How To Start Your Own Bookkeeping Business From Home
How To Start Your Own Bookkeeping Business From Home – Recast Episode: This episode originally ran on July 14, 2016, but it’s a favorite among our Growing Your Firm podcast community, so we’re bringing it back. Comment below to let us know if you’ve listened to the podcast since this episode originally aired.
Meryl is a CPA who worked in corporate accounting roles and as an accountant and speaker before being jokingly challenged by a friend and fellow entrepreneur to redefine the future of accounting. Seven days and a thousand dollars later, the Bean Ninjas were born and have gone from strength to strength ever since. Along with Bean Ninjas, Meryl also runs her own consulting business, MCJ Consulting, where she helps implement cloud accounting for businesses that need to transform.
How To Start Your Own Bookkeeping Business From Home
Meryl had worked in business accounting roles and as an accountant and lecturer. I was tired of working late nights and weekends no matter what I did. So he started MCJ Consulting to help meet his lifestyle needs. “The first year after starting MCJ was great,” said Meryl. “Lots of fun and surfing projects, but then I wanted to climb the MCJ.”
Understanding The Role Of A Bookkeeper, Accountant, Controller, And Cfo For Your Growing Business
In his line of business, he did many project management projects. For example, she would work with a company that had purchased new payroll software and Meryl would help ensure it was integrated with the rest of the financial systems and then train the rest of the staff on how to use it properly . Therefore, it was difficult to find the right staff because of the various projects he took on. Meryl visited India to see if she could outsource some of the administrative work. He built a small team of dedicated professionals there in India and started a recurring revenue/subscription based business.
You would be taking clients one at a time, and the onboarding inquiry process could take time for those clients to switch to the cloud-based tools, Xero, and other plugins that you were using. Then he would have his management team do the monthly reports. But it would take several months to get the clients from the initial phase to the point where the team processed their reports.
Meryl says that before switching to a recurring income approach, “cash flow was unpredictable. It was hard to manage the sales pipeline—to finish one project and have another lined up and ready to go.” So from a cash flow perspective, recurring revenue services were more predictable and it also meant more consistent work for our staff.
The Ultimate Excel Accounting Template For Bookkeeping
While MCJ is a consulting agency, Bean Ninjas is an accounting firm. Meryl and Ben met in an online think tank that wasn’t even specifically dedicated to accountants. They had both followed Dan Norris’ “7 Day Start-up” movement, which suggested that you could start and run your own business in just 7 days and be successful. That attracted Meryl and Ben.
When Meryl started MCJ, she didn’t have a business partner and didn’t really expect to get one. Meryl’s parents ran an engineering business, and one of the first business tips her father gave her was to never get a business partner. However, she is very happy that she had Ben as a co-founder. They had similar dreams, abilities and visions and they were so much better together.
“Ben and I had only met face to face once, but we had worked together for a few months before.”
How Much Money Can Bookkeeping Businesses Really Make? — Finepoints Bookkeeping
They shared a few clients and worked together on some of their projects so they knew how well they worked together. They also took the time to have difficult, detailed conversations beforehand and signed a co-founder agreement.
Bean Ninjas launched in 2015. Although Meryl and her business partner, Ben Mcadam, are accountants, they decided that accounting is a repeatable process that they could train their people on.
In the first six months, Bean Ninjas had 15 customers, but over the next four months, they gained almost 40 customers. In the first 10 months of operation, they got more than one client a week. What happened in the last four months that helped your customer base grow so much?
The Pros And Cons Of Starting A Bookkeeping Business
Much of his work came by word of mouth. It takes a while to build the kind of trust it takes to get such recommendations. Most of their clients’ work comes from online communities, which are their target market. Meryl spends a lot of time trying to add value to these communities. The best thing to do when trying to build your customer base is to think about how you can add value to your community.
For example, Meryl would see people in her online community asking for feedback on the new website they had created. She would visit their website, take a good look at it and give them feedback on what worked and what needed improvement from her perspective. Similarly, if someone posted your new book online and asked for reviews, you would read it and then tell them what you liked and things that could be improved.
