Just starting out...

I am currently gearing up to officially start my Bookkeeping business and I have a couple of ideas that I am working on. Not sure how they work yet, but if my ideas can be of some help to you - great!

* CPA Overflow Letter - Send a letter to your local CPA firms advertising that you are interested in taking on some of their overflow during the busy seasons.

* DBA/FBN - Send out letters to local new businesses. Most local newspapers have listings for newly filed Fictitious Business Names - send them a letter introducing your services.

* Chamber of Commerce - While joining my local chamber is a startup expense I m trying to avoid right off the bat, I was able to network at some of the events they put on or community members. I found one of my mentors through these events!

* Give it away - My community has a large number of Non-Profits and Small Businesses. I haven't had much Non-Profit experience, so I am planning on offering my services for free to two non-profit businesses in the area. Not only will this help me get experience, but hopefully it will also provide a little word of mouth advertising.

* Do you have a website? - If you can, get one, make it personal. in my market research I found that very few of my local competitors had websites. Of those that had websites only two had useable information. Websites seem to be rather ineffective on their own, but a boon when paried up with traditional advertising.

* Testimonials - You have experience, perhaps someone can give you some kudos you can use on advertising?

Good luck, and keep us abreast of your progress!

Just starting out, eh!

Reminds me of where I was at some 30+ years ago. Here are a few things I would suggest. Assumption is that you want to do something that you enjoy, makes money, and that you can spend most of your time servicing clients rather than recruiting them.
1. Personal income tax preparation is going to be the 'niche' that will provide the best bang for the buck.
2. If bookkeeping is what you really want to do, you will probably have to 'buy' the business. This means you will have to use price as a primary tool.
3. If you are interested in taxes which is the path that I found worked best for me, purchase 5,000 business cards, pass them all out in 90 days, no less than 2 and no more than 5 to each person. Anyone you meet gets cards. The reason for no less than two is that they will not have one to give to a friend, and no more than five because that would cause a 'bulk' problem, and they would have to throw them away, and you don't want that.

If you want more ideas please send me an email and I will be happy to give you other ideas.

Ken Daniel

Hi Ken,

I just wanted to let you know that I removed your email address and telephone number from your post. It's never a good idea to post any kind of contact information on a public web page such as this - you leave yourself open to those who gather such information with malicious intent.

Instead what you can do is go into your profile (link on the left) and make your email address public there. You can also add your telephone number or any other information you'd like people to know about you. This way an actual person has to click on your name to read the information in the popup. That at least keeps the webcrawlers from scarfing it up.

Hope this helps.

I started my business earlier this year with what sounds like less experience than you. I told as many people as I could what I was doing. When the opportunity arose for me to give a pitch, people really never asked about my creditials or how long I have been in business. All of my client are referral from my mentor, friends or relatives of friends. Try to find a tax professional or seasoned bookkeeper that has a lot on thier plate and would like some help if possible..eventually, they will give you referrals

Hi pbsolutions!
Good luck! I "just started out" a year ago and I'm still struggling. I can't wait until I can pay myself. :o)
Anyway, there were some good suggestions on what to do. The internet is a great place to do research. The best way I found when you talk to a potential client and you feel that you don't have any experience is, FAKE IT! If you are confident that you can do the work and do it well, it doesn't matter if you've done 300 jobs in the past. We all start somewhere!
A lot of potential clients don't even ask, if they do, give them your resume. Accentuate your strengths...act confident and if they give you the work, do the best darn work for them that you can do, because they will refer you to their business associates, family, and friends!

Hi MsTwizz, I'm going to disagree with you about "Faking It".

I have extensive accounting and bookkeeping experience, but there are still things I don't know. I tell my clients that if they have a question I can't answer, I won't charge them to find the answer. I tell them that somewhere down the line another client will have a similar question, and I will know the answer because I already did the research.

If they have a system that I don't understand, I tell them that I don't know the system, but I will learn all about it. I learned QuickBooks POS from working with a client's books; the client loves to take credit for teaching me enough that I could become a Certified POS ProAdvisor.

I have made a lot of money straightening out books that were kept by someone who was "Faking It", and truly believe that it is better to be honest.

I'm sorry you misunderstood me. My thought when using the words"faking it" was exactly what you did! I guess what I was trying to communicate was that that one show confidence.
I have confidence that I will be able to do research, learn a program, etc. which is exactly what you are describing.
Please understand that we DO NOT run a practice where we not do our work correctly!

Thank you for making your point which allowed me to communicate my thoughts more clearly.

Ken,

I really enjoyed reading your posting in regards to "just starting out" especially item #3. So in your opinion, if I am going to pass out 5,000 cards, I should start in October?

Thanks so much for your insight.

Hi Lindsay,

I see you have received some great ideas in the responses to
your post. I have two general points that I would like to add to the
discussion.

The first point I would stress is the importance of
narrowing your focus when it comes to defining your ideal customer. The more specific
that you can be in describing who it is that you help and what problem you
solve for them, the more successful your marketing efforts will be. Who you help
and how you help them is your marketing strategy. From advertising to
referrals, all of your marketing tactics  will be easier if  you are ?the go-to-person in Hellertown for
construction companies that need help managing their cash flow? rather than
?a bookkeeper? or ?a QuickBooks consultant?.

The second point is
the importance of thinking of marketing as a system as opposed to an event. I
have found that many small business owners give up on marketing because they
tried a marketing event (a postcard mailing, a chamber meeting, a trade show)
and they didn'?t see immediate results from that event. My favorite definition
of marketing is ?Getting someone, with a particular need, to Know, Like &
Trust  you?. This is particularly true
when it comes to bookkeeping and accounting services. Very few people will
trust a stranger with their accounting information based upon a single ad or
postcard.  In much the same way you have
a system for accounting or a system for performing client work, you need to
have a system for attracting new customers. Almost anyone on this forum will
tell you that referrals played a huge role in starting their practice, but I?ll
bet that the number of people that have a system in place to actively seek and
process referrals is a much smaller number. To consistently attract your ideal customers, you need a system.

So determine your strategy before you select your tactics
and then create a system to consistently execute your tactics.

Best of luck with growing your practice!

Hello,

Although your post is old now I just wanted to say I too started my own bookkeeping business last month with very little experience although I do have an accounting degree in which I got good grades and was very active in college and interning for an energy company. I am also QB certified although I found that quite easy. I do not expect high paying customers anytime soon but I just would like to establish a concept of trust and respect in my community. I have found my niche and am working that. Marketing is never-ending (it never ends with McDonalds) as it pays to simply familiarize your name. I expect the dividends will come later. I think you have to establish trust if someone is willing to turn over their business financials to you. They are not just buying a candy bar.