I Love Bookkeeping

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 avoidance and evasion. If the person insinuates an interest in evading taxes, walk away. [3:10] If your potential client is hiding something, that means they are lying, and if they are lying to the IRS, do you think they are going to have a problem lying to you? [3:30] When you're consulting with these clients, look for things that are off. But if they are already a client and things start to feel wrong, there are some steps you can take. [4:00] If you start to see warning signs, the first thing to do is to document it and bring it to their attention. First, assume they don't know and get them on the phone. It may be an innocent mistake, but if it's not, you're going to want to call out your client immediately. [6:15] Ben's general rule of thumb is one mistake can slide, but if they make a second "mistake", that's a pattern and that's the end of the relationship. Even if the shady things seem small, if you're seeing them more than once, you should end your relationship with that client. [7:00] It's okay to get rid of shady clients. You don't need to serve them. Most people are fine, but for people that want to pull something over, it's okay to turn them down. Handle them with care when severing the relationship, and consult an attorney if you need to. [8:20] You want to work with quality clients that respect you, that respect the laws, and obey everything that they are supposed to. Contact us about the show: hello@ilovebookkeeping.com

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 bookkeepers are transitioning over to a virtual business model since that allows them to get clients anywhere and serve them no matter where they are. [2:50] The first thing you have to do is have a niche and be able to define your market. Marketing has three important elements: your market, your message, and your medium. Your market will dictate where you go to find your clients. [3:50] Define your market's jobs, pains, and gains. You need to have a deep understanding of your market and what they are trying to avoid, what they want, and what they do. Find out where the industry is hanging out. Facebook groups and pages on that subject with a lot of activity is a good sign. Join those groups and start contributing value to them. [6:30] Marketing is how you put out your message into the market. Sales is where you're one-on-one with someone to sell to them directly. Don't confuse the two. [7:00] Figure out who the associations are that deal with your chosen industry. Determine who has a presence online with a large membership. Another thing that very few bookkeepers take advantage of is trade shows. They are a great place to network and build your business. [8:55] Is there a local association of the big industry, one that you can join and get in front of? Being able to present information to these groups is a powerful way to add value and attract people to your business. [10:15] Don't spend a lot of money on advertising initially until you clearly define your market. You have to come up with a true value proposition of how you help them to achieve gains, how you can help them avoid the pains, and how you take away those jobs that they really don't like doing. Then refine your message by speaking with your clients one on one. [11:50] When you have your market clearly defined, and know your message and your value proposition, that's when you can go to the medium and start running ads. Until you've nailed those things down, don't spend money on advertising. [12:45] Your website should be focused on one thing: getting the visitor to contact you. As you are creating your site, think about what actions you want the visitor to take and give them an easy to follow path towards connecting with you. Contact us about the show: hello@ilovebookkeeping.com

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 in their businesses. [3:55] Heather's daughter will be going off to Kindergarten soon which will increase the amount of time she can dedicate to working on her business instead of just in her business. [4:30] The biggest challenge, in the beginning, is just getting clients, and that's what Heather experienced and pushed through but that often leads to getting multiple types of clients and stretching your ability to become an authority. Heather wants to be able to drill down into the specific niche of real estate investors and narrow down the kinds of clients she works for. [6:45] Heather has had other real estate clients that's she's enjoyed working with, plus she also has a desire to learn more about real estate investing with the goal of doing it herself in the future. [8:45] Heather's main challenge is learning where real estate investors congregate, what language they use to describe their work, and how to price her services correctly for their industry. Before getting into a niche it's important to find out more about it, one of the best resources to use is the Bookkeeper Business Launch community and connect with people who already know. [11:30] There is no substitute for experience and getting face to face with people that you want to serve. Networking events are a great place to start, especially in the real estate space. Be clear with your intentions and be honest with them, but don't think you're going to get clients at the event. The focus should be on research and relationships first. [14:25] Industry associations are another good resource to explore. Find their websites and see what they are talking about. Read their content and social media. If the niche has conventions, look at the topics they discuss. If the topic is something that they talk about every year and it's something you can add value to, it may be a good area to explore. Look for authority figures in the space and see what they are putting into the market. [17:30] Investing in a risk management association study for the industry will give you a good idea on financials for