Freelance bookkeepers are faced with so many life and business-altering decisions.Since you’re your own boss you’re constantly asking yourself questions like: “Should I spend so much money to buy this new equipment? Should I keep working from home or rent office space? Should I expand? Should I hire an employee, use a temp service or an independent contractor?”

How are you supposed to make good decisions that you won’t regret? There’s a golden question you need to answer. It’s: “Is this something I really want?” You may say that you want to grow your business and earn $1 million, because you see someone else doing that. However, the answer you need to find is whether it’s right for you. I would encourage you to sit with that. Say, “Is this something that I want? Am I happy just being me with my business and earning X?”

It’s not comfortable for everyone to have seven, twelve or even two employees. There are people who have great small businesses and they’re happy. They make a great income and have the flexibility they desire. They’re happy because they know exactly what it is that they want. That’s the key.

But what if you do want to pursue something but fear holds you back?

If the fear is too much for you, maybe it’s not right for you. However, maybe that’s exactly where you need to go. Before you disregard a new course that you’re resisting, you need to look at it and say, “What is it about this that scares me?” Resistance is fear. Sometimes we’re afraid of being who we’re supposed to be.

You can choose to stay where you are, or you can choose to move through the fear.

The worst place that I feel any of us can be in is where we have our foot on the gas and the other on the break at the same time. We’re doing ourselves a huge disservice. Either make the decision to stay where you are and be okay with it or make the decision to push through the fear.

You need to identify and acknowledge when you’re in resistance, in fear. Then take some time to sit down and try to connect by asking yourself: “What is it I really want?” Acknowledge how you feel and honor who you are.

Don’t waste your time and energy on what I call “comparison energy.” Those are things like, “So-and-so is doing this. I should be doing that, too.” Why? It may perfect for that person. Maybe it’s not. You don’t know. You’re only seeing the outside. You have to do what’s right for you.

Not only that, you’ve also done the right follow up. And, finally, you’ve gotten an appointment to meet a prospective client! Aren’t you excited and full of optimism for how your freelance bookkeeping business is finally taking off?

You dress with extra care. You make sure you have all your handouts and packages printed out and easily accessible in your case.  You’ve rehearsed your presentation over and over again in your mind.  You know exactly how you’re going to spend the money that this new client is going to bring into your business.

The meeting seems to be going great when … all of a sudden… they put the brakes on and say: “I need to talk with my partner before I decide” or “I need to think it over first?” Does this catch you unaware, like a deer in the headlights? Because you don’t know how to handle it, do you just say, “Okay, I’ll be in touch to see what you decide”?

Nine times out of ten you won’t be able to get them back to the momentum that you’ve built up. You just know that the deal is lost.  Another part of the problem is that, if you just walk away, you’re not going to feel like following up because of the disappointment you’re feeling.

Rather than letting this negative response stop you dead in your tracks, is there something you can do to get past it and keep the deal alive?  Have you thought about having a go-to phrase that you can pull out of your back pocket to get you out of this jam?

First, you do need to realize that it’s okay for people to take time to reach a decision. But before you leave, there’s a vital question you should ask to make sure there’s not a stumbling block left in the way.  You need to find out what’s making them hesitate by asking:  “What questions haven’t I answered for you?” That’s a powerful question to get them to reveal what’s holding them back.

More than likely they have a question or concern that you haven’t answered yet.  They might not even know what the question is.  Or there’s something going on with them that they haven’t shared with you.  They know they need to do something differently, but they don’t know what it is.

That’s why asking this question will keep the conversation going until you can figure out the problem.  Then you can help them clearly see that by employing your bookkeeping services, you’ll be freeing up their valuable time to take care of the things they truly need to be focusing on.

Secondly, you need to give them a specific time and day when you’re going to contact them again. This keeps you accountable for following up and them accountable for giving an answer.

Even if they don’t choose to go with your services at that time, you can keep your business in their mind by checking in at a 3-month and 6-month interval with an email saying. “I was thinking about you and how you expressed interest in … where are you in that process?  If you’d like to talk about this sometime this week, I have time available.  Let me know if you want to set something up.”  It’s a non-pushy way of keeping the communication going.

