that your business can conserve energy when you don’t need to be using it. Having every document you need located on the cloud will also decrease the need to make hard copies of files. You’ll likely be using less paper, ink, and energy when it comes to file management.

If you’re interested in moving your accounting or tax business onto the cloud, check out our last Facebook Live from the Xero Roadshow with MSATP members Jonathan Rivlin and Adrian Simmons. The two discussed why they love having their businesses on the cloud and the benefits of being able to work collaboratively with clients.

3 Bad Habits Preventing You From Accomplishing Your Goals

Posted on October 19, 2018March 12, 2024 by Navaal Mahdi

With so much competition out there in every line of work, you can’t risk letting things slip through the crack — especially not your big goals. Whether you’re working for yourself or someone else, it’s essential to reflect on the habits that you have because many of them may be unproductive ones.

Here are some bad habits that are keeping you from achieving your goals, and tips on how to turn them into good ones.

1. You don’t plan your week.

As an entrepreneur, planning your work-week is a must: how else will you be able to keep track of all the little things you need to do to keep your business running? What’s essential is that you organize each day by scheduling time to complete your Most Important Task (MIT) in the morning. That will ensure that you get your MIT done when your mind is fresh, while also ensuring that the task actually gets completed.

If you’re not an entrepreneur, you should still be planning your week because when you work for someone else, you need to prove to them that you’re accomplishing things on a regular basis. This way, you’ll always be working towards a promotion while securing the job your have in the meantime.

2. You’re always running late.

Do you ever schedule a lunch date with your best friend and end up waiting an extra 15 minutes for them to show up? It’s pretty infuriating. So why would you do the same to your employer? Being late to work as an employee is just as bad as being late to a meeting with a client if you’re an entrepreneur. It can damage your reputation, and potentially even lose you a client. If you show up late, people will start assuming that you also deliver your work late. No one wants to work with a person with an image like that.

3. You love to multitask.

Multitasking sounds great, but in reality, all it does it prevent you from completing quality work. Your mind is always distracted when you multitask, and it could even take you longer to complete tasks if you’re doing them all at once rather than focusing on them individually.

What are some bad habits that you want to eliminate? Leave them in the comments below, and be sure to explain your plan of action in case another reader needs to eliminate the same habit!

Are you interested in becoming your own boss? We’ve got some good news: On October 25, MSATP is holding Employee to Entrepreneur, an event in which we’ll cover the game plan for earning extra income by starting your own accounting or tax preparation side hustle (and how to transition that into a full-time business).

Visit our website for more information, or register here. If you’re one of the first 25 people to sign up, you’ll get an MSATP Associate Membership for free!

#TechTips: The Most Overlooked Issue With the IRS’ eServices App

Posted on October 19, 2018March 12, 2024 by Navaal Mahdi

By Jonathan Rivlin, CPA

It’s been said that there’s a pathway to a particular place that is paved with good intentions.

This opening line is a portent of frustrations and difficulties that I know you, my fellow practitioners, have experienced. Whenever I must give a critical review or pass a negative judgement, I always try to temper it with something positive. When dealing with the IRS, that can be challenging — but not impossible!

Unless you’ve spent the past 20 years under a rock in a desert, surviving off the grid as it were, you must be aware that our industry has changed due to technological innovations.

The IRS, that Love to Hate/Hate to Love agency that is both the reason for our profession’s existence and the bane of it, has vacillated from vilifying us preparers as a part of the problem to realizing we are partners that must work together to improve security for the taxpaying public.

To that end, the IRS recently revamped its eServices applications available on the TaxPro section of their website.

The eServices app is a suite of tools offered by the IRS to preparers for the purpose of minimizing the time needed on the phone with an agent, among other things. Personally, I use the eServices app for retrieving transcripts when working tax controversy cases. I also use it to administer the ERO account for our firm.

It’s a great idea. There’s certainly a need, and we can (most of the time) get what we need from it.

However, there have been some glitches to deal with, especially with the release of the newest (and more secure version) of the site and related apps.

All practitioners were required to update their security credentials as of 12/10/17. As part of the new process, tax preparers were required to provide a list of personal and professional info including license numbers, PTIN’s, SSN’s, tax filing status, credit card number or mortgage number, and blood type.
(That last one was not an official item; just trying to keep some levity here.)

You will then be prompted to select a PIN, an image, and a new password. (The idea is that if you don’t see the correct image in a future session, you’re not on the official IRS website and are potentially being “phished” – in which case you should NOT enter your password.)

