Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Benjamin Szweda. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Benjamin , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?

Landing clients – first and subsequent – was my primary concern as I contemplated starting my business. It turned out not to be the problem I was making it out to be, but I spent much time thinking about where the clients would come from and how to reach them. While I don’t do it anymore, to feel like I was actively tackling this problem, I would comb through job postings on Indeed.com and similar websites and apply to the postings. In my cover letter, I would explain that I wasn’t looking for full-time employment, and in the pre-Covid era of the time, I would offer contract and remote work. Well, it worked. The conversion rate was extremely low, but Indeed.com is where my first client came from. This was important not because of where the client came from but because it represented to me that a company wanted what I was offering. I was marketable.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I like people. I like understanding them and their problems and customizing solutions to meet their needs. My first degree was in psychology, and many classes I took focused on industrial/organizational psychology. With this exposure to the business school, my career turned to accounting, but my passion is for people.

My business is not just about payroll, taxes, or bookkeeping. We certainly do those things – bookkeeping is our bread-and-butter service – but the most important thing is what comes next.

Once the bookkeeping is done and the financial statements can be relied upon, we can add value and truly help the client. I often write about our company: “We leverage accounting data to enhance business efficiency and profitability.”

What sets us apart from others is that we aren’t just record keepers. We don’t just deal with historical data and record things after the fact. We don’t just talk with you once a year at tax time. By touching your books every month or more frequently, we can offer proactive suggestions and help direct course before problems arise.

To potential clients, the one thing I want you to know about our work is that we want to be your advisor. When you have questions about your business, when something seems wrong, but you’re not sure what it is – we want to show you the answers using the records we maintain. We want you to focus entirely on your trade and customers, let us manage the back-of-the-house tasks, and feed you the information you need to excel.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I’m thankful that my side hustle is now my business. I began working with clients on the weekends and evenings while maintaining a full-time day job. My client base grew and grew to the point where I had to make a decision. To really serve my clients properly, I needed to be available to them more than just from 5 pm to 9 pm and on weekends. I needed to be available to schedule daytime meetings and answer emails faster. A friend helped highlight this crucial milestone to me. It was the point where I either had to be satisfied with the current size of my client base and income, or I had to jump away from the day job and go all in on the side hustle.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

My strategy is to focus on the clients I do have instead of chasing the ones I don’t have. This isn’t to say we don’t spend money on advertising activities. We pay to have a social media presence and to maintain strong SEO. However, our primary strategy is to take care of the clients we do have and to be accessible to them. That way, when our clients do well and grow their businesses, buy other businesses, or start new businesses, they readily enlist our help with those endeavors, and our client base naturally grows. We are also grateful to grow through referrals.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://szwedaconsulting.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/szwedaconsulting/
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/szwedaconsulting
• Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/company/szweda-consulting-llc
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/szwedaconsult
• Youtube: http://youtube.com/@szwedaconsulting