The next decision is whether to focus on a particular small business niche or to offer services to all small businesses. It’s much easier to become an expert in accounting for a particular business niche than for all businesses in general. Writing a business plan is something that everyone what does a chief financial officer should do before starting a business.
Get your certification
Starting your bookkeeping business costs a lot less than you might expect. Our comprehensive bookkeeping business course, Bookkeeper Launch, is designed to be completed in ten (10) weeks. Some students even get their first client while still in the course! Define your service packages and pricing structure so that you can easily communicate this information to your clients.
- Create tiered service packages with increasing levels of complexity and features.
- Now that you’ve organized your business, you can start setting up operations.
- For instance, both the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers (AIPB) and the National Association of Certified Public Bookkeepers (NACPB) offer certification programs.
Step 3: Get Applicable Business Licenses, Permits, and Banking
Most people operating a part-time bookkeeping business without employees will operate as a sole proprietorship, which works fine. However, if your business grows to the point of hiring employees, you need to consider becoming an LLC or corporation. To assist you with this decision, I recommend that you get an introduction to the four common business structures by reading our small business structure guide. Once certified, you’ll earn the credentials CPB (stands for Certified Professional Bookkeeper). You can put these letters after your name on resumes, business cards, and other materials to display your accomplishments to future clients. You’ll also need one year of experience before applying for the license.
Do you need a license to become a self-employed bookkeeper?
One of the fastest ways to gain credibility with potential clients is to prove that you have the knowledge necessary to do bookkeeping, payroll, and perhaps tax returns. Tracking your clients’ finances and creating financial reports can be exhausting if you’re doing everything manually. Thanks to modern-day technological advances, we can lean on accounting software to make our lives easier.
Your brand will be the face of your bookkeeping firm, so make sure it reflects your values and appeals to your target market. Bookkeeping is a fundamental component of any successful business, and as long as commerce exists, there will difference between depreciation and amortization with comparison chart be a demand for skilled bookkeepers. Based on their current needs, they can decide whether they’re interested.
This step focuses on implementing straightforward processes to facilitate seamless workflow and delegation. You’ll need email to deal with your clients, and a software like Slack for fast communication within your team. Karbon also offers a Workflow feature, presenting a visual representation of the status of specific jobs or client work through a Kanban board view.
Step 1: Pick Your Business Name
Essentially, your MVP is what you can promise your clients if they work with you. It drives the rest of your marketing efforts and helps you connect with your target market. Building your own custom workflows and process templates is very time-consuming.
If you read until this part, you may have noticed that I have mentioned my podcast episodes a how to calculate accrued vacation pay couple of times. You can also check out my best forums compilation article to discover more online communities worth joining. Just like most industries, bookkeeping undergoes regulatory changes, tech trends, and evolving client expectations.