Latest / Small Business Success with Fexingo: Local Companies, Main Street Stories, and Community Commerce / How a Local Tax Prep Firm Built a Year-Round Client Engine
Transcript
- Lucas: Marta Alvarez runs a tax preparation office in Missoula, Montana. For years, her business followed the same brutal cycle as every other tax pro: nothing from January, then a dead sprint from February through April 15th, then nothing again. Luna: That 10-week window where you either make your year or you don't. I've talked to tax preparers who say they basically don't sleep in March. Lucas: Right. And Marta was good at it — she had about 400 clients, mostly individuals and small business owners. But the feast or famine thing was wearing her out. She told me she'd spend May through December wondering if she should pivot entirely. Luna: So what changed? Did she just add bookkeeping or payroll and call it a day? Lucas: Not exactly. She did something more interesting. She started offering something she calls the 'tax check-in' — a quarterly 30-minute meeting where she reviews a client's withholding, estimated tax payments, and any major life changes. It's not a full return — it's a temperature check. Luna: And she charged for that separately? Or bundled it? Lucas: Flat fee. Two hundred dollars per quarter, or seven hundred dollars for the full year if they paid upfront. That's for four check-ins plus the actual tax filing in spring. She kept the filing fee separate — that's still a per-return charge based on complexity. Luna: So the quarterly check-in is essentially a retainer for ongoing advice. Did clients actually bite? I feel like most people only think about taxes once a year. Lucas: That was her biggest fear. But she started by offering it to her existing 400 clients as a pilot in 2024. She sent a personal email — not a newsletter blast — explaining that she wanted to help them avoid surprises. Sixty-three clients signed up in the first month. Luna: That's about 16 percent conversion. Pretty decent for an unproven offer. Lucas: And those 63 clients generated about forty-four thousand dollars in recurring revenue in the first year. Not life-changing, but enough to cover her rent and her part-time assistant's salary for the entire off-season. That alone took the pressure off. Luna: Right, because suddenly she wasn't staring at zero revenue from May to December. She had a floor. Lucas: Exactly. And here's where it gets clever. Marta doesn't just do the check-in and send them on their way. She uses that 30 minutes to identify one specific action item — 'You should bump your withholding by fifty dollars per paycheck' or 'You qualified for the child tax credit but you're not claiming it correctly.' She gives them a written summary. Luna: So each check-in has a tangible outcome. That's smart — it turns a tax meeting into something you actually look forward to because you walk away with money in your pocket. Lucas: Exactly. And that's how she grew the program. By the end of 2025, she had 147 clients on the quarterly plan. That's more than double the initial cohort. And here's the number that really matters: her off-season revenue went from practically zero to about eighty-eight thousand dollars annually. Luna: That's a real business transformation. But I'm curious — did she lose any tax-season clients because of this? Some people might see the quarterly check-in as a upsell they don't want. Lucas: She actually lost a handful — maybe 20 clients out of 400. But she said most of them were the price-sensitive ones who only came to her because TurboTax raised its fees. They weren't her ideal clients anyway. Meanwhile, the clients who joined the check-in program became far more loyal. Luna: And I bet they referred more people, too. Because now they have a reason to talk about their tax person year-round. Lucas: That's exactly what happened. Marta started tracking referral sources in mid-2024. By the end of 2025, 40 percent of her new clients came from referrals — and most of those were from check-in clients. She said the check-in clients would tell friends, 'My accountant actually calls me in September to make sure I'm not going to owe a fortune.' That word of mouth is gold. Luna: You know, hearing this makes me think about all the seasonal businesses that just accept the revenue cliff. A landscaping company, a summer camp, a ski shop — they all have the same problem. The question is whether the same model applies. Lucas: That's the thing — Marta's model isn't tax-specific. It's a template. You identify a low-effort, high-value touchpoint that you can deliver in the off-season. You price it as a flat-fee retainer. And you use that recurring interaction to deepen trust and generate referrals. Any seasonal business could do this. Luna: But you need to offer something that's actually valuable enough that people will pay for it year-round. A tax check-in works because taxes are stressful and people want peace of mind. What's the equivalent for a landscaper? Lucas: I actually asked Marta that. She pointed to a landscaping client of hers who started a 'seasonal prep' subscription — ten dollars a month for a quarterly walkthrough of your yard with a written plan for the next three months. Pruning schedule, fertilizer timing, irrigation checks. That client now has 90 subscribers and does almost no marketing in the winter. Luna: So the principle is the same. Find a way to stay top of mind and provide ongoing value in the months when your core service isn't needed. Lucas: And you don't have to build a whole new business. Marta didn't quit tax prep. She just added a layer. Her tax-season revenue actually grew, too — because the check-in clients trusted her more, they upgraded to more comprehensive filing packages. She's now considering adding a small business advisory tier at $150 per month. Luna: That's the flywheel effect. The check-in builds trust, trust leads to referrals and upsells, and the recurring revenue lets her invest in better service. I can see why she's excited. Lucas: And this is the kind of story that makes me think about why we do this show. If today was actually useful to you, the way these conversations stay ad-free is listener support. Luna: Yeah, it's a simple model — people who find value in the show can chip in at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Keeps us independent, keeps us focused on what actually works on Main Street. Lucas: Exactly. So back to Marta — the last piece of the puzzle was pricing. She told me she initially worried that $200 per quarter was too much. But she tested it against a $99 option and found that the higher price actually attracted more committed clients. Luna: That makes sense. If you charge too little, people don't value it. They skip appointments, they don't prepare. Marta needed clients who would treat the check-in as a priority. Lucas: Right. And she also added a small incentive — if you refer a friend who signs up for the check-in, you get one quarter free. That referral program alone brought in 22 new clients in 2025. Luna: So the cost of acquisition is essentially zero. One free quarter for the referrer, but you're getting a full-year subscriber on the other side. That math works. Lucas: It does. And now Marta is looking at her next step. She wants to hire a second preparer so she can take on more check-in clients without burning out. Her goal is 300 check-in clients within three years, which would give her about $210,000 in guaranteed annual revenue before she even files a single tax return. Luna: That's a completely different business than the one she had two years ago. And it's more resilient, too. If a recession hits, people still need tax advice — but they're more likely to stick with a trusted advisor they talk to quarterly than a random preparer they see once a year. Lucas: That's the takeaway, I think. The tax check-in isn't just a revenue stream. It's a relationship anchor. It keeps Marta connected to her clients and her community in a way that a once-a-year filing never could. Luna: And it's replicable. I'm already thinking about which seasonal business in my neighbourhood could try this. That coffee shop that's dead after 2pm? Maybe a coffee subscription with a monthly tasting session. The summer camp? A 'winter check-in' for parents planning next summer. Lucas: Exactly. The specifics change, but the structure is the same. Find the off-season pain point, package it as a subscription, and use it to deepen trust. Marta proved it works.