Tuesday, June 23, 2009

How to Start a Bookkeeping Business - Two Important Things That You Need to Consider Before Starting

There are lot of guides and e-books on teaching us on how to start a bookkeeping business in view of the high demand of bookkeeping services. However, before you decide to start one, you are advised to consider the following factors first.

Do you have the required practical bookkeeping experience?

It is almost sure that when you start approaching your potential bookkeeping clients, 9 out of 10 will ask your practical experience in handling bookkeeping in the past. This is because as a business owner they wouldn't want their business records are kept by those who don't have real life experience.

What I would suggest is, go find some part time bookkeeping jobs in a CPA office if you are a stay at home mom. By taking up this part time assignment, you will have opportunity to expose yourself to different business entities and in the meantime enhance your ability to maintaining full sets of books for a business. Practical bookkeeping experience is fundamental if you want to start a bookkeeping business.

Do you have the minimum capital outlays?

Although a lot of so called expert will tell you that you do not need a high start up capital to kick off your bookkeeping business. However, you are always advised to have a minimum of 6 months cash flows in order to sustain your living before you start generating enough income.

In addition, to start a bookkeeping business, you are required to invest in bookkeeping software, payroll software, laptop, printer, stationery and papers. These items might easily cost you few thousand dollars other than your business registration. Therefore, having a capital budget is important because it helps you to figure out what is the minimum capital requirement for your bookkeeping business.

Obviously there are other equally important factors that you have to take into consideration such as how to find your first client, am I proficient in using bookkeeping software and etc before you decide to start a bookkeeping business.

Do you want to start a bookkeeping business and earn a comfortable living at home? Check it out at Start Your Own Bookkeeping Business for actionable tips and advice.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Mom's Talk Biz Guide To Start Your Own Bookkeeping Business


Ever thought of starting your own bookkeeping business after having spent years in doing bookkeeping for others? If so, this may the right time for you to branch out and start your own business. Now you can say goodbye to your day job with a simple and yet comprehensive guide to start your bookkeeping business!

Introducing Mom's Talk Biz Guide to Start Your Own Bookkeeping Business, an exclusive guide for busy mom to start their own bookkeeping business.

What Is "Mom's Talk Biz Guide to Start Your Own Bookkeeping Business" All About?

This is a 61-page ebook that covers essentially everything you need to know to start your own bookkeeping business. The guide explains basic terms such as what is bookkeeping and cover things like how to register your bookkeeping business, where to get your clients and how to market your bookkeeping services. In addition, there are tips such as business time management, home time management and etc will be enclosed as part of the ebook.

What You Will Discover And Learn In the Books?

Here are what you will discover in the book:

How to find clients - tips to find new clients and make profit as soon as possible.

Tips to keep your clients happy - how to make your clients happy and refer others to work with you

Marketing your services with a website (Internet Presence) - Tips to market your service using website in particular if you don't have an office out-side the home.

Improving your skills & service-delivery - There are plenty of ideas and methods to make you an in-demand bookkeeper.

Invoicing clients - tips to ensure a smooth payment process

and much more...

Additional resources and tips such as setting up your own bookkeeping business, opening your checking account, terms and conditions that are required to be included in your service contract are also enclosed. You will also find tips on how to expand your own bookkeeping business by hiring out without compromising your profit.

30 Days Money Back Guarantee!

The book comes with a 30 days money back guarantee. What it means is, you get to try out the book risk free! In case you are not completely satisfied with what you learned, just email Moms Talks Biz and they will refund you 100%. So, you really got nothing to lose!

Is the Book Suitable For Me?

If you are:

i) an experienced bookkeeper and currently a stay at home mom taking care of your school going children or

ii) a stay at home mom and considered yourself an organized person and a bit of number cruncher,

then this guide might just right for your because it is truly a comprehensive guide to start your own bookkeeping business.

Furthermore, the book is reasonably prized at $16.97 and judging from the benefits and topics covered, I would strongly recommend you to get a copy of the book.

Click Here to read more...

Benefits of Starting Bookkeeping Business From Home

Every business whether big or small has to maintain their financial records. Therefore, almost everyone with sufficient bookkeeping experience,skills and interest can start their own bookkeeping business from home. Check out the following benefits and see whether the business is for you:

i)
Low start up capital - the cost of opening your own bookkeeping business can be very low. You need only a personal computer, a printer and a user friendly bookkeeping software. These items may cost you from $1,000 - $3,000 depending on your budget.

ii)
Work at your own hours - you can work at your own hours especially if you are a stay at home mom. If you start your business from home, you can choose as long as you want because you are building your own business. In addition, working from home means you don't need to spend time traveling to and from your office and hence saving time and money.

iii)
Make more than working for others - if you were to provide bookkeeping services to small business owners, you will be easily earning more than $25 per hour compared to perhaps $15 per hour if you were to working for other bookkeeping or accounting firm. So starting bookkeeping business from home gives you the opportunity to earn more than what you are getting from working 9 to 5.

iv)
Demand of bookkeeping services - the demand for your bookkeeping services is huge as every business whether it is big or small has to maintain proper financial records either for tax filing purpose or for management purposes. Hence, if you were to start bookkeeping business from home, it will be easier to get clients compared to other types of business whether getting enough clients can be hardest part of the business.

