Linking Up with Other Tax Professionals

It is interesting in the tax business the dynamic between competitors. We have noticed this in our new Pronto Tax Class and RenewCTEC.com efforts. Through these online income tax courses (and the marketing of them), we have had the opportunity to connect with many tax professionals. These experiences have somewhat changed how we view competition in the tax business.

For example, we connected through LinkedIn with a tax consultant named Chris Lee, the owner CEL Financial Services, a Fillmore CA income tax preparation company. Chris was talking in one of the LinkedIn Groups about what he was keeping busy with in the off-season.

Of perhaps 100 different answers that were posted by LinkedIn Group Members, Chris' answer to the "what are you doing to grow your tax business when you're not doing taxes?' was, I thought, the most informative and actionable.

Chris shared how his nephew had helped him to develop a great online presence, not only a website but an entire strategy for getting his business known on the Web. Chris even offered helpful tips to the LinkedIn group about how to get your tax business to get Google love, how to list your business in directories, and how to exploit the increasing "local-ness" of the World Wide Web.

Thanks to Chris and the efforts of his nephew, when people Google "Income Tax Fillmore," Chris' company CEL Financial Services is all over that page including right at the top. Because so many people search for tax help online and they want a local tax place with good prices, Chris has a great chance to pick up new clients due to his off-season work on using the Internet to get the word out about his professional and affordable tax service.

At Pronto, we have been so fortunate to have a fantastic web design team at The-Ultimate-Answer.com, lead by Colleen Rice Nelson. Colleen's work at Pronto4Tax.com, ProntoTaxClass.com, and RenewCTEC.com has paid dividends for instance this year we ascended to the top of Google search results for the search term "Monrovia Income Tax." This was exciting is in fact a valuable business asset, just as Chris Lee's dominance of the Fillmore income tax search term is now a tangible asset that he has addd to his business.

Meanwhile, over at RenewCTEC.com, we were privileged to have over 200 California tax preparers use our 20 hour CTEC course, including many tax preparers from Liberty Tax Service, H&R Block, and other competitors. We had the chance to interact with literally hundreds of tax preparers, many of whom were local to the Los Angeles area. A small-minded person would say that we are helping our competition. And this may be true in a certain sense.

However, whenever you are developing positive relationships with professionals in your field, we have to believe that is a long-term benefit to everyone involved. At the end of the day, business is all about relationships and the more positive relationships you develop, the more successful you will be in business. That's the approach we're taking, anyway.  Do you agree?

Viva la Internet!