There are three reasons why most accountants and bookkeepers struggle to earn what their worth:

Reason #1: To get paid more you have to take on more clients and/or work more hours.

Reason #2: You have a ton of competition.

Reason #3: You’re selling unscalable services.

How do you eliminate the struggle altogether? Here’s three ways:

Way #1: Get paid for your value, not your time.

Way #2: De-commoditize your services.

Way #3: Sell a scalable service.

Let’s explain…

Get paid for your value, not your time.
To get paid for your value, you need to sell something that your clients value. They don’t value clean books as much as we think they should. And, they don’t value timely and accurate taxes as much as we think they should.

What do they value? Having a growing and successful business. If you can do that, you’ll definitely start getting paid for your value, not your time.

De-commoditize your services.
To your prospects, the work ‘output’ that you generate is the same as your competitors. This is what’s known as a commodity. This is also what prevents you from being able to raise your prices.

A great way to de-commoditize is to let your prospects know that the work ‘output’ you generate is not the same as everyone else’s. You need to let your prospects know that you’ll not only ensure their taxes are filed and their books are kept but you’ll also ensure they have a growing and successful business.

Sell a scalable service.
The definition of scalable is when you can increase revenue without a substantial increase in costs. The problem with tax and bookkeeping work is that when you increase revenue (take on a new client), your costs (your time + your employee’s time) goes up in tandem. This is not scalable.

Instead, you need to sell a service that’s scalable. In other words, you need to sell a service that allows you to take on more clients without taking on more costs.