Pssst…Would you like to know a secret? What I’ve just shared with you is just one small segment of a recent Money Conversation I had with The Bookkeeper’s Club recently. We brainstormed together to come up with a solution to this very problem. Why not come and check it out for yourself?  There are now three different levels that allow you to find the right mix of training and support your freelance bookkeeping business can really use.

When a client is experiencing cash flow issues, they will either 1) deal with it head on – be direct and take a proactive stance to address vendors and remedy the revenue situation or 2) put their head in the sand like an ostrich and hope somehow it works itself out.

If you find yourself working with a client who is avoiding the situation and hoping it will all turn out okay, here are my top 3 tips on how to know when it is time to STOP working with them or at a minimum reduce the services you provide for them.

1. The Client delays paying your bill and has not discussed alternative payment arrangements with you.
2. The Client begins finding fault with your services where they did not in the past.  (I’ve seen where this has led to a colleague being let go by the client.)
3. The Client, who used to be always available for your phone calls or respond to your emails, has gone missing.

When any one of these symptoms shows up in your working relationship with a client, especially one who is in cash flow trouble, it is up to you to get proactive and address the situation!

• The first thing to do is decide how you want to proceed in this working relationship.  Come up with one or two alternatives you feel comfortable with presenting and discussing with your client.

• Next, contact your client and have an open, honest discussion with them about what you are observing in direct relationship with only you.

• Lastly, agree upon the right course of action that is in the best interest of both you and your client.

If you cannot reach them, I recommend discontinuing providing services until a conversation between you occurs.  This may seem drastic, considering your working relationship with them, but it is a better alternative than continuing to provide services to a client for which you may not receive payment.

Whether you are a student of accounting, an employee, or a freelance bookkeeper/accountant running your own business, you all have one thing in common – the need for accountability.

• When you’re a student, the teacher and class curriculum provides accountability to help you make progress quickly.

• When you’re employed, your employer sets the pace you need to process the accounts and the way in which to do them efficiently.

• When you become a solo entrepreneur, you enter a whole new world.  Not only do you have to do all of the actual bookkeeping work, but all of the motivation, processes, systems, and marketing of your business rests solely on your shoulders.

Some people say that the best way to learn is through the school of hard knocks.  When I built my freelance bookkeeping business, I learned a lot from making every mistake in the book.  But that is certainly not the best and easiest way to do it. Constantly struggling to reinvent the wheel is a waste of your time and energy.

An invaluable way to keep on track and move forward is to make sure you always have some type of coaching or mentoring relationship in place.  This will give you a fresh perspective that will help you answer questions about your business that you don’t even know you need to ask.  And it gives you accountability!

Where Do Bookkeepers Need More Accountability?

For the most part, I find freelance bookkeepers don’t need accountability when it comes to getting their clients’ work done. Most of you never miss a deadline – even during the hectic tax season you get it all done on time.

But what you continually place on the “back burner” is managing your own business. Critical tasks that will help your business grow and become more profitable are the ones often ignored, such as:

• Implementing systems that support you and your bookkeeping services. Systems keep you from having to reinvent the wheel every time. They keep you and your client on the same page and can transform a business from overwhelm and barely making it to a smooth running engine with a nice fat bottom line.

• Proactively anticipate your clients’ needs. It’s so much better to anticipate what your clients will need at various points throughout the week, the month, the quarter, semi-annually and annually, rather than playing catch up and putting out fires.

• Making time for marketing. It is so important that you make time in your schedule to work ON your business. Instead of enduring the constant feast or famine cycle, come up with a weekly marketing plan that works for you and brings a consistent flow of work through your door.

• Investing in yourself with ongoing education. A bookkeeping service needs to keep current with accounting information.  And as CEO of a bookkeeping service, you need support to manage it successfully.  When was the last time you invested in yourself?

As you read through this list, did you see critical business tasks that you are ignoring? Where could you use some accountability? Identify your weaknesses and come up with a plan to do something to strengthen your business muscle.

I recently made big changes to The Bookkeeper’s Club. There are now three different levels that will allow you to find the right mix of training, support and accountability. If you haven’t taken a look, check it out and let me know what you think!

