The One About Scaling
To grow or not to grow? That is the question...
TL;DR
Last edition I talked about ways that you could appear bigger than you are. All focused around ways to make it seem like you had a Secretary and a Salesman.
But, many of you don’t want to appear big. You want to actually be big. You want to scale up to that 7 figure mark. And for you, I offer you a caution and a tip.
First, the caution…
It is easy to fall into the temptation of thinking that high gross revenue is sexy. But it is a vanity metric. Like with humans, it is easy to be attracted to the hot hunk or babe with the beautiful exterior, but then when you talk to them you realize they are a vapid twit. Not a lot of substance. It can be just the same in business.
Don’t be misled by folks talking only about gross revenue numbers.
Gross Revenue is gross, especially when it is mentioned on social media. Ewww. What matters so much more than your top line is how much money you are putting in your own personal bank account and how many hours you are having to work to get that money.
So, don’t chase high gross revenue for the sake of having high gross revenue. And avoid the vapid business twits.
And then the tip…
As quickly as you can, you must find ways to be around successful large firm owners. Put yourself around people who are building the kind of business that you want to build. Sniff them out like bloodhound and stay on their trail.
And then copy what they are doing. Ask them about how their organizations are structured. Find out what tech they use. Ask them what parts of their business bring them joy and how they handle the stressful parts. Ask if you can copy what they are doing and maybe even hire them or their staff for an implementation day.
And I hope you pick someone who is focused on building a peaceful firm. It is really, really easy to build a stressful bookkeeping business. Because, sure enough, this world keeps spinning and that darn month-end arrives every 30 days.
And January arrives every 365 days. And it can crush you if you aren’t prepared.
And that means 1099s arrive every 365 days, too. Keeper has developed a free Practical Guide to Year-Round 1099 Management. The key word is YEAR ROUND. Whether you want to scale to 7-figures or are happy to stay on the small-but-lucrative side, use that resource to make sure that next January is better than this January. A successful 1099 season in 2026 begins today. Bang that graphic. 👇
Deals Deals Deals
💰 Tickets to Bridging The Gap conference are discounted by $400 until January 31. This one is in Denver in July.
💰 Scaling New Heights will have its annual Ground Hog Day Sale February 2 and 3. Put a reminder in your calendar. 📌 The deal is either $250 or $150 off depending on whether the ground hog sees his shadow or not. This conference is in Orlando in June.
Please always send me any news of deals that you hear of that others might benefit from.
Be There or Be Square
Items with a “+” are hosted by me. All these events can be viewed and registered for in the DESCRIPTIONS of each event on the Bookkeeping Side Hustle Calendar.
📅 January 22: Year-end Cleanup in QBO*. It is the time of year when businesses who have done no bookkeeping will come to you and want you do a full year. This class will prepare you do handle those situations.
📅 January 22: 1st of 3 FreshBooks Technical Q&A sessions with me!
📅 + January 30: How To Build Your Bookkeeping Business With Alignable. Have you heard about the business networking site Alignable? Learn how 2 bookkeepers use Alignable and how over 90% of their leads come from this site. RSVP in FaceBook so you don’t miss it!
📅 February 14 - Valentine's Day “Love at First Demo: An Accounting Speed-Dating Showcase”. Quick demos and prizes from 8 different apps. Looks fun.
📅 February 19 (and every 3rd Wed) - Free Keeper Q&A with Hughes and Strong.
📅 May 22 -WAVE one-day conference in Seattle, WA. Hosted by Erin Pohan. Get your ticket here. Y’all, the schedule looks really chill, which is not always an adjective that can be used for many industry conferences. Bless her!
Featured Posts
🌶️ Last edition I gave you all my ideas for acting “ bigger than you are.” But I left out a huge one…Co-working space membership! So many of you chimed in about how this low-cost “office” concept has been a benefit to your biz as well.
🌶️ Did you see the first written AMA I did in the FB group? Check it out HERE and read the comments for the questions and answers. We’ll be doing this again next month.
🌶️ Somia G. asked if you have a friends & family rate - or if you would even take them on as clients. What are your thoughts on this topic? Scott D.’s comment made me LOL.
🌶️ There is a General Ledger called Odoo. Huge globally. And they do in-person trainings that include lunch. I explained how to find the different local sessions here. I believe with all my heart that there is a lot of money to be made if you niche in Odoo. Do it! And then let me interview you about your experience!
Help You Hustle
💪 People always ask how to get clients. So this week I recorded a video where I explain how I got my very first bookkeeping client. It involves post-it notes. Some of you reading this have been lurking way too long and just need to let yourself be scrappy.
💪 Scholarship applications are open for the Accounting Cornerstone Foundation! We are sending 16 people to 4 conferences! Will 2025 be your year of attending your very first accounting industry conference?
If you don’t know what it is, watch this highlight video. It is 4 minutes long.
And then when you are ready to apply, go here.
And if you’ve already been to a conference, you can still be a part of this movement by donating. We need your money!
