How to Create a Business Plan for a Tax Preparation & Bookkeeping Business
Business plans, regardless of the kind of business, all have several things in common. All business plans must take into account a vision and mission; establish goals and objectives; contain a well-researched SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Trends) analysis, a solid financial plan including preformed statements and an evaluative period to measure the business's success.
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Instructions
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Planning Your Tax and Bookkeeping Business
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Develop a name that, without any other information, tells your audience what your business sells. Since this is a tax and bookkeeping business, choose a name that tells potential customers that you are all about tax and bookkeeping. A good example would be "Allied Bookkeeping and Tax." This tells your audience exactly what your company does. This is one of the most important pieces for your future marketing campaigns.
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Develop a vision or mission statement. This section of your business plan will define your business activities. State what the intended outcome will be for your clients. Also state what makes your tax and bookkeeping business different, and why clients should choose you over all the other similar companies. Explain what your company will look like in five years and what additional services you plan on offering, if any.
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Establish a set of goals and objectives. Define what your tax and bookkeeping business is meant to achieve. How many tax returns do you plan on completing? How many bookkeeping clients are you aiming for? Explain what kind of tax returns you will accept--corporations (forms 1120 and 1120s), partnerships (form 1165), or individuals (Forms 1040, 1040A and 1040EZ). Describe what your intended return mix will be. Discuss what limits you will enforce as to the size, industry, geographic area and any stipulations for accepting a business or individual client. All of this information should be quantifiable and easy to measure in terms of success or failure.
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Develop your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Trends) analysis. First, determine what the strengths of your tax and bookkeeping business will be; state why your tax service is strong and what makes it strong. This could be due to limited competition or to your advanced experience. Next, express your weaknesses, such as limited capital or lots of competition. The opportunities section will outline the potential for success in your area given certain circumstances. For example, you may be the only one in town who can handle a C-Corporation tax return. How many potential clients are there for you within your market? Lastly, explore the current trends within the tax and bookkeeping industry.
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Develop an action plan. This step is where you consider: how will your business acquire tax clients? How will your business bring in bookkeeping and tax preparation revenue? How will you market your tax and bookkeeping firm? Answer all of these question in this section of your business plan.
Create a financial plan complete with a set of preformed financial statements. Outline the expected revenue that will be generated from tax and from bookkeeping separately. List the expected growth over a three year period and how much tax preparation and bookkeeping fees will increase over that period. Explain how your business will operate until you begin receiving revenue. Outline your current financial backing and cash position. Develop your time line.
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Tips & Warnings
Break your goals down into measurable sections and monitor the results on a regular basis. Are you on target with the number of tax returns? Do you have enough bookkeeping clients? Decide at the onset of this project what constitutes success and what constitutes failure. Test your progress and plan accordingly.
