Why Following a Process Increases Your Bottom Line

Bookkeeping reminds me of laundry – they both seem to never end! Every day there are new dirty socks to be washed and everyday there is a new financial transaction (vendor bill, deposit, etc.) to be recorded. 

You pre-treat stains, match like colors together, hang certain clothes on the line, place others in the dryer, and even outsource a few to the dry cleaners. When you do your laundry, you follow a process, thus creating a plan that optimizes and adds efficiency. The same can be done when providing bookkeeping services to your clients. 

When you follow a process when providing your bookkeeping services you will: 

• Optimize the time spent working on each client account;
• Reduce the number of client requests that interrupt your day;
• Be more organized, and;
• Feel more confident and in control.

Systems exist everywhere and for just about everything. A system lays out a plan so every time you do that particular task, you don’t have to think, you simply follow the plan. Systems are important because they create efficiency and consistency. Systems also unlock the hidden profitability that already exists in your business! 

There are two reasons why you would want to create systems: 

• to stop the trap of recreating the wheel each and every time a task needs to be completed, and;
• to ensure work is being done consistently and as you want, even if you are not the one doing the work.

Here are nine systems you will want to create for your business. These systems create efficiency, consistency and unlock the hidden profitability that already exists in your business. 

• Basic Processing Rules & Guidelines – define how each type of bookkeeping transaction is to be input, including the fields to be filled in to how the general ledger memo reads.
  
• Service Offerings – define what items or tasks are included in your core service offerings. This eliminates the creation of custom packages.
  
• Client Schedule – identify a set schedule for performing all client work. Similar to the way in which a payroll company processes your payroll.
  
• Requesting Client Information – define what standard information is needed from your client on a regular basis. Provide them with that information to eliminate and reduce questions.
  
• Client Package – identify the contents of what is included in a standard client package that is returned to the client for weekly or month processing.
  
• Time Standards for Providing Services – define the average amount of time it takes to complete each group of bookkeeping tasks. Use this as the measurement against which work is performed. This system is a key ingredient to unlocking profitability.
  
• Status Reports – create a method or report that will allow you to easily know the status of each client account at a moment’s notice. These reports come in handy, especially when a client calls with a question.
  
• Responding to Messages (Phone & Email) – define and communicate to your client the best way to reach you and/or your staff and the timeframe within which they can expect a response.
  
• Communicating Client Co-Accountabilities – in every relationship there are actions that each party is responsible for. It is important for you to define and communicate what those expectations are to your client.

Accounting, bookkeeping, and recordkeeping, is just one of those services that seem to never end – just like laundry. There is always more to do, which makes it so important to identify and define the processes (aka systems) that allow you to create a freelance practice that will support you body, mind and spirit. 

Weekly Prosperity Quote

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?  Actually, who are we not to be? 

~Marianne Williamson~

Weekly Prosperity Quote

It is up to you to DARE, to CHOOSE, to RADIATE!

Why It’s Important to Know Who Your Ideal Client Is

Somewhere around the year 2002, I really started to dislike, no despise, my after-the-fact bookkeeping clients.  It seemed all of these clients were grouchy, demanding, nasty and not doing well in their own businesses.    One afternoon, I had reached my limit and instead of staying at my desk working, as I normally had in the past, I left and went to St. Mary’s by the Sea.  St. Mary’s is a beautiful park on Long Island Sound near to where I live.  I don’t know if it was the change of scenery or not, but something magical happened that day.  That short respite gave me what I needed to begin looking at and thinking differently about my business and who I wanted to work with.

You see,  for my company, this service was a problem every way you looked at it – from clients not paying on time to not paying at all; work being submitted late, work not being submitted at all; clients not responding to our questions – you name it, it happened.  I was unhappy, my staff was unhappy and most importantly the write-up clients were not happy.  The point is just because you have the skill to provide a certain type of service does not necessarily mean you should offer that service.

I recognized I was not placing any value on this service so why did I expect my clients to?

For your business to be its most attractive to others, you must value and enjoy all the services your company provides.  It is only then, you are in perfect alignment and can attract to your business those clients who you enjoy working with.

The first step to identifying your ideal client is to become crystal clear about who it is, you are meant to serve.  Once I became clear that we should not be offering after-the-fact bookkeeping and who my ideal client was, I was able to communicate that in my marketing materials, 30-second speeches at networking events, and, on my website.  My ideal clients were able to see and identify themselves in my marketing message and how we could help them. In essence, we became magnetic.  

You too can become magnetic and work with clients you love.  To start to figure out whom you like to work with, answer these 2 questions.  They will have you well on your way to establishing who your ideal client is!

