The One About A Road Less Traveled
The One About A Road Less Traveled
You might recall the line from the Robert Frost poem “Two roads diverged in a yellow and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” (This poem would be a great, short summer family poem memory challenge, by the way!).
The interesting thing about this poem is that, as the speaker is considering his two paths that lay at the fork in his road, he realized that neither path is bad.
Isn’t it a blessing when life presents you with TWO good choices? When you realize that there is abundance down either path of a fork in your road?
I hope that you are reading this and feeling fired up by the prospect of a career and business as an entrepreneurial bookkeeper. I hope that you are envisioning your future and you see that knowledge of accounting is a super power that can change your family’s life. I hope that you see many wonderful paths that you can take in this industry of ours.
But today, I want you to think about the man in Frost’s poem. He had two good paths. But, what a difference the less traveled path made.
I’ve found that sentiment to be the case for me. I’m running a successful bookkeeping business, but if you follow all my “Kate Builds In Public” sections of these newsletters, you’ll know that it doesn’t look like a traditional bookkeeping business. I’ve had to take some scary steps and follow my instincts, but most of the time, I end up happier and wealthier than when I was on a more traditional path.
One of the best “less traveled” roads that I can think of for our industry would be to build a firm completely niched in Xero. But that path is certainly less traveled, especially in the American market (though, to be sure, Xero is a dominant presence in many international markets). But when you think about that amount of clients you need, even to have an extremely high revenue firm, you still only need the most minuscule percentage of their user base.
And yes, Xero is the sponsor of this week’s newsletter. But they have no idea that I’m writing this. I’m writing this because I believe it with all of my heart. I believe there is great happiness and great wealth for some brave souls who would say “I only work with clients that use Xero.” I’ve been saying it for years.
If this particular path is looking appealing to you, well, hold on! I’ve got a list of all that you’ll need to dive deep into learning the Xero software. You’ll still have to figure out how to go get those clients, but the Bookkeeping Side Hustle Community is here to support you in that.
First step is to join the Xero Partner Program*
Intro to Xero is available every month
Zero to Xero free course from a former Xero employee
Xero has local community gatherings
Efficient Accounting with Xero book by Jay Kimmelman
Xero: A Comprehensive Guide For Accountants and Bookkeepers book by Amanda Aguillard
A helpful Xero Facebook Group
A Bookkeeping Course* creator who also still has a real practice niched in Xero (use code KATE for 10% off)
XeroCon in Nashville, TN in August 2024
Make sure you don’t miss the Intro to Xero Session. Probably the best way to quickly get introduced to the company. 👇
Deals Deals Deals
💰 The Fast & Easy QBO Clean Up course is on sale for $600 off. Link*.
💰 Just saw news that Hector Garcia and Ed Kless are partnering for 2 day conference in Dallas. It is about taking your firm from a compliance practice to an advisory practice. Use code FOE25 for $250 off. It is in Dallas! I’m might try to drive over for this one. Not sure yet.
💰 Gusto Next conference is less than a month away. If you can make it to San Francisco, you can get a ticket for only $25(!). I hope you treat yourself to this event (especially if you are nearby). This is an opportunity to be around forward-thinkers who are helping the whole accounting community.
Please always send me any news of deals that you hear of that others might benefit from.
Be There or Be Square
📅 June 25: QBO Hacks. Join Alicia Katz Pollock for this “bells and whistles” class chock-full of efficiency recommendations and cool features you can use to streamline and automate your data entry in QuickBooks Online. Spend one hour with Alicia learning hacks and save yourself dozens of hours in the future. Register HERE*.
📅 June 26: Intro to Xero. Interested in Xero? Learn more about them in this FREE webinar. Sign up HERE.
📅 +June 27: Why You Should Consider Building Your Practice On Xero. Tam Nguyen will share why Xero should be a consideration as the platform to build your business. Watch LIVE on YouTube and RSVP so you don’t miss it.
📅 July 9: Financial Cents Virtual Workflow Summit. Financial Cents One-Day Virtual Workflow Summit is coming, the speaker lineup is fire, and you don’t want to miss it! You’ll discover the latest in accounting workflow automation, featuring expert-led sessions, hands-on workshops, and practical insights designed to help you optimize your processes and boost your firm’s productivity. Register HERE*
📅 +July 11: Understanding LLC to S Corp Conversions. S Corp expert Joshua Standley will walk us through how to make the switch from an LLC to an S Corps. If your business is growing, join us for this one! RSVP and leave your questions in the comments.
