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Tax preparation is a recession-proof business. No matter what happens to the economy, this business never goes off-trend. So starting a tax preparation business is an excellent choice.
Starting a business from scratch and standing up against big industry giants may feel overwhelming, but a detailed business plan can help you succeed.
Need help writing a business plan for your tax preparation business? You’re at the right place. Our tax preparation business plan template will help you get started.
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How to Write a Tax Preparation Business Plan?
Writing a tax preparation business plan is a crucial step toward the success of your business. Here are the key steps to consider when writing a business plan:
1. Executive Summary
An executive summary is the first section planned to offer an overview of the entire business plan. However, it is written after the entire business plan is ready and summarizes each section of your plan.
Here are a few key components to include in your executive summary:
- Introduce your business: Start your executive summary by briefly introducing your business to your readers.
- This section may include the name of your tax preparation business, its location, when it was founded, the type of tax preparation business (E.g., franchise tax preparation services, enrolled agent firms, tax law firms.), etc.
- Market opportunity: Summarize your market research, including market size, growth potential, and marketing trends. Highlight the opportunities in the market and how your business will fit in to fill the gap.
- Tax preparation services: Highlight the tax preparation services you offer your clients. The USPs and differentiators you offer are always a plus.
- For instance, your services may include tax preparation, accounting, tax resolution and representation, tax planning, and tax consulting.
- Marketing & sales strategies: Outline your sales and marketing strategies—what marketing platforms you use, how you plan on acquiring customers, etc.
- Financial highlights: Briefly summarize your financial projections for the initial years of business operations. Include any capital or investment requirements, associated startup costs, projected revenues, and profit forecasts.
- Call to action: Summarize your executive summary section with a clear CTA, for example, inviting angel investors to discuss the potential business investment.
Ensure your executive summary is clear, concise, easy to understand, and jargon-free.
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2. Business Overview
The business overview section of your business plan offers detailed information about your company. The details you add will depend on how important they are to your business. Yet, business name, location, business history, and future goals are some of the foundational elements you must consider adding to this section:
- Business description: Describe your business in this section by providing all the basic information:
- Describe what kind of tax preparation company you run and the name of it. Here are some of the most common types of tax preparation businesses:
- Franchise tax preparation services
- Independent tax preparation services
- Online tax preparation services
- Enrolled Agent (EA) firms
- Tax law firms
- Certified Public Accountant (CPA) firms
- Describe the legal structure of your tax preparation company, whether it is a sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership, or others.
- Explain where your business is located and why you selected the place.
- Owners: List the founders or owners of your tax preparation business. Describe what shares they own and their responsibilities for efficiently managing the business.
- Mission statement: Summarize your business’ objective, core principles, and values in your mission statement. This statement needs to be memorable, clear, and brief.
- Business history: If you’re an established tax preparation service provider, briefly describe your business history, like—when it was founded, how it evolved over time, etc.
- Additionally, If you have received any awards or recognition for excellent work, describe them.
- Future goal: It’s crucial to convey your aspirations and vision. Mention your short-term and long-term goals; they can be specific targets for revenue, market share, or expanding your services.
This section should provide a thorough understanding of your business, its history, and its future plans. Keep this section engaging, precise, and to the point.
3. Market Analysis
The market analysis section of your business plan should offer a thorough understanding of the industry with the target market, competitors, and growth opportunities. You should include the following components in this section.
- Target market: Start this section by describing your target market. Define your ideal customer and explain what types of services they prefer. Creating a buyer persona will help you easily define your target market to your readers.
- For example, if you are an independent tax preparation service provider, you might target busy individuals, self-employed professionals, retirees, new immigrants, and people with low and moderate incomes.
- Market size and growth potential: Describe your market size and growth potential and whether you will target a niche or a much broader market.
- Competitive analysis: Identify and analyze your direct and indirect competitors. Identify their strengths and weaknesses, and describe what differentiates your tax preparation services from them. Point out how you have a competitive edge in the market.
- Market trends: Analyse emerging trends in the industry, such as technology disruptions, changes in customer behavior or preferences, etc. Explain how your business will cope with all the trends.
- For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend toward remote and hybrid work in the tax preparation industry, so you may need to explain how you plan to handle your remote team.
- Regulatory environment: List regulations and licensing requirements that may affect your tax preparation company, such as business registration, Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN), state-specific requirements, tax preparer bond, insurance requirements, etc.
Here are a few tips for writing the market analysis section of your tax consultant business plan:
- Conduct market research, industry reports, and surveys to gather data.
- Provide specific and detailed information whenever possible.
- Illustrate your points with charts and graphs.
- Write your business plan keeping your target audience in mind.
4. Products And Services
The product and services section should describe the specific services and products that will be offered to customers. To write this section should include the following:
- Tax preparation services: Describe the tax preparation services your business will offer. This list may include services like,
- Preparation of federal, state, and local tax returns
- Review of tax documents
- Electronic filing
- Tax planning
- Audit assistance
- Tax resolution services
- Describe each service: Provide a detailed description of each service you provide, including the process involved, the time required, etc.
- Tax resolution processes, for instance, include consultation, investigation, strategy development, negotiation, resolution, and ongoing compliance.
- Quality measures: This section should explain how you maintain quality standards and consistently provide accurate, reliable, and timely services.
- This may include,
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- Regular training and education for staff
- Thorough review and quality control processes to ensure accuracy
- Compliance with all relevant laws and regulations governing tax preparation services, etc.
- Additional services: Mention if your tax preparation company offers any additional services. You may include services like IRS audit support, back taxes, delinquent filing assistance, and tax planning and consulting.
