To help your business grow as rapidly and efficiently as possible, you must be equipped with equally efficient legal and accounting practices.And even if you may be able to master the minute details of law and finance given enough time and attention, why to bother when you can easily hand these duties off to professional service providers! They can get the job done faster and more effectively than you ever could with a lot more confidence in their work as well. Besides, a good company will always focus on utilizing the right resource for the right thing which will help your business expand.

Likewise, accounting problems have evolved a lot since the beginning. As you grow, however, you’ll have to deal with more than the simple income tax issues. These new tasks include dealing with equipment and real property; setting up financial controls, depreciating plant; and, most likely, the tax laws of entities beyond your startup state and city. Seems like a tough task, isn’t it? That’s why we’ll see how to hire an accounting professional so that your accounting practice will improve and your business will keep running smoother.

Word of Mouth is the best referral
When you are looking to get a new professional service provider; referrals are the best way to go. The best source of referrals is other entrepreneurs are the best source of referrals. You can also make it a point of asking people in the same business sector such as service, retail, restaurant, manufacturing and likewise. You can also get good referrals from other professionals as well.

The Interview 
Once you have enough referrals to work with, begin sorting and filtering according to your demands and their work expertise and call at least three prospects for an interview.

Be ready to describe your business and its legal as well as accounting needs clearly at the time of interview. Take precise note of what the provider says and does, and also look for the following qualities:

• Experience: Even though it’s not too essential to find an expert in your particular field, it makes best sense to look for someone who specializes in small-business problems. Make sure the professional will give his equal attention to your accounting problems; however big or small they may be.
• Understanding: Be sure to catch someone who is genuinely willing to learn about your business’s goals. You will be wanting a long-term partner in your business’s growth and for that, your interests and goals need to align with your probable accounts’. The question to ask here would be ‘Does the professional understand where you are and where you intend to be tomorrow and share your vision for the future?
• Effective Communication: If the professional speaks in jargon most of the times or the accountant uses lots of complex financial terms without bothering to explain them, look for someone else. As explained before, you must go hand in hand every step of the way. 
• Availability and flexibility: The professional needs to be available for conferences according to your business schedule. Is he demanding it on his term? How quickly can you expect emergency phone calls to be returned? 
• Ease of Rapport: Make sure that this person is someone you can get along with very well. You will be discussing some very crucial and professional matters regarding the company with this professional. Good chemistry will anyways ensure better comradely and positive results for your business.
• Reasonable fees: Now, you need to make sure you are getting all the services in good fees as not to overspend unnecessarily. Most accountants and professionals charge within the range of $90 to $300 (or more) per hour. It also depends on the location, size and prestige of the provider. Search around and get multiple quotes. However, never compare one provider with another on the basis of fees alone. The lowest fees may not indicate quality work as an inexperienced individual may take twice as long to complete a single job.
• References: Don’t hesitate to ask for references. You can always ask about the kind of clients the professional has already worked with or might still be working with. You can also do your bit of research on the same.

What’s in it for You?
For your business’s long-term health, having access to accounting and other professional service expertise is essential. When you have these brilliant professionals on your side, you can deal effectively with certain accounting issues or hassles that might actually require years of study to master. So, this is how you can make an effective addition to your accounting practices and help your company grow much faster!