After selecting your PIN, image, and password, in theory, upon subsequent visits to the eServices site, you can simply enter your updated login, password, PIN, and verify all against the image you selected earlier.

That’s the theory. In practice, at least in my experience, the reality was more time consuming and aggravating.

The system was not able to verify my credit card number, my mortgage number, or any other piece of info from the list of available choices. I know it wasn’t from mistyping because I went very slowly – didn’t want to mess this up. The IRS system was not able to connect my professional identity (via my PTIN) to my personal identity (via my SSN) to my financial identity (via any number of loans and accounts in my name).

However, I was able to get the system to work — sort of. After a quixotic trip into internet purgatory, I realized why I couldn’t get the system to recognize and link the various facets of my digital identity — and it was a shockingly simple issue.

The most overlooked detail in all this? The browser you use to access the internet.

In all its attempts to improve security, the IRS requires tax preparers to use Internet Explorer (IE) with a version no later than 11.0. Once you switch to this browser for the eServices app, you should be able to go through the motions to get your clients’ transcripts.

Now for the maddening part: Even though I was eventually able to get a new login and password credential for eServices, using IE 11.0, the system wouldn’t save my information. That is to say that I would need to go through the little ritual of verifying my complete identity, selecting a new image, PIN, and password EACH time!

Now for the part of about how the IRS shouldn’t be the default punching bag that society expects it to be: The IRS is made up of thousands of employees who for the most part, just want to do their job and actually help the people they deal with. In twenty years of practice, I can count on one hand the number of horrible encounters I’ve had with IRS agents (three), but I’ve had many more pleasant encounters with agents that really did go above and beyond to help me resolve my clients’ issues. The fact is that they are as frustrated with the computers and regulatory complexity as we are.

To resolve my issues getting our firm’s ERO setup, we needed to get passed up to a “Level II” technician. That is to say that the person you’d reach on the 1-800 number wasn’t trained enough to get our account straightened out. The Level II tech was highly competent and courteous. The only problem was that logistically, we had to flex our schedules to her availability. And we needed to block out no less than 2 hours of time for each call.

And that is the rub in all this. While the agents that work on the eServices side really do seem to care and want to help us out, there just aren’t enough of them to accommodate the demand for their time that we have.

If you’ve experienced issues with the IRS eServices app, first make sure you’re using IE 11, which you’ll probably need to download (using your main browser of course). Don’t be surprised if Chrome asks if you’re really sure that you want to download IE 11…

If you’ve tried this browser switch and still have trouble, then reach out to us at the MSATP. Through the Society, we have contacts at the IRS that can help us resolve issues quicker than if you call the main 1-800 number.

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We’d like to hear from you! Please submit your own tech tips to us at techtips@msatp.org! We will award a free subscription to The Tax Book to the person who submits the best tip.

Thanks, and catch you next time!

How Does International Tax Reporting Work In the U.S.?

Posted on October 10, 2018March 13, 2024 by Navaal Mahdi

Around the world, countries that have multinational corporations completing business transactions within their borders will tax the income that those companies generate. In the U.S. however, U.S. based multinationals are also taxed for income they’ve accumulated outside of the U.S. However, they receive a tax credit for any foreign income taxes they’ve already paid.

American residents with multinational businesses are taxed at the same rate as most domestic corporate income: 35%, the current maximum rate. Because multinational companies receive a tax credit for foreign income taxes they’ve already paid, many are able to use the credits earned from paying taxes in high-tax countries to counteract taxes they would have to pay for earning income in a country with lower taxes.

The statutory corporate tax rate in the U.S. has pretty much remained the same since 1986. Conversely, most other industrial countries have lowered their tax rates which has made the U.S. corporate tax rate higher than the top corporate tax rate of other leading economies.

Despite the high corporate tax rate, in 2014, the U.S. raised less revenue from corporate income taxes as a share of GDP than Japan, Canada, and Italy. Due to economic conditions and the sudden changes in investment incentives, corporate revenue has varied over the years in the U.S. — however, it has remained over 2% since the ‘80s.

The Congressional Budget Office has projected though, that corporate revenue will decline to about 1.5% of the GDP at the end of the next decade due to factors such as the continued shifting of overseas profits. If you have a client who has a multinational business, learn how to make sure they are reporting their earnings correctly by attending MSATP’s International Tax Seminar on Wednesday, October 17. To learn more about what the seminar will entail, watch our Facebook Live from last week with the seminar’s instructor, Eli Noff, of Frost & Associates.

The International Tax seminar is being offered as both a seminar in Columbia, MD, as well as a webinar. Register now!

