Accountant Persona · side project

Build your own clientele from Week 2 to completion.

The persona is not a costume you put on in Week 11. It is a parallel track that runs beside the technical curriculum. Every member keeps a live Client Roster and actually builds a list of people they can serve—warm introductions first, no purchased data, no pretending to be a licensed tax preparer.

The roster (required tool)

Use a spreadsheet or card file with: name, how you know them, likely need, last contact, next action, date, notes. This list is yours. Classmates are not your book of business unless they freely ask. Never store SSNs or tax documents for prospects in the roster.

Week-by-week persona work

Week	Persona action	Study guide
1	Prepare only. Roster opens next week.	Guide
2	Open the roster. Add at least 10 warm names.	Guide
3	Five professional conversations logged.	Guide
4	Seven-day follow-up rule. Reliability is the persona.	Guide
5	One management-summary conversation (sample file or consented numbers).	Guide
6	Structured intake on one live prospect (or documented equivalent).	Guide
7	Tax-boundary script with a real question from the list.	Guide
8	Firm/employment identity on every outreach.	Guide
9	Service menu attached to the roster; one package quoted.	Guide
10	Acquisition plan is the numbered roster—not a slogan.	Guide
11	Capstone Persona Day uses your pipeline.	Guide
12	90-day plan names the list with dates after graduation.	Guide

Rules

• You are building your clientele, not the Foundation’s. The Foundation does not sell you clients.
• Warm network first. No scraped or purchased lists.
• Paid work with the public requires instructor awareness and lawful boundaries.
• Week 11 is a capstone professional day, not the start of the persona.
• Credential work (PTIN, CAF, EFIN, ERO) runs with the technical track—especially Week 7—so your client list is backed by lawful filing identity, not a costume.