But won’t you lose business? Maybe you’re worried if a potential client sees your website on a Sunday afternoon and they can’t get a hold of you because you don’t work weekends…  The next day somehow they never get around to calling again – even though they had every intention of doing so…  And you end up missing out on the business.

Should you take the call on Sunday? Is there a way to balance the demands of instant access without sacrificing your personal life?

Thankfully there are tools that can help you balance it all! Here are a few tools I’ve used to make me more accessible to my bookkeeping clients, without sacrificing my personal time:

1. Virtual Assistants. A virtual assistant is like an administrative assistant. They call themselves “virtual” because they can be anywhere in the country or world. One of my virtual assistants is in Knoxville, Tennessee. I have another one in Missouri. My web person is in Oregon. You can use virtual assistants for different things as they have different specialties.

You can have a virtual assistant work as your receptionist. This will not only make your business appear more professional, it also frees up your time. For example, I had a virtual assistant who was my client relationship manager for my bookkeeping division. It was her responsibility to make sure the information came in from clients when it was scheduled. She would do the follow up if the client didn’t submit something.  This freed up the time of my bookkeepers so they could focus on actual bookkeeping, instead of communicating with clients.

Key Benefit: Virtual assistants are professional sub-contractors so you only have to pay for the time you need. Perhaps just a couple of hours of work a week could free up your time to focus on other important areas of your business.

1. Use a Virtual Phone System. These systems were designed to help small businesses stay connected and sound more professional. You can choose between a local or toll free number, and enjoy features like unlimited extensions, call forwarding, on hold music, name directory, and more. Calls can be forwarded to any number so you can be reached on your home, office, or mobile. I use a service called Grasshopper and I have it set up so I get an e-mail whenever I have a new message.

Key Benefit: Services like these help you stay on top of how YOU want to communicate with clients.

1. Online Appointment Scheduling. It can be really time consuming setting up appointments. Sometimes it takes 5-6 emails to get a time that will work for both parties hammered out. But as you know appointments are critical to customer satisfaction and to accelerate the sales process with new leads. I personally use TimeTrade to help me manage my appointments. For example, I post times that I have open for coaching sessions with bookkeepers. My clients will view my calendar online and choose an appointment that works for them.

Key Benefit: Not only does this eliminate the time-consuming process of scheduling, it provides clients and leads the “instant access” they’re looking for.  They can set up an appointment while it’s on their mind – even if it’s midnight!

These are just a few of the many tools and services to help free up your time as a freelance bookkeeper. If you think about an area of your business to automate, I guarantee you there is probably a tool available to do it. It’s a matter of doing research to find it.

Would you like to hear what works best for your colleagues? We share all of our favorite tools, techniques and strategies at The Bookkeeper’s Club. I just added some exciting new benefits – click here to check it out.

I’ll be honest with you. I started bookkeeper education in 2007. The material I was sharing then is pretty much the same I’m sharing today, but I wasn’t putting it out in a way that my clients recognized as a solution to their problems. So, I spent a lot of time spinning my wheels, trying to figure it out.

Then I learned 7 principles of smart marketing that helped me truly connect with my clients. They’re simple, yet when I implemented them, my business really took off. So, I want to share them with you:

1. Determine who your target market is. Or in other words: Who is your audience? Are they small or large business owners? Are they service-based businesses? Are you interested in working with a franchise? It can’t be stressed enough. You need to know your customer first!
2. Identify what problem you solve for them. You may have an idea of what you think the problem is. But as you talk with people, you’ll hear from them what really is the problem. Once you know your client inside and out, and the problems they face, the products will flow from there.
3. Capitalize on your own strengths. Do you like to write? Writing and self-publishing a book is not difficult. Do you like to speak? You can put together a presentation and visit networking events that attract your target market.
4. Focus on your goal. Do you want to have a sale or do you want to have a relationship? Is your purpose to get more clients? Or is it mainly to educate and raise your profile as an expert, get known in the community and be the go-to person for that service?
5. Create relationships. It takes a while for your prospective clients to get to know and trust you. But once you’ve established that relationship, you can continue marketing to them. So over the long haul, a relationship is much better than a one-off sale.
6. Give away plenty of high-quality content that gives them a taste of what you can do for them. Once they see the value, they’ll be ready to buy from you. Here are some things you can do:

