Finding Clients For Bookkeepers

Here’s an email from Kerrie, who’s having trouble finding bookkeeping clients:
Hi Jenny
I enjoy reading your emails. It helps me to keep my nose to the grind stone so to speak.

I am having trouble finding bookkeeping clients. I have a few bookkeeping clients that are regular but not enough to keep going. Some days I think if I got a full time bookkeeping job it would not be so hard. But then the reason I started my bookkeeping business would be invalid.

I have tried the papers, that doesn’t work. The only way I have been able to get bookkeeping clients is word of mouth.

We’ve talked many times previously about throwing money away in newspaper advertising – you could have sent that money our way and had better results.

Just a few questions:
1. What area/suburb are you located?
2. Are you a registered BAS Agent?
3. How muany years FREELANCE / CONTRACT experience do you have as a bookkeeper?
4. How many hours per week do you use MYOB?
5. How many hours per week do you use Quickbooks?
6. Do you have knowledge /experience of payroll and inventory?
7. Are you a professional and skilled bookkeeper?

We’ve helped bookkeepers who struggle to find clients – like Cathy, in February last year, similar position, by the end of April we’d found her enough clients to put her in a position of making $60k p/a part time – more than she was making fulltime for less hours

It’s your call – if you’re like Kerrie, and having trouble finding bookkeeping clients we can help, or you can keep struggling to do it on your own.

I have opened up a business as a sole trader I have the ABN, Registered the business name, set up a website, facebook page, business cards, price list, set up an office and i bought the latest version of MYOB ect.

Megan

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Of course we can help Megan – That’s what we do. The first step would be to read this article

Our coaching and mentoring program is designed to help bookkeepers source regular clients and give you the confidence to find your own clients.

What do you think about a letter box drop to find bookkeeping clients?

Peter writes:
“I am looking to start-up a small bookkeeping business, with the objective of occupying me for say 3 days pw. My reason in writing to you is to obtain your opinion as to whether you think I am on the right track with regard to
my marketing strategy (just developed). I want to avoid any unnecessary wheel spinning.

My intention is to develop a one page letter, which I will use as a letter box drop in the local area. I have already approached the Accountants in my area and received some polite and positive comments, but I am not holding my breath! I believe a direct approach to end-users is more likely to be productive, rather than going through a third party. “

If you’ve read our book *Secrets to Finding Bookkeeping Clients* you’ll realise that we don’t really promote “cold calling”.

Have you thought about who your target market is? When I go down to the local hardware store to buy a drill, it’s not because I want to buy a drill – It’s because I need to hang a picture up on the wall, and need to put a hook in the wall, and need a drill to make the hole!

Business owners don’t want to pay for a bookkeeper – they just want their paperwork sorted out!

We’ve worked with accountants that have a tendancy to get caught up in the use of “jargin” when their clients are only interested in knowing if they’ve got enough cash left at the end of the week to buy a carton of coldies!!

You’re surrounded by potential clients – and end of financial year is a good time to source those clients – finding them is really quite simple with the right strategies

If you’d like some help then take advantage of our one-on-one coaching sessions

” You are a gem to all whom wish to start their Bookkeeping business.

“Can you help me? Thanks, Steph.”

Steph, thanks for your kind comments – we love to get feedback from bookkeepers.

To help people like Steph, we need to know whether you’ve had any training in using MYOb / Quickbooks software, and if you have any bookkeeping experience / qualifications.

Depending on your level of skills you may find that you can gain more experience by working for some local bookkeepers

All VERY GOOD bookkeepers in your area always have MORE work that they can handle – you’ll find that they have a number of off-site clients and there’ll be some basic data entry that needs doing – in many cases they’d be more than happy to pay a “junior bookkeeper” a low hourly rate to get the data entry done

Contact them by telephone to arrange a time to go around and see them, tell them you’ve got an idea you want to run by them. Then when you eyeball them ask if you can help them with their data entry.

We helped Steph with some other questions she had about getting her bookkeeping business started, as we’ve developed a program to coach and and guide you through the minefield of building your bookkeeping business.

We offer one-on-one consultations for bookkeepers who are struggling to solve problems, or overcome challenges in sourcing bookkeeping clients

You can learn more about the program by following this link http://www.bookkeepingteam.net.au/

Should you offer a free consultation to find bookkeeping clients?

Some people say “YES” – and we say “No”

Mark emailed us to say : ” I disagree in some respects to your comments regarding a ‘free consultation’. If I’m prepared to offer only the initial hour of my time free of charge to secure a long term client, I consider that this is cheap advertising? The prospective client has nothing to lose and I get my ‘foot in the door’ to sell myself and my services. People only need a plumber once every 10 years. They need a bookkeeper every 3 months (or less). There’s a huge difference.”

Of course the client has nothing to lose and everything to gain – and if it takes you an hour to get yor foot in the door, you’re probably doing something wrong – it takes us just five minutes (or less) on the phone

In our experience, giving a free consultation has not helped grow our business – there’s always people out there that want something for nothing – so it’s upto you how much / what you cover in that hour

We speak to new clients every day on the phone, converting around 80% of them, without offering our services for free – the remaining 20% just want the cheapest – or worse still find family/friend to “help them with their books”

The beauty about running your own bookkeeping business is just that – it’s your own bookkeeping business, so you call the shots !!!