Is Achieving Work-Life Balance Possible?

Posted on October 3, 2018March 12, 2024 by Navaal Mahdi

What does work-life balance really mean? On the surface, it seems like your life will be balanced if you’re able to allot similar amounts of time — and more importantly, energy — to all aspects of your life.

It’s important to note that every individual is different: One person may feel as though they are dedicating a good amount of time to both parts of their life, but for another, having a similar schedule could be overwhelming. As long as you are fulfilling your obligations in both your personal life and your professional life, though, you can consider yourself to have found the balance that’s right for you. If you feel like you’re being stretched too thin, it may be time to reconsider your priorities.

These quick reminders and resources will help you regain control of your life:

You don’t have to be a perfectionist.

Perfectionism is a habit that’s easy to maintain when you’re juggling things like school and your social life, but when you have a full time job and a family or friends to keep up with, it can be a recipe for disaster. If you focus on completing every task perfectly, you’ll likely waste precious time caught tangled in a web of things don’t matter. Remember, accuracy and presentation are important, but there’s a difference between getting the job done and spending an unnecessary amount of time caught up in trivial tasks.

Unplug — enjoy your evenings, weekends, and vacations.

Life’s already too short as it is — put your phone down! Turn off notifications and keep telling yourself that you don’t need to reply to messages and emails as they come. Spend more time, instead, enjoying the opportunities and people around you. You’ll also find that if you start leaving work at work and not bringing it home with you, you’ll feel more excited when it’s time to be social, and more productive when you’re at work.

Just say no.

Without a doubt, when there’s an opportunity knocking at your door, you want to accept it to see where it will take you. But do you ever consider if that opportunity actually aligns with your goals? Could it be something that will prevent you from spending time with the people you love, or even take away the chance to work on a project that is more related to your career goals? Everyone always talks about saying yes, but if you analyze opportunities from the perspective of someone trying to manage their time efficiently, saying yes might not always be what’s best.

If you feel like you’re struggling to understand what the right work-life balance will look like for you, here are some TED Talks you may find helpful and motivating:

What are some techniques you use to create a work-life balance? Let us know in the comments!

Are You Using the Right Social Media For Your Business?

Posted on September 27, 2018March 12, 2024 by Navaal Mahdi

There are so many social media platforms out there that it’s hard to keep track of them all, let alone establish a presence on each one. On top of that, new social media is always cropping up — so, how do you know which platform is right for you and your business?

Firstly, you need to understand that you do not need to be on every social media platform. In fact, trying to maintain a presence on multiple platforms may start doing your business more harm than good. Because each platform is so different, and because they serve different purposes to users, the rules and etiquette are different.

For example, Facebook is known for being the place people go to connect with each other. You may see longer text posts on there, along with smatterings of photos and videos — many of which share a personal story, but aren’t necessarily professional quality. It can be a very laid-back platform.

As a business, if you apply Facebook’s etiquettes to Instagram, you will not see the same return. Whereas on Facebook you can get away with highlighting the day-to-day ongoings of your practice with text posts, if you share a low-quality or relaxed image on Instagram with a long text post to accompany it, you won’t see it getting attention. People actually might be turned off by your business if they see you using the platform incorrectly because they want to see professional quality photos on Instagram that have clear directions on how to purchase your product, or how they can connect with your business. Instagram is generally good for businesses that have a pretty product to sell to a younger demographic.

These rules seem like a lot to grasp, especially because there are more social media platforms than just Facebook and Instagram, so we’ve laid out some ideas for what types of businesses we think will fit well on each platform.

LinkedIn is a great outlet for making connections with potential clients, your competition, and even professionals in other fields. There are many benefits for both large and small businesses with large and small clients.

Facebook

Local and small businesses who serve in a b2c capacity will thrive on Facebook, especially using the Facebook Ads feature. This would be a great platform for tax preparers.

Instagram

Trying to reach a younger demographic? This is the perfect tool for you. But remember, you’ll need plenty of photos and videos for content.

Twitter

This app is great for larger companies who need to handle community management. If you want to provide quick and easy customer support to a large client base, replying to tweets would be a great way to do that.

Snapchat

Media publications serving a younger demographic do best on Snapchat. It’s one of the most niche social media platforms, so don’t be surprised if it doesn’t make your list of platforms to join.

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For more information about what you should be thinking about when picking a social media platform for your business, tune into our Facebook Live to hear from Kait LeDonne of LeDonne Branding & Marketing!

Plus, if you want to learn more from Kait about how to become a thought-leader in your industry in just 30 minutes a day, register for her seminar or webinar with MSATP on October 17.