the niche as a whole and could be a good starting place to think about pricing. [19:00] What are the books and thought leaders that people in that niche are reading and listening to? Who already has the attention of the people you want to serve? Getting to know them will give you different perspectives on the industry but will also help you plant the seeds for referral marketing. [24:05] The most effective thing you can do is to get in front of potential clients and ask them the right questions. What are the challenges they face? What would they change about their business? What you want to get from the answers is a value proposition, also known as your offer. [25:15] Nobody wants our bookkeeping, they want the result. They don't care what you do or what tools you use, they want a solution to their problem. Everything we do in life is based upon feeling better about ourselves or feeling important. Everything you do for your clients should come back to those basic desires. [27:50] It's a journey, expertise in a niche takes time. When you get your first client, don't worry about the fee. Use them to learn everything you can about that industry. When you're in the books of a client you learn much faster than from the outside. Mentioned in this episode: Triangle Business Solutions Contact us about the show: hello@ilovebookkeeping.com

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 bookkeeper. Her former career was in financial services helping clients invest their money. She enjoyed the numbers aspects of the job and helping people with their money. She stumbled on the idea of bookkeeping after having a chance conversation with her godfather. [8:40] She started out doing everything wrong (in her words) but she figured it out day by day. Kelly thought that there must be other businesses out there that need bookkeeping services, and that's when she found Ben's videos online and joined the course. [9:40] The best part of the bookkeeping business is the flexibility to make her own schedule. Kelly also enjoys working with people and hearing how they built their business, it also helps that she genuinely enjoys doing their books. [11:00] There were challenges at every turn but right now Kelly's biggest challenge is in bringing people into her business and leveraging them to create more time for herself. [12:10] Always start with the vision of where you want to go. Your vision gives you context to make better decisions. It needs to be specific and well defined in order to be useful. [13:00] Kelly has a three-year vision where she wants to grow slowly and bring in some contractors to help her. She has a pretty aggressive income goal of quadrupling her current income, and one of her goals is for her bookkeeping business to help fund her real estate activities. [15:20] One of the things that Kelly always puts off is the manual data entry tasks. This is one task that she be added to Kelly's not-to-do list right away and is a good candidate for a virtual assistant to take on. Make your to-do list every single day and mark the tasks that you just don't want to do, those are your first targets for delegation. [18:15] As you scale your business, the benefit you get is exponential but the downside is also exponential if you don't get it right at the beginning. [19:30] Always ask yourself this question, 'What are my clients paying me for?' Are they paying you to do manual entries? No, that's part of what you do to get what they are paying you for but they aren't paying you for that. They are paying for your smile, for your information, for your reports, and for your interpretation. [20:10] Only do what you can do. Find someone who can follow instructions, document your task, and then give it to them to take care of. [21:00] Start with the smallest and least technical tasks and then increase the workload a bit at a time. Starting small keeps the costs down and reduces the learning curve. When someone does make a mistake, make sure you show them what the error was instead of just fixing it yourself. [24:00] Bookkeeper Elite is a great place to find someone you can add to your team. [25:45] Temper the expectations at the beginning of the relationship. With VA's the time commitment is very flexible, unlike a traditional employee. [27:00] Kelly currently spends around 80 to 100 hours a month working on her business, not counting the random nightly phone calls from clients. [28:45] Work expands to fill the time allotted. Look at your schedule, chances are you can drop 20% of your time just by giving yourself a cap on the time you allow yourself to spend on it. When you are on you are your off time, be careful about letting your work intrude on your personal life. [32:40] Once you've been more efficient with your time, that will lead you to start thinking about who can help you make your time more useful. Mentioned in this episode: Precision Bookkeeping Contact us about the show: hello@ilovebookkeeping.com

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-of-mouth being the main way she landed each of them. One of the major things she did early on was to get in touch with a local Vermont bookkeeper to vet the course, and that relationship has yielded three clients so far. [6:50] There is a lot of job security for bookkeepers who know what they're doing. [7:15] Erin would love to build a team. She wants to grow her business and build her empire, but she isn't 100% positive on what that ultimate vision looks like yet. Her main question today is knowing how much work to take on at any given time. [9:40] Erin has almost been burned by taking on too much, especially as a single mom. You can only stretch yourself so thin before it becomes a problem. [10:40] Never ever stop marketing. That doesn't have to mean spending money or that you have to take on the clients though. Be selective with the clients you choose continually marketing will take you off the roller coaster. [12:05] Taking on a new client will always involve