Content
Coming up with a vision statement helps outline your company’s goals and what you want to accomplish long-term. Ideally, your vision statement will be one or two sentences that help give an idea to all employees of what goal you are working towards as a company. To discover guest posting possibilities, go to your favorite industry blogs, and see whether they have information about guest-posting. Or, you can type in accounting + “guest posts” or “contribute” into Google — and see what opportunities come up. Moreover, an optimized mobile site helps you get found on Google, plus, triggers 73% of mobile devices trigger additional action, according to research.
Even if you have absolutely zero professional bookkeeping experience, you can get started with this in-demand, high-paying, remote-friendly career path. To form an LLC, you’ll need to file Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State’s office and pay the state filing fee. You will also have to file for an EIN (Employer Identification Number) with the IRS.
Set Up Your Software
The name you choose should be relevant to your industry, nature of work, and should be available to register. Before you start courting clients, make sure you have an attractive and professional website in place. You don’t need to be all that tech-savvy or spend a lot of money to achieve this either! Use a service like Wix or Squarespace to make nice-looking sites quickly, or have WordPress installed on her personal website domain.
- You can make payments, deposit checks, and schedule transfers from anywhere, and it takes a few minutes to open an account.
- This isn’t a side hustle you can learn in a week or even a month, Kate told me.
- Watch the videos to find out what a day in the life is like for our Intuit bookkeeping experts.
- Keep a robust data security policy in place for employees, and plan for disaster ahead of time.
- You don’t need a college degree or any type of certification to work as an online bookkeeper (although having one or both can help you earn higher rates).
- You’ll be using the name for years, so be sure it’s a professional and accurate description of your work.
They’ll quote statistics about failed businesses and tell you how much safer it is to just get a corporate job. But recent layoffs and market conditions have left a lot of people considering starting something of their own. When you dial in your business structure, accounting system, brand, and target audience, you’re ready to showcase it on a professional bookkeeping website. This step may be the most important aspect of beginning a successful bookkeeping business. There are some things you should consider when thinking about starting your own bookkeeping business.
What jobs can you get with a bookkeeping certificate?
With her youngest starting preschool, Kate found herself with an extra 9 hours a week. Virtual businesses sometimes forget about networking, but several online platforms help businesses to meet and grow virtually. Virtual bookkeeping firms can’t rely on physical files to track their to-do lists. If your team is in different locations, you won’t always be able to see what they’re working on, so a to-do list won’t cut it. Think of all you recommend to your clients and implement those same procedures for your business. You need to review the hours billed to each client and invoice based on those hours.
This will increase the chances of gaining your first client and continue to attract new clients over time. Some accounting firms like being extremely hands-on, something you should consider as a virtual firm. Nailing down exactly how you want your interactions with clients to look remote bookkeeping can help you decide if entirely virtual is the answer for your company or if a hybrid setup may be more advantageous. Picking an ideal client base helps you better market yourself to them. Are you looking to work with large corporations, individuals, or small business clients?
You can personalize your business and grow at your own pace.
Her next step was to create a dedicated website, appropriately named BookkeepingSideHustle.com. She’s already hired one subcontractor in 2020 to help with two of her clients. So far it’s working out well, and she feels great about lifting some of https://www.bookstime.com/articles/startup-bookkeeping that work off herself. To streamline her bookkeeping work, Kate told me her next steps are to add more processes into her business and outsource some of her monthly work. Her monthly real estate meetup group was hosting a speed networking night.
You may even need to email invoice copies to a client for approval and have a signature stamp for paying invoices. You will want to do your research before pricing your services, and you will also want to maintain some level of flexibility to adjust your rates in the future. He’ll also give you the tools needed to start from scratch and grow to a thriving, independent bookkeeper regardless of your previous experience. Ben Robinson, the mastermind behind this online course, breaks down the business behind bookkeeping step by step. A bookkeeper may also receive receipts, reimburse company employees for work-related expenses, and take charge of accounts receivable. You don’t need to have years of experience as a practicing bookkeeper to start your small business.
Register Your Business
Making sure your home workspaces are efficient is vital to creating a positive remote experience. Building a tech stack that best fits your company’s needs and supports hardware and equipment needs is essential to facilitating happy employees. Remember to focus on providing clients convenient and valuable experiences. Look, we don’t want to toot our own horn — but if you need more help on getting started in bookkeeping, you’re in the right place. One of the easiest ways to reach your exact audience is through Facebook advertising. You can promote videos, images, or offers to people by age, interest, behavior, and location — needless to say, it’s the most targeted type of advertising.
At the same time Kate took her bookkeeping course, she was also interested in real estate investing. In the US, there are no formal certifications required to call yourself a bookkeeper. This isn’t a side hustle you can learn in a week or even a month, Kate told me. If you plan on operating under a fictitious business name or several different names, you may need to file a “Doing Business As” (DBA) statement. By the time you finish the course, you will have a basic knowledge of bookkeeping, but a deep understanding won’t come until you get your hands dirty.