#TechTips: Doing Well While Doing Good: MVLS and Tax Controversy

Posted on September 20, 2018March 12, 2024 by Navaal Mahdi

By Jonathan Rivlin for MSATP

In a recent edition of our Society’s journal, The Free State Accountant, there was a column that talked about volunteering for the Maryland Volunteer Lawyer’s Service’s (MVLS) Low Income Tax Clinic.

Tech Tips will affirm the benefits of serving the public by taking on pro bono cases into your practice. But the focus of this post, being tech oriented, is on a secure portal app called Canopy Tax.

This is the portal service that we use in our practice. Prior to that, we used SecureDrawer. Before that, we used morse code and carrier pigeons.

CanopyTax — Canopy for short — is an app that is native to the cloud. This feature is critical; this isn’t some antiquated desktop device “reskinned” for a webpage (looking at you QBO!) – this portal’s very design is couched in the cloud.

Canopy was created by CPA’s for CPA’s. It functions as a secure portal, a CRM, a workflow app that syncs with your Outlook for email and calendars, and apropos to today’s post, it has features designed to make tax controversy work more efficiently.

Canopy can link into IRS eServices to download taxpayer transcripts. Think about how efficient this can be! Sensitive docs can be accessed without emailing, stored in the correct client profile without scanning, and the notations can be updated on the fly.

Furthermore, there are templates for common notice replies.

The biggest win for us has been the ability for any staff member to track the status of a particular matter.

Canopy also helps with engagement letters and file storage/organization.

When our clients get new documents, receipts for charitable donations, paystubs they want us to analyze for withholdings, etc – they know by now to automatically upload the document to Canopy.

Canopy sends us an email whenever a client makes an upload. We couch this as a service to our clients and encourage them to use the portal and make it their habit.

Canopy restricts deleting and organizing files to us alone. Under our old portal, clients could make multiple folders, move files around, and delete files — that’s a problem. Canopy puts us in control of the docs.

Canopy is user friendly and intuitive; it’s interface is clean and easy on the eyes. Since we’ve adopted this app, it has become indispensable to us and is the first thing we access after turning our computers on (after turning on the coffee machine of course!)

Between Canopy, SurePrep/TaxCaddy, Xero, Expensify, Bill.com, Gusto, and Futrli, the only reason we still have a server is for Lacerte. Though, the way things are going, we anticipate being able to ditch the server at some point in the next 3 years.

So there you have it, a tour through the Cloud! We’ve covered a lot during this cycle of posts. Future posts will include new apps, as well as deeper dives into these previously covered apps (which are always being updated and improved), as well as other tech related issues facing our industry.

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We’d like to hear from you! Please submit your own tech tips to us at techtips@msatp.org! We will award a free subscription to The Tax Book to the person who submits the best tip.

Thanks, and catch you next time!

How to Provide the Best Customer Service

Posted on September 20, 2018March 12, 2024 by Navaal Mahdi

The better service you provide your clients, the more likely they’ll be to remain loyal to you and your business. Not only does this mean you’ll have their business for longer, but it also means they’ll be willing to refer your company to their family, friends, and peers.

A huge part of providing your clients with great customer service is having the desire to make them happy. For this reason, you have to consider their experience with your business as a whole. It isn’t only about the face to face interactions you have, though that’s a big part of their impression of you — rather, it’s about how they are dealt with online, whether it be through email or even how they experience your website, as well as on the phone. Be sure to have measures in place so that your clients never face frustration when dealing with your company, whether that be by making sure your staff is well trained and equipped to handle various problems, or checking that your website is up-to-date and user friendly.

The first thing your client should see when they ask you for help is a smile. That shows them you’re willing to understand and solve their problem — which is why they hired you in the first place. Having a smile on your face during an in-person meeting is essential, but so is smiling when you’re having a similar conversation on the phone. It’s easy to pick up on how a person is feeling when you can’t see them by the tone of their voice, so make sure you’re understanding and ready to tackle the challenge they’ve presented you with.

Another obvious, but easily forgotten courtesy is saying thank you. Of course, you deserve to get paid for your hard work, but your client should know just how much you appreciate their business. Additionally, you should always show your clients respect and guard your emotions, even if you’re upset about the way something has unfolded. There are proper ways you can handle altercations — don’t say something in the heat of the moment that you’ll regret later.

Finally, the easiest way to retain a client is by knowing what your business has to offer. As long as you and your staff know your team’s strengths, and you can give your clients examples of how you can use those strengths to help them, you’ll be able to retain customers and even get new business.