5 Steps to Networking Success.

The following article was adapted from Troy A. Waugh's Power Up Your Profits and is reprinted with permission.

There are five key ingredients to building a powerful network for your accounting practice.

1. Set a target of obtaining 1,000 names in your personal prospect database.

This can be done over a 10-year period. In fact, if you are beginning your accounting career with a firm, you may set a target of only 25 during your first year. Then you may wish to expand the number each year. If you are beginning your accounting practice from scratch, you might want to gather between 200 and 250 prospect names right away. Terry Orr teaches younger CPAs to sell. Before he will invest any time with them, he requires each of them to obtain 100 business cards to show that he or she is serious.

2. Use a system to manage your names so that you can maintain the necessary information on them. Certainly, name, address, phone and fax numbers, and business affiliations are vital. As you improve your management of the system, you will accumulate additional relevant information on file.

3. Develop a sound communication plan for your prospects. If you obtain 100 business cards and do not stay in touch, over half of them will be useless within a year. They will have changed businesses, moved, or will have forgotten who you are.

4. Practice patience in developing and harvesting your network. Over 90% of the business people you meet will not have an awareness of any need for your services at the time you meet them. But, rest assured, almost all of them will have a need for accounting or tax services within the next 10 years.

5. Plan to allocate one to two hours per week to your network. You work your network by meeting new people and adding new names. You work it by updating the information. You work it by communicating with your prospects.

The main thing to keep in mind is that marketing is a numbers game. For the numbers to work, you should keep prospects in the marketing pipeline at all times. One of the best ways to obtain a continuous flow of prospects is through networking. Even when economic times are soft, a good network will provide you a steady flow of new business.

By Troy A. Waugh, CPA, MBA, Waugh & Co., Brentwood, Tennessee; phone: (800)231-2424; e-mail: troy@waughco.com. Waugh & Co. is a marketing, consulting, and training firm that owns and operates The Rainmaker Academy. To order Power Up Your Profits, go to www.waughco.com.