How To Start A Bookkeeping Business

To build a successful bookkeeping business as a sole trader, you are looking for between 16 – 20 regular clients.

When sourcing new bookkeeping clients we do not focus on “pro-forma” marketing letters or brochures because in our experience they are not that effective. If they were, everyone that did it would have huge businesses. In most cases direct marketing letters are treated like junk mail.

We’ve found that a properly constructed and worded website is far more effective than direct marketing. It’s easier to service someone who is looking rather than persuade someone who is not looking for your services.

If you want help with your bookkeeping website, then contact us NOW

You have a particular personality, and particular skills that sets you apart from other bookkeepers in your area – and its those qualities that you should focus on.

Bookkeepers build their businesses on word of mouth and business relationships.

Everywhere you go you are meeting potential clients – it’s how you handle those encounters that will determine the success of your business.

Understanding a what bookkeeping business is, and how clients respond, is an important part of the marketing of your business. It’s about “What’s in it for me (the client)” not what’s in it for you the bookkeeper.

The book “Secrets To Finding Bookkeeping Clients” is full of ideas and
strategies that bookkeepers can take on board. For bookkeepers that still need further help, we developed our marketing program.

This is tailored to suit the needs of individual bookkeepers to suit their circumstances – bookkeepers that have come on board have built their businesses upto +$50,000 pa in less than a year.

“I’ve just started my bookkeeping business, and I need some clients – can you please help me?”

Yes, yes, yes!

That’s what we do – we’ve helped bookkeepers all around Australia find clients, organise appointments, and set the fee structure – all the bookkeeper has to do is show up to the appointment ON TIME and then its “head down, bum up”

We’ve helped bookkeepers all around the world find bookkeeping clients – that’s why we wrote the Ebook “Secrets To Finding Bookkeeping Clients” – in that book we reveal some very valuable tips to securing your bookkeeping clients.

Notice the difference between finding and securing bookkeeping clients? Finding clients is just the first part of the process – especially when there seems to be a bookkeeper everywhere you look, and clients “shopping around” for the “right” bookkeeper in their locality.

“One appointment with a new bookkkeeping client earned in excess of $200,000″

Ever had that dreaded question asked :”How much do you charge for your bookeeping?” Straight away you know that they’re shopping around for bookkkeeping rates. Many times we get those calls, and it’s from local bookkeepers wanting to know “the going rate”.

So if you’re reading this because you’ve just started book- keeping and you need clients, and you are wanting our help, then do yourself a favour – take advantage of our help. You’ll find everything you need and more to find some more bookeeping clients in our Ebook “Secrets To Finding Bookkeeping Clients”

Yes, we know, you’re thinking “They just want to make money out of me by selling a book!” . What if, just by some fluke of chance, you picked up a tiny piece of information in that book that led you to finding a new client? What if that client started out being only a couple of hours a week?

What if that client was expanding their organisation, and ten years later you were stilll working with that client you’d earned in excess of $200,000 from that one initial appointment?

Nahhhh ! Never happens!! Well it has happened, we still have that client (amongst many others).

So if you’re reading this because you need help finding book – keeping clients, then order your copy our Ebook “Secrets To Finding Bookkeeping Clients”

If finding bookkeeping clients is so simple, why do so many bookkeepers struggle to get their own bookkeeping business started?

We receive emails from accountants and bookkeepers that have been working in the industry for years, and then become frozen like rabbits in the car headlights at night. They become mesmerized by the prospect of having to find bookkeeping clients.

You may be a very good bookkeeper, but how do you tell that to a business owner who has had a few bad experiences with previous bookkeepers?

After you’ve spent money putting an advert in the local newspaper, or yellow pages, you sit back and wait for the phone to ring – right? Well, good luck with that. Consider this: the advertising industry tends to make the money on the sale of their product, not on the sale of your product / service.

The success of your advertisement is of no importance to your local newspaper or printed business directory. So now bookkeepers are turning to PPC (pay per click) campaigns on the internet.

That sort of strategy can be succesful, depending on a few factors such as bidding for the correct keyword, having the correct landing page, and then being able to convert your lead.

We receive daily enquiries from small business owners seeking a reliable bookkeeper. It’s not exactly rocket science, which is why bookkeepers have been asking us how to find clients themselves.

To make life simpler for everybody, we compiled a book, aptly named “Secrets To Finding Bookkeeping Clients” which will answer many of the questions you already have, and also some that you haven’t even thought of yet.

If you are struggling to find book keeping clients, then do yourself a favour and get yourself a copy of “Secrets To Finding Bookkeeping Clients and discover for yourself why finding book-keeping clients is so simple.

