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Bookkeeper: Best Referral Sources

Who should be sending you clients, and the rooms they are already sitting in. Tell us where you are and we will send the list.

Get your list

The rooms for bookkeepers, the next meeting dates, and who to ask for when you walk in.

Start here

Your one-page action plan

Five partners, what starts the work for each one, and the three rooms to be in. Print it and keep it in the car.

Networking plan: Bookkeeper

The five people who should be sending you clients

  1. CPA / Accountant (They send you work)
    Shared trigger: somebody starts a company
  2. Attorney Business & Corporate (They send you work)
    Shared trigger: somebody starts a company
  3. Business Banker (They send you work)
    Shared trigger: somebody starts a company
  4. Restaurant / Food Service (They send you work)
    Shared trigger: somebody starts a company
  5. Real Estate Investor (They send you work)
    Shared trigger: somebody needs a loan closed

The three rooms to be in

  1. LinkedIn groups & local B2B communities: Your partners are in this room: CPAs, business attorneys, and business bankers.
  2. Vistage: Your partners are in this room: CPAs, business attorneys, and business bankers.
  3. Your city or county chamber of commerce: Your partners are in this room: CPAs, business attorneys, and business bankers.

Don't confuse this with networking: State CPA society. Learning and supplier access, not referrals.

The people

Who should be sending you clients

Ranked by what starts the job, not by who sounds close to your trade. When something happens that makes people need bookkeepers, who else gets a call that same week?

Match strength is how much of your work starts from the same event as theirs, scored out of 100. Higher means you are more often called into the same job in the same week.

  1. 1 CPA / Accountant They send you work Trigger: somebody starts a company 87 match strength out of 100
  2. 2 Attorney Business & Corporate They send you work Trigger: somebody starts a company 80 match strength out of 100
  3. 3 Business Banker They send you work Trigger: somebody starts a company 75 match strength out of 100
  4. 4 Restaurant / Food Service They send you work Trigger: somebody starts a company 69 match strength out of 100
  5. 5 Real Estate Investor They send you work Trigger: somebody needs a loan closed 64 match strength out of 100
  6. 6 Hard Money / Private Lender They send you work Trigger: somebody needs a loan closed 64 match strength out of 100
  7. 7 Staffing / Recruiting Two-way Trigger: a business puts its first employee on payroll 63 match strength out of 100
  8. 8 Payroll Services Two-way Trigger: somebody starts a company 61 match strength out of 100
  9. 9 Medical Billing & Practice Management Two-way Trigger: somebody starts a company 61 match strength out of 100
  10. 10 Insurance Health & Benefits Two-way Trigger: somebody starts a company 61 match strength out of 100

Knowing the names is half of it. We will send the list with what to say to each one. Send me my list ↑

The rooms

Where those people actually are

Ranked by how many of your best partners are in the room, and how much work each one can send you. Give someone nine choices and they pick none, so we have marked the one to start with.

  1. 1 LinkedIn groups & local B2B communities Your pick Your partners are in this room: CPAs, business attorneys, and business bankers. Online community · Always on · Free · ~3 hrs/month Chapter finder →
  2. 2 Vistage Your partners are in this room: CPAs, business attorneys, and business bankers. Paid peer group · Monthly · $2,000+/yr · ~8 hrs/month Chapter finder →
  3. 3 Your city or county chamber of commerce Your partners are in this room: CPAs, business attorneys, and business bankers. Chamber of commerce · Monthly · Under $500/yr · ~4 hrs/month Chapter finder →
  4. 4 SHRM local chapter Your partners are in this room: staffing and recruiting firms, health and benefits brokers, and payroll providers. Your partners' association · Monthly · Under $500/yr · ~3 hrs/month Chapter finder →
  5. 5 BNI One seat per category, so your competitors are excluded by rule and the seats around you are the partners above. Structured referral group · Weekly · $500–$2,000/yr · ~8 hrs/month · One seat per category Chapter finder →
  6. 6 LeTip International One seat per category, so your competitors are excluded by rule and the seats around you are the partners above. Structured referral group · Weekly · $500–$2,000/yr · ~7 hrs/month · One seat per category Chapter finder →
  7. 7 Network In Action One seat per category, so your competitors are excluded by rule and the seats around you are the partners above. Structured referral group · Monthly · $500–$2,000/yr · ~3 hrs/month · One seat per category Chapter finder →
  8. 8 Master Networks One seat per category, so your competitors are excluded by rule and the seats around you are the partners above. Structured referral group · Weekly · $500–$2,000/yr · ~7 hrs/month · One seat per category Chapter finder →
The competitor trap

State CPA society

Most bookkeepers join this room first. It is also the one most likely to be the wrong pick. Everyone in it does what you do. Join it for the training, the licenses, and the ties to manufacturers. Do not join it for referrals, and do not join it instead of the rooms above.

Let us be straight with you. For bookkeepers, a weekly referral group is not the best pick. Your partners gather in professional groups instead, so spend your time there. We would rather say that than sell you a seat you do not need.

These rooms meet on real dates. We will send you the next ones for your area. Send me the dates ↑

Your seat

Is your seat open?

Prime Time takes one Bookkeeper per chapter. Put a South Florida ZIP into the form above and we will show you which seats are open.

Add your ZIP code in the form above to see which seats are open. Go to the form ↑

Want this as a list you can act on?

Send it to yourself: the partners above, the rooms ranked for bookkeepers, and the next meeting dates for your area.

Send me my list