a learning curve, but that can be minimized by implementing processes and systems. [13:45] Another option to reduce your potential workload is to raise your fees. For Ben, he has a rule of thumb where approximately 25% of prospective clients don't want to work with him because of his fees. If everybody is accepting your price, you can probably raise your fees. [15:45] Erin doesn't even have a website yet. If you are landing clients already, don't worry too much about not having a website until a prospective client turns you down because of it. There are a number of simple options that will get your business online in the course of an afternoon. [17:55] If you're not having people complain about the lifestyle you're leading, you're not growing too fast. If you can't meet deadlines, that means you're probably growing too fast. Unless you have those problems, keep growing. [19:25] Stagger your potential clients and start them at different times. Temper their expectations right at the beginning so that you aren't wasting their time or yours. You can make clients wait if you have to. It lets them know that you are in demand and are upfront with everything. [22:30] Client compliance is a common issue that Erin is facing, especially with onboarding. Start with a specific checklist for the client verifying what you need. You can also schedule a future one-hour call with the client where you can get everything you need all at once. If you don't have everything, you can't start the work. If you make that clear, you will put a fire under them to get what you asked for. [27:00] One of the biggest things that people don't like is the pain involved in switching bookkeepers. If you can make that painless by helping them through the process, you'll have much more success. [27:30] When Ben's doing the marketing, he likes to put them in situations that he's going to be experiencing with them when they are his clients. It's like dating and marriage; the client is probably going to be a bit better during the courting phase so it's good to know what you're getting yourself into. [28:50] You can have the best processes and efficiencies, but if your client is the bottleneck, everything suffers. [29:30] Don't shy from charging a setup fee. Make that part of your engagement letter. If people continue to drag their feet, you can call the whole thing off. This is something about which they have to be serious. [31:15] Don't think in terms of people; think in terms of tasks. Do the task audit and hire a VA who can take those tasks off your plate. Don't go out and hire a bookkeeper right off the bat. [33:10] In many ways, the business is like a puzzle where you are putting the money-making pieces together to make everything easier. Contact us about the show: hello@ilovebookkeeping.com

David started out like most entrepreneurs, looking for painful problems to solve. He worked as a freelance marketer and saw a lot of accounting firms struggle with various aspects of their business including project management. [3:45] He realized there was a gap in the market because if you're a firm owner with a number of clients to manage, the average project management tool is not client centric at all. Sales tools are built for handling a pipeline, not for dealing with tasks. A conversation with one of his first customers lead to the genesis of Jet Pack. [5:40] Creating a solution and then searching for a problem is a recipe for bankruptcy. David is trying to instill that idea culturally into his business and is always trying to identify the pain that they are working to solve first. [6:25] By interviewing people in a specific niche and trying to solve their problems, you begin to learn the language of the industry and really understand the challenges they face. If you're in the world of business, do more interviews and listen to them. [8:45] The bad news is that there are many challenges, the good news is they are common challenges to the business. The big shift happens when you go from an owner that does everything to being able to articulate the right process for your team to follow. The most successful firm owners begin to think of their business as a product and understand that the quality of their product is determined by their workflow. [12:10] When something goes wrong, always go back to the workflow that lead to that result. The SAT framework (Standardize, Automate, Track) comes into play when you're hiring and scaling clients. If you don't know where to start, begin with the tasks that have the biggest revenue impact or take up the most time. If you can't get the process out of your head, have an assistant interview you. [14:50] None of us want to be micromanagers. If you can't step away from your business without having a panic attack, it probably means you don't have the right set of tools to give you the visibility to feel comfortable about the progress of the firm. [16:50] Every business has three systems: the deliverable, the marketing, and operations. Within each system there are processes that instrumental to the successful function. Simplicity is key in your checklists. [19:20] Whatever muscles you build today are going to be the muscles that you're using when you hire somebody. If you start building up the discipline of documenting your processes today, you will have those muscles in place when you need them. Anything you ignore in your business accrues, at some point you will have to deal with it. When you start learning you will discover patterns that will make it easier. [25:00] If you are already using a task management tool and it's working well, keep using it until the cracks start to show. [26:30] The more you can systematize your business, the more valuable it is. Nobody wants to buy a business that is basically buying a job. The more days of vacation the owner can take the higher the potential value of the firm, it indicates that there are processes and systems in place, and those are key to living a lifestyle you