How To Start Your Own Bookkeeping Business – Episode Reposted: This episode originally aired July 14, 2016, but is a favorite among the Growing Your Firm Podcast community, so we’re bringing it back. Comment below to let us know if you’ve been listening to the podcast since this episode aired.
Meryl is a Chartered Accountant who worked in commercial accounting positions and as a supervisor and teacher before being playfully recruited by friends and colleagues to shape the future of financial management. Seven days and a thousand dollars later, the Bean Ninjas were born and going strong. Along with Bean Ninjas, Meryl runs her own consulting firm, MCJ Consulting, where she helps companies implement cloud accounting transitions.
How To Start Your Own Bookkeeping Business
Meryl has worked in commercial accounting positions and as an auditor and teacher. He was tired of working nights and weekends no matter what. So he started MCJ Consulting to help with his living needs. “The first year after starting MCJ was great,” says Meryl. “Lots of surfing and fun projects, but I want to grow MCJ.”
Guide To Starting A Bookkeeping Business
In his career he has done a lot of project management. For example, he will work with a company that has acquired new payroll software, and Meryl will help integrate it with the rest of the financial system and then train the rest of the staff to use it properly. Therefore it was difficult to find the right employees because of the kind of projects he did. Meryl visited India to see if she could use some background work. Built a small team of experts in India and started a recurring financing/subscription business.
It takes one customer at a time and the onboarding process can take some time to convert those customers to the cloud-based tools, Xero, and other add-ons they use. After that, he lets his team report monthly in the background. However, it takes months for a customer to get from the onboarding phase to when the team processes the report.
Meryl says that before moving to a recurring revenue model, “cash flow was unpredictable. It was difficult to manage the sales pipeline – getting one project done and another finished and ready to go.” So from a cash flow perspective, our recurring revenue service is more predictable and also means more consistent work for our employees.
If MCJ is a consulting firm, Bean Ninjas is an accounting firm. Meryl and Ben met in an online brainstorming group, not even a private account. Both followed Dan Norris’ 7-day startup movement, which suggested that you can get your business off the ground and be successful in just 7 days. Meryl and Ben liked that.
Bookkeeping Business Plan
When Meryl started MCJ, she didn’t have a partner and didn’t expect to have one. Meryl’s parents ran an engineering firm, and one of the first business pieces of advice her father gave her was not to have a partner. However, he was very happy with Ben as a co-founder. They had similar dreams, skills and visions and were better together.
“Ben and I had only met once, but before that we had worked together for a few months.”
They shared some clients and collaborated on some of their projects, so they knew how to work together. They also took the time to do the difficult and detailed interviews beforehand and sign the co-founder agreement.
Bean Ninjas launched in 2015. Although Meryl and her partner Ben McAdam were accountants, they decided that accounting was a repeatable process in which to train their people.
How To Become A Bookkeeper At Home (even With No Experience)
In the first six months, Bean Ninjas had 15 customers, but in the next four months they gained almost 40 customers. In their first 10 months of operation, they received more than one client per week. What has happened in the past four months that has made their customers grow so much?
Much of their business came from word of mouth. It takes a while to build the kind of trust needed to receive such a proposal. Much of their client work comes from the online community, which is their market. Meryl spends some time trying to add value to these communities. The best thing to do when trying to build your customer base is to think about how you can add value to your community.
For example, Meryl finds people in the online community asking for feedback on a new website they’ve created. He visited their site, reviewed it and gave them feedback on what worked and what needed improvement from his perspective. Similarly, if someone posts their new book online and asks for feedback, they read it and tell them what they like about it and what could be improved.
Where does Meryl find the most valuable and active communities? He said he was part of a multi-income community. One was a Facebook group – Dan Norris’ 7-day startup program and the other called Dynamite Circle – where she met Ben. He is also part of several Facebook pages for accountants and bookkeepers. Nor is he a passive participant. He is very active and dedicates an hour a day to these groups. It also launched a task force aimed at bringing accountants and finance professionals together.
Guide Opt In] 7 Ways A Bookkeeping Business Can Give You Freedom
The great thing about these groups is that he doesn’t just walk in and immediately start talking about his products. He was involved and took the time to build relationships. Building a customer base takes time because you need to build a personal relationship first. Cold calling? knocking from door to door? cold email? They just didn’t get along with Meryl. Just focus on building relationships, one conversation at a time.
One of the ways you can add value to your community is by providing great content. Meryl does this by writing articles/blog posts. Her usual process involves brainstorming and using Trello to keep a journal of ideas on her blog. If you’re interested in content marketing, the first thing you need to do is create a content strategy for what you’re going to write. For Meryl, her strategy/focus is to educate others about accounting and finance or general business development.
One of the most successful content published by Meryl is the Bean Ninjas Business Report where they report on the company’s success. The report describes their recurring revenue, churn rate, customer satisfaction ratings, etc. The report is an honest and transparent assessment of what is going well and what is not.
We found a lot of information in the podcast. If you want to dive deeper, watch the full episode! If you want to know more about Meryl, her company and the 7-day startup, you can contact her on LinkedIn!
What Skills Do You Need To Run Your Own Bookkeeping Business?
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Try workflow software that ensures nothing is overlooked. See why over 7,000 accountants and bookkeepers use Jetpack Workflow. Start your 14-day free trial. Do you know what every business needs? People who make books! If you are organized and have math skills, this is for you! I think accounting can be a profitable business: accountants are always in high demand and entrepreneurs often don’t have the time or confidence for it.
Virtual accounting features are plentiful, but often overlooked. Many people don’t think they have the necessary skills to get a place. Despite being a cousin to accounting, accounting positions are often considered entry-level. If you’re detail-oriented and have the ability to stay employed, you don’t need to be a CPA to become an accountant.
Experience is important for many jobs, but for accounting, experience is not a foregone conclusion. Previous experience in the financial services industry is of course helpful, but not required. If you have previous experience with small accounts, that experience can make a big difference in attracting customers to your own business.
The Pros And Cons Of Starting A Bookkeeping Business
No experience at all; That’s okay too! You can still start this career with a small amount of startup costs. Check with your local community college to see if they offer librarian courses, or check out courses that are available online. You can also search the internet for different types of accounting software. Starting a bookkeeper is a great opportunity to get started as a virtual bookkeeper: through 3 FREE courses, Ben Robinson offers to teach you what you need to start bookkeeping at home and grow a successful business along the way. !
It’s important to do your homework, especially if you’re managing someone else’s money. You must register your business in your state either as a DBA (“Doing Business As”)
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Hi, I am Erick Norman. A blogger specialist in Kitchen Design.