Julie emailed us asking advice about what business name she should use for her new bookkeeping business.

My business name is currently JXX Bookkeeping – family initials – so means something to me, but somewhat forgettable to anyone else.

Something professional of course is what is needed, and also easy to remember – but…… any ideas?

Your initials or family name may seem an obvious choice for a business name.

After all, what’s the big deal?

Remember the old days when you’d see “John Doe and Sons” whether it was a family butchers, green grocers, or the like. In small country towns where generations of famlies had grown up together and family dynasties build up a reputation?

Nowadays there’s multinational companies that only employ faceless people with first names and no family, based at post office boxes, with freecall numbers. The company executives hide away in ivory towers demanding obscene saleries sending those companies broke knowing that regardless of the result they’ll get their $20million golden handshake.

Whereas small business owners are more interested in the quality of the individual bookkeeper than some fancy name or whether they are a member of any association or franchise.

So how does this help you in your decision of what business name to choose when starting your bookkeeping business?

It doesn’t really help!

Since it’s you that’s starting your bookkeeping business, only you can determine what you plan to do with it. Begin with the end in mind.

There’s other factors that many bookkeepers do not even begin to consider when selecting a business name for their book-keeping business.

When bookkeepers get on board our Bookkeepers Marketing program, this is just one aspect that we cover in helping them move forward.

Your business name may seem a simple decision. Just remember, there’s many factors to consider when deciding what business name to nominate for your bookkeeping business

Do you want to know why finding bookkeeping clients is common sense? We received feedback from a bookkeeper who’s been reading our EBook “Secrets To Finding Bookkeeping Clients”

Some bookkeepers may well find that most of the content is “common sense”. But have you noticed how so many people seem to overlook what is often right under their noses.

For some bookkeepers that have experience, much of the information will not be new. The feedback that we have had from other bookkeepers is that they had forgotten, or were not even aware of, many of the techniques covered.

Should a bookkeeper sit down and work through even only a handful of the suggestions, and really followed them through, then they would soon have more clients than they could handle

The book has not been produced to win the Booker Prize, or become an acclaimed literary mastepiece. Whether or not it is gramatically correct does not detract from the message, and many bookeepers have been able to boost their business from concepts outlined in the book

A business associate recently asked a computer techie to fix a problem with in his office, and was charged $300 for 15 minutes work. The client was stunned, and asked for a breakdown of the invoice

Was it worth $300? Maybe, maybe not – If the client was losing business because his computer system wasn’t working, then maybe it was worth it

We built a business from zero from trial and error. It took time and persistance. This book has helped bookkeepers by saving them time, and more importantly money, and even if they pick up only one tip, they are virtually guaranteed a return on their investment.

You want to know how much to charge your bookkeeping clients? That’s a good question – we’ve helped bookkeepers increase their income dramatically – here’s a video that may help

With Kind Regards

Jenny Newgate
Bookkeeping Team Pty Ltd

So you’re starting a bookkeeping business and you needs clients. And like many bookkeepers, you’ve arrived at this website in search of the “Bookkeepers Holy Grail”

The elixir to solve all your problems with starting a bookkeeping business. That magical potent that you can swallow and suddenly your telephone will start ringing, and bookkeeping clients will be queuing outside your front door.

You’ve found something that you can get for free on this website – lots of tips to help you find bookkeeping clients. There’s even a free chapter of our EBook “Secrets To Finding Bookkeeping Clients”

Yet, somehow, that’s still not enough. Because you still haven’t secured any bookkeeping clients. And without any book keeping clients you are hardly in business as a freelance bookeeper.

We get enquiries every day from potential bookkeeping clients, wanting to engage a bookkeeping service. Indeed, we have more client enquiries than we can handle – so why don’t we just hand them over to you? After all, you’ve come to our website www.StartBookkeeping.Com.Au in search of ways to find yourself bookkeeping clients – and we have book keeping clients that we could refer to you.

Sounds like a simple win – win arrangement, don’t you think?

Well, for our bookeepers who join our Bookkeepers Marketing program, it is indeed a win-win situation. They not only receive some priceless tips and pointers to help them get their bookkeeping business started, but they have the added bonus of scoring new bookeeping clients

Are you a bookkeeper and not a BAS Agent?

From 1 March 2010 (in Australia) new legislation affecting all bookkeepers commences, tightening up the somewhat grey area regarding the preparation and lodgement of Business Activity Statements.