   • Instead of focusing on selling a product, offer a discount to your services. “If you buy this many hours, you get a discount.” Or you may want to offer a free 30-minute consultation.
   • Focus on building a mailing list. Offer a free report on your website such as The Top 10 Things Every Business Owner Needs to Know about Accounting or The Non-Accountant’s Survival Guide in exchange for their name and email address. Continue to market to them with an online newsletter containing valuable tips. Just be sure to give good content.
   • Offer a raffle at networking events. Give away your favorite book as the prize. You can say, “Put your business card in this fishbowl for your chance to win this book. You’ll also receive ongoing valuable bookkeeping tips at the email address that you provide.” (Be sure they understand that you’ll be sending emails to them.)

7. Questions are your best friend. The only way you’re going to figure out how to connect with your prospective clients is to ask questions and make note of all the questions they ask you. Develop a product based on that information and they’ll be eager to buy from you.

Whether you’re using a website and social networking to spread your message or doing it in person at networking events, the principles of supplying products your clients are hungry for are the same.

Want to learn more about how you, as a freelance bookkeeper, can become a Marketing Pro? Check out my self-study course that’s designed to help you get fantastic and consistent results from every marketing campaign you launch.

Jennifer is the founder and Spiritual Director of Know Soul’s Language (KSL) and I’ve been fortunate to experience Soul Language from the very beginning.  Soul Language is a way to consciously connect with your SOUL to create the life that you want and understanding my Soul Languages has brought a richness and clarity into my life that can only come from authentically knowing your soul. Through KSL, I now have the tools to recognize when I am in resistance and making things harder for myself. KSL has shown me how joyful and easy life is!

Jennifer has brought together over 40 different speakers – including me!  I will be speaking this Thursday, September 29^th at 11:00 AM EST on my favorite topic, The Money Conversation! During the telesummit, you will have a virtual front row seat to hear from individuals like me who are utilizing their purpose and Soul Language(s) to live and create businesses with purpose and prosperity.

Each interview will be filled with content-rich material, inspirational stories, and tangible examples on how they are using their Soul (via their Soul Languages) to create a life, a business and a world that generates peace, happiness and abundance for all.

To learn how you can participate in this FREE event, click here.

It’s time to reeducate clients so they treat you as a professional businessperson that you are. And the first step is retraining yourself to firmly set boundaries of what services you’re comfortable with providing and how much you want to be paid for those services.

Freelance bookkeepers have to look for ways to work smarter, conserve our dollars and see where there’s more value. Get creative and come up with a solution that will make you money. Keep the drudgery of the task down to a minimum.

So take a look at your client base. What are the client’s needs? Try not to make the decision that no one would pay for the services you come up with. If you make that decision, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. All you have to do is float the idea out there and see who bites.

Let’s look at an example and say you’re going to offer an administrative package or service to handle collecting your client’s information.

Let’s say you have clients that are reluctant to scan or fax bills. You need that information to do your work, but it’s not cost effective for you or one of your people to be scanning it for them. If they want to continue sending the original documentation in the mail, explain how risky it is.  Insist they send it using Priority Mail that allows you to trace it.  Then charge them a fee above and beyond the bookkeeping fee for scanning it. Get paid enough that you don’t resent doing it. Don’t give them a preferential rate. It costs you to do it.

Now’s the time to encourage them to choose your preferred method of handling the administrative tasks by telling them, “It’s more cost effective for you to take advantage of our administrative service package.”

You offer to give them Shoebox, which is a great service for scanning everything. It’s easy to use. They give your clients the envelopes. All they have to do is put their stuff in an envelope. Then they can either have it shredded afterwards or returned. Shoebox is also easily linked to Bill.com.  This technology is affordable and makes your job easier.  You just have to figure the cost of using it into your new administrative service package.

Do you see in this example how your productivity increases, your profitability increases and the value to your client increases?

Look at what your market needs creatively. Find a solution that incorporates technology that supports it, put it in a package, add the fee and you’ll have a product that makes you more money and takes away the burden of providing the administrative tasks.

