The Three Layers of a Profitable Bookkeeping Business

1.  The Soft Skills

At the top of the pyramid (the smallest layer) is what a lot of people want to prioritize immediately: the “soft skills” of turning your accounting skills into a business.

People want to start setting up their business, start marketing, start figuring out their bank accounts, start finding clients, start formulating their strategy for sales calls, start figuring out their pricing…you get the idea.

There are so many different pieces to this, and there is a lot of nuance to be learned in each one of those pieces that is going to help you eventually become a successful business owner. But while they are important pieces, they do not cover the whole spectrum of what you need to know by any means. The soft skills sit on top of a much bigger pyramid, the connecting layer of which is…

2.  The Technical Skills

When I first started coaching, I took people who had accounting skills already—people who were corporate accountants or CPAs, people who had experience like me—who could, with some direction, easily flip a switch that would take them from employee to business owner.

If you already have the skills of accounting, you're in great shape. There’s very little that needs to be done for you to create a successful bookkeeping business.

However, if you don’t have the technical skills, you’ll have nothing to hold the top of your pyramid up. You can know everything about building a bookkeeping business, but without being able to do the work, the soft skills won’t keep you afloat.

Your technical skills include your knowledge of what happens behind the systems you’re using, your ability to work in the systems, your knowledge of what to do if things go wrong, an understanding of how bookkeeping and tax go together (and where to draw the line on what you will and won’t do as a bookkeeper when it comes to tax), and so much more.

You can have some accounting knowledge and still have a lot of gaps in your technical knowledge. You may have studied accounting and understand how accounting works, but you haven't gotten into the softwares. You may be a corporate accountant, but you're looking at one robust piece of a puzzle that doesn't actually apply to small business owners.

Some people may even have the application of systems down, but they’re not efficient, so they're working very slowly. If you're slow, you can't be very profitable, because it takes you longer to do the thing you need to do.

This middle piece is the piece that I focus on inside of my bookkeeping program, Become a Bookkeeper. I'll make sure that you've got all of that covered so that you know what's happening, how to work the systems, how to work efficiently, and how to turn out a high-quality product that you can stand behind.

I used to think these skills were the base layer of your business. However, there is actually a third layer that I have taken for granted—one that can make or break your bookkeeping business before you even get started.

3.  A Clear Vision

The base level of your pyramid is your belief that this is something that not only can work, but can work for you.

It’s also about forming a deep connection to how this integrates into your life. You need a really clear vision of how you want your life to look, and how this bookkeeping business has to be set up so that you can actually achieve that.

It’s like a jigsaw puzzle. If you don’t know what the finished puzzle is supposed to look like, it’s a lot harder to narrow down which pieces ought to go where.

Why is this the foundation? Because you can have the skills and the business strategy, but without the vision, you won’t build it to fit around your life—and without the belief it can work, you’ll never make the choice to get started.

Make the Right Choice

If you let this bookkeeping business remain as an idea in the back of your head, and you keep living your life thinking “I wish I could,” “If only I had,” etcetera…then you’ll never take action. And if you continue to not take action while your heart is calling you elsewhere, then you’re doing nothing.

We tend to think doing nothing is the safer choice. That isn’t true. Doing nothing is actually a huge risk.

We have a choice every day to do something or do nothing. And while there are a lot of things we shouldn’t do (a bookkeeping business isn’t right for everyone), if this is something that you know you could do, and you keep letting time go by without taking any steps to make it a reality, you’re actually making the choice that you are never going to have the life that you want.

Is that really a risk you’re willing to take? Or is it time you start building that pyramid?

It’s time to lay the first brick. Scroll down and check out my list of programs to see which is right for your situation, and let’s get you living the life you actually want.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

Season 2 of Profits & Prosecco is HERE! Kick off your newest podcast addiction (or celebrate its return!) and listen to Episode 1 now: https://open.spotify.com/show/4dB0ZE8JaxqrkImm3Ifxrb 

Sick of imposter syndrome keeping you stuck? Join the new + improved BECOME A BOOKKEEPER now: https://www.katieferro.com/become 

Want a peek behind the curtain into LIBBY, my program all about what it really takes to have a simple and scalable (and successful) bookkeeping business? Get access to my free, on-demand four-part series, 6 Secrets to a Simple, Scalable Bookkeeping Business: www.katieferro.com/6-secrets

Learn how to take your bookkeeping skills and turn them into a business that allows you to replace (or surpass) your corporate salary, be present for your life, and profoundly impact your clients without selling your life in the process by joining Life by the Books (LIBBY).  

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