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With any business, it can be a tough decision on when to hire your first employee or independent contractor. The pros and cons need to be weighed and not to mention, you need to be able to cover all the costs associated with bringing on someone new. While a tough decision, every business owner knows it is the only thing that will help them become more successful.

One role accountants often find themselves debating on is marketing consultants. Often we look at marketing as a creative pastime that we can jump in and out of whenever it is convenient. However, we know our clients often have this ideology with accounting. How is that working for you?

If you only pay attention to this part of the business when you need something from it, the department will be neglected and provide you with false information - in the case of accounting. If you neglect your marketing, there is going to come a time when you are ready for more clients, but because a foundation has not been laid it will be even more of a struggle.

So if you are debating on hiring a marketing consultant, here are some of the pros and cons to help you make the right decision:

Pros

• Increase Your Prices: If you hire a marketer to help you look more professional online, you will be elevating your perceived value and can charge more! More money with the same amount of work, is a big win!

• Build Credibility: A marketer can help you discover what potential customers see when they visit your website. If things aren’t clear or appear messy, it can easily be associated with your accounting work.

• Accountability: One issue we often see is accountants who know how to market and conduct sales, but there are so many things to do, it becomes neglected. A marketing consultant can hold you accountable or take over the work entirely.

• Help Your Sticky Factor: Say you were to find an independent contractor you would like to hire, but you cannot find their contact information. Or they provide just their physical location. So instead of reaching out, you leave their website and try to find someone else. This is friction and reduces your leads. When you create hoops (even unintentionally) it dramatically decreases your leads. 

• Capture Sales You Didn’t Know Were Possible: Marketers with experience realize there are many different ways to show off your services. One way may not be the most effective, so we try one of the many other options at our disposal. Many of which you may not even be aware of!

• Improve Efficiency: Just like with accounting, when you know the right tools to use, you will dramatically increase your efficiency. Marketing is just the same, when you have someone advising you of the best tools, you will realize how much more you can get done.

Cons

• May Not Lead To Sales As Quick As You Need: As marketers, we often see people come to us when they need sales yesterday. They feel rushed and panicked, expecting the first month of marketing to bring in a wave of new clients. Unfortunately, that is not how it works. Marketing is a marathon that is developing your brand over time. 

• May Not Understand Your Business: Marketers are constantly finding new ways to promote services, but this can be a challenge if they do not understand what they are selling. This is exactly what ProAdvisor Marketing is working to solve. Marketing services for accountants, by accountants.

• May Need to Focus on Other Areas of Your Business First: Often when people come to us, they ask about social media marketing. However, this is step 3 or 5 for many businesses. When you market online, you should have a brand developed and a website at the ready. This can sometimes be frustrating if those steps have not already been taken. Fortunately, we do offer these services, from branding and web design to content marketing and blogging. 

We believe in honest marketing and that means helping you make the right decision in hiring a marketer. We know we are not going to be the right fit for everyone, nor is every accountant going to be the right fit for us. So let’s cut the sales talk and have a real discussion on how we can help you!