by Sylvia Jaumann If you’re a bookkeeper who has spent many nights dreaming of starting your own bookkeeping business and saying “bye-bye” to your “boss from hell”, you’re in luck. Starting a bookkeeping business is one of the easiest businesses to begin. Here are 5 simple steps to get you started. 1. Get your home office setup. If you’ve got a desk and computer with accounting software installed, you’re ready to go. You’ll just need a few office supplies and a place to store files and work-in-progress for your clients. Get yourself organized. 2. Select your target market. What kind of bookkeeping are you comfortable with? Would you prefer working with retail businesses, contractors or nonprofit? Do you like bookkeeping for small corporations or proprietorships? Figure out what kind of companies you want to do business with and target those. 3. Figure out your hourly rate. Do some research on pricing by calling around to different bookkeeping businesses to find out what the going hourly rate is for your local area. This is important because you do not want to over-price or under-price your rates; you want to be competitive. 4. Setup a system for keeping track of your clients before you get too busy. You need to have a system in place that will allow you to easily bounce between each client’s set of books so you know instantly where you left off and what needs to be done. 5. Start marketing your bookkeeping services. Contact accountants for referrals, send out letters to potential clients and place classified ads in the “Work Wanted” section of your local newspaper. The hardest part will be landing your first bookkeeping client. Once you have one client and you do a good job for them, you’ll find that word of mouth gets around and you’ll soon have clients lining up to do business with you. Looking for more information on organizational systems or marketing for your bookkeeping business? Click here now <a target="_new" href="http://www.1stratebooks.com">Secrets to Starting & Running Your Own Bookkeeping Business</a>

Article: 7 Easy Ways to Advertise Your Bookkeeping Business

by Sylvia Jaumann So you’ve decided to hang out your shingle and start your own bookkeeping business. Now the nail-biting begins. How are you going to line up some clients fast? 1. Send out a sales letter to new businesses announcing your bookkeeping service. Put together a mailing list using your local Yellow Pages directory or Chamber of Commerce membership list. 2. Place a display ad in your local newspaper. Watch your costs on this though, as display ads can really be expensive. You could create a “Question and Answer” display ad which solves a common problem a potential customer may have. Your expertise will help assure potential clients that you know your stuff. Create a different ad weekly and you could develop a loyal following. 3. Place a classified ad in the Work Wanted section. Make sure you create a catchy headline and describe which services you provide. Don’t print your hourly rate though as you want to be able to negotiate this depending on each client’s needs. 4. Get in contact with your local Accountants and setup a referral system with them. These professional are always looking for good bookkeepers that they can refer their client to. It saves them from dealing with an accounting nightmare at year end. 5. Start networking at your local Chamber of Commerce or other business type organizations. These groups are all made up of business professionals who either will need a good bookkeeper or can refer you to someone who does. 6. As a follow-up to your sales letter you could send out a newsletter with information on bookkeeping, financial and business issues. Try not to overly promote your bookkeeping business otherwise people will just see it as blatant advertising and not valuable information worth keeping. 7. Send out small postcards as another follow-up to your original mailing. It keeps your bookkeeping business name on people minds. You could use the “Questions and Answer” format and make it another valuable information piece for potential clients. So now you’ve got some idea on how to promote your bookkeeping business. Now go out and line up some clients. To find out more about how to start a bookkeeping business click <a href="http://1stratebooks.com">here</a>.

Article: How Much Can You Make Bookkeeping?

by Sylvia Jaumann Are you a bookkeeper who has spent countless days cursing your boss under your breath while dreaming of the day you’ll be able to start a bookkeeping business of your own? Bookkeeping is a valuable skill and unfortunately many employers take this skill for granted and pay measly wages for a job that is the keystone to their entire business. So how much money can you make if you started your own bookkeeping business? The short answer is probably much more than you’re making now. Don’t just assume that because you are making $12.00 per hour at your current bookkeeping job that you should just charge this rate to your clients. You must take your overhead costs into consideration (such as stationery, utilities, travel time, etc.). If you don’t do this, you’ll end up in the red financially. Before you make the leap to starting your own bookkeeping business, do some preliminary research by calling several bookkeeping businesses in your area and enquiring about their hourly rates. You’ll discover that most professional bookkeepers charge anywhere from $15.00 to $50.00 per hour depending on the area where you live. Some bookkeepers prefer not to charge by the hour, instead formulating a flat rate to charge each client depending on the work that needs to be produced each month. This also helps them ensure a steady paycheck for themselves. You’ll discover in your preliminary research that most bookkeeping businesses charge well over the average rate they pay their bookkeeping staff so they can still make a profit. You want to be making this profit too. If you decide to start a bookkeeping business you will be in business to create a better life for yourself, so make sure you do your homework. Then you can curse out your boss to his face and start your own bookkeeping business. Ready to start your own bookkeeping business? Click here now <a target="_new" href="http://www.1stratebooks.com">Secrets to Starting & Running Your Own Bookkeeping Business</a>

Article: Are You Getting Paid for What You’re Worth as a Bookkeeper?