enjoy. [30:30] Planning your month in advance is one of the most freeing things you can do because you can see where you are each week and if you're reaching your goals. We're always a work in progress, you always have to reevaluate the structure of your workflow and integrate what you've learned. If you're not seeing the information in front of you it's impossible to improve it. [34:15] You don't have to bring all the business improvements to the table, you should rely on your team to bring ideas on how to make things better. Don't be afraid to ask your clients how you can serve them better. There are innovations in the minds of your clients as much as there are in your team. [37:50] More often than not, the insights are sitting outside of you in the connections and people you know and work with. [38:40] The Net Promoter Score is a simple system for pulling insights out of your clients. You will get a lot of feedback from your clients using that tool that you may never hear otherwise. It's amazing when you listen to your people and what they will tell you. Insights from the Net Promoter Score will uncover the client experience so you can deliver a great workflow. [43:20] Create a guarantee that will hold you to being able to deliver on the goods. The industry is moving incredibly fast so if you don't stand out from the pack you will fade into obscurity. A guarantee will highlight your marketing and force you to sharpen your workflow. Mentioned in this episode: Growing Your Firm podcastDouble Your Accounting Firm by David CristelloJetpack Workflow Contact us about the show: hello@ilovebookkeeping.com

Once you've documented your processes and created the checklists, you need to put yourself into a different frame of mind and ask "how do I improve on these?" [0:55] One of the biggest traps that people fall into is documenting their processes while trying to improve them at the same time, which is a recipe for disaster. You have to clearly distinguish between documenting your processes and working to make them better. [2:00] Just like advisory services, you need to set aside time when you have the highest level of energy and bandwidth to work on your processes. Go back to your video recording and watch yourself do the task and start looking for the cracks. [3:05] You can't do this right after you record the process because you need to have as fresh a set of eyes as you can manage. Ask yourself if there is a piece of technology that you can use to make the task more efficient. [3:50] It's important to remember it's not all about technology and apps, it's about the process. Apps and technology will come and go but the process will still remain essentially the same. [4:25] The second place to look at is where the bottlenecks within your process are. If you're working with other people, this is easy to identify. If you have to continually give review notes to the person you're working with, you probably have a process problem, not a people problem. [5:20] The main questions you should be asking yourself when improving processes are "how can I do this better?", "how can I do this quicker?", and "how can I be more efficient?". [5:40] The most powerful way to improve is to ask someone who is five steps ahead of you outside of your organization to review your process. [6:50] You need to have a process control document in place because improvement is not a one and done activity. You should look at the critical processes that really turn the dial in your business every 90 days. [7:50] Give your team the responsibility to question how they do things and give them permission to suggest improvements on how things get done. Contact us about the show: hello@ilovebookkeeping.com

Jessie has a background in education and actually worked as a history teacher. One day in her third year, she wanted to teach some new classes and was given a flat refusal from her boss. At that point, she realized her days as a teacher were numbered. She stumbled upon Bookkeeper Business Launch on the Penny Hoarder and it seemed like a good fit. She enrolled in the course in August, launched her business in October and got her first client in November. [5:25] Before jumping into bookkeeping, Jessie was considering other jobs including different teaching positions. Once she learned what bookkeeping really is, it checked all her boxes. Going through the modules in the course was challenging initially but she benefited a lot by discussing the contents in the modules with her husband. [8:00] Jessie's first client was a startup that just needed some help with their setup. She was close enough to actually meet in person so she drove to her place to do some training with her before landing her as a client. She now has 15 monthly clients with a few others who require different services. [10:00] The first client and the majority of the subsequent clients were mainly found through LinkedIn. Building relationships with a couple local CPAs has also been helpful by referring clients and offering help. You never really know where the most valuable relationships will come from. [12:45] The business of bookkeeping can become a monster if you let it, so Jessie books time every day to make sure that she has time to herself. Even with that challenge, Jessie considers herself completely unemployable at this point. [14:20] There were three major struggles that could have ended Jessie's business. One of her lowest points involved getting fired by her second client. There are many reasons to quit a business but you have to remember why you started it in the first place. [16:25] In terms of vision, Jessie would like to move into more of a manager role. She would like to be able to work more with the clients and help them grow. [19:00] Jessie loves working with startups but it can be difficult because they have so much on their plate. It's a challenge to know what to charge and get their attention because they tend to be overwhelmed. It's a lot easier to help a