Starting a bookkeeping business: The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Bookkeeping Business in 2021
Think about various ways you can reach out to potential clients or get your business in front of them. Every contact with a business owner is an opportunity to land a new client. Think of all you recommend to your clients and implement those same procedures for your business. The tricky aspect of this type of pricing is that it’s easy for the scope to expand. You need an engagement letter with your clients that clearly states any request outside the scope of your work comes at an additional cost. If you got into virtual bookkeeping for the freedom and flexibility, you might want to work off retainers, but you also have the option to bill hourly.
- Collect business cards from every new business owner you meet.
- To preserve your time for expanding your business, think about how to outsource tasks to other team members.
- You should consider the licensing fees when deciding where to locate your virtual bookkeeping business.
- In this example, I am assuming that you’re looking for small business clients in Miami.
Finally, as we’ll talk about below, startup costs are manageable. We can have you covered by insurance in as little as 5 minutes. As you search for the right business name, check that the name is available as a domain for your website. The last thing you want is to come up with the perfect name only to find that it’s already taken. Work on your target market at the same time as your niche and UVP. Marketing is so important, no matter the type of business you own.
Design your service menu
Many bookkeepers start as sole proprietorships, meaning you work alone and provide all the services yourself. But you may also think about forming a limited liability company (LLC) or corporation. You’ve decided to open a virtual bookkeeping business, but you might be wondering how to get started. In this article, we’ll outline the steps to build your business so you can get up and running and build a full client roster.
Once you have your finalists, run the names through your secretary of state’s business name database to make sure it’s available. This could help you build credibility inside that segment, as well as help you hone your skills. Additionally, determining your target audience will be simple if you have a specialty. To help determine your niche, you should also research the market to determine what bookkeeping businesses are already established and which industries they serve. A bookkeeper’s work is applicable across many different types of industries — after all, every business needs to track and optimize its finances. However, to help market your business and set it apart amongst the competition, you may decide to specialize in a specific industry.
Errors and Omissions insurance protects you and your assets if that happens. You may not want to hire employees right away, but prepare yourself now, so the process is easier in the future. You can research how to hire employees and download or bookmark any necessary forms like the W-4 and W-9 through the U.S.
Ready to tackle your small business insurance? We’re here to help.
Which means you would end up with the wrong kind of bookkeeping clients. 3) Contribute to these social media groups that have accepted you by posting helpful, relevant content several times per week. By doing so, you’ll start to get known in those social media circles and you’ll start to get people connecting with you. A clear CTA on your homepage is just one tactic to help turn your website into a tool that converts visitors into potential clients. Meaning, technology cannot be ignored if you want to get bookkeeping clients, or even land your first client.
The process for getting your business license is different for each of the 50 states. Check your state’s specific licensing requirements for details. At Huckleberry, for example, you can get a 60-second estimate and secure your small business insurance entirely online and in as little as 5 minutes.
Unlike CPAs, these certifications aren’t regulated by the state, so be sure to choose a large, reputable organization so that the certification is meaningful and respected. You will also create a financial plan that should include a 12-month profit and loss projection, projected cash flow, and a projected balance sheet. The exact process and costs for this vary from state to state and depend on the type of business structure you choose. If you decide to go into business as a sole proprietor, you can simply hang out your shingle and start working. However, registering as a limited liability company (LLC) gives you more liability protection.
Hire an Answering Service
While choosing a niche will greatly reduce your available client base, it makes it much easier to gain expertise and distinguish yourself from your competitors. If you ever want to get a bank loan for your business, you’ll probably need a more formal business plan. For now, the important thing is to walk yourself through the steps you’ll need to take to be successful. Once you decide to go full-time, make sure you have funds to cover your expenses for at least three months. Take your business expenses, like internet and software subscriptions, as well as your personal expenses, such as food, rent, and utilities, into consideration when deciding how much you’ll need. Registering your business and/or business name is an important step.
It may seem silly when you’re just a one-person business, but again, it will help if you ever have to prove to the IRS that you take your business seriously. In addition to bookkeeping software, consider file-sharing, client management, and document signing software. You want to make the entire process seamless for your clients. You can get started with Google Drive for file-sharing and organization for free with any Gmail account.
Step 4 – Register your business & business name
Sending prospective customers to voicemail when they need your services can cost you business. Go Answer is a bilingual answering service that connects your customers to live customer service agents via phone, text, web chat, or email 24/7. If you don’t have them already, you’ll need to have a solid grasp of bookkeeping principles. Fortunately, there are several ways you can learn, both online and in person. The cost per credit hour is generally much lower than a traditional four-year college, and you can attend full-time or part-time, depending on your schedule.
For the long term though, there is no better platform than WordPress, especially if you plan on blogging. Now, add the different levels of support to your gold, silver, and bronze plans. It might also help to differentiate support based on levels of access such as junior bookkeeper support vs. senior bookkeeper support. 2) Your small business will be far more streamlined if you only sell your core offering, as you can benefit from more standardization. You will revisit your strategic plan every 90 days to update it and to reset your rocks.
Check out our guides to the best free website builders and cheap web hosting for a great place to start. For professionals and aspiring bookkeepers alike, certifications are a powerful way to boost your skills and add additional authority to your brand. You can gain certifications in bookkeeping itself as well as in the accounting software you plan to use to serve your clients. Another popular option is Xero, but there are plenty of bookkeeping apps to choose from.
The nice thing about it is that you can set all tasks to repeat at a template level. Bookkeeping work and accounting work consist of repetitive tasks, so having repeating tasks are a great way to automate the creation of them. Most of these phone services allow you to install an app on your smartphone so that calls are routed there. Down the road, you might want to consider a help desk software to communicate with your client base, but I wouldn’t recommend getting that fancy right out of the gate. By presenting your pricing and service options in a second meeting, you’ll be able to engage in a discussion around picking and selecting the right option for your client.