We’ve all had shady clients. The question is what you should do when encounter one? For Ben, he gets rid of them as quickly as possible. [1:15] There isn’t an easy solution if a shady client makes up a good portion of your business’s revenue, but working with an unscrupulous person can put your business in jeopardy. [1:45] The first signs of a shady client will come up when you’re marketing. When you connect with a potential client, you should try and get a sense of how they feel about taxes. [2:10] Everybody should avoid taxes as much as possible, but there’s a big difference between avoidanc ..read more

Getting online reviews is the lifeblood of a virtual bookkeeping business. Reviews are one of the first things people look at when considering whether to buy a product or service, without them a certain element of trust is missing. [1:35] Where are you already? We want to make sure you’re being reviewed where your clients can see them easily. Your Facebook page is one avenue, the Better Business Bureau is another. The BBB is a very commonplace that potential clients go to find reviews. Claiming your Google Business page is another important channel. Trust Pilot is another option that’s becomin ..read more

Everybody needs to be marketing, but that doesn’t mean you have to take on clients. One of the cardinal sins in this business is to stop marketing. [1:10] Your message needs to be going out into the marketplace all the time. It takes time for the marketing engine to warm up, so you want it running once things start to slow down. [1:45] We don’t want one way to get ten clients, we want ten ways to get one client. If you’re relying entirely on one channel to get clients, you are vulnerable when something changes. You should add additional channels to whatever is already working. [2:30] Most book ..read more

Niche marketing is one of the keys to success for 21st century bookkeepers because you have to go deeper with your clients. If you’re working with a number of different niches, you won’t be able to fully understand your client’s businesses or offer them your best service. [1:00] Marketing is about three important elements: your market, your message, and your medium. Most people start with the least important which is the medium. The very first thing you have to do in all of your marketing is to clearly define your market, and that’s what your niche is. [1:50] If you already have clients, list ..read more

Heather has always had a desire to help people and that’s reflected in the jobs she’s had in her life. Once her daughter was born, Heather decided she wanted to stay home with her. After a few years, she wanted to explore working again. She looked into becoming a financial advisor before finding Bookkeeper Business Launch but once she found Ben she didn’t look back. [3:05] Heather currently has four of her own clients plus several others that she subcontracts for. The freedom of being able to choose her own schedule is very important to her as well as genuinely being able to help her clients i ..read more

We all face difficult things in our lives, but on the other side of difficulty is usually some victory. For example, getting through the Air Force’s basic training and passing the CPA exam. [1:20] It wasn’t what I expected, but I persevered, followed the system, did what I was told and pushed through it. When I graduated I was very proud. It was a similar story to passing the CPA exam. [2:15] It doesn’t matter where you are in the evolution of your bookkeeping business, there are difficult things that you do not want to do. Usually, on the other side of the struggle that we have to go through ..read more

Kelly wears a number of different hats. She’s a mom of three little boys, a wife to a husband who travels a lot for business, a landlady and real estate investor, on top of her bookkeeping business. [3:30] The real estate side of things were happening before the bookkeeping business came into the picture. Kelly and her husband were both working full time and had a couple of rental properties but having kids really changed things. They made some big moves, sold their properties and that was initially how Kelly found bookkeeping as a viable option. [7:15] Kelly now works from home as a bookkeepe ..read more

All the things we do in bookkeeping are generally historical, but where we want to take it is in interpreting the data so that you can actually give your clients advice. [1:55] Before starting with advisory services, you need to be able to produce financial statements in a consistent, timely, and accurate manner. If your client isn’t getting you the info you need, that’s going to be a problem. A good rule of thumb is to not work with people who drag their feet. [2:50] Financial statements include a balance sheet, an income statement, and a statement of cash flows. [3:30] The second thing you n ..read more

Erin has had her bookkeeping business for just over a year. She was a stay-at-home mom facing a divorce and needed to figure out something flexible and lucrative. In many ways, bookkeeping seemed too good to be true. [3:00] Erin was formerly a school teacher, so she never had any experience with bookkeeping before getting into the business. After getting into Ben’s program, she had an aha moment where it all came together. Bookkeeping is like learning a language; it takes some time and has a bit of a learning curve, but it can be done. [5:45] Erin is currently serving seven clients, with word ..read more

Scope creep is not a good thing and it tends to run rampant in most client relationships. The question is what do we do when a client asks us to do something that we didn’t agree to do? [0:45] If you’re working with exceptional clients, this shouldn’t happen that often, but when it does it’s actually a compliment. The client trusts you because you are their trusted advisor. [1:20] Once it gets to the point where they are asking you consistently to do extra work, you have to bring awareness to the out-of-scope nature of the work. We want to let them know because 90% of the time, as long as you ..read more