How To Start A Bookkeeping Business

It’s great to start your bookkeeping business – but then comes the question of how much to charge.

Only you know how much you are worth, or do you? Many bookkeepers have no idea of the value of their services.

Notice there’s a difference between price and value.

The first question most bookkeeping clients also ask is “What are yor rates?” or “How much do you charge?”

Like that’s really going to tell them anything.

When we started our bookkeeping business, we had no idea how much to charge. We were just excited that someone wanted to use our bookkeeping service. Indeed, we would take on anybody and everybody as clients.

Big mistake.

We talk more about that in our Ebook How to find bookkeeping clients

There’s no one answer to how much you should charge for your services. Some bookkeepers specify an hourly rate for some services and another rate for other services. Other bookkeepers offer a fixed price per month or quarter.

Each system has its own merits.

We charge the same rate regardless of the work that we do.

If the client wants us to do filing at our bookkeeping rate, then more fool them.

Why should we drop our rate to do work that an admin junior can do – after all, it’s still our time – and we could be doing someone else’s books at that higher rate.

Soon the client realises that we are not the office junior, we are skilled professionals – so that they then treat us accordingly.