How To Start A Bookkeeping Business

“Sorry, I can’t take on new clients!”

“Sorry, I can’t take on new clients!” is a common response from bookkeepers. Many bookeepers see this dilemma as a negative.

You may be working flat out, and really have no more hours left in a week. Have you considered your true income level? Perhaps you started out at a low rate and picked up some clients that have “been good to you” by providing you income that you were desperate for as you were starting your bookkeeping business.

You gain more confidence, and put your rate up for new clients. Gradually you find that you’ve got more clients and they are all paying different rates for your services.

When you reach the stage that you are at full capacity, you decide that you cannot take on new clients.

This conclusion is often based on incorrect information. You look at yor diary and see that it’s already full.

We never turn away new clients. Not immediately. Here are some points to consider before turning away new clients:

1) Do you have “troublesome” clients?
If so, could the new client become a replacement?
- You could approach you difficult client and advise that you were putting your rates up – Consider first whether a rate increase is worth the pain of the troublesome client. Otherwise you could just tell them that you are too busy to continue working with them

2) Do you have any clients that are still on the low rates?
Advise that you are putting your rates up – and you’ll get one of two responses. Either they decide to stay and accept the rate rise, or they choose to move on, and you’ve now got time for the new client.

3) Pareto’s Rule
Before you ask, it’s also known as the 80 / 20 rule. Have a look at your client list and determine how much time you are spending with which clients. Chances are that you spend 20% on the clients that generate 80% of your income, and you spend 80% of your time on clients that generate 20% of your income.

This doesn’t necessarily equate directly to billable time especially if you charge hourly.

4. Have you considered employing a junior bookkeeper?
Do you know of any bookkeeper who’s looking for some extra work? You could see if they’d be interested in working for you part time, as you build up your client base.

Another option is to sub-contract to another bookkeeper

It’s worth bearing in mind that if you follow this path, that you need some quality control proceedures in place. There’s always a risk that your staff or sub-contractors make a mistake, and you are the one that has to face the music

It’s upto you: Having too many bookeeping clients can be a problem or an opportunity

We’ve had a call from a company in Melbourne (Spencer Street) looking for a bookkeeper to replace their financial controller. How hard is it to find a good bookkeeper in Melbourne who can handle payroll for 40 staff,using MYOB software?

It’s hardly a position for a contract bookkeeper – but excellent for a bookkeeper looking to move up in their career. The salary could be somewhere around $70 k p.a for a fulltime bookkeeping position

If you want more information, fill in the contact page and email us asap

I have just finished reading the book, and I love it

I have the ambition, the knowledge, the resources, but the unknown of how other people conduct their first meetings is a bit daunting

Kellie, VIC

Stumbling across your web site whilst researching on the net as been a
wonderful surprise, writes Kellie, from South Australia

“I have no idea how to start my Bookkeeping Business”. says Kellie

I have 14 years in Accounts/ Administration type work, and 2 years ago did my Diploma in Accounting

I have huge dreams of starting my own bookkeeping business, even have a name
made up etc

But I have no idea how to start.

My main problem is how to tell a potential client what I can and want to do for him, and how it will help him.

I am prepared to do all the hard yakka first, i.e setting up my office, laptop, MYOB, flyers etc

I just don’t know whether I should actually advertise myself as a bookkeeper who will only do accs rec and payable, bank recs, debtor control, etc, but maybe not payroll or super etc as I don’t have experience yet in that area

Is it unrealistic to advertise that I will take clients who have never had a bookkeeper before, who keep their paperwork in boxes etc ??

Is it unrealistic to advertise my services are for tradespeople only etc ???

These questions, and many more are answered in our EBook “How To Find Bookkeeping Clients”

Speaking to an experienced bookkeeper in the corporate world today. She’s been working for an organisation four days a week, and they’ve cut her hours.

She wants to join our bookkeepers marketing program, and was enquiring about how it all works.

She has absolutely no concept of life as a freelance bookkeeper. So why does she think that she’s ready to go out into the work force as a self-employed freelance bookkeeper?

Read our EBook “How To Find Bookkeeping Clients” which may enlighten you more about life as a freelance bookkeeper

We have a service whereby we help experienced bookkeepers source clients – we do not work with every bookkeeper, and neither do we take on every client – we are looking to get the right / client / bookkeeper teamed up, so that everybody wins. Order your copy of “How to Find Bookkeeping Clients” .

