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ndeluca
06-29-2010, 11:19 AM
Hello everyone! My name is Nicholas De Luca and recently my partner and I have gone from having a physical office location to adding a "virtual" office. I was wondering if the community here could check it out and give me some feedback. Each client is designated a bookkeeper and accountant and given a secure login. They are able to access all receipts and invoices they have ever given to us along with monthly financial reports. Not only do they have 24/7 access to all their financial data, electronically, but god for bid there is a disaster at the office like a flood, fire, or any other unfortunate event all information is backed up in our system.

The website is www.virtualaccountingonline.com Let me know what you guys think...Much appreciated

vangogh
06-29-2010, 12:07 PM
Welcome to the forum Nicholas.

I think one of the biggest obstacles you're going to face with signing up people through the site is trust. You're asking for people to send financial information, which only raises the trust issue.

I'm not sure if your site inspires that trust. I don't mean that it comes across as dishonest or anything like. It''s more that it does nothing to get me to trust you anymore than anyone else. The copy mostly reads like the same old marketing language. On your home page you ask 3 questions in large text.

Tired of doing the bookkeeping?
Can’t find experienced accountants?
Need accountants who understand your business?

The first one doesn't need anything more from you. Sure I prefer not to do my own bookkeeping. As for the other 2 questions, I'm not having problems with either, but assuming I am you do nothing on the site to convince me you're the experienced accountant I might be looking for or that you'll understand my business any more than anyone else will.

I think you might be marketing this from the wrong angle. If the three questions above are the reasons you think someone is going to want your services then your site needs to answer those questions.

What is your experience? I haven't looked at every page of the site, but on the 3 or 4 pages I have looked at, I see no mention of your experience. Ok, I finally see the button saying 20+ years of experience. It's not obvious though, and I really would need more than a button that leads nowhere.

Why will you understand my business any better than another accountant or accounting firm? Again looking through a few pages I see no mention of anything to convince me you will.

Most of your content seems to play up the idea that you don't outsource to other countries, though you do mention how my business will be outsourcing my accounting to you. You imply that for you to outsource would be bad, but for me to outsource to you would be good. I understand why one is good and the other is bad, but I think overall it sends a mixed message. The more you deliver the message that for you to outsource is a bad thing the more I'm going to see outsourcing in general as bad so when you ask me to outsource to you…

I hope something above helps. Like I said I think establishing trust with potential clients is going to be very important and I don't think the site currently establishes that trust. There are mixed messages and not enough answers to my questions or the one you think are important to me.

KristineS
06-29-2010, 01:25 PM
You might want to check your load times Nicholas. I tried twice to load it in Firefox and both times clicked away because nothing was loading. It could be a glitch with my system, but I've been loading other sites all day without problems.

Evan
07-03-2010, 07:33 PM
Welcome Nicholas!

I have always found bookkeeping services very difficult to sell, especially if it's a relationship maintained just in cyberspace. Bookkeeping requires a great deal of trust, generally, due to the sensitive nature of the information and transactions. Many businesses I know of are either too small, and try to slab their own (however horrendous) records together, or are big enough to have a part-time or full-time bookkeeper that comes in to handle all the dirty work. Often times it is that presence that is desired, as you can also now sort through all the paperwork when it arrives, and there is no need to get that information to you in cyberspace.

My clients like knowing that they can visit me in my office, even though I may not do the bookkeeping services personally, but someone on the staff does. Admittedly, the cost of a CPA can sometimes be prohibitive, but many smaller firms are quite reasonable and are flexible with payment arrangements.

If you are looking to establish a bit more credibility, I'd include some information on your staff, so people are aware of their credentials. Are you a QuickBooks ProAdvisor? What industries have you worked in? You provide tax services -- are you Enrolled Agents, or CPAs? You're also providing financial statements -- are those just QB printouts for management purposes, or are these in accordance with GAAP?

I think you do have the potential to grow, but I also think your pricing structure may be a bit too insufficient. You may end up with a lot of small clients, and they often require the most hand-holding, yet only a minimal fee? By the time they grow, they may leave you -- preventing you from collecting any future benefit... Does this fee also include all the reports, taxes, etc.?

If you market this to CPA firms, maybe they'll unload all of their deadbeat clients on you. :P