55: Is Starting A Bookkeeping Business Right For You And If So How Do You Start A Bookkeeping Busin
55: Is Starting A Bookkeeping Business Right For You And If So How Do You Start A Bookkeeping Business Whether You Are Starting A Business, You Are Self-Employed, A Solopreneur, Entrepreneur, Small Business Owner, Remote Virtual Online Bookkeeper, Virtual Assistant Or VA
If you are one of my regular listeners, you’re probably wondering why there is an additional episode this week. Well, today I have something special for you. I’ve decided to do an extra series of podcast episodes for bookkeepers, but don’t worry, my normal weekly podcasts will drop at their regular times. I know that the listeners of this podcast are made up of a mixture of entrepreneurs who either what to start their own business, they are self-employed, solopreneurs, small business owners, bookkeepers and virtual assistants. Since I provide information on managing your small business finances, this mixture of listeners is expected, but I wanted to have a series of podcast episodes for individuals that will focus on bookkeepers, those who are thinking about or want to start a bookkeeping business or already have a bookkeeping business but want to grow or scale their existing bookkeeping business. If you are a business owner and you are wondering if you should be doing your own bookkeeping, this episode will be helpful for you as well, and you may learn a thing or two about doing your own bookkeeping. I know that bookkeepers are in demand, and this is the time of the year when business owners are searching for bookkeepers to help them with their finances, whether they are using QuickBooks, Xero, Wave or a spreadsheet like Xcel or Google Sheets. I am going to start this series off with a question I want you to ask yourself if you are thinking about starting a bookkeeping business. Is owning a bookkeeping business right for you, and if so, how do you start a bookkeeping business? Bookkeeping isn’t the right fit for everyone, so if you’ve been thinking about starting a bookkeeping business, listen in to today’s episode where I will cover what it takes to be a bookkeeper and by the end of this episode, you’ll know if you have what it takes to own a bookkeeping business, and if bookkeeping is right for you…
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Show Notes:
Hello listeners. If you are one of my regular listeners, you’re probably wondering why there is an additional episode this week. Well, today I have something special for you. I’ve decided to do an extra series of podcast episodes for bookkeepers, but don’t worry, my normal weekly podcasts will drop at their regular times. I know that the listeners of this podcast are made up of a mixture of entrepreneurs who either what to start their own business, they are self-employed, solopreneurs, small business owners, bookkeepers and virtual assistants. Since I provide information on managing your small business finances, this mixture of listeners is expected, but I wanted to have a series of podcast episodes for individuals that will focus on bookkeepers, those who are thinking about or want to start a bookkeeping business or already have a bookkeeping business but want to grow or scale their existing bookkeeping business. If you are a business owner and you are wondering if you should be doing your own bookkeeping, this episode will be helpful for you as well, and you may learn a thing or two about doing your own bookkeeping. I know that bookkeepers are in demand, and this is the time of the year when business owners are searching for bookkeepers to help them with their finances. I am going to start this series off with a question I want you to ask yourself if you are thinking about starting a bookkeeping business. Is owning a bookkeeping business right for you? Bookkeeping isn’t the right fit for everyone, so if you’ve been thinking about starting a bookkeeping business, listen in to today’s episode where I will cover what it takes to be a bookkeeper and by the end of this episode, you’ll know if you have what it takes to own a bookkeeping business...and if bookkeeping is right for you…
Welcome Back…If you are a new listener, I want to give you a special welcome if you are joining this podcast for the first time to find out if being a bookkeeper is right for you. If you are one of my regular listeners, I appreciate you being here today as well. You know that I talk about mastering your small business finances and topics that ultimately impact your bottom line. Well, having your books in order is a necessary part of owning a business. All business owners need to file tax returns and to be able to do this, you need to keep accurate records for your business. As a business owner, you can either do this on your own, or rely on a bookkeeper to help you accomplish this essential task.
You may be asking yourself, if bookkeeping right for me, if starting a bookkeeping business right for me? And, would I be able to create my own profitable bookkeeping business? These are great questions, and today I’m going to help you answer these questions. By the end of this podcast, you should know if a bookkeeping business is indeed right for you. You may already know that I have a program for entrepreneurs who want to start, grow or scale their own bookkeeping business. It’s called Elevate Your Bookkeeping Business. As a CPA, I see the need for bookkeepers all the time. I wanted to take the same framework I used to start my bookkeeping business and help others become bookkeeping business owners as well. Not just ordinary bookkeepers who do the bare minimum, I wanted to help bookkeepers who really want to excel at helping business owners with accurate and timely financial information. You’ll hear me talk about my program from time to time, but I want you to know that when I talk about starting a bookkeeping business, that it isn’t business where you will get rich quick. I will be fully honest with you because I want to make sure you make the right decision when you are thinking about starting your own bookkeeping business. I didn’t start my bookkeeping business and show huge profits in the first months, but I was profitable. That’s one of the amazing things about bookkeeping businesses. There are very little start-up costs, and your overhead is low, which is why it is one of the top profitable businesses out there. As time went on, I was able to refine my profitable bookkeeping business to the point where I have it today. I am in control of my business, and I have the control to take on as much or as little work that I want.
