The Rewards and Benefits of Becoming a Bookkeeper with Serena Shoup
May 23, 2021
In this episode of Profits + Prosecco Podcast, I am sharing a previous conversation I had with Serena Shoup on her Facebook Live. We dive into all things bookkeeping, the journey to becoming one, as well as a bit more insight on my Become a Bookkeeper™ program. Serena is a CPA who left her corporate position and started helping small businesses with their bookkeeping. She built a small virtual bookkeeping firm and mentored others on starting their own similar business.
If Serena is not nerding out on accounting, you can find her jamming on her guitar, ukulele, or trumpet, or out in the Arizona mountains with her 3 kids. I’m so excited to share this interview with you all and give you an inside look at the journey to starting a bookkeeping business!
But before we dive right in, welcome to the Profits + Prosecco Podcast! I’m your host, Katie Ferro, CPA, reformed rule follower, creator of Booked Out Bookkeeper, mom to 3 little ones, and Kajabi enthusiast.
This podcast is for entrepreneurs who desire to change their life through their profitable business, and for bookkeepers and accountants who want to escape the 9-5 and start a simple scalable bookkeeping business like I did.
Bookkeeping increases profits and profits change lives. So pop some bubbles and let me show you how!
In this episode, you'll learn about my journey to starting my bookkeeping business as well as more behind-the-scenes insight on my Become a Bookkeeper™ program. For even more juicy details, listen to ALL of episode 25 of the Profits + Prosecco Podcast on your fave streaming platform.
The moment I decided to start a bookkeeping business.
Deciding to become a bookkeeper didn't happen overnight, I can tell you that for sure.
It happened very slowly.
I was doing quick bookkeeping for one client on the side but it wasn't anything huge because I would knock it out in a couple of hours and call it a day. From there, I got my second client who was someone I met at the gym I used to go to.
I was only charging her $30 an hour but I knew I could build it up the more work I did.
Her business ended up taking off and she was making six figures, so I doubled her fee the next year. There was zero hesitation on her end, it was me who was putting off the price increase.
From there, I got around two more clients and the process kept repeating because people knew I was taking on clients and they heard about me from the CPA firm.
Soon, I found myself with a huge workload and handling 5 clients myself.
There was a point where I felt capped and just overwhelmed. I knew I would either have to start putting my son in daycare or get someone to watch him, which wasn’t the goal. I started doing courses for entrepreneurs but that only lasted a year until I became a bookkeeper.
I was eventually only doing bookkeeping for one big client but getting help from another bookkeeper. That’s when I saw the value in bookkeeping because I realized this is actually my own business that's stable and passive with potential to grow a team.
I slowly began to grow my clientele and my team as well. It’s been an amazing ride ever since I made that decision to expand!
Serena started small as well. Similar to me, once she had about 5 clients, she began to expand and build out a team.
Having a team and creating my Become A Bookkeeper™ program.
As bookkeepers, it's important for us to live the life we want, which is why it's necessary to hire a team. You don’t want to be the only one your clients talk to.
Serena and I still talk to all our clients but we have other people who can take on that role if we needed to step away. If you are a bookkeeper working alone, handling several clients, it's going to become stressful.
If you are someone who knows they want to go into bookkeeping but doesn't have the accounting education or background, listen up, because what you're about to read is all for you.
This is how Become A Bookkeeper™ was born:
What is it? It’s a program I created that is self-paced and it’s an inside peek of the 15 years it took for me to get where I am today. Inside BAB, you’re going to be able to condense the amount of time it would take you to learn this stuff because I compounded everything in a way that's easy to navigate.
I will teach you how to respond to your clients without needing to know all the answers. There are also three different phases in this program.
- Learn
- Shadow
- Apply
In learn, you get a refresher (basically accounting 101), in shadow you'll watch me do a full client setup, and in apply we make sure you can drive everything home.
It’s truly a well-designed course for anybody trying to learn all the ins and outs of becoming a bookkeeper. There is absolutely NO way that you're going to join and not learn anything.
You basically get to come in and watch me work in my own bookkeeping business that you're looking to replicate.
Running our lives as a bookkeeper and our advice to you.
There’s a lot of people who don't know how to handle their money and that's really where we come into play.
We’re able to run our lives the way we want while having a clear understanding of what we're working on and looking at. The process is repeatable enough where we can train it to a team which is a huge benefit.
Serena's advice to becoming a bookkeeper is to not overload yourself with clients from the beginning and just bring them on slowly as you're building your process.
You might not have your desired income in the beginning but it's all about growing in time and maintaining your life.
If you have any doubt in yourself, that could easily be removed by exposing your weak spots and working on them because when you're good at what you do, everything else falls into place and I promise you that.
The Rewards and Benefits of Becoming a Bookkeeper with Serena Shoup: The Bottomline
I hope this episode has helped you understand all the benefits of becoming a bookkeeper and why my program Become A Bookkeeper™ is meant for you. I had so much fun speaking with Serena and I hope you enjoyed hearing more about the way she and I run our bookkeeping business. We both know it’s hard to work full time so if you're tired of working corporate, just know you CAN build your bookkeeping business with a few hours per day. Challenge yourselves and allow yourself to be who you want to be!
To connect with Serena, be sure to connect with her on Instagram and LinkedIn!
Don’t forget to tune into episode 25 of the Profits + Prosecco Podcast. Thank you so much for listening!
If you enjoyed the episode, please take a second to rate and review. Each review helps us reach and inspire more entrepreneurs and bookkeepers just like you.
Don’t forget to take a screenshot, share it in your Instagram stories, and tag me at @orderlyaccountingbykatie. Cheers to your inevitable success and I’ll see you in the next episode!
