Starting a Bookkeeping Business…The Ethical Way

Mastery, Not Maybes

If you’re starting a bookkeeping business, you need to know this: to successfully run a simple, sustainable, scalable bookkeeping business—all the S's—you need to have mastered two things: your technical skill, and your ability to take that skill and turn it into a business.

You can’t wonder if you’re capable of doing the work well, shrug and say “Maybe,” and then continue on your merry way. You can't start a business that's going to be there in the long run unless you really are good at what you do, especially when it comes to starting a bookkeeping business.

Bookkeeping is not one of those fake-it-till-you-make-it skills. It's not something you should try and see and hope for the best. You really want to make sure that you know what you're doing before you get into this field.

From there, that deep level of understanding is what's going to create a solid, dependable, sustainable business. If you’re starting a bookkeeping business without that deep understanding, and you end up not doing a good job, at some point the bottom is going to fall out.

Not Good for You, Not Good for Clients

If you are starting a bookkeeping business and you are not good at the skill of bookkeeping,

quite honestly, I want that to be exposed.

I don’t want you to get away with that, because it’s not good for your clients. It’s not ethical, and that's what I stand behind: doing the right thing for people and acting in integrity. In every area of life, but particularly in this arena.

Again, this is not a fake-it-til-you-make-it skill. This is not something where if it doesn't work out, you've only wasted somebody's time and nothing more. If you screw up while starting a bookkeeping business, you’re also likely put them at risk if you have done the job wrong, because the numbers that we provide our clients get used to report tax returns. And if those numbers are wrong, then the taxes are getting paid wrong.

A Gap in Knowledge Can Cause Harm—So Fill the Gap

Ultimately, the big point to take away from this if you’re starting a bookkeeping business is that you can hurt people if you're doing a bad job with bookkeeping. And when you get exposed for that (and you will), that’s when the bottom of your business will fall out.

You could be great at marketing, you could be great at hiring help, you could get to the elusive 10K-per-month…you could even quit your day job, but still be doing a really bad job at what you're doing. And at some point, even if you can handle that level of stress,  if somebody finds out, then that unhappy client could lead to the kind of ripple effect that takes the bottom out of your business.

So the best way to grow a simple, sustainable, ethical business that allows you to actually have your time back—and to sleep easily at night—is to be good at what you do.

And if you’re not sure where to go to fill that gap, or if you think you have the skills but aren’t sure…I have a little program called BABs that can help. Check it out by following the link below.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

Need to boost your bookkeeping basics? Join BABs 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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