5 MISTAKES TO AVOID WHEN STARTING YOUR ONLINE BOOKKEEPING BUSINESS

How to start a bookkeeping business | Get your bookkeeping business set-up for success by avoiding these five common mistakes.

HOW TO GET YOUR BOOKKEEPING BUSINESS STARTED

If you’ve been wanting to start a bookkeeping business from home, but find that every resource on the internet is NOT geared toward bookkeepers, then you’ve come to the right place.

The great thing about starting a bookkeeping business from home is that it’s pretty simple to get it going. All you need in the way of supplies is a computer with internet access! You may want to invest in a printer, a scanner, or a combo of both if you’re more of a paper person.

What You Need to Start a Bookkeeping Business:

• Some software to save your sanity
• Insurance
• Contracts
• And most importantly…clients

While it’s simple to get started, it can also be daunting and scary.

5 common mistakes people make when starting a bookkeeping business (and how to fix them.)

❌ MISTAKE #1: Taking any and all clients

Whether they’re a good fit or not

I used a freelancing website called Upwork to get my first few clients. This resulted in a very quick build-up of a client list, but the quality of the client wasn’t the best.

For the most part, the people on freelancing sites want the cheapest rate and don’t care about much else. I’ve had clients ghost me, creep up the scope of work, and more.

✅ HOW TO FIX IT: ask for referrals.

• Tell all of your family and friends about the journey you’re on
• Take meetings
• Talk to people
• Step out of your comfort zone

❌ MISTAKE #2: Employee Mentality

Because I’d never owned a business before and the only work experience I had was interviewing as an employee, that’s the mentality I had when I went into discovery calls. It’s going to feel like the potential client is interviewing you (and they are) but you do not work for them, you provide a service to the business and are entering a business-to-business transaction – not an employee/employer one.

✅ HOW TO FIX IT: Change the narrative from “interview” to “discovery call.”

When you think of the initial meeting in this way, then you have just as much power.

❌ MISTAKE #3: No clear niche

It’s important to know what kind of clients you want to work with. Do you want to specialize in e-commerce? What about service-based providers? Maybe you want to work with influencers or video producers. Maybe it’s only start-ups or mainly freelancers. Every niche has different bookkeeping needs.

Brick and mortars will have inventory, cost of goods sold, and other expenses to track. Restaurants and food service will have food and beverage invoices to keep track of. Service providers have invoicing and accounts receivable.

Deciding what you like to do will help narrow down your niche.

✅ HOW TO FIX IT: Whatever niche you choose, make sure that it’s clear to the client and you.

Having a specialization will help you narrow down your clientele, allow you to charge more, and will make your marketing a million times easier. Remember, if you’re talking to everyone, then you’re talking to no one.

PRO TIP: If you don’t know what you want to specialize in, take clients who you like as people on a month-to-month trial basis. Then you can see if you like the business structure.

❌ MISTAKE #4: Billing inconsistently & below your worth

It’s easy to underestimate how much you should charge for your services. You’re new, inexperienced and not fully confident in your abilities yet. I get it.

But, I see a lot of bookkeepers will start off charging hourly because, well, that’s familiar. And, that hourly rate starts way too low. Remember, you have overhead, taxes, and your owner’s pay to take into consideration. You are now running a business and what you think is “plenty” is probably not near enough to be sustainable.

Here’s a twofer for ya (read: two for one mistake):

Bookkeeping has become commoditized in certain industries – with business owners wanting the lowest rate possible because they don’t understand the value of the service to their business.

Bookkeepers all offering basic bookkeeping services are contributing to the phenomenon.

✅ HOW TO FIX IT: Get the practice you need to feel confident and thenset yourself apart from the crowd.

Once you select your niche, you’ll want to figure out what your signature offer is for that niche and then price it competitively. The more specialized you are, the more you can charge for your bookkeeping services. This is because you learn everything about your niche, you understand it inside and out and you can serve that client better than another bookkeeper would be able to.

I also recommend ditching the hourly billing in favor of a fixed rate for your services. This not only helps your business but it gives your clients a clear number for what they will be spending.

❌ MISTAKE #5: Not setting boundaries and expectations

Boundaries will be pushed by your clients. You didn’t start your bookkeeping business to be chained to your desk at all hours of the day or answering emails at 9 PM.

You started your online bookkeeping business for freedom.

Clients will email you with last-minute emergencies, they’ll try to get meetings the same day and they’ll send over work on a Saturday.

You cannot stop them from doing any of that. Nor should you.

✅ HOW TO FIX IT: Be clear on your boundaries and expectations.

Give your clients all of the information upfront, whether that’s in an onboarding document or another form of communication. Make sure that it’s clear.

For example, if you do not work on Saturdays, make sure that your client is aware that any emails sent on the weekend will not be checked or worked on until Monday (or whatever day you choose). This sets the expectation and the boundary.

Then it’s up to you to stick to those boundaries. If a client emails you work on a Saturday then it’s up to you to not do that work. Or, if you’re okay with it that’s fine, but know that YOU chose to break the boundary.

Want to take the guesswork out of building your bookkeeping brand? Check out The Studio – a 6-week program designed to help you hit the ground running with aligned clients rolling in and family date nights on the calendar.

BONUS MISTAKE: Not having an online presence. Your clients don’t care whether you know your debits and credits. They want to know that you pass the vibe check. Make sure you have somewere they can land that shows WHO you are as a business. Our template shop is a great place to start.