In fact, there’s a good chance that you are one of those specialists. You may have called yourself a “consultant” because you needed a way to explain your profession to an accountant or a party guest. But really, we’re talking about being one of those specialized professionals — legal specialists, graphic designers, management experts, communications advisors, and many others – that growing businesses count on for work that cannot be done in-house. In every industry, consultants are part of keeping organizations lean, efficient and competitive.

The independent consultant’s life is often characterized by:

• Working in different locations, such as client sites, co-working spaces or a home office
• Holding information in multiple places, including your own systems and/or the client’s systems, and
• Walking the fine line between being a business owner for your own practice and being a team member on your client’s team.

Not surprisingly, it takes a sophisticated solution to keep all of these moving parts connected and to keep you on top of your game.

Consultants Providing Expertise

Let’s look at some examples of consultants and see if you recognize anyone.   

Zac, Graphic Designer

As a freelance graphic designer, Zac creates advertising and marketing campaigns. The companies that put their trust in Zac rely on him to come up with original ideas quickly. He works hard to keep his creative juices flowing — jotting down notes, developing concepts, and polishing his latest designs.

At the same time, Zac runs his own business, so he must also manage invoices, accounting, and business development. When Zac needs help, he hires other designers, making him an employer too. Yes, Zac certainly has a lot on his plate.

Jennifer, Tax Advisor

Jennifer is an accountant running her own tax consultancy. She uses QuickBooks for her clients’ accounting files. Every year as tax season closes, she swears she won’t take any more clients — but when the next year rolls around, she always takes on more.

Jennifer has a great handle on the accounting data — both her own and her clients’ — and she never misses a detail. However, she struggles to keep up with client communications and follow-ups. She needs a tool that integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks while giving her greater connectivity to her clients.

Alan, Placement Specialist

Alan is a placement specialist, which means he helps growing organizations find the right talent for their future needs. Alan will tell you that human resources and talent acquisition are about much more than just administration or confirming the candidate’s skills and training. Doing it right means aligning many factors: fit, aspirations, career stage, philosophy, and salary needs.

Alan meets people constantly, and while not every interaction results in a positive match, he never dismisses anyone. Each contact is part of his growing network of employers and employees that he’ll rely on for future assignments. With so many relationships to keep track of, Alan needs a sophisticated tool for managing all of his contacts.

Annie, Communications Advisor

Last but not least is Annie, a communications advisor. While communications professionals practice in many areas, including media relations, writing, and website development, Annie’s specialty is crisis communications — acting fast to develop productive responses to events and stories that could hurt a client’s reputation.

Annie has successfully managed the crisis response plans for some high-profile stories, and also for some that didn’t make the news (yes, that’s how good she is). Now, Annie wants to develop a marketing campaign for her practice. She can’t personally handle all the crises out there, so she wants to share her insights and best practices with a broader audience through email campaigns. She needs an organized system for managing her mailing lists and outreach.

Different Consultants, Different Needs

While Zac, Alan, Jennifer, and Annie have different areas of expertise, they have certain needs in common. As independent consultants, each of them needs greater integration between their accounting and client relations, better communication with clients, and the ability to do creative, meaningful work on the move.

Method CRM for Consulting Practices

Method CRM is the perfect solution for a growing consulting practice. Leveraging your use of QuickBooks, Method’s customer relationship management features help you take your work to the next level through innovation, automation, and mobility.

The best integration with QuickBooks

Consultants using QuickBooks are likely already tracking some data on their client accounts. But as your practice and client list grow, it’s time to take your administrative setup to the next level.

The good news is that Method CRM has a seamless integration with QuickBooks. The moment you sign up, your QuickBooks data automatically syncs to Method. Moving forward, the connection provides a real-time, two-way sync. This seamless integration gives you a 360-degree view of each client account, including transactions, communications, and scheduled follow-ups.

Meanwhile, Method is also a great solution for tracking data that doesn’t belong in QuickBooks. For instance, you can maintain detailed notes on all billing and non-billing contacts, or create unlimited custom fields to track data specific to your consulting practice.

The best part is that sole proprietors can set up Method CRM on their own, without needing an IT specialist. After all, whether you’re a financial advisor, accountant, graphic designer or another type of consultant, you have priorities other than software administration.

Enhance your outreach campaigns

For consultants like Annie who are looking for a tool to help with marketing, Method CRM offers additional benefits. Method integrates with Mailchimp, allowing you to create lists of CRM contacts for email campaigns. And with Method’s QuickBooks integration, your marketing will be based on real customer insights. Filter your CRM contacts based on preferences, purchase history or past interactions to build targeted mailing lists for specific campaigns.

Greater mobility for consultants on the move

Consultants are always moving. Why? Because they’re working in other people’s workplaces and on other people’s schedules. Consulting is an on-the-go profession, which means consultants need a tool that can go with them.