Finding clients is really not hard – There’s a heap right under your nose – if you look in the right place

By doing what 95% of bookkeepers do, you’ll get the same result that 95% of bookkeepers get

Often it’s not necessarily what you do, but how you do it. For instance. nobody likes “Cold Calling”, and very few businesses like being “cold-called”.

Let me ask how you respond to telemarketers and door-to-door salespeople? Most times they get a negative response because they’ve put the prospect on the back foot straight away

Imagine an icecream vendor down the beach on a cold wintery wet day – compared to the same vendor on a hot summer day – same vendor, same beach, different circumstances

Have a look at what you’re doing, and think about how you’d be if you were at the receiving end of your campaign.

Write a list of people that you know – EVERYONE. But do not SAY ANYTHING to anyone YET.

Write a list of all your bookkeeping skills, But do not SAY ANYTHING to anyone YET.

Write a five year plan – and an exit strategy for your business – Exit strategy? But you haven’t started yet!

Exactly

These are some of the steps towards building a profitable and secure bookkeeping business. After continual pressure from bookkeepers that we’ve sourced bookkeeping clients for, we’ve developed a program to coach and and guide you through the minefield of building your bookkeeping business.

We offer one-on-one consultations for bookkeepers who are struggling to solve problems, or overcome challenges in sourcing bookkeeping clients. You can learn more about the program by following this link

When starting a bookkeeping business there’s often going to be self doubt, and it can be a challenge to “talk up” your skills and level of service.

Some people are very good at that, and can then go and deliver. Others can talk the talk, but fail to deliver.

Al writes:
“Thanks for your input here.
Since reading your report I have been out “talking me up” and i am finding some work heading my way.
Not only does it spread the word that i have time available for new clients, it also makes me feel more confident about what it is we are offering.

Thanks again,
Alastair”

We love getting feedback, and hearing your success stories. Send us your feedback and we’ll give you 30 minutes FREE coaching

When you’re just starting out in your bookkeeping business, it’s tempting to take on every client that comes your way, even though not EVERY client is going to be a keeper.

There’s plenty of it out there in your area and it may seem strange to believe, but you CAN AFFORD to be choosy about which clients to work with.

A temptation for bookkeepers starting our in their home business is to charge themselves out at a cheap rate “just to get started”

That’s all very well, but isn’t that theft?

Why is it theft? Well, you have certain skills and over a level of service that is worthy of renumeration. You are sacrificing time away from your family, or from other things that you may be doing, and seeling yourself short. You’re allowing your clients to steal valuable resources from you.

Just remember, when you are the owner of your home based bookkeeping business, not every bookkeeping client that comes along is a keeper

“My wife and I will be starting our own bookkeeping business 1 July. I have already started spreading the word amongst my network and I can see that we are going to be busy.”

Mark sent us this email after reading our free report “Secrets To Finding Bookkeeping Clients In TEN DAYS or less” and using some of the tips outlined there.

Word of Warning
Just be VERY careful how you go about “spreading the word” – We’ve known other bookkeepers to “blow their list” and then come to us wanting help because they’ve said the wrong thing, or approached their friends / clients in the wrong manner and lost opportunities through ignorance more than anything
If you’re not sure what he’s talking about, then download our free report our free report “Secrets To Finding Bookkeeping Clients In TEN DAYS or less”

Here’s part of an email we received about a bookkeeper wanting to know where to find bookkeeping clients:

He wrote to us asking for help, whilst giving us a little background information
1. How much experience do you have as a (FREELANCE) bookkeeper?
- NONE

2. What have you tried so far?
- cold calling- media advertising-internet

3. Who are you targeting?
- small to medium businesses

4. What’s the main problem that you are experiencing?
- no response

By doing what 95% of bookkeepers do, you’ll get the same result that 95% of bookkeepers get

Often it’s not necessarily what you do, but how you do it

Nobody likes “Cold Calling”, and very few businesses like being “cold-called”. Let me ask how you respond to telemarketers and door-to-door salespeople?

Most times they get a negative response because they’ve put the prospect on the back foot straight away

Imagine an icecream vendor down the beach on a cold wintery wet day – compared to the same vendor on a hot summer day – same vendor, same beach, different circumstances

Have a look at what you’re doing, and think about how you’d be if you were at the receiving end of your campaign.

We speak to many bookkeepers all around the country and hear similar problems – what we’ve found is that some bookkeepers think they “know it all” and are not prepared to open their mind to new/ different ideas – whereas others will listen and have an “Ah-aha” moment

There’s so many cooking shows on TV, and when the presenter cooks up a meal, it looks so easy. We can use that same recipe and create a disaster at home – why is that?

Maybe it’s because the methods that we use initially seems straight forward and often familiar, but the way the recipe is followed is what makes a difference

How open are you to hearing “the same old stuff” that you think you already know – how open are you to learning the “fine tuning” that it may take to go from getting what 95% of bookkeepers get, to achieving what the other 5% achieve

Having no experience as a bookkeeper would also make your task more difficult – business owners are not dumb – they can sense whether someone knows what they are talking about or whether they are just being “sold”

We have a program to help bookkeepers find clients – we will also work with those bookkeepers and actually source clients on their behalf