[Disclaimer: We are not lawyers or Tax Agents - any information given here is indicative only.You should do your own research how the legislation affects you before acting on any points outlined here - see www.tpb.gov.au for the full details]

There’s been many bookkkeepers starting out in their own bookkeeping business blissfully unaware that they were breaking the law by completing BAS forms for their clients.

With the new legislation, a BAS Agent can now legally give advice to a client, and represent that client to the tax office in relation to:

• All GST matters
• All Wine Tax, Fuel Tax, Luxury Car Tax matters
• Payment of FBT
• All aspects of Payroll that relate to the withholding of tax amounts and the reporting of that amount to the employee and the Tax office
• All aspects of other PAYG Withholding amounts: ie no ABN, Interest & Dividend
• All aspects of the payment of income tax via PAYG Installments

If you are not a registered BAS agent then you cannot legally:

• install and set up accounting software packages
• Advise clients about how the above areas of law effect them
• Lodge BAS forms

If you are a bookkeeper who is not a BAS Agent, you can still run a [limited service] bookkeeping business:

• You can undertake data entry on an established accounting software package
• You can prepare all the necessary reports, do bank reconcilliations etc and do all the preparation to lodge BAS forms as long as someone else will be overseeing the work and the client isn’t relying solely on your work
• You can raise questions regarding GST and Payroll obligations etc, but not answer them

As we’ve already stated above you should do your own research and check out how the legislation affects you – see www.tpb.gov.au for the full details]

You’ve made the decision to start your own bookkeeping business, and the realise that you needs some clients, so what’s the first thing most bookkeepers do?

“Can I do your books for you?”

Most bookkeepers try to start their own bookkeeping business by running around telling everyone they know that :”I’m starting my own bookkeeping business, can I do your books for you?”

Then they come to us and say they can’t understand why they can’t find any bookkeeping clients, after exhausting all their possible bookkeeping leads.

So what are most bookkeepers doing wrong?
Well, in some respects they are doing nothing wrong – at the same time they are doing nothing RIGHT – otherwise they’d be building up their bookkeeping client base.

If bookkeepers came to us at the outset and asked us to help them find bookkeeping clients, then we’d help them work through their list of leads, and be confident that they would have a far better result than if they rush out and do it on their own.

So what do we do differentlly?
We’ve been helping bookkeepers find clients and get their business started for a number of years – we’ve heard all the objections from friends, relatives, associates.

As a starting point we recommend that you read our electronic format How to Find Bookkeeping Clients” Ebook.

We’ve had many bookkeepers come through our bookkeepers marketing program and start seeing results within the first week!

Hi,
I’ve done a basic bookkeeping course and for the past 6 months I’ve been trying to get into an entry level bookkeeper job but unable to get one. I’m open to volunteering – Can you please guide me how to go about gaining some experience in this field?

This is a challenge for many bookkeepers starting out – Even if you’ve been working as a bookkeeper for a company, going into the world of freelance bookkeeping can be a major step.

One option is to contact local accounting firms see if they are looking for any bookkeeping help. The smaller firms are the ones that usually provide bookkeeping services so I would start with those.

They may hire you part time and work your way into a full time position once you have proven yourself capable of the job.

If you are literally just starting out as a bookkeeper with absolutely NO experience, then getting a job as a receptionist is another great way to get into bookkeeping.

You may have to do a whole range of administration jobs before you are givien much responsibility in the accounting area of the bsuiness. You can also try searching for clerical positions like accounting clerk.

If you don’t want to start your bookkeeping business at home, does it mean that you need to hire office space?

Take maximum advantage of your rented office space – see our
Bookkeepers Marketing program

For most bookkeepers starting out on their own, hiring offices is an unnecssary expense – particularly if you don’t even have clients.

The beauty about a bookkeeping business is that in some respects it’s much like a plumbing business or an electricians business – most of your work can be performed at your client’s premises.

A bookkeeper recently asked us if most bookkeepers start out by working from home. Yes, most set up a spare room or their garage as an office space reducing the start-up costs of their bookkeeping business.

Also most bookkeepers start their bookkeeping business “moonlighting” i.e working evenings / weekends on clients that they pick up before leaving fulltime employment, so they at least have some cash coming in before taking the plunge.

If you are brave enough to take the plunge and start your bookkeeping business by hiring office space then you should take maximum advantage of your position.

You may find some “proactive” business owners who may do some cross promotions with you.

Remember – word of mouth is the best advertising, so if you can make yourself known as a “go-getter” type person, other businesses will refer you to their clients

In our Bookkeepers Marketing program we discuss other strategies to take advantage of your shop front or town centre office location