Once we go ahead, our goal is to find you 150 hours work asap, and we say three clients as a minimum. There are occasions when a client in your area just needs training, or just a few hours work to help them over a hurdle – we would hope that you would be able to service such clients – and we would not count them as one of the three clients, but it would count as part of the 150 hours.

If you are not willing to service clients in your area at their premises, then our service is not for you, as many clients want to get to know their bookkeeper before trusting them with all their financials away from their premises.

Ask any small business owner, and they will tell you that certain sacrifices have to be made short term, for a long term gain.

We have many bookkeepers who have been very grateful for the service we offer, as they have found it to be a great boost to their business, and their income. These bookkeepers have gained insight into promoting their businesses, how to manage their time more effectively, and other tips that may have taken them years to learn.

They appreciate that our service is not “just about getting three clients”, it’s about gaining knowledge to build a self sustainable business, that has the potential for an income in excess of $100k. Contact us for more details

Would a competant accountant really charge $25 per hour for their bookkeeping services?

The photo was taken in a local bottle shop – the staff weren’t paying attention to what they were doing. The wine was intended to be sold at twice the price (3 for $19.99)

A qualified accountant contacted us looking for bookkeeping work, and stated that their hourly rate was $25 per hour. A couple of thoughts spring to mind immediately:

1) A great accountant does not necessarily make a great bookkeeper.
Many accountants “learn bookkeeping” in the course of their studies, and then go on to complete their accountancy studies. Just as a being a carpenter does not necessarily make you a builder, a qualified builder does not necessarily mean that you are a competant carpenter

2) How confident does the “qualified accountant” feel to only charge $25 per hour for bookkeepeing services? Would you, as a business owner, be concerned that this accountant (who has the piece of paper to prove it) would really be capable of doing your bookwork?

Of course, there are some excellent, well qualified, and very experienced accountants that are semi-retired and just happy to do some bookkeeping. These people may not be concerned about having to make a living from doing some extra book-keeping for friends, family or associates.

Professional accountants have legal obligations to adhere to such as registrations, insurances and so forth that have to be paid for somehow. That’s on top of their living expenses and other outgoings. Plus they are looking to recover the costs of their studies, as well as placing a value on their experience. So they need to charge accordingly

Professional bookkeepers are now being brought into the same legalese with new legislation that’s been introduced that will have little effect for the small business owner apart from seeing an increase in bookkeeping rates to cover aditional overheads that the new legislation has created.

How long can a competant accountant survive charging $25 per hour? At 40 hours per week, that’s $1000. If they are self employed there’s holiday pay, super, insurances etc and also their contribution to the Government coffers. Not much left to buy a coffee with each week!

There’s many variations of headlines that bookkeepers use to advertise their business. How many of them are successful? Bookkeepers invest their hard earned cash on newspaper advertising hoping to attract new clients.
Want to know more? Contact us for more details about how we can help you expand your bookkeeping business

Wanna know a secret about why newspaper advertising rarely works for an independant small bookkeeping (more…)

We received an email from Dana taking us up on our offer to help her expand her bookkeeping business.

A great way to start is have a look at what most other bookkeepers are doing, and don’t copy them! If you want to know what not to do when designing flyers to attract new business for your expanding bookkeeping business, then go and look in your mail box.

The flyers were 100% successfull!

Most business owners are bombarded with “junk mail”, flyers wanting (more…)

Bookkeeping is a simple, but not always easy home-based business to establish

We get all sorts of enquiries from people who think bookkeeping is an easy home-based business to establish. Well, it is simple, but not always easy.

We spend time and resources helping bookkeepers get started, and need to make sure that we are not investing efforts with the wrong clients, because that means the right clients may suffer. This is not only in our business of helping other bookkeepers, but when we are working with our own bookkeeping clients. Contact us here for more details

As long as the Australian Government is collecting taxes, we believe there will be a market for bookkeepers. Indeed, we are really working for the Australian Taxation Office, because it’s only as a result of the increased pressure that the ATO is putting on small business owners, that bookkeepers are in such demand.

With over 100 proven tactics / methods of finding clients we get results

We have over 100 proven tactics / methods of finding clients – so we can definitely get results. We cannot answer whether you can get clients that are willing to pay for your services.

However, we can get clients for bookkeepers, and we will only work with bookkeepers who are serious about expanding / establishing their business. It’s not really a competitive business – there is still more demand than there is supply for good bookkeepers.

See our Marketing Program for more details.