business grow in the beginning than it is to jump into a big business that has never done their books at all. [20:50] It's very important to work with the right kind of startups. The ones with no money and no direction can be a major headache. The best kind of startup with whom to work are the ones with funding. If they don't have money because they're bootstrapping, it's probably going to be an issue. Vet and qualify your potential clients on the front end based on their capital structure and business model. [25:25] Most of Jessie's clients reach out to her within their first two years of business and the majority of them don't really do much beyond a box of receipts in terms of bookkeeping. The optimal time is probably around the one-year point. That's when it will be obvious if the business model is sustainable. [28:00] Jessie's niche is health and fitness but it really comes down to the personality of the entrepreneur that she's looking. It's important to write down the specific attributes of your ideal client and what motivates them. Start with your favorite clients and what they have in common. [31:20] Based on your avatar of your ideal client, think about who already has their attention. For Jessie that means CPAs and people in the banking industry. That can also mean attorneys, podcasters and authors as well. Those are the people with whom you want to establish relationships. It doesn't take too many of those to start getting clients. Keep in mind that the best way to get a referral is to give a referral. [35:30] You should try to get in the frame of mind of the referral partner and what they need from the relationship. [36:40] Jessie could also get a list of recently established business owners and create a piece of content to serve their needs then put that in front of them. [38:10] Jessie should strive to be known as the Startup Bookkeeper. It won't be a rapid process. but by creating content that actually helps her avatar achieve what they are trying to accomplish, she can become a trusted authority. Most of the people with whom you get connected will never pan out, but the ones that do work with you will pay off. [40:20] Startups have a particular set of challenges. By creating a lot of content and doing the work upfront, Jessie can create a tribe that will be much more inclined to become her clients when the time comes. Contact us about the show: hello@ilovebookkeeping.com

Dave and his wife have been working together for a long time. She took on the bookkeeping side of things, while Dave had been running his pharmacy. After selling off the business and traveling for a while, they got into real estate investing and eventually started looking at bookkeeping itself as a business. [4:30] Dave knew what his niche was going to be even before signing up for Bookkeeper Business Launch. As real estate investors themselves, they understand their needs and pain points, and currently work with 22 real estate investing clients. [6:15] There was no secret to Dave's success. They found their first client on LinkedIn and after working with them for a few months, that client referred another one. Since then, they have referred at least seven other clients as well. [7:20] Dave eventually migrated away from LinkedIn to Facebook and is a member of a number of real estate investing groups where they post semi-regularly. Dave also managed to get onto his real estate mentor's podcast and that has resulted in a number of other investors reaching out to them. [9:40] Dave doesn't pay for any marketing or advertising. They simply make themselves available on Facebook groups and respond to inbound inquiries. Dave has a one page website that is focused on one thing, to get someone to book a call. [13:15] In terms of work hours between Dave and his wife, they probably work an average of 50 hours a week. Their goal is to maximize their income over the next 8 or 10 years, and they want to keep most of the business in-house. [15:50] It's important to manage your clients' expectations. Rarely is anything in the business truly urgent, so it's not necessary to be taking phone calls at 9 pm. [17:10] As Dave and his wife started figuring things out and writing their processes down, they realized that they did things differently depending on the client. They have started documenting everything, and are in the process of turning processes into concrete procedures. [19:20] Processes allow them to get the most amount of work done in the least amount of time. It also allows their service to be uniform across their clients. Another big tip is realizing that niching down allows you to become much more efficient. [23:30] The struggle is mainly taking time out of the day to actually create the document itself while doing the tasks. At the same time, how they do things is still evolving and you can't document a procedure until you've figured out what the procedure is. Dave has started recording some smaller tasks to begin the process. [26:30] Start with the low hanging fruit, and document the simplest and easiest processes that can be outsourced to a virtual assistant. Each task may only take you a couple of minutes to do, but they add up to hours over the course of the month. [28:45] Dave has a checklist for his onboarding that he follows every single time. Since Dave only onboards a couple of clients a month, he still uses the checklist even though that's one of his main focuses in the business. [30:20] Mundane and repetitive tasks are the first ones you should hand over to a virtual assistant. Just by documenting your procedures and systematizing your business, you will reduce the amount of time you need to complete tasks by 20%. [31:30] Document your processes as they are, not as they should be. Once you've done that, then you can start to improve them. It's important to have a separate space to work from when you are working on your business. [34:10] Once a client gets into maintenance mode, the amount of time it takes each