📅 July 16-18: Gusto Next conference in their HQ in San Francisco. Who is going?
Featured Posts
🌶️ Irina J. asked why bookkeepers seem opposed to calling a client’s customers about missing payments. Do you offer collections services?
🌶️ A discussion about how to price a clean up for 7 bank accounts, 21,000 transactions, and 5 years. These prices are all over the map! 👀
Help You Hustle
💪 Crowdsourced examples and my own real-life example of how you can hire your children in your business. These are examples of real work small humans can do.
💪 Check out this podcast I did with the CFO Project about how to build an online presence and get more clients.
💪 A round up of 44 accounting related podcasts. And you would probably be well served to follow this author’s weekly email if you don’t already.
My Family Circus
New section of this newsletter for 2024. Completely non-bookkeeping related.
🎪 My 12 year old son just spent a week at his very first Boy Scout Camp. I have opinions.
I’m one of three girls, so Boy Scouts was not a part of my life growing up. But I married a man who is from a Boy Scout family. All three of the brothers made it to Eagle.
My husband didn’t want our sons to do Cub Scouts because he saw a lot of boys burn out before making it to Eagle if they start so young. So we just started our oldest in scouts this past year as a 6th grader.
I could not be more impressed with Boy Scouts! I totally recommend it. Scouts seem to be promoting skills and values that seem harder and harder to find these days. The overarching thing that impresses me is that Scouts emphasizes leadership. Everything is all scout-led. My husband insisted that I didn’t pack our son’s foot locker for camp. My husband literally grabbed my shoulder (kindly) at camp dropoff when I started to pick up gear to load in the van (I’m a jumper-inner, y’all). I’m going to miss my son terribly when he eventually leaves my home for good, but I know I want him to launch and to thrive as an adult. He is learning so many skills and virtues that I’m so proud to see.
“A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.” Yes, Please!
Jobs
💼 More jobs (including local jobs in UT and TX) were added to the BSH Job Opp Google sheet. Click HERE to see the list and go apply!. Be sure to use #jobopp when posting about jobs!
Kate Builds In Public
🎢 I passed my QBO Advanced Recertification. My grades were 93% and 100%. 11 days before the deadline! You still have until June 30. I used the $50 training material from Fast & Easy QBO.* I really like her unfiltered commentary on the new features, what she likes and what is not so impressive (but is still new, so is still on the test). Even though I don’t serve clients on QBO anymore, I think it is important for me to do this annually to keep a pulse on what Intuit is building and doing.That will help me better explain to clients if they should be using QBO vs FreshBooks.
🎢 My clock is ticking on my free firm payroll that accountants get with Gusto*. I send a lot of traffic to Gusto from my interactions with business owners via my FreshBooks email list and my FreshBooks Bookkeeping channel. Every accountant users get $300 when someone signs up using their referral link. But to maintain the free firm payroll, we have to sign up a new client every year via our accountant portal. With my kind of small firm, I feel like I’m always scrambling to find someone that needs payroll that I can add directly from my account every 12 months. So I’ve been scrambling. I think I will make it by the end of the month, but it will be tight. And always feel a little foolish scrambling like this. But I want to share the whole picture of what running my business is like. Sometimes I do unpleasant things.
🎢 New Business
2 new FreshBooks office hours members
Signed an $1,100 rebuild (not a clean up…it was too messy). Just 5 months going back to Jan 2024. And this client also signed for monthly services at $550 per month. I’ve brought in a contractor to help with the project and the ongoing work.
🎢 Last edition I gave you the exact text of the email I sent to my firm email list (just over 400 people) to suggest they sign up for Relay for their business bank. Well, I just found out that only led to 3 new conversions. 😭 So maybe don’t copy the text I used. That is a terrible conversion rate. I don’t know how to make it better.
From The Vault
⚡︎ Still thinking about how you can have your kids help you with your business? I have 2 videos on my business YouTube channel about this subject. One is How To Hire Your Child In Your Business and the other is about how to start an Roth IRA for you child.
Classifieds (Clickable)
Want to have an ad in the Bookkeeping Side Hustle Pub? Click HERE for more in
Keep hustling!
Kate
-Chief Hustler-
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I am down right rabid about transparency and full disclosure. If a link has a * beside it, it means it is either an affiliate link where I might receive compensation if you make a purchase, at no additional charge to you. Or it could be a tracking link that another business provided me to see how many readers click on that link.