Alright, let’s start off with talking about owning your own business. It doesn’t matter if you own a bookkeeping business or any other business, starting a business takes a lot of effort and determination. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, right? You may need to put in some long hard hours at the beginning of your business, but in the long run, all these efforts should pay off. You may be thinking that owning your own business will give you more control of your schedule, the ability to spend more time with your family and not have to feel guilty when you need to take time off for family. This was actually one of the biggest reasons I wanted to start my own bookkeeping business. You might be thinking you’d enjoy the freedom to take on only the projects you are interested in doing. You may want to work from home, the office, or even on the beach. You may want additional income to help pay off debt or do something you really enjoy…like traveling. Another benefit of owning your own business is that you are in control of how much…or how little you make in your business. You are the one who decides how much time you’ll be spending on your business. You are in control, and you make the decisions. How does it feel to think you could be in control of your future?
Next, now that we’ve talked a little about what it takes to own a business, let’s dive a little deeper into specifically a bookkeeping business. If you’re wondering if you have what it takes to be a bookkeeper, let’s cover some of the criteria I believe are important aspects of being a bookkeeper. The first and most obvious question you may be asking yourself is: Do you need to be good with numbers or math? Well, my answer to this is that you don’t have to love numbers, but this will be something you will be working with every day, so I want you to make sure you are okay with working with numbers. I don’t want you to think you need to do all the math in your head…that is the glory of technology. Bookkeeping has changed so much even just during my lifetime alone. If you feel you have good computer skills and are able to pay attention to details, this will be very beneficial for you. You should be organized and able to make decisions on your own. Remember, you are in control when you own your own business. You want to make sure you have good communication skills. Talking to your clients will be a big part of your business, so you need to be comfortable doing this. I’m not saying you need to be an extrovert by any means. I am totally introverted, and I truly enjoy working with my clients. I love how much of an impact I can make on others when I explain complicated matters to them, and they tell me how grateful they are for helping them understand. That’s also probably one of the reasons I started doing this podcast…again, remember I am an introvert, so things like this are a little out of my comfort zone, but when you put your mind to it, you can do anything.
There are two more really important factors. Knowledge and confidence. You don’t need to have an accounting degree to do bookkeeping, I will admit, it is nice to have, but having an understanding of the basics of bookkeeping when you are just getting started will be beneficial. If you don’t already have this, don’t worry, this knowledge is something that you will develop and learn over time. The technology and the software that is available now really helps with this as well. Many are set up so that you don’t even really need to know accounting, but you do need to understand how everything works. There is nothing like getting into the real world and learning bookkeeping. It is so much different than any class on bookkeeping you could take. There are no two businesses that are alike and there is such a variety of lessons you will learn as you start doing bookkeeping. Confidence will many times hold people back. I get it, and I’ve been there myself. When I started my own bookkeeping business and I was trying to get my first client, I was by no means confident in myself. I knew I could do the work. I had been doing bookkeeping for years prior to starting my own bookkeeping business, but my confidence level was low. Once I got my first client, it grew a little and over time, I became more and more confident not only in the work that I do, but in myself as well. I promise this will happen for you as well…it just takes time.
Lastly, I want to mention how important it is to have a community where you can ask questions. I know personally when I started my bookkeeping business, I felt like I was working all alone. I didn’t have anyone who I could ask questions to, or bounce ideas off of. This really made starting my business hard. This is the reason I wanted to create a community for bookkeepers or people who were thinking about starting a bookkeeping business to have a place where they could go to get their questions answered. If you are interested, you can join other bookkeepers just like you in my free bookkeeper community. You can go to www.FinancialAdventure.com/bookkeepercommunity to join.
So, back to that question…Is starting a bookkeeping business right for you? Take some time to really think this over. Ask yourself if you feel like you have the persistence and determination to start a business. Do you feel like you have the qualifications to be a bookkeeper, and if not, do you feel like you could learn or develop these skills over time? How would you feel to know you are in charge of your future? I hope this episode was helpful for you, and I will be continuing this series with another episode next week when I’ll dive deeper into what a day in the life of a bookkeeper looks like so you can get a feel for what you’ll be getting yourself into if you decide to continue with your journey to start your own bookkeeping business. As I mentioned earlier, I am the founder of The Elevate Your Bookkeeping Business, and if you decided you are on the right path with starting your own bookkeeping business, I am looking forward to helping you create your own profitable bookkeeping business. I’ll be holding a Jumpstart Your Bookkeeping Business Workshop on Monday November 22nd at 6 PM Central Time. In this live workshop, you’ll learn 3 major mistakes to avoid when starting your bookkeeping business, exactly what you need to do to set up your bookkeeping business, how you can get your bookkeeping software for free and the necessary equipment and other start-up costs you may incur when starting your own bookkeeping business. You can go to www.FinancialAdventure.com/Workshop to sign up. I hope to see you there. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at www.FinancialAdventure.com/Contact-Us - I personally respond to all my messages. I’ll post links to these and other valuable resources for you where you are listening to this podcast and in the show notes.
And, you know I’m going to ask…what’s at least one thing you will take away from this episode that will help your business succeed and grow your bottom line? If you need some accountability, join our PRIVATE Facebook community and post your action item, we’d love to support you.