In short, this section of your tax preparation plan must be informative, precise, and client-focused. By providing a clear and compelling description of your offerings, you can help potential investors and readers understand the value of your business.
5. Sales And Marketing Strategies
Writing the sales and marketing strategies section means a list of strategies you will use to attract and retain your clients. Here are some key elements to include in your sales & marketing plan:
- Unique selling proposition (USP): Define your business’s USPs depending on the market you serve, your expertise in the market, and the unique services you provide. Identifying USPs will help you plan your marketing strategies.
- For example, personal attention, year-round services, niche specialization, and commitment to excellence could be some of the great USPs for a professional tax preparation company.
- Pricing strategy: Describe your pricing strategy—how you plan to price your tax preparation services and stay competitive in the local market. You can mention any discounts you plan on offering to attract new customers to your tax preparation service.
- Marketing strategies: Discuss your marketing strategies to market your services. You may include some of these marketing strategies in your business plan—social media marketing, networking, Google ads, brochures, email marketing, content marketing, and print marketing.
- Sales strategies: Outline the strategies you’ll implement to maximize your sales. Your sales strategies may include direct sales calls, partnering with local notary businesses, offering referral discounts, etc.
- Customer retention: Describe your customer retention strategies and how you plan to execute them. Your customer retention strategies may include introducing loyalty programs, proactive communication, personalized customer services, and offering referral discounts.
Overall, this section of your tax preparation business plan should focus on customer acquisition and retention.
Have a specific, realistic, and data-driven approach while planning sales and marketing strategies for your tax preparation business, and be prepared to adapt or make strategic changes in your strategies based on feedback and results.
6. Operations Plan
The operations plan section of your business plan should outline the processes and procedures involved in your business operations, such as staffing requirements and operational processes. Here are a few components to add to your operations plan:
- Staffing & training: Mention your business’s staffing requirements, including the number of bookkeepers, tax preparers, and other employees needed. Include their qualifications, the training required, and the duties they will perform.Operational process: Outline the processes and procedures you will use to run your tax preparation business. Your operational processes may include client communication, tax preparation, financial management, staff management, and regulatory compliance.
- ESoftware & Technology: Include the list of software and technology required for tax preparation, such as tax preparation software, client management software, financial management software, document management software, and regulatory compliance software.
- Explain how these software and technologies help you maintain quality standards and improve the efficiency of your business operations.
Adding these components to your operations plan will help you lay out your business operations, which will eventually help you manage your business effectively.
7. Management Team
The management team section provides an overview of your tax preparation business’s management team. This section should provide a detailed description of each manager’s experience and qualifications, as well as their responsibilities and roles.
- Founder/CEO: Mention the founders and CEO of your tax preparation company, and describe their roles and responsibilities in successfully running the business.
- Key managers: Introduce your management and key members of your team, and explain their roles and responsibilities.
- It should include key executives, senior management, and other department managers (e.g., Tax manager, Accounting manager.) involved in the business operations, including their education, professional background, and any relevant experience in the taxation industry.
- Organizational structure: Explain the organizational structure of your management team. Include the reporting line and decision-making hierarchy.
- Compensation plan: Describe your compensation plan for the management and staff. Include their salaries, incentives, and other benefits.
- Advisors/consultants: Mentioning advisors or consultants in your business plans adds credibility to your business idea.
- So, if you have any advisors or consultants, include them with their names and brief information consisting of roles and years of experience.
This section should describe the key personnel for your tax preparation services, highlighting how you have the perfect team to succeed.
8. Financial Plan
Your financial plan section should provide a summary of your business’s financial projections for the first few years. Here are some key elements to include in your financial plan:
- Profit & loss statement: Describe details such as projected revenue, operational costs, and service costs in your projected profit and loss statement. Make sure to include your business’s expected net profit or loss.
- Cash flow statement: The cash flow for the first few years of your operation should be estimated and described in this section. This may include billing invoices, payment receipts, loan payments, and any other cash flow statements.
- Balance sheet: Create a projected balance sheet documenting your tax preparation business’s assets, liabilities, and equity.
- Break-even point: Determine and mention your business’s break-even point—the point at which your business costs and revenue will be equal.
- This exercise will help you understand how much revenue you need to generate to sustain or be profitable.Financing needs: Calculate costs associated with starting a tax preparation business, and estimate your financing needs and how much capital you need to raise to operate your business. Be specific about your short-term and long-term financing requirements, such as investment capital or loans.
Be realistic with your financial projections, and make sure you offer relevant information and evidence to support your estimates.
9. Appendix
The appendix section of your plan should include any additional information supporting your business plan’s main content, such as market research, legal documentation, financial statements, and other relevant information.
- Add a table of contents for the appendix section to help readers easily find specific information or sections.
- In addition to your financial statements, provide additional financial documents like tax returns, a list of assets within the business, credit history, and more.
These statements must be the latest and offer financial projections for at least the first three or five years of business operations. - Provide data derived from market research, including stats about the taxation industry, user demographics, and industry trends.
- Include any legal documents such as permits, licenses, and contracts.
- Include any additional documentation related to your business plan, such as product brochures, marketing materials, operational procedures, etc.
Use clear headings and labels for each section of the appendix so that readers can easily find the necessary information.
Remember, the appendix section of your tax preparation company business plan should only include relevant and important information supporting your plan’s main content.
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Summary
This sample tax preparation business plan will provide an idea for writing a successful tax preparation plan, including all the essential components of your business.
After this, if you still need clarification about writing an investment-ready business plan to impress your audience, download our tax preparation business plan pdf.
