It’s important to think about why your clients work with you. It can guide your marketing efforts and it can help you refine your service offerings.

My clients like the fact that what they see is what they get. I’m the forensic accountant who will do all the work on their project. They don’t have to worry about someone inexperienced learning the art of forensic accounting on their dime or possibly even botching their case. Experience is key, and my clients know that they get my experience.

My clients also like that:

• I use fixed fees. They know exactly what it will cost to get an expert report from the beginning of the project. We agree up front to the cost, and there are no surprises. It also makes it easy to determine the deposit the client needs to make.
• There’s no bait and switch with hourly fees. I see other experts giving a “budget” for a project, but their final invoice ends up 50% to 100% more than budgeted. I commit to a fee, and if the client doesn’t change the scope of the work, the fee doesn’t change.
• I’ve been doing this for 25 years. I am really experienced at investigating fraud. There is no substitute for on-the-job experience. College courses and continuing education are great, but they don’t give you real experience investigating fraud.
• Because I work alone, I have great quality control. I keep a close watch over the data and documents to ensure accuracy. There are checks and balances in place to make sure that the data in a database doesn’t get corrupted.
• I meet tight deadlines. Most of my projects are completed in 60 to 90 days. Some are completed as fast as 30 days.
• I testify well. I’ve testified more than 80 times, and that experience is invaluable.

I know what I know, and I know what I DON’T know. I stick to my area of expertise. While that means sometimes I have to tell potential clients no, it also means that my clients can be assured that if I take a case, it’s because I’m qualified for it.