Marketing For Bookkeepers

Today we asked Kirsty: ” Do you have a business plan for your bookkeeping business?”

It’s exciting to start a bookkeeping business – but do you have a “road map” to take you where you want to go?

As the saying goes:”If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”

Without a business plan for your business you could find your business hitting a brick wall. Your business plan doesn’t have to be complicated, and you may find that you’ve already got much of it in your head.

Start by thinking about the following points:

1) Why did I want to start my bookkeeping business?

2) What is the Focus of my business?

Some bookkeepers want to have a business that will do everything, from admin to secretarial to bookkeeping – and end up being the “Jill of all trades” and “mistress of none”

3) What do I want to do with my business when I choose to stop working?
Beginning with the end in mind is very important. It can affect how you structure your business. Does it have it’s own entity, or are you running it as a sole trader, part of a number of business activities within a trust or a company?

4) Do I want “20 jobs with 20 different bosses”, or do I want to build a business that I can employ staff to run?

5) Flexibility
Will my business plan allow for any changes in circumstances?

Basic elements of a simple business plan

1. The Vision Statement
Why did I want to start my bookkeeping business, and what am I building?

This is the place where you describe your vision ?your way. Simply describe a detailed picture of the bookkeeping business you want. The key to capturing your vision is to refrain from restricting the flow of thoughts.

2. The Mission Statement
What is the purpose of my bookkeeping business?

Sometimes called “the elevator speech”, your mission statement describes the purpose for which your bookkeeping business exists. Great mission statements are short and memorable.

They communicate in just a few words the company?s focus and what is being provided to clients.

They answer the question, “Why will clients use my bookkeeping service?”

The mission statement should also reflect the owner’s passion and commitment.

3. The Objectives
How will you measure your achievements?

These may be as simple as how many hours a week you want to work, and how much net income you want to generate. The more accurate you can define your objectives of your bookkeeping business, the easier it is to focus on the goals that are most critical to your success.

4. Your Business Building Strategies

How will you grow your business? You need to find strategies that you feel comfortable with, that set the tone or “culture” of your business. Some bookkeepers believe the best strategy to finding clients is to offer so many hours free work, or to heavily discount their rates at the beginning.

What are you strategies?

5. Action Plans – What work is to be done?

These are the specific actions your business must implement to achieve the objectives. These action items contribute to the growth of your bookkeeping business. Once you have a client, then what? Do you have a process in place for looking after each client?

Each action item is, in effect, a project. Plans should be action-oriented, list specific tasks and have definitive deadlines or due dates.

As you write your business plan, other ideas may come to mind – don’t dismiss them, because they may form part of your strategies and action plans.

Once you’ve put it in writing, keep it in a visible place, because you’ll be using it as a decision making tool.

You can keep updating it, and use it to measure your progress each quarter. It will also help you with a financial budget for your business

Kirsty has been working as a public accountant for a number of years, and has finally decided to quit her job and start her own bookkeeping business.

She’s living in the suburbs and has been used to commuting 90 minutes each way to work every day.

Like many bookkeepers that join our Bookkeepers Marketing Program, she has absolutely no idea what to do next.

Many bookkeepers begin their freelance bookkeeping career by moonlighting. They work fulltime during the day and do some bookkeeping in the evenings or weekends for friends or business associates that they have met along the way.

Jumping from fulltime to no employment can be a shock, not only to the wallet, but also to the routine.

Suddenly you’re sitting at home with all the skills to be a bookkeeper, and you are hit by the realisation that you have to go and find bookkeeping clients. And you want them yesterday.

Today’s task is to get Kirsty started in her quest to find bookkeeping clients. To do that she needs to think about what services she can offer potential clients. Why bother doing this, you ask. After all, bookkeeping is bookkeeping.

True, but what do potential clients think that bookkeepers do? Experience shows that most clients really have no idea what a bookkeeper does, all they know is that they need one.

Rather like a computer. Who really knows what a computer does? Who really cares? All you need to know is that the computer does stuff to save you time and money (hopefully).

That’s more or less what many bookkeeping clients also think. If they get a bookkeeper hopefully they will save the client time and money. The bookkeeping client knows that the bookkeeper will take the client’s financial documents, work some magic and be able to produce reports that the bookkeeper can then give to the accountant to process to keep the tax office happy.

Have a look at websites for bookkeepers and generally you’ll see a “shopping list” of services that the bookkeeper can provide. How much of it actually means anything to clients?

All the client wants to know is “What’s in it for me”. Have a look at your website as an outsider and ask yourself these questions:

1. Does this website clearly identify some solutions to my bookkeeping problems?
2. Do I even understand what this website is talking about?
3. Is it just a heap of accounting / bookkeeping jargon?

Tomorrow we look at the next step of getting Kirsty started with her bookkeeping business