Top 3 Ways to Know When It Is Time to Stop Working with a Client

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Linda Hunt

As freelance bookkeepers we have a front row seat to how well (or unwell) our client’s businesses are doing.  When business and cash flow are both positive, our working relationship with that client is easy – they’re in a good mood, they pay bills on time, etc.  But, when the business and cash flow are not so good, that is when our working relationship can get a little confusing!

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.

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Accountability – The Secret to a Profitable Bookkeeping Business

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Linda Hunt

As a freelance bookkeeper, “accounting” is a word that’s an integral part of your life.  You keep account of other peoples’ books, providing their business with a support system that keeps it financially healthy. But let me ask you – who keeps account of you?

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!

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Great Expectations

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Linda Hunt

By Linda A. Hunt, The Small Business Money Mentor

My good friend and business colleague Sue (name has been changed for confidentiality purposes) called me freaking out about money! She was having a mini meltdown and could not figure out why. Here’s what happened….

On Monday she sent an invoice to her friend and colleague who said she would pay the bill “in a couple of days.” A couple of days passed and Sue had not received the payment which was resulting in the mini meltdown and phone call to me. To get to the bottom of what was really going on, (because  when we are experiencing a challenge around money, it’s never just about the money) I began asking Sue a couple of questions:

  • Are you worried she won’t pay you? No, was her response.
  • Are you waiting on the money because you need it? Again, no!
  • Did you clarify what a couple of days meant to your client? No.

As I had suspected a “great expectation” had been set up in Sue’s mind which had not been met and was causing Sue’s mini-meltdown. Whenever we are experiencing a challenge around money it can be traced back to one or a combination of three life lessons: soft boundaries, inability to take a stand for your needs and low self-worth.

Usually one of these culprits will take center stage. In Sue’s case self-worth was front and center. Let’s take a closer look at why….

You see a couple of days meant two to Sue, at the most three. When the payment she had expected to arrive on day two did not, those gremlin voices in her head began whispering and getting louder and louder….

  • Why hasn’t she paid me yet? She said she would.
  • Oh my, what if she’s not happy with the service I provided her and has decided not to pay?
  • What I did for her wasn’t good enough, that is why she hasn’t paid me yet.

Those negative voices we hear inside our heads are the voice of fear and can be really good at pushing our buttons and making us doubt ourselves. How could all of this have been avoided?

By having The Money Conversation….

When Sue’s client said she would pay her in a couple of days instead of assuming that meant two days, Sue could have:

  • Stated her invoice terms – due upon receipt, net 7 – whatever they may be up front instead of leaving it open-ended, or;
  • Asked exactly what her client considered to be a couple of days.

Either of those actions would have helped Sue avoid her mini meltdown. You might be wondering why I did not suggest Sue simply contact her client. Sue was emotionally charged and it is usually not a good idea to follow-up on a situation until you can place a little distance between yourself and your emotions. What we did do is together decide that if Sue had not received payment by the next day, she would email her client.

Money Muscle Strengthener

The other action we took is to clearly define Sue’s credit policy for her company. A credit policy is the blueprint your company uses when deciding to extend credit to a customer. It outlines the methods (cash, check, credit card, etc.) under which your company accepts payment, the terms by which that money is due, to whom you will extend  credit, etc. Having her credit policy clearly defined supports Sue in communicating terms with her clients and the steps she is to follow when those terms have not been met. Having a standard process in place diffuses the potential of a situation becoming emotionally charged.

How to Set-Up a Credit Policy for Your Business

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Bookkeepers – Should You be Available to Your Clients 24/7?

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Linda Hunt

We live in a world where people expect instant access.  So does this mean as a freelance bookkeeper you should be “on call” 24/7? No! The whole point of running your own business is to create more freedom and flexibility – not less.

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.