by Sylvia Jaumann Did you know that most self-employed bookkeepers are making between $20 to $50 per hour? What….you’re not earning that much yet? Keep reading and I’ll tell you how you can. There’s a huge demand for top-notch bookkeepers right now. A few short years ago many thrifty-minded employers were making the mistake of hiring anyone claiming to have a working knowledge of accounting software and paying them very low wages; with disastrous results. They soon found, to their horror, that their books were an absolute disaster at year end and they had to pay an accountant a small fortune to clean up the mess these incompetent bookkeepers left behind. So much for saving them money. These days, high-quality bookkeepers with years of hands on experience are commanding, and getting, superior wages. Those that are fed up with having a boss, are venturing out on their own and making a great living out of the comfort of their own home. Bookkeeping is one of the easiest businesses to start out of your home. By just taking on one or two clients and doing some extra work on weekends or evenings, you can quickly start making the transition to self-employment. The next step, if your job allows, is to start reducing your work days from five to four days a week. Just think about how much more you can be making by taking Fridays off and working on bookkeeping at home for eight hours at $30 an hour. So if you’re a seasoned bookkeeper who is ready to go out on your own, now is a great time to get started. You have nothing to lose except for your low-paying job. Ready to start your own bookkeeping business? Click here now <a target="_new" href="http://www.1stratebooks.com">Secrets to Starting & Running Your Own Bookkeeping Business</a>

Article: The Dumb Mistakes Most Bookkeepers Make When Taking

on New Clients

 

by Sylvia Jaumann If you’re a freelance bookkeeper who is building your bookkeeping business, there are certain clients that you need to avoid to save yourself from constant stress. They are the clients who either 1) don’t pay their bills, 2) have years worth of paperwork in boxes and 3) who are too difficult to work with. I’ll go into further detail on each of these types of clients and give you strategies to help deal with them. 1. The client who doesn’t pay: You typically won’t know if a client has problems paying their bills on time until you actually start sorting through their paperwork. If you start coming up with a consistent amount of late bills, final notices and collection letters, you know you’ve got a client who doesn’t pay his bills in a timely manner. This should be a huge red flat for you. After all, you want to be sure that they’re going to pay your bill. So what can you do to protect yourself? For all new clients you should insist upon a retainer up front before the work commences. The amount of the retainer will depend upon the amount of work that is required. Keep track of your hours. Once you’ve used up the whole retainer, request another one and inform your client that work will not commence again until you receive another retainer. You’ll learn really quickly how well your client is at paying you and you won’t be out anything as you’ve already been paid for the work you’ve done. 2. The client with piles of paperwork in boxes: This type of client tends to be extremely disorganized. After all, if they can’t take the time to sort out their paperwork at least into monthly files, then you know you’ve got your work cut out for you. The question is: are you willing to spend the time to sort it all out? If you’re new and hungry for business, you may decide to take it on. However, bear in mind that huge gaps of essential information might be missing and it will literally be like putting together a jigsaw puzzle trying to get your client’s finances in order. You will probably find yourself calling the client repeatedly to request documents. This type of bookkeeping job requires the patience of a saint. Make sure that you’ve requested a retainer before even taking this type of job on. If you don’t think that you want to deal with this type of client, don’t be afraid to pass on the job. You might even suggest to the client that they could save money by sorting their paperwork into monthly files. 3. The difficult client: As surprising as it seems, there will always be clients who need a bookkeeper but are their own worst enemy. These are the clients who you have to hound for checks so their government remittances are paid on time or don’t return your calls for additional information so that you can complete your job. If you find yourself dealing with a difficult client who is just wasting your time, there are a couple of things you can do. You can raise your rates with this client, which will force him to either pay premium fees for being difficult or find themselves another bookkeeper. Or you can tell him you can’t do his books anymore and explain why. Being a bookkeeper you will encounter these types of clients during the course of your work. Being prepared so that you know how to handle them will greatly enhance your success as a freelance bookkeeper. Ready to start your own bookkeeping business? Click here now <a target="_new" href="http://www.1stratebooks.com">Secrets to Starting & Running Your Own Bookkeeping Business</a>

 

 

Article:  Can Contacting Your Competition Help Jump Start Your Bookkeeping Business?

 

by Sylvia Jaumann One of the biggest problems bookkeepers face when starting their business is actually getting the business off the ground. There are so many things that need to be done such as: set up your office, establish your pricing, create a system to keep track of your clients and most importantly, landing some clients. This may come as a surprise to you, but contacting your bookkeeping competitors can help you out with some of these tasks. I know it sounds crazy at first glance, but bear with me for a moment. In order to set up your pricing, you’ll need to call around to your local bookkeeping competitors to find out what the going rate is. This will also help you decide how you want to bill out your clients (per transaction, per hour or on a set monthly rate). Ultimately, you’ll have to use your discretion and base your own rates on your experience level. Obviously, if you’re fairly new to bookkeeping, you shouldn’t command as high a rate as a more experienced bookkeeper. Then there’s the major challenge of landing clients so you can actually start billing out. This is another area where your bookkeeping competitors can help you out. Many established solo bookkeepers find they reach a point where they can’t take on any more work because they’re booked solid. If you’ve managed to contact these bookkeepers ahead of time and let them know you’re available for any overflow work, you’ll be in a great position to benefit from these referrals when they come in. Just a note of caution, however. Some bookkeepers only like to refer the real ugly jobs (i.e. major accounting messes) and keep the good jobs for themselves. Of course you always have the option of turning down any job that you don’t want to take on, but it’s hard to do when you’re just starting out and are hungry for business. As you can see, if you’ve never run a bookkeeping business before, there are many new systems you’ll have to learn, so make sure you keep your competition in mind as a valuable resource. Want to learn more secrets to starting a bookkeeping business? Who better to teach you than another bookkeeper who’s figured out systems that really work? <a target="_new" href="http://www.1stratebooks.com">Click here</a>

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