The good news is that Method CRM has a mobile app for iOS and Android. Whether you’re at a client site, at a coffee shop, or at the airport, the app gives you access to your essential CRM features, including client notes, contact information, and QuickBooks transactions.

Are you a consultant? What is your experience?

Do you recognize your own experience among those of Zac, Alan, Jennifer or Annie?

If you’re looking for a modern CRM solution to streamline your consulting practice, give Method CRM a try with a free trial.

Image Credit: Writix

The post Benefits of CRM Software for Independent Consultants appeared first on Method.

“They’re making money, but they’re not managing money — and we are in the managing money business,” says Mariette Martinez, speaking to accounting professionals at QuickBooks Connect. As an accountant, tax pro and small business strategist, Martinez is visibly passionate about helping self-employed individuals achieve their business goals through better financial management.

She also immediately dispels the stereotype that the self-employed market can’t or won’t pay for accounting services: “If they see the value that you’re bringing, they will pay for it. The self-employed have been my solo market for the last five years.”

Understanding the gig economy

Other accounting professionals would be wise to follow Martinez’s lead. Nearly 40% of the U.S. workforce now participates in the gig economy, which includes freelancers, independent contractors, contingent workers, and even on-demand workers like Uber and Lyft drivers. And that percentage is only expected to grow, making this the perfect time for accountants to learn how to serve this market.

When assessing a self-employed client’s needs, Martinez advises her colleagues to keep an open mind and avoid jumping in with cookie-cutter solutions. While some entrepreneurs may be content to keep their side hustle on the side, others may be looking to grow and scale. These individual goals need to be taken into consideration.

“The purpose of truly listening to and connecting with the self-employed is not to respond back with perfect answers — but to give you, their trusted advisor, the opportunity to explore and discover the best possible solutions together.”

Assessing the needs of the self-employed

Of course, those who are self-employed tend to share some common pain points. These include cash flow issues, tax struggles, mixing business and personal finances, messy or non-existent mileage tracking, and the dreaded “shoebox dilemma” — a disorganized collection of records and receipts that may or may not live in an actual shoebox.

Beyond these obvious struggles, there are plenty of other details to pay attention to during that initial conversation. Everything from the client’s sales process and customer payment methods to their financial reporting and tax compliance will be relevant to how you proceed as their financial advisor.

QuickBooks Self-Employed: a simple solution

Once you truly understand your client’s struggles and goals, Martinez recommends presenting simple, scalable solutions that will deliver value and save them time. She points out that for the self-employed, “their time is literally their money — so when you start talking about saving, they love that.”

Delivering the right solutions for each client requires a deep understanding of the available options. In other words: just because an individual is self-employed, it doesn’t mean you should default to QuickBooks Self-Employed. Instead, Martinez implores her fellow accounting professionals to do their research about the different versions of QuickBooks: “We need to make our colleagues accountable for becoming technically aware of what’s out there.”

That being said, QuickBooks Self-Employed is a great option for many self-employed clients. Martinez highlights three features in particular that make life easier for those working in the gig economy:

• Real-time, automated bank and credit card feeds.
• Easy categorization of business and personal expenses. Martinez is a stickler for this point when it comes to working with the self-employed: “You want to be kind about it, but you also want to be firm about it.”
• The ability to prepare for tax time early.

Better yet, accountants can collaborate with their QuickBooks Self-Employed clients through QuickBooks Online Accountant. This makes it easier to hold clients accountable to their financial plan.

Delivering the right solutions to the right clients

Just as the gig economy is incredibly diverse, so too are the service offerings that accountants can provide. Martinez suggests three simple and scalable business models.

In the “Soft Touch” model, you provide quarterly bookkeeping as well as tax prep services. This model helps accountants empower their self-employed clients to take control of their own finances.

In the “Trusted Advisor” model, you meet with clients monthly and provide year-round bookkeeping and tax prep services. In this scenario, your clients are constantly held accountable and can get ahead of the game.

In the “One-to-Many” model, you position yourself as an expert on the self-employed market by providing a high volume of one service or digital product. “This is my absolute favorite model,” says Martinez. She offers plenty of ideas for reaching your target audience, including webinars, workshops, templates, blogs, podcasts, and videos.

Building lasting partnerships

Many self-employed individuals avoid working with financial advisors because they don’t think the advisors will be on their side. Martinez wants to dispel that notion: “I want to be your accountability partner. I want you to look forward to having a meeting with me at the end of the year.”

She encourages other accountants to identify which subsets of the gig economy they are most passionate about. For instance, as a mother herself, Martinez loves working with stay-at-home moms and other women.

But no matter which groups you focus on, the key is to get excited about what your clients do. In doing so, accounting professionals will be well-positioned to not only help their clients’ businesses flourish, but to find satisfaction in their own work as well.

Want more #QBConnect content? Check out our full coverage of QuickBooks Connect San Jose 2018!

The post Working With the Gig Economy: Mariette Martinez at QuickBooks Connect appeared first on Method.