💪 Yuri Kapilovich shared his solo firm's 2024 P&L on LinkedIn. It is so hard to get real financial numbers from folks in our industry. Now, he does taxes, and not all of my readers do taxes. But just take a look at his numbers. Take a look at his education and work history. Take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of how he shows up online and markets himself. That all added up to a nice living.
For Fun
💀 Joanna L. always shares the best things. Her 1099 Life Hack is spot on. Those cartwheels!
Jobs
💼 LOTS of new jobs were added to the Job Guide - check out the posts for more info on the jobs. Check it out HERE.
Don’t forget the standing opps on my Find A Freelance Job article. 1099 and W-2 opps.
My Family Circus (43F, 40M, 13M, 11F, 10M)
🎪 Is my AI a boy or girl?
As the use of artificial intelligence and robots become more routine in my own home, something has started to make me a little uneasy.
I seem to call these pieces of technology “he” or “she”, but mostly “she”. But it feels wrong to call an app or a vacuum or a little speaker that talks back to me a “he” or a “she”.
I want to model how important it is that our words are true. I want to make sure my children understand that computer chips are not the same as living, breathing creatures.
So I recently made a declaration to my family… “Y’all, as for me and my house, we use the pronoun “it” when referring to technology.”
I've seen sad stories on social media about people interacting with artificial intelligence as if it really was human or really cared about them. And honestly, as I think about my own life, I have had moments where I would have been vulnerable to unhealthy relationships and responses with tech. I have been lonely. I have been irrationally angry where I was just looking for validation of my own wrong feelings or ideas. Would it be tempting to run to a speaker or device instead of putting in effort to form and maintain real life relationships?
So, Roomba is not a “she”. Alexa is not a “she”. And when we have a conversation with the smart and handsome sounding voice on my ChatGPT phone app, it is not a “he”. These are “its”
I almost want to rename my Alexa to something utterly inanimate, like “Ping Pong” or “Flat Top”, just to further emphasize the point that the device is an “it”. I’m finding it hard to switch after years of calling Alexa a “she”.
But as for me and my house…
Kate Builds In Public
🎢 Welp, I finished my first series of webinars to accounting pros. I tried to sell “Should You Convert Your Clients To FreshBooks in 2025”. Here is the post-action report:
I STUPIDLY tried to save money by trying to use Calendly for letting people sign up and pay. Even I found it confusing. I should have worked harder to figure out the Zoom webinar feature because I know people are more familiar with that registration interface.
I don’t think giving people 3 options of dates was smart. I don’t see other instructors doing that. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I should have driven everyone to one single date. And then offered to sell the replay if people still wanted to listen.
I did not take the last session as seriously as the first. My delivery and screen management and room management was worse, not better. I assumed I’d remember what I had done 3 weeks earlier when I delivered the first session. Not really!
Sold a whopping 9 tickets at $50. That is what you call a swing and a miss.
Should I keep digging and find other ways to try to recover the effort I put in to preparing the material and get it on more platforms? MyCPE or CPA Academy or Earmark? I think it costs money to do all of those. So would I just be throwing away more money and time if I did that (which is the sunk cost fallacy)?
I tossed the replay up as an “Unlisted” video on my FreshBooks YouTube channel and put it behind a sales page on Gumroad. This will allow people to buy the replay and also attend the 3 Q&A sessions in Jan, Feb, and March.
🎢 Y’all, I got a notice from Relay that my December monthly referral payouts were $187. I’m writing this for the world to see…By March, I’m going to get that number up to $500. Mark my words. Stay tuned and hold me accountable.
I have to specifically ask each client if they like their bank. I think I need a sticky note reminder above my desk that says “ask about their bank”.
I want to have a stock email that I copy and paste anytime I see a small business who is paying a monthly bank fee that they pay (I mean….how dumb is it to be paying a monthly fee for a business bank account in 2025).
I must have an automated email that goes out to anyone that joins my firm mailing list. People are downloading my Year End FreshBooks Checklist from my website and have to give up their email when they do that, and I am doing NOTHING with those emails. I just have to write the dang text about Relay and set up a single automation inside MailerLite (my email automation platform).
Know that you can get in on bank referral action, too. I know that in addition to Relay, Mercury and Bluevine have referral programs for accounting pros. My personal advice is to pick one that you love and move your own banking over to that bank and then it becomes so easy to talk about when you are a satisfied customer.
🎢 I was notified that I was selected to be a speaker at Scaling New Heights this coming June. Out of 4 total submission ideas, only 1 was chosen. I am grateful to be selected, but super bummed that both of my technical sessions about FreshBooks were denied.
From The Vault
⚡ If this is your year to scale to the 7-figure level, check out this video from the channel: “How To Build Million Dollar Bookkeeping Business”. This is one of my most popular videos!
Letters To The Editor
✉️ I was happy to read that Stacy H. not only signed up for one of the calendar events, but that she was going to make a 2024 list with her family.
Thank you for the newsletter Kate! I signed up for Justine Lackey’s Velocity planning training (looking forward to it Justine!). Your idea from the Family Circus section is outstanding and I will be doing this with my family this weekend. Awesome idea!
Classifieds (Clickable)
Keep hustling!
Kate
-Chief Hustler-
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