month to service them gets really low. The majority of the time spent in the business is on cleaning up new client's books and getting things in line. Getting the documentation from a new client is one of the best examples of a task that can be turned into a process and outsourced. Break down each major activity into smaller, more discrete tasks. [39:50] Don't let perfection be the enemy of getting started and getting things done. Document collection is the area of Dave's business that he's going to focus on first. [41:10] Sometimes it only takes a single nugget of wisdom from something to change everything about your business. Always take notes and write down action items when learning new things, and then actually execute on them as soon as you have the chance. [43:30] The business model of bookkeeping is spectacular. Dave's first rule of business is to get paid before you do any work, and once that's done, overdeliver on the results. Mentioned in this episode: REI Bookkeepers Contact us about the show: hello@ilovebookkeeping.com

Kevin started off in the IT world and he quickly got pretty tired of getting yelled at all the time. One of his friends started a business, and Kevin started doing the IT stuff for it, which eventually developed into business management. After that Kevin went back and got his MBA, graduated in 2016, and along the way, dabbled in real estate. The real estate led him in a roundabout way to doing a few bookkeeping jobs via Upwork, and finding Ben's Bookkeeper Business Launch course. [8:20] In addition to bookkeeping, Kevin's business offers clients office set up and business analysis, and process development services. Bookkeeping can be a great entry point to offer additional services. [9:25] Even if a business owner has someone doing their books they are often a mess, even CPA's can drop the ball when it comes to bookkeeping. [11:20] Kevin's favorite part of the business is the freedom and autonomy involved. He can basically work from anywhere as long as he has a wifi connection. The most frustrating part about having a business is that there are so many things to do, and it feels like there is not enough time to do it all. [13:40] Kevin tries to focus on things that yield an instant result, and things that will grow the business instead of just getting tasks checked off the list. [15:15] Kevin currently has 21 official clients, with two more onboarding in the near future, plus nine of his own with his other business. [16:10] If you're considering bookkeeping as a lifestyle for you, you have to ask yourself if you are self sufficient enough to put in the hours to make it work. [17:40] In terms of vision, Kevin wants to have a sellable business in the next five to seven years. When you build a business to be sold, you create a lot of sanity for yourself by necessity and conscious design. The desired outcome is essentially a profitability goal, which Kevin can then work back from to figure out what the business needs to be to reach that goal. [21:50] When thinking about your vision, imagine what you want your day to day life to look like. You want your business to support the lifestyle you want to lead, and the reason you should start with your vision is that cold numbers are not going to motivate you and get you through the tough times. It's also important to make sure your spouse understands your vision for your business, and is on board with what it will take to get there. [28:45] Start with your why, write it down, and keep it in front of you. It will keep everything in focus and reinforce why you are working towards your goals. Coming up with a vivid vision gives you and your team guidelines and helps them to buy in. It also helps you figure out if something or someone is a fit for your business. Share it with everyone you work with. [32:15] Get granular with your vision in a way that resonates with your life directly. Our brain has a hard time latching onto abstract concepts, but it can latch onto the desire to take a trip across the country. [33:10] Kevin has nailed his niche, but he's got a second one in his back pocket, in case he needs to find some new clients. He's also refocused the business into primarily a bookkeeping and accounting style company that offers a few additional services. [34:25] Everybody needs help with bookkeeping, they just have to get to the point in their business where they realize it. Our challenge as bookkeepers is to change that mindset and help people move closer to that realization. [34:55] Ben encourages people to acknowledge what they have achieved, and recognize their accomplishments. [36:05] Your vision has to be as specific as it needs to be for it to get you there. Keep describing until it hooks you. [37:05] The biggest win for Kevin in finding the group is joining a network of bookkeepers. Having the ability to chat with like minded individuals has been a game changer. Mentioned in this episode: Centrosome Inc. Contact us about the show: hello@ilovebookkeeping.com

Jackie's family had always wanted to live in America so her family moved to LA, but for various reasons, it didn't work out. She needed to set something up that was relevant to her degree in order for it to be seen as successful in the eyes of Immigration and be able to stay in the States. She stumbled across Bookkeeper Business Launch in 2016 and it showed her a way to make her plan real. [4:50] Jackie officially launched her business in January of 2017, and she landed her first client a few weeks into the new year. She invested in SEO and advertising and tried to do the marketing herself until she realized that she had to stop trying to do everything and going through the feast or famine cycle. [6:40] Jackie now has 21 clients, most of which are being billed a set amount each month. A few of them have the habit of showing up in August needing all the accounts up to date for the previous year. [8:10] The best part of the business is in analyzing the data, interpreting