Where does Meryl find the most valuable and vibrant communities? She says that she is part of several paid communities. One is a Facebook group, Dan Norris’s 7 Day Startup Program, and another is called Dynamite Circle, where she met Ben. He is also part of several Facebook pages for bookkeepers and accountants. She is also not an idle participant. She is extremely active and spends an hour a day just corresponding with these groups. He also started his own group that focuses on bringing accountants and auditors together.
How To Start & Open Your Own Bookkeeping Business
The great thing about these groups is that she didn’t just join and immediately start talking about your product. She bonded and took the time to build relationships. Building customer bases takes time because you have to build individual relationships first. Cold calling? Do you knock from door to door? Cold emails? They just didn’t work for Meryl. She just focused on building relationships, one conversation at a time.
One of the ways you can add value to your community is by providing desirable content. Meryl does this by writing articles/blog posts. Your typical process is to come up with and use Trello to keep track of your blog ideas. If you are interested in content marketing, the first thing you need to do is create a content strategy for what you are going to write about. For Meryl, her strategy/focus is to educate others about accounting and bookkeeping or general business growth.
One of the most successful pieces of content that Meryl publishes is Bean Ninja’s Business Report, in which they report how well the business is doing. The report describes your recurring revenue, churn rate, customer satisfaction rating, etc. The report is an honest and transparent assessment of what is going well and what is not.
Why You Should Hire A Bookkeeper For Your Small Business
We cover a lot of great information on the podcast. If you want to go even deeper, be sure to check out the full episode! If you’d like to learn more about Meryl, her business, and the 7-Day Startup, connect with her on LinkedIn!
Experience workflow software that helps ensure nothing gets lost. See why over 7,000 accountants and bookkeepers use Jetpack Workflow. Start your 14-day free trial. Want to know the ins and outs of starting an accounting business? This can be one of the best decisions you ever make when considering your own reputable home based business.
Although starting a bookkeeping business is going to require a lot of effort, there are many benefits once you’re established:
How To Get A Bookkeeping Certification
Make sure you have all seven character traits. Get to know your big why. So find a hands-on, hands-on accounting course. One that impresses and shows you how to be a great bookkeeper in a “paint by numbers” format.
However, there are some questions you should think about. And you must know the answers BEFORE you dive into the accounting pool.
Our comprehensive bookkeeping business course, Bookkeeper Launch, is designed to be completed in ten (10) weeks. Some students even land their first client while still on the course! I know, crazy.
Register For Booming Bookkeeping Business Training
While we’ve designed the Bookkeeping Edition to get you started with a bookkeeping business in 10 weeks, it’s really up to you. If you can focus full time on starting your accounting business, it will take much less time to start.
Look, accounting is a simple business. But that does NOT mean it is easy. Nothing in life of lasting value comes easily. Again, it’s a short-term sacrifice for a lifetime of benefits.
In short, you can be up and running in as little as ten weeks. It all depends on you my friend! You control your own destiny.
Bookkeeping Business Plan
And remember, accounting is the #1 most profitable business. This is a virtual accounting business, so you will definitely need:
In addition to these three key elements, here are the other startup costs you can expect when starting a bookkeeping business:
By the way… when you create a business entity, there are several variants. To understand what might work for you, check out this helpful post on the best business structure for
Guide Opt In] 7 Ways A Bookkeeping Business Can Give You Freedom
Start your own bookkeeping business, how to start your own bookkeeping business, how to start my own bookkeeping business from home, how to start own business from home, how to start your own small business from home, how to start your own bakery business from home, how to start my own bookkeeping business, how to start your own business from home, how to start your own photography business from home, how to start bookkeeping from home, how to start your own t shirt business from home, how to start bookkeeping business
Related For How To Start Your Own Bookkeeping Business From Home
Free Printable Work Schedule Templa
Free to download and print. If you're still making
Paycheck Stub Template In Microsoft
Paycheck Stub Template In Microsoft Word. This has space
Free Printable Garage Sale Signs Te
Free Printable Garage Sale Signs Templates. Adobe spark’s free