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7 Marketing Secrets for Savvy Freelance Bookkeepers

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Linda Hunt

Successfully marketing yourself as a freelance bookkeeper is all about giving your clients what they want and need. However, many freelance bookkeepers make the mistake of solely focusing on themselves and talking about their business. However, what really catches your potential clients’ attention is clearly explaining how you solve their problems…how they will benefit.

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.

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Business of Soul Telesummit – Bringing Leaders Together to Help You Create Your Grand Masterpiece

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Linda Hunt

Have you heard about the Business of Soul Telesummit – Bringing Leaders Together to Help You Create Your Grand Masterpiece? It is this amazing and unique experience created by my good friend and colleague, Jennifer Urezzio.

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 29th 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.

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Bookkeepers – Are You Giving Away Services You Should Be Charging For?

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Linda Hunt

Freelance bookkeepers tend to leave a lot of money on the table by giving away services that can bring in revenue.  We tend to bend over backwards picking up information, scanning in information, doing all kinds of administrative things and not getting paid for doing it.  And the client, who doesn’t want to waste his valuable time doing these things, thinks it’s perfectly okay to waste your time and energy.

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.

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3 Tips for Keeping Project Clients On Track

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Linda Hunt

To this day, I am still amazed at the business owners who operate their businesses without having updated books and records. While some business owners do it quite well, there are many others who do not. I’m pretty sure you know the type of client I’m talking about, the one who suddenly has to get their books and records up-to-date and then keeps you waiting forever for the missing pieces of information. Sound familiar?

It is usually with this type of client where there is a heightened potential for a misunderstanding of the work to have been completed, their responsibility in the working relationship and where your services end.

Earlier this year, my firm encountered such a client. My firm was hired in March of this year to input all financial transactions for 2010 and nothing for 2011 so the client could have their tax return prepared. Here are 3 challenges that came up during the course of that project and how we effectively handled them:


  1. Document Project Scope – In our initial conversation, the client specifically stated they did not want any input completed for 2011 as they would discuss that with us upon the completion of this project. When we were reviewing what had been completed with them, we were specifically asked why nothing for 2011 had been input because they were sure it was included in what they paid for.

    Because, we had documented the initial project scope and specifically included their reference to work for 2011 in our standard letter of agreement, we were able to refer the client back to that document and their initials indicating they had read and understood the initial project scope.

  2. Place All Requests for Additional Information in Writing – In projects like these, it is par for the course that you will need to request additional information to properly re-create their books and records. The challenge always lies in the client being able to easily locate that information and get it over to you.

    ALWAYS put your requests for additional information in writing and include a date in which you will need the information by. This does not guarantee you will receive the information, but it does show due diligence on your part. Also, be sure and follow-up, again in writing to document your request trail.

  3. Agree Upon a Project End Date – When working on a project of this sort, you will want to set and agree upon a project end date and document that in the letter of agreement. This is really important because these types of projects can have a tendency to hang around for a very long time with you waiting for payment and information from the client.

In the case with our client, at the time of the project due date we had not received all of the information needed but we went ahead with our closing meeting anyway. We documented all outstanding items, reviewed them with the client, and had them initial their acknowledgement that these items were missing from the bookkeeping file.

We then went on to outline next steps, again in writing to close the loop on the project. In this instance, those steps included what would happen when the client got us the information and any associated cost.

To keep project clients on track – document, document, document!

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How Important Is It for Bookkeepers to Diversify Their Client Base?

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Linda Hunt

Recently, I’ve been noticing that businesses are looking for solutions that are tailored specifically to their needs. They want to make sure what they’re buying is going to work for them. Savvy freelance bookkeepers can take advantage of this by fine-tuning marketing strategies and making it appeal to one particular vertical market.

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.

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My Favorite Technology for Freelance Bookkeepers

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Linda Hunt

Technology can make your life easier as a freelance bookkeeper. But on the other hand if you’re not careful, it can make it needlessly complicated.  Before you chose to implement any new technology, you need to do your due diligence.

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.

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