Which Is It: Imposter Syndrome or a Skill Gap?

Is It Imposter Syndrome…Or Something More Serious?

If you’ve already started a bookkeeping business and you still have some imposter syndrome, it’s probably not just imposter syndrome.

Imposter syndrome is something you can push through. But if you’ve already started doing the work and you still aren’t feeling more confident, it’s probably a skill gap.

A skill gap isn’t something you can push through—not in bookkeeping. This isn’t a profession where you can fake it until you make it.

But luckily, a skill gap does have potential to be closed.

It doesn’t have to be perfect. I don't care who tells you what in bookkeeping, you will never be a hundred percent ready.

You don't need to know everything about bookkeeping in order to be a bookkeeper—personally, I think you need to get yourself to 80% and then have the ability to close those gaps from there.  But if you aren’t at 80%, you need to get there.

If You Think You Have a Gap, You Do

Here’s the thing: you can’t know for sure that you have a skill gap until you stumble into it, and trust me, you want to catch it before you get to that point.

The rule of thumb is this: if you think you have a skill gap, then you do. Because if you’ve started your business and you’re still feeling unconfident—if, when a potential client reaches out and tells you about their business because you think it has a complexity you can't handle—then you have a gap.

Whether this is imposter syndrome or a skill gap, your potential clients will sense those nerves and the lack of confidence. If you’re not sold on your skills, they won’t be either. So whether you have a gap or not, your business is going to suffer like you do. And that won’t get taken care of until you prove to yourself that you know your stuff.

Close the Gap

Thankfully, like I said, that gap can be closed. But it should be done in a holistic way; a way that takes all of these things that we just talked about into account so that you can cover the entirety of bookkeeping from the ground up.

The things you need to have a good grasp on include accounting, basic tax, and the actual bookkeeping process: how you determine your start dates, how you come up with your opening balances, how you reconcile to your statements, how you run reports, how you check those reports, and how you understand and deliver those reports.

That's what you need to know, and it can be taught in a variety of ways.

If you already have a degree in accounting and you are confident in that, then you're a third of the way there—you just need to close the gaps on tax and get into the bookkeeping process.

If you don't have a degree in accounting, you could go back and get one. But frankly, there are more comprehensive and cheaper solutions, including one I have to offer myself.

My program BABs, or Become a Bookkeeper, doesn’t require prerequisites or advanced accounting classes. It does include a textbook, but that’s just Accounting 101, and it’s included with the program. It's nothing more complex than that. You don't need to go on and take advanced accounting. You don't need auditing classes or even tax classes, because you won't be the tax preparer. You just need to understand the basics.

Before taking BABs, most students on average rated their confidence at a 3 out of 10. After BABs, that needle moved all the way up to 9 out of 10.

Now, there will always be some special circumstance that comes up that you won’t be prepared for, and you’ll have to figure out a solution yourself. But when you’re at least at an 8 out of 10 with your skills, you’re much better equipped to find those answers.

So if you’re dealing with a skill gap, head to katieferro.com/become and start closing it today!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

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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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