1)  What is not perfect/working for me right now?  For example, it may not be perfect for you to have a client who does not pay you in a timely manner.  It may not work for you to have an employee who comes late to work everyday.  Once you start considering what is not perfect/working, you will find that you can develop a very long list of characteristics.

2)  Now look at your list and identify the opposite of these characteristics.  For example, it is perfect for clients to pay us on time, every time.  It works best for me when my employees are on time when arriving to work.  

Once you have answered these two questions, read through your answers to question #2 and read what you’ve written. This is the start point for your ideal client.

Weekly Prosperity Quote

Play in possibility rather than toil in perfection

Weekly Prosperity Quote

Life is too important to be taken seriously

~Oscar Wilde~

3 Ways To Work With Clients You Love!

For many freelance bookkeepers, the biggest challenge is achieving work/life balance, especially if you are working from of a home office. We feel pressure to work with any business that shows an interest in our services, even if it costs us (money, time, energy, etc.) to be providing services to that business. Why do we do this to ourselves?

Maybe it’s because we think that by placing boundaries around the way we deliver our services will make the pot of available clients even smaller. So we become nervous and our solution is to mold ourselves into what the client desires, thus creating a straight path to burnout!

Carving out the niche that suits your expertise and has you passionate about your business WILL bring you more clients than you can possibly imagine. Here’s how to open that faucet and create a business that supports you body, mind and spirit and working with clients you love!

1) Define how your business operates. Sounds so simple, yet many service professionals don’t stop to think out HOW they will operate their business. They concentrate on getting clients first and then mold themselves into becoming the solution needed by that business. The next thing you know is that you have six different clients with very different needs leaving you feeling frustrated, overwhelmed and under appreciated.

By taking the time to identify things like:

• Your hours of operation
• Your holiday schedule
• What accounting software program(s) your company will use
• How you pay bills on behalf of your clients
• How you bill your clients
• Where your services will be delivered
• Under what circumstances you will terminate a working relationship
• How client information is received to be worked on
• Etc.

creates the framework or “game rules” everyone will follow. When everyone knows the rules, working relationships become much easier and joyful.

2) Define exactly WHAT services you will offer and HOW you will provide those services. Trying to be the solution that each individual client or business needs, diffuses your energy and will cause burn out. Instead identify exactly what services or group of services you will provide to clients. Focus on what it is you love about bookkeeping and make that the main attraction in your service offerings.

When I first started my practice we offered both live accounting and historical write-up services. Over time I found that I did not enjoy providing write-up services and it showed. The fulfillment of this service was burdensome and these clients were not receiving the quality I prided my company on. When I made the decision to no longer provide this service, I transitioned my clients to bookkeepers who did enjoy this service. Guess what – everyone was much happier?! A few former clients who had originally resisted the transition could not thank me enough for the new provider they were working with.

The clearer you are about what services you provide and how, the easier it becomes for clients to find you. (Not to mention the happier you will be.) Think about a lighthouse. A lighthouse’s job is to stand on the shore and guide ships into the harbor during a storm. Ships know exactly what service (the light beacon) they will receive from the lighthouse and they have no hesitation utilizing it. The same will be true for your services – the clearer you are about what you provide, how you provide it and to whom, the easier it is for clients to find you.

3) Identify your ideal client. Now that you know how your business operates and what services you will provide and how you provide them, it is time to create your ideal client profile. Creating a profile that outlines the characteristics of the individuals and businesses you want to work with creates a paradigm shift that gets you thinking in a whole new way.

Yes, you get to define who it is you want to work with. Remember my story from above? I liked the people that we worked with but, I did not like to provide historical services. We would have been perfect for one another if I liked to provide historical services or they had hired us to provide live accounting.

Your ideal client profile identifies everything about that client from the type of business that they operate to what services you will be providing for them. Think of this exercise a little like day dreaming – allow your mind to float and think about the perfect bookkeeping client relationship. For example: my ideal client is a business of high integrity, who pays their bills on time every time, values and respects the services my firm provides to them and looks to me as a valuable business resource that helps their business to grow.

You may find that you have more than one type of ideal client. Perhaps, even one for each group of services that you offer. The point is to become familiar with the characteristics that you have outlined so that during a prospective client meeting you are asking pointed questions that help you to identify if this client fits your needs.

As you get clearer about who it is that you want to work with, it becomes easier for clients to find you because you are putting the same message out every time you speak about your business.

Weekly Prosperity Quote

In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but the gratefulness that makes us happy.

~Albert Clarke~

How to Kill a Client Relationship Before It Begins

Just hours before a big snow storm we had on the East Coast this past winter, I learned that my landscaper would not be able to plow my driveway because his truck had broken down.  So with such short notice, I took a chance and called a phone number I noticed on my way to the grocery store advertising snow plowing services.  No name, just a number.

