Finding Balance as a Busy Working Mom: What Your Boss Doesn't Want You to Know About Bookkeeping

Do you want to be let in on a secret that your boss doesn’t want you to know about bookkeeping? Of course you do! Lucky for you - I’m here to clue you in!

In today’s post, I’m spilling the secret and talking about the freedoms my business has provided me with, which I value more than anything. I have a LOT to share, so keep reading!

The Freedoms My Bookkeeping Business Has Afforded Me

When I was home with my first two kids, they were three and one and a half. I was living the life I loved and wanted, but I didn’t feel secure. However, the idea of going back to the corporate world suffocated me.

I was working on my own schedule and making good money through one large client that was a referral from my old CPA firm. But I didn’t feel like I had the security I needed to truly enjoy it. 

That’s why I worked to build my business, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the freedoms it’s afforded me. I will talk about them below.

Autonomy 

The first freedom that a bookkeeping business can give you is autonomy. It’s everything! It gives you the ability to say yes or no to anything. It allows you self-reliance. 

When you work for someone else, you have virtually no autonomy. You’re on their schedule and working with clients they choose and tasks they dictate.  

But the truth is that once you can provide for yourself financially, so much stress diminishes. That makes autonomy my number one freedom that I’m grateful for through my bookkeeping business.

Time Freedom

This is the one that most people are after when they start their own business. It’s the clearest thing that people believe they’ll get from that change. You need to be diligent with yourself and your efforts to truly achieve this, but it’s definitely possible when you go about it correctly.

You’ll have more time to travel, more time with your kids, more time at home, or even the time to take your kids to the doctor. When my kids get sick and I need to bring them to the doctor, I’m able to do that without communicating it to anyone. 

Time freedom doesn’t always have to be fun, but it allows you to do things in your life for other people that you love. Things you wouldn’t be able to do in a regular corporate job because you wouldn’t have the time to do it.

Rewarding Work

I have a coaching business and a bookkeeping business. I am super passionate about both, but the bookkeeping side is particularly rewarding for me. I love being able to provide a transformational service to my clients that helps them financially succeed in their business.

I have deep relationships with my clients and act as a safe space for them. I love being the person that helps them reframe things with money or see things differently. For anyone who likes to see data and trends, being in this business is really cool.

Security

I love feeling secure in my job. I have a diversification of income because I have different clients. One client could go away in a moment because of a myriad of reasons. But, thankfully, I have many clients. So, even if one or two decide not to work with me, I still have stability in my other clients.

The relationships with bookkeeping clients in particular are pretty perpetual. As long as you do a good job, you can likely work with your clients for a long time to come, which is another nice thing about this line of work.

Even when I was working in the corporate world, I never felt completely secure in my job. I’m not sure why.  But in my business, I only lost one of 20 clients during COVID and actually ended up signing more in that time. 

I have confidence in the ability to follow trends in this business, and I know that I’m not going to lose all of my clients in one day, and that brings me a deep sense of security.

Custom Fit 

This business is custom fit, and that’s something I value so much. We’re all different and the things that we want and what we determine to be success are all different.

You can do this any way you want. Maybe it’ll be a side hustle and you’ll continue working corporate too. Or, you could scale it to be your full-time business at whatever capacity works for you.

You have an abundance of choices in this line of work: it’s all up to you! I love that you can design it however you want and change it in accordance with the different seasons of your life.

Turn On or Off Your Open Sign

The next thing I value is the ability to turn on or off your open sign. You’re able to choose the clients you want - you don’t have to serve an industry you’re not interested in. You don’t have to provide services you don’t want to or you can even say no to personalities that aren’t a fit for you.

You can even limit how many clients you serve. I love that about bookkeeping. You don’t need to be chasing sales. Once you start building a book of clients, you’ll likely keep them for a while. So, you won’t need to be constantly out there scouting out new clients.

The other amazing thing about this business is that you can set your own hours. If you want to work in the early hours of the morning, the late hours of the night, or somewhere in between - that’s your choice to make! 

You can be on your own schedule and find the times you produce your best work and maximize on them. Plus, you will be able to set your own vacation time, which is another huge benefit.

Financial Flexibility

There’s no cap on earnings in this business. It’s much different than a corporate job where you have more of a limit year after year. One thing I like to do in this business is to take the monthly fee I charge a new client when they sign on and times it by 12. Say their fee is $300. Well - guess what, I just got a $3,600 raise by signing that client!

While you may have a capacity that you max out at, that’s for you to decide. But, it’s not all about money - it’s about what the money can provide. Having financial flexibility is such a huge asset to this business and it’s something that really means a lot.