Running your own tax school isn’t a new concept, it’s something all the national tax preparation companies do to recruit the massive amounts of tax preparers needed each season. It’s a great source of alternative revenue for your business, it helps you get ready for next tax season, and it allows you to see potential new employees in action. Whether you want to start a business or just looking to recruit new tax preparers, here are 5 reasons you should run a tax school.
You know you’re going to have to hire for next tax season
After the catastrophe that was last tax season, you’ll want to equip your team with everything they need for next tax season, and that may mean bringing on some seasonal team members. However, everyone who applies may not be at the professional level you need just quite yet. By running your own, in-house tax school, you can ensure that incoming staff is competent and ready to help your clients to the best of their ability. Well trained, prepared tax pros often keep clients coming back year after year, which means more profit for everyone!
You’ve had a hard time finding applicants in the past
Maybe during this season or in seasons past you’ve had trouble finding applicants. There is an industry-wide lack of tax preparers, so finding good-quality employees is even more difficult right now. Tons of businesses make the mistake every year of waiting too long to hire, putting them in a desperate position. Running a tax school helps you start the process earlier, giving you more time and information with which to choose your new hires.
You need employees who are trained properly and a good culture fit
If you’ve been in business for a while, you’ve likely experienced the dread of a bad hire. While it’s definitely good to have a strong, knowledgeable and experienced staff, there are hidden risks to hiring someone with experience. Prospects could’ve picked up bad habits at another company, or they left their previous job due to being unreliable or a bad culture fit – things that might persist if they worked for you.
Brand new tax preparers, on the other hand, can be taught and guided in the way that works best for your company. The priority at that point becomes not their experience level, but their customer service skills. It’s actually much easier to take someone with a great personality, who your clients will love coming back to year after year, and teach them taxes rather than teach someone who knows taxes how to be someone your clients will love. Operating a tax school allows you to observe not just their work and learning habits, but their customer service skills as well. By the end, you’ll get to hire only the students which are the best fit for your firm.
You want to develop another revenue stream
Running a tax school is not sure a recruitment tool, it can be an additional revenue stream. You don’t have to hire everyone you train and you can offer your community an opportunity to learn from a pro and get started on a new career path. Most importantly, you can structure your pricing to make up for any costs and time spent, while still providing a competitive and fair price to your students.
You don’t have the time to develop your own training materials
At this point, you might be thinking that running a tax school sounds great, but you have no idea how to put together a curriculum. That’s where Surgent comes in. We interviewed Monica Brewer, a tax business owner who runs a tax school. She is a great testament to how much goes into developing tax training materials – and how valuable it is to rely on the pros.
“When I was training just off of my knowledge and materials, I would get information from the IRS website, any seminars that I had… I was constantly doing research to find the standard deduction. I would put it in my own words to train them and help them understand what they had to do as far as tax laws and what was required. But once I had that book, I was blown away. There’s so much stuff in here!” – Monica Brewer
She’s right. Why spend all of that time when you can count on a business who has been doing this for 30 years? Surgent Income Tax School offers a true, turnkey solution to training.
Opening your own tax school doesn’t have to be hard, especially when you choose us to help. We have several options that fit your needs as an owner and for students. You can find them here.