the numbers, and forecasting where the business is going. That's where Jackie can make a real difference in her client's businesses. [10:40] Jackie isn't going to settle for a mini empire; she's going to build a mega empire. She wants her business to also be her retirement. She would like to grow a sustainable business that is either possible to sell or for someone else like her to take it over and run it without her having to be there. [14:30] Building a business to be sold makes it worth much more than a job that is disguised as a business. [15:20] The challenge that Jackie is facing today is two fold. She needs to be more strategic, and she also needs to get the right people in place, but she's run into some trouble on that front and is now questioning her judgment. [18:15] Jackie does not take time out to educate herself. She feels like she isn't taking the time to absorb content that would help her develop personally. If she wants to change this, she needs to schedule in time for educating herself when she's at her best. Start with a small amount of time in a place where you don't usually work. A change of environment can change the way you think. [26:15] Make it a date with yourself and make it sacred. It doesn't matter where you go, but that you enjoy it and your brain is primed to focus on yourself. It's also not necessarily about reading more books, you can find a lot of clarity simply by writing out your thoughts on a regular basis. [28:40] Creating a vivid vision for your life is even more important than the vision for your business. If you reverse the order, your life will contort around your business instead of your business being shaped around your life. [30:05] In order to create a business empire, it has to be able to run without you. Eventually, you want to only be involved with things that are your unique abilities. [32:15] Jackie wants to have someone sitting alongside her, but she has had some big difficulties with it, either with wasting time correcting mistakes or trying to train someone who is unable to learn. Someone who is willing to challenge Jackie is what she is looking for, so maybe what she actually needs is an accountability partner or coach instead of just an employee. The people you ultimately hire should complement your weaknesses. [38:45] Jackie's existing team is servicing the clients really well, and sometimes the person you need to hire already works for you. Being able to leverage your team more can be the solution you're looking for. [42:15] Start with the task audit and offloading the low hanging fruit to them, then start mining your existing team as a source for more people if you still need to. [43:35] Jackie's first action will be to book an hour and a half for herself to read, write, and develop. Then, she's going to reach out to her former employee and see if she would be interested in working with her as an accountability partner. Mentioned in this episode: AllCents Bookkeeping Contact us about the show: hello@ilovebookkeeping.com

Jenna used to work as an auditor, but the position involved being surrounded by negative people as well as physical demands that didn't work with her family's schedule. After getting denied when she tried to adjust her work schedule, Jenna realized that she should probably venture out on her own. She found the Bookkeeper Business Launch program and once someone she trusted vouched for the content, she signed up. [5:00] Jenna currently has 10 clients and is not looking to build an empire. She's pretty happy right now just working with her clients and doing the work, but that may change as her children get older. [6:40] When Jenna was starting her bookkeeping business, she was looking for someone to handle the tax work, and the person that she previously worked with told her that the bookkeeper for the firm that he worked for had given their notice and they needed to find a new bookkeeper for their clients. Many of the clients that Jenna now has have come through this referral relationship. [8:20] She also has had some clients come through Facebook. It's important to not have to rely on a single channel to attract clients into your business. [9:40] Jenna's biggest challenge was mindset and the belief that she could do this on her own. She realized that everyone is afraid, but they just do it. That's the first step in overcoming your fear. A lot of things that we're taught as children to protect us end up as limiting beliefs that you need to break down or reassess as an adult. [11:35] Jenna wishes that she realized how much time it would take to get started. A lot of people start a business thinking that it will give them more time, but that's not true right away. The reverse is the case, you'll spend more time working in the beginning than you would if you just had a job. [13:30] Setting limits with clients is one of Jenna's biggest challenges. She doesn't want to nickel and dime her clients, but she also doesn't want to work for free. This is known in the industry as scope creep and is a real problem when you bill a flat fee. [15:20] Jenna doesn't have to take on clients to cover her expenses so that puts her in a better position and can really slow down the process of vetting a new client. She can be very methodical in determining what the client wants and what kind of outcomes they are looking for, as well as set expectations for the relationship. [18:30] One of the great things about becoming a trusted advisor for your clients is that they will come to you when they need something. When they reach out to you, they are probably coming from a positive place, but you still have to be methodical about establishing the scope of the work. [19:50] The most recent scope creep came in today from a client that wanted Jenna to call a vendor and learn more about a bill. There are a couple of ways to handle this kind of stuff. The first thing is to immediately set the expectation that the task is outside the scope of the work. Send