Start & Run a Bookkeeping Business

Оглавление

Angie Mohr. Start & Run a Bookkeeping Business

START & RUN A BOOKKEEPING BUSINESS

Introduction

1. Getting Started

Assess Your Skills and Goals

Why Bookkeeping?

Approaches to Starting Your Business

Building a business from scratch

Buying an existing business

Setting Up Your Own Books

Choosing Your Accounting Software

Developer’s track record of performance

Software’s ability to fit the business

You’ll Need a Business Plan

Consider Your Exit Strategy

Selecting External Advisers

Questions to Ask Advisers

Finding a Board of Directors

Know Your Competitors

Chapter Summary

2. Financing Your Business

How Much Money Do You Need?

Start-Up Costs

Cash to Provide Liquidity

Get Your Personal Finances in Order

Credit History

Debt Management

Retirement Goals

Insurance

Sources of Financing

Internal Resources

External Resources

Your Relationship with Your Banker

Chapter Summary

3. Pricing Your Services

Provide a Menu of Services

Clients’ Fear of the Clock

Pricing Strategies

Cost-based pricing

Pricing based on your competition

Pricing based on the market

Pricing based on value

“Productize” Your Services

Chapter Summary

4. Client Management

Tracking the Work

Work In and Work Out

Handling Client Records

Tracking Turnover Time

Managing Peaks and Valleys

Planning for Time Off

A Word about Client Confidentiality

Tracking Your Clients

Add Up Your Clients

Compute Frequency of Visits

Calculate Average Billing per Client

Assess Client Quality

Chapter Summary

5. Business Tools And Equipment

Communication Options

Telephone system

Fax machine

Cellular telephone

Personal digital assistant (PDA)

Computer System

Computer

Software

Printer

Scanner

Photocopier

Filing System

Office Furniture

Vehicle

Resource Library

Chapter Summary

6. Working From Home

Financial Considerations

Nonfinancial Considerations

The neighbors

The on-call syndrome

The convenience

Willpower

Tracking Your Home-Office Expenses

Step 1: Calculate business use

Step 2: Apportion your expenses

Repair and Maintenance Expenses

Chapter Summary

7. Organizing Your Operations

Setting Hours of Operation

Booking Appointments

Quoting Jobs

Managing Work-in-Progress

Invoicing Clients

Establishing Credit Policies

Terms of sale

Credit decisions

Payment methods

Handling Collections

Chapter Summary

8. Marketing And Promotion

Finding Your Niche

Pricing Is Key

Competing on price

Competing on value

Presenting Your Best Self

How you dress

How you answer the telephone

How you decorate your office

Advertising with a Purpose

Should You Have a Website?

Keeping Your Current Clients Happy

Chapter Summary

9. Having Employees

Hiring 101

Building a job description

The laws of the land

Attracting quality employees

Interviewing potential candidates

Employee Compensation

Determining market rates

The importance of benefits

Performance-based compensation

Paying for value

The performance evaluation process

Keeping tabs on employee performance

Firing Employees

Chapter Summary

10. Financial Management

Budgeting 101

Projecting revenue

Projecting expenses

Fixed and Variable Costs

Fixed expenses

Variable expenses

Why Is Cost Behavior Important to My Business?

Break-even point

Capacity

Basic Ratio Analysis

Solvency or liquidity ratios

Current ratio

Total debt ratio

Asset and debt management ratios

Work-in-progress (WIP) turnover

Receivables turnover

Times interest earned

Profitability ratios

Profit margin

Return on investment (ROI)

Key Performance Indicators

Receivables Management

Payables Management

Tracking due dates

What to do if you fall behind

Chapter Summary

11. Growing Your Business

The Three Methods of Business Growth

The Concept of Leverage

Tracking Your Business Growth

How to attract new clients

Ways to sell more to clients

Sell to clients more often

Chapter Summary

12. Planning For Success

The Planning Cycle

Step 1: Make a plan

Step 2: Get control

The weekly flash report

The monthly management operating plan

Step 3: Focus on growth

Step 4: Fine-tune your business

Step 5: Plan some more

Chapter Summary

Glossary

Acknowledgments

About The Author

Other Titles in the Start & Run Series

Notice To Readers

Self-Counsel Press thanks you for purchasing this ebook

Contents

Отрывок из книги

To those with a “head for numbers” and some computer knowledge, it may seem like a natural thing to put out your shingle and offer bookkeeping services to small businesses and individuals who need to track their investment portfolios.

However, knowing how to keep the books doesn’t necessarily translate into business savvy, and many would-be bookkeeping services suffer from the same entrepreneurial ailments as businesses in every other industry. Ninety-six percent of all small businesses in North America that are started today won’t be around in ten years, and bookkeeping businesses are no exception. They either go bankrupt, close their doors, or otherwise give up the dream of “making it.” Not having a full complement of business management skills leaves business owners in the air without a flight plan.

.....

When I refer to your business plan as a living, breathing document, it means that, as circumstances change, so should your business model. You will have to continually make course corrections as you go along and as you gain understanding about how your business performs over time.

Although you will always be not only the creator but also the main audience for your business plan, there will be others who will want to see your business plan from time to time, including the following:

.....