The P&P Q&A, Part 1

Your Questions, My Answers

“Do you have courses on how to do your own bookkeeping?”

I do not have courses for business owners to learn how to do their own bookkeeping. And if you’re wondering why, the main reason is…you really don’t benefit much, if at all, from doing your own bookkeeping.

In most cases, a business owner is best served by getting this done by someone who understands it.

The amount of learning that you have to do in order to correctly do bookkeeping makes sense when you’re going to scale it as your business. It’s a different animal if you’re learning for yourself.

Because of this, I personally haven’t been able to figure out a way to teach bookkeeping at the level I do to business owners at a price point that makes sense. Business owners who just want to do their own books aren’t going to be willing to pay as much as someone who’s going to turn this into their business, and there isn’t a great way to scale it down.

I also teach bookkeeping from a more generic, generalized space, and you’re not going to want all of that. You’re just going to want to know how to do your unique set of books.

If you’re really wanting to make this a task you do yourself, I almost think you’d be better off paying someone to come in and set something up just to cover what you need to know so that you’re not learning accounting for other businesses; you’re learning accounting just for yours.

If you did go through my programs to learn, you’d get a similar benefit to those who learn it to turn it into their business. In the same way that my program will pay itself back within a year for a bookkeeper with at least one client, it would pay itself back in one year for a business owner by not needing to pay for a bookkeeper. You get to keep that money instead.

However, you’ll have to spend something much more valuable—your time—on actually doing the bookkeeping. And to be honest, as the business owner, your time is likely better spent other places.

It makes more sense to pay for a bookkeeper so that you don't have to spend time and money learning the skill, you don’t have to spend time doing the task, and you can use your time for income-generating activities instead.

All in all, the reason I don't educate business owners on how to do their own books is because I simply don’t think it's the best use of their money or their time. And I genuinely believe that.

“I currently work in accounts payable. Is that enough to start bookkeeping? Do you recommend having a degree?”

I would say accounts payable is very translatable as far as the types of qualities that you need to have in order to be a successful bookkeeper.

You’re already working with systems, and you're already working with something financial.

There's definitely a lot more that goes into bookkeeping, but you have transferable skills and qualities, which is a great springboard.

So I have an episode on the podcast that's about. I think it's 12 characteristics that would indicate that you would make a good bookkeeper.

However, even when you have those qualities, you still have to tighten up your education.

You don't need to have a degree. A degree would be helpful, but it's not required. What is required is the education and the knowledge, and that’s the kind of stuff that you can learn in BABs (Become a Bookkeeper) because we go through a textbook and learn from that.

So instead of going through a four-year degree or even a two-year degree, in Become a Bookkeeper, we’re going to go through one accounting textbook that will give you the concepts that you need to understand the language of accounting, which translates into the process of bookkeeping.

A lot of other courses will try to throw you right into the process of bookkeeping, but first, you need the foundational understanding of accounting.

Then we go into the basics of tax, even though we are not tax preparers.  It’s still important to have competence around taxes as a bookkeeper. You need to understand it, but you don't need to prepare it.

Become a Bookkeeper is currently waitlisted, but you are able to go and join the waitlist now!

“Which software is used most by small business owners?”

So, I think the software used by most small business owners is QuickBooks Online, but the preferred software for small business owners is Xero. Small business owners just don't know that.

I actually was arguing this with one of my clients (in a nice way) this week.

I was passionately explaining why we use Xero. But she went to a conference with people in her field, and she said, everyone's always telling me that I should switch to QuickBooks.

I was quick to say, “With respect, the reason that people tell you that is because they don't know about Xero.”

When you meet somebody who knows Xero and QuickBooks, 95% of the time they’re going to tell you Xero is better. When you meet somebody that doesn't know about Xero, they're going to tell you QuickBooks is the answer because it's the name they know.

Part 2 Coming Soon!

You had more questions than these—and I had more answers! Listen to all of Part 1 of the Q&A on Episode 217 of Profits & Prosecco, and keep an eye out for Part 2 coming in Episode 218!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

Join the BABs waitlist: 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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