Discover more proven techniques that successful freelance bookkeepers need to know at the Bookkeepers Club. Every month you’ll learn new tips from myself, industry experts and other bookkeepers that increase your productivity and your bottom line.

Having a tailored message is appealing to prospects. It’s going to bring in more of those types of clients to your freelance bookkeeping business. Business owners are looking for a fine-tuned message. They want to make a decision and buy services from a service provider that’s familiar with their industry’s needs.

However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t work with anyone else.  In fact, it’s not smart to put all of your eggs in one basket. You need to make sure you are diversifying your client base.

Why Diversify Your Client Base

To illustrate the danger of not diversifying, let’s say you decide to approach architects, interior designers and construction as your target market. When the economy recently went south, all of those industries were severely damaged.  And, if they were your only clients, it could have severely impacted your cash flow, maybe even putting you out of business.  The only way to protect yourself is to diversify into a market that’s not related to construction.

How to Diversify Your Client Base

The basic duties that freelance bookkeepers perform for most of your clients are the same. AP is the same for most businesses until you add the uniqueness for each specific market. The uniqueness comes from the individual business and personality that you work with.

Take as a real life example what happened in one of my recent consultations. I was working with someone who was interested in working with financial advisors.  During the consulting I asked, “Isn’t it true that what a freelance bookkeeper does for financial advisors is the same as what is done for a real estate agent? It’s the same basic service, isn’t it?”

After we worked together and tweaked the way that this client could present their bookkeeping services a bit differently, we came up with ways of presenting the same services tailored to appeal to the specific market of real estate agents.  They tried it and immediately picked up four or five realtors.

Be a Lighthouse and Clients Will Find You

All of this illustrates that you can specialize in niches but keep your door open to other clients that come in that you may enjoy working with. Always consider who your market is. Be aware of what it is that you want to offer in the marketplace.

One of the best nuggets of information I received early on in my entrepreneurial career from a mentor was: “Be like a lighthouse. Stand still and allow people to find you.  You do that by specializing in one thing. It doesn’t mean that you can’t do anything else. Lead with the one thing that you love and are passionate about. The other services are additional values and benefits that you can offer.”

Be a lighthouse and let your beacon or marketing campaign shine upon your ideal market. And as other ships pass by and are attracted to your light, add them to your client portfolio so you have a healthy diversification that will insulate your freelance bookkeeping business from disaster.

Want to learn more about how you, as a freelance bookkeeper, can become a Marketing Pro?  Check out my self-study course that’s designed to help you get fantastic and consistent results from every marketing campaign you launch.

Getting recommendations from fellow freelance bookkeepers is a good place to start.  While I don’t consider myself a technical guru, I want to share some things that I’ve found that can make your life easier.

For a safe and secure way to share information, I like ShareFile. You can brand it with your own company logo. You pay one fee by the quarter. I think it’s about $90. You can have as many users on it as needed and set up a private folder for each one. If you’re working on a project for someone, you can give him or her a link where they can upload their information. It’s really helpful.

To consolidate your phone calls with an 800 number, I like Grasshopper. You can use it to route calls to any phone number you want. You log onto the panel and set up your parameters so that it goes to your cell phone. You’ll also get an e-mail notification whenever you have a message.

When your staff is virtual, you don’t want your clients to call six different numbers to reach six different people. You want to give them one phone number to call and then choose from the dial-by-name directory.  All your virtual assistants get his or her own extension. For $25 you get the number and the service.

For a scheduling tool, I like TimeTrade. It’s is a great way to allow people to schedule their own free consultation with you. You set up the times that you have available ahead of time. When someone is interested, they can take care of scheduling their own appointment.  If someone decided to schedule an appointment with you at midnight, they can do it right then rather than waiting until the next day to reach an assistant.  While the interest is alive, TimeTrade can capture it.

A good motto for incorporating any new technological tool into your business is:  Do it if it’s going to make it easier for your customer.  That’s the bottom line. If it’s easy, people are going to do it.

There are a lot of tools and programs to choose from out there.  And if you’d like to talk with other freelance bookkeepers about what they like, join us at the Bookkeeper’s Club where we discuss subjects that really make a difference to your bottom line.