When I phoned the number, the young man on the other end did not identify himself and I had to state what I was looking for (Clue #1)   The conversation was pleasant enough and the young man stated that he would have my driveway plowed between 7 AM and noon the next day.  We agreed upon a price and all that was left to do was to wait for the snow to fall.

The snow fell as predicted and the next day I waited for this young man to come and plow my driveway.  I waited and I waited and I waited.  (Clue #2)  There was a lot of snow so I was giving him the benefit of the doubt that he was a little behind schedule.

At 1:30 PM I decided to check in, just to see what was going on and ensure he had not forgotten me. (I was already wary of his reliability just from my first conversation with him.  He had not introduced himself; he had no definite method for telling me how he charged for his service, and; he forgot to ask me for some crucial information – my name and address.) 

I reached him without a problem and he shared with me a very nice “story” about why my driveway had not yet been plowed.  (Clue #3)   He then promised he would have my driveway plowed within the hour.  So again, I waited.  Instead of him showing up as communicated, I received another phone call telling me there would be another yet delay.

At this point, I was done.  In just these brief interactions with this young man I lost all faith and trust in his ability to provide any type of service.  I formed a negative opinion of him and no matter what he said I was at the point of no return. 

The fastest way to lose a new or existing client is to not do what you say you will, when you say you will.  

The fastest way to retaining a client is keeping your word and doing what you say you will, when you say you will.  Fastest

Want to know more?  Click here to see all of the resources for freelance bookkeepers.  Don’t forget to sign-up for my f^ree webinar “Lead Generating Strategies That Keep Your Pipeline Full”

Communicating Client Roles & Responsibilities

There are many business owners who like to delegate their bookkeeping by abdication.  They think that as long as there is someone else handling the books, they don’t have to think or do anything to assist in the process.  If not corrected, this attitude will result in major frustration for you which is definitely something we want to avoid!

As you begin working with new clients, it is very important to let those clients know what their role and responsibilities are in your working relationship.  Again, I will refer back to the payroll processing companies.  When you sign up with them, the sales rep tells you:

□ what information is needed to get you started on their system;
□ what information you will need to supply for each payroll, and;
□ how to supply that information.

If the client doesn’t comply with any of these steps, the service cannot and is not provided!

Create a standard “Getting Started Guide” where you begin to communicate your process to the client and what happens if they do not provide you with the information that is needed.  Bookkeeping is a little more complex than payroll processing because we work with the uniqueness of each business.  So while the debits and credits are the same from client to client, the execution (frequency, who prints the checks, etc.) will vary.

Stating it boldly lets the client know you are serious and gives them the opportunity to decide if working with you and your firm is a fit for them or not. (Remember, you only want to work with businesses who take bookkeeping seriously.)  Here is a sample of the language I use:

Your Role and Responsibilities in Our Working Relationship
The success of our working relationship lies in both my team and your team knowing what is expected and when.  It is our highest priority to provide you and your business with the best financial expertise and information that we can, which is why we need your assistance in:

□ Providing us with the requested information when due.
□ Being available for questions and occasional meetings.
□ Understanding that we work with other clients in addition to working with you.

You, doing your part, is crucial to the success of our working relationship and if you or someone on your staff cannot:

□ Routinely set aside time in your schedule to gather and submit to us the information that we need when due;
□ Be available to answer questions and occasionally meet, and;
□ Have emergency requests be the exception and not the rule,

I regret to inform you, we are not the bookkeeping service for you. 

We routinely set aside time in our schedule to specifically work on your account and give you our undivided attention.  When your information is expected and not received, or we cannot obtain answers to our questions it affects the quality of the work we are providing and creates a lot of frustration for both you and us.

We keep our requests simple and are very respectful of your time and expect the same treatment back.

The language I use clearly tells the client our expectations of them in our working relationship.  I am teaching the client how we like to be treated.  As they read this paragraph they know whether or not they can comply with the requests.  The really nice thing is that once people know what is expected of them, they will rise to meet and exceed that expectation.

Want to know more?  Click here to see all of the resources for freelance bookkeepers.  Don’t forget to sign-up for my f^ree webinar “Lead Generating Strategies That Keep Your Pipeline Full”

More

• Why Following a Process Increases Your Bottom Line
• Weekly Prosperity Quote
• Weekly Prosperity Quote
• Why It’s Important to Know Who Your Ideal Client Is
• Weekly Prosperity Quote
• Weekly Prosperity Quote
• 3 Ways To Work With Clients You Love!
• Weekly Prosperity Quote
• How to Kill a Client Relationship Before It Begins
• Communicating Client Roles & Responsibilities