If you are an experienced bookkeeper and thinking of starting bookkeeping business from home, you should give it a try as the it is considered on of the most profitable business on account of the low start up capital.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Online Bookkeeping Tutorial Review - Part 2

This is the second part of my review of bookkeeping tutorial.

Small Business Bookkeeping & Accounting

This FREE course is brought to you by SweetHaven Publishing Services. The course is basically divided into three sessions as follow:

Lesson 1 Introduction to Book-keeping and Accounting
Lesson 2 Basic Book-keeping - A Tutorial
Lesson 3 Monthly Accounting - Walk Through Guide

Lesson 1 covers some of the importance of book-keeping and the main reasons of keeping proper business records whereas lesson 2 is a tutorial which consists of the basic tutorials such as double entry book-keeping.

Lesson 3 is a practical monthly walk through guide on how to draw up a complete set of monthly financial statements i.e. Income Statement and Balance Sheet right from the primary documents.

Generally, this course is practical and yet useful to inexperienced students who would like to have a feel of practical bookkeeping and accounting.

You can access the free tutorial Here

Online Bookkeeping Tutorial Review - Part 1

Is running your own bookkeeping business your plan? If you do not have formal training in the field of bookkeeping or accounting, then it is very likely that you need some form of learning in bookkeeping before venturing into the business. Bookkeeping tutorials are easily available on the internet and most of them are FREE! This is the first part of my review of some of the free online bookkeeping tutorial.

Step By Step Bookkeeping Tutorial

This free step by step tutorial from Journal Entry to the Balance Sheet. This course is especially suitable for beginner who does not have any previous experience and knowledge in bookkeeping and accounting.

The introductory online bookkeeping course would help you understand the fundamentals of tax and business reports resulting from bookkeeping data and it is written in a simple language.

The basic course is useful for those planning to have a future career in bookkeeping and accounting.

The basics you get from the bookkeeping course would improve your mastering of bookkeeping and accounting, including opening your own business as a bookkeeper, or getting a rewarding business career.

The course is based on bookkeeping courses tested with hundreds of students, at different levels.

This free online course is divided into 11 chapters:

Chapter 1 The Development of Book-keeping
Chapter 2 The Debits and Credits Rules
Chapter 3 Journal Entries
Chapter 4 Nominal Ledger
Chapter 5 Trial Balance
Chapter 6 Annual Statements (Profit & Loss / Balance Sheet)
Chapter 7 The Balance Sheet
Chapter 8 Bank Reconciliation
Chapter 9 Salaries
Chapter 10 Tax Deduction at Source
Chapter 11 Value Added Tax
This free bookkeeping tutorial

Start your tutorial here

Saturday, July 26, 2008

How To Get Client For Your Bookkeepng Business (Part 1)

Getting client is always the hardest part of starting a business. Same goes with your bookkeeping business. Below are some of the ideas of building up your client list:

1. Place ad in your local community paper - place an ad for your bookkeeping services in your local community paper. Usually the cost would be cheaper compared to placing an ad in your local paper. Community paper is normally distributed free and you will find that a lot of self employed people offering services such as bookkeeping, tax filing services, real estate bird dog services advertise in this type of paper

2. Join your local chamber of commerce - consider becoming a member of your local chamber of commerce. Chamber is a great place to network with people running business. Introduce yourself as a bookkeeping service provider and give out your name cards to them.

Factors To Consider Before Starting Your Own Bookkeeping Business

Starting your own bookkeeping business is one of the most profitable home based business. Not only that, you have the opportunity to turn your passion about bookkeeping into a full time business! However, before venturing into bookkeeping business, you need to consider the following factors:

1. Bookkeeping skills and experience - you should have the basic experience of handling bookkeeping jobs as well as proficient in bookkeeping procedures. Although it is not mandatory that you should possess qualification in accounting or bookkeeping, it is an added advantage if you have some form of formal training in this field.

2. Targeted market - although the demand for bookkeeping services is huge as virtually all business need to maintain proper financial records, however, the competition of bookkeeping business is keen as the barrier of starting a bookkeeping business is low. Therefore, it is important for you to determine what sort of business that you would like to focus on. For example, you may consider providing your bookkeeping services to small business owners who are in cleaning services.

3. Business plan - like other business, having a business plan is fundamental to the success of your bookkeeping business. If you are planning to start your bookkeeping business from home, then your start up cost and financing should not be your major concern as it will cost probably $2,000 to $3,000 depending on your budget. Your plan should also cover your advertising and marketing of your services. If you were to target small business owner, then advertising in your local classified ad could a good start as the cost is low and yet effective.

4. Basic tools - to start off your business, you need to have a personal computer, bookkeeping software and a printer. These 3 items are considered the basic tools required for your business.

There are other things that need to be taken into consideration such as when and where to find an accounting mentor when the need for consultation arises. Find out more here...