them an invoice for your time and then zero out the amount as a courtesy discount to orient them. [23:40] Next time a client asks you to do something that happens frequently, you are either going to have to start charging for that or reevaluate the scope of the work you are doing for that client. [25:35] Be very clear about things that fall outside your engagement and be willing to have that awkward conversation and be honest. Most clients are not intentional about this.They just rely on you as a trusted advisor. [28:20] Keeping the client informed is very important. Let the client know at the start before it becomes the norm. If you keep them involved, getting paid for additional services won't be a big deal. [30:40] A lot of misunderstandings come from not really knowing what the client wanted. This is why the vetting process is so important, so that you can understand your duties and they understand theirs, as well as expectations in general. [31:45] Scope creep can actually inform services that you can offer to your clients. When it happens often, they are explicitly telling you they need that service and you can create packages around that to offer to other clients. Mentioned in this episode: ACE Accountable Bookkeeping Contact us about the show: hello@ilovebookkeeping.com

Heather got her accounting degree in 2014 and worked in corporate accounting for a few years. That's when she realized that she was meant to be her own boss and really didn't enjoy the corporate environment. She discovered Bookkeeping Business Launch and after giving birth to her son, she decided to dive into it and give it a shot. [4:10] Initially she was skeptical about the program and whether she could handle it with a newborn, but something clicked once he was two months old. She took her time starting the business but after a year of working on things and landing her first client, it really took off. [6:00] The lack of flexibility was Heather's main issue with the corporate environment. Being able to determine her own hours and how she runs her business has been very important to her. Flexibility and freedom are very common reasons for people wanting to start their own business. [9:05] Currently Heather has 14 clients, 2 of which she had to part ways with at the beginning of the year, because they didn't have enough profit in their business to justify it. [9:55] Heather would recommend the bookkeeping business to someone who has the drive and the motivation to do what they need to do to live the life they want to live. There are a lot of benefits to working for an employer but you will never have the freedom you get from building a business around your lifestyle. You should also enjoy working with numbers of course. [11:45] Heather's end game is to move into the CEO role and start growing her and her business's capacity. Eventually, she would love to be able to walk away from the business for a while, without having to worry about the work getting done. Finances are a factor to achieve their dreams but it's not the main issue right now. [14:30] When your business is not about the dire need for money, it puts you into a better situation and puts the power in your hands. You won't feel the pressure to do something before you are prepared for it. [15:35] By the end of 2019, Heather is hoping to double her revenue and by the end of 2020 she hopes to triple it at least. [16:30] Knowledge is not power, implementation is power. It's better to take a nugget of wisdom you hear and go execute on it, rather than keep listening and do nothing with it. [18:10] To achieve the growth that she envisions for her business, Heather will need to bring on some new team members. She's nervous about delegating, because she's not sure the systems and processes she has set up at the moment are up to snuff. [20:50] Start from the results that you want, and then figure out how to make it work. [22:30] We don't want to throw people at a process problem, we want to have our processes down and then fit someone into them. [23:00] Heather considers networking and creating relationships to be her unique ability. She has never advertised to find clients, they have all come from word of mouth and networking events. [25:40] While Heather enjoys creating relationships and meeting new people, she doesn't enjoy going out and searching for new clients and creating new leads. Sales and follow up, and social media are probably the first things that she is going to offboard to someone else. [27:30] Your first hire is probably going to be a virtual assistant, not another bookkeeper. Figure out the tasks that you don't want to do anymore, record them, and then find a VA to do those things for you. This can free up significant amounts of your time every single month that you can dedicate to tasks you actually like to do. Once everyone is comfortable with the task, you can start expanding the responsibilities. [30:10] List all the tasks that you do in your business, and categorize them into things that you love to do, things that you can do well but don't energize you, and things you actively dislike doing. Start offloading the tasks you dislike the most by creating your processes around those first. [32:15] Processes are what make your business sellable. Once you get started you will get addicted to creating more. Start with one task and give it to one person. [36:10] For action items, Heather is going to figure out which tasks she can offload to a VA and start creating her processes. The task audit is the first step which she is aiming to have completed by the end of April, and have her first hire by the end of June. [41:05] Before you offboard a task, ask yourself if you should just stop doing it, or if it can simply be automated. Remember this when creating your processes, because you will see things differently when you're in a teaching frame of mind. Mentioned in this episode: Denning Bookkeeping Solutions Contact us about the show: hello@ilovebookkeeping.com