The One About Déjà Vu
The One About Déjà Vu
TL;DR
You probably got the email from Intuit last week.
About how they are raising prices. Again.
And people got mad. Again.
This time they raised prices on their payment processing. Instead of a $10 cap on ACH, now there will be a $20 cap on ACH.
This literally only affects invoices that are between $1,000 and $2,000. Hardly earth shattering.
Yet it is like déjà vu in accounting social media. Every time Intuit announces a price increase, it is the same song, over and over.
When I get the notifications about price increases for Intuit products, my first thought is that I wish I had half the courage that Intuit has to raise prices. Just the regular, predictable clip. I literally should be buying Intuit stock instead of investing in my own company because they are better at basic business fundamentals than I am.
And then when the social media outrage ramps up, I think 2 things.
So many people seemed surprised by these announcements. Honestly though, the merchant processing fees haven’t changed in years. We should be surprised this particular price increase hasn’t happened sooner. Do these complainers really not think that Intuit has thought this through in a very calculated way? That they don't have a small army of analysts and over-paid consultants that back up these decisions with data so that they are doing the best they can for their shareholders, which is the main job of a public company? These price increase emails should never be a surprise.
When folks complain about the price increases, it makes me think that they don’t raise their own prices and aren’t advising their clients to raise prices. But shouldn't we all be advising our clients to raise their prices, too? No better example than to practice what we preach. Like, I wonder if our annual price increase letter could read something in the spirit of: "Good morning wonderful client. Here is your engagement renewal letter for the upcoming fiscal year. You will notice it includes an annual price increase. After signing this document, we suggest you follow our example and immediately raise your prices for your customers, too. We are excited to continue serving as your bookkeeper and trusted business advisor."
To be clear, I do not have any kind of annual price increase letter because I am a giant scaredy cat. But I am smart enough to know that if I complained about a $10 price increase on social media, everyone would know that I’m a fool at running my own business.
So don't be the person who complains about the regular price increases, y’all.
But….
Big but…
It is reasonable and wise for you and your clients to evaluate your tech stack costs each year, including the payment processing fees. And if your or your clients’ payment processing fees are a bit too high, a great option for FREE same-day ACH payments with no subscription fees is our sponsor Forwardly. They are operating on a completely different technology than most merchant services. They are using the brand new technology in the US called FedNow Service, which allows for instant payments. You and your clients don’t have to wait days to get the cash in the bank account. And it fully integrates in all the important ways with QBO and Xero. And I am excited because they recently told me they are integrating with FreshBooks. Holla! Bang that graphic and check it out.
Deals Deals Deals
💰 Dubsado Decoded is 20% off through July 31st. Click HERE to snag this deal if you want to use Dubsado for your client management platform.
💰 This is the LAST time I will mention the Gusto Next Conference - grab your ticket for only $25!
💰 Kelli Parks is well known as a processes and workflow expert. She is having a 25% off sale on all her Cloud Accounting Templates. Lots of resources in this store. Use code JULY24.
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.
📅 July 9: Financial Cents Virtual Workflow Summit. Financial Cents One-Day Virtual Workflow Summit where 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. Quite the line up of speakers. 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 11: Bookkeeping Buds Magic Hour: Bookkeeping Buds hosts a FREE monthly office hour where you can ask your questions and learn about this community. Sign up HERE.
📅 July 16-18: Gusto Next conference in their HQ in San Francisco. Who is going?
Featured Posts
🌶️ Amber R. asked if you outsource your social media content. Lots of great ideas in the comments. Go add yours.
🌶️ Melissa J. wants to know what is the best calendar tool. Calendly got quite a few votes, but there were some other suggestions, too. What do you use? I’m a Calendly gal myself, but shared a resource about using native Google Calendar tools which is what I wish I would have started with.
🌶️ Chelsea C. asked for advice about building her business when she is in a small town with very few prospects and is struggling to have confidence and has limited time because she has a full time job. The comments will encourage many of you feeling these same feelings.
Help You Hustle
💪 So, most of you will not be compelled by this video arguing for niching in Xero. And that is ok. But some of you will. Some of you might riff on this and decide to do a niche in Odoo, Zoho, Freshbooks, etc. I hope you at least listen to the video and hear me out. I believe with all my heart that there is much success and joy and fun to be had by doing things a little differently.
All that I ask, if you do decide to give Xero a try, please use my referral link for accountants to set up their free Xero HQ account (their equivalent of QBOA).
💪 Remember last week we shared the round up of ways to hire your children to do actual work in your firm. Well, I found this stream by Matthew Fulton about working with the grown up kind of family members. Working with Family - The Good The Bad & The Ugly
💪 I saw that Shannon Ballman Theis was reviving her efforts to get her Enrolled Agent credential in 2024. And she doesn't even plan to do taxes. She is sticking with fixing messy payroll problems only. So you can join this free EA Test Study Group for accountability and support. Even if you don’t ever plan on filing a tax return (bless you if that is your thing!).
💪 Ignition is doing their call for nominations for Top 50 Women in Accounting. I think you can nominate yourself. Another awesome thing to do would be to nominate someone you look up to. Then maybe reach out to that person to let them know you nominated them. Could be a cool way to make a connection. Nominations close August 2. (I am not asking anyone to nominate me. I have won once already).
For Fun
💀 Y'all, the 2024 summer beat for accountants. “QuickBooks, Tax Prep, 10-Key”. So dang funny. The guy Michael Ly runs Reconciled, a huge firm that hires a lot of people. Might be a good fit for those who realize you would rather work for someone else. Will Lopez, Head of Accountant Channel for Gusto produced the video. Follow these guys.
My Family Circus
New section of this newsletter for 2024. Completely non-bookkeeping related.
🎪 This summer I have instituted a thing called Fort Worth Fridays for my kids and me. Every Friday we are loading up and doing something local to get to know our new city better. I have invited other families to join us, too.
And so far, I haven't even spent any money yet. We’ve done a picnic at this enormous water sculpture thing. We've visited the Federal Bureau of Engraving and Printing. We’ve gone to some art museums. I have even emailed the free museums to get tours scheduled. No matter how cultured I try to be, I always find I need someone to tell me what is special about artwork, otherwise I’m kinda lost roaming around, not really understanding why a canvas that has paint splattered on it is worth a million dollars. So I love tour guides. And my children behave better.
There are probably tons of cool, random things right under your nose. It doesn't have to be a big deal. It could be as simple as driving to the random historical marker you pass every day and having a picnic.
There is still time left to do some exploring. If you have some children who poo poo the idea, tell them you’ll buy them a Blizzard from DQ afterwards if they have a pleasant spirit.
Kate Builds In Public
🎢 I’m having less and less fun in my bookkeeping business over the last month. The 1-on-1 FreshBooks training that is my specialty is just getting more stressful, not less, which is not how becoming an expert is supposed to feel. I think that there must be a lot of development work going on behind the scenes over at FreshBooks, but I’ve had one too many recent incidents of being surprised by something that is happening in the software while I’m on a live call with a client. So I’m taking a breather. I’ve shut off my available meetings for prospective clients for the rest of July. I’ll still let clients who I’ve already worked with book 1-on-1 training time with me, but no one new is getting on my calendar. By taking a bit of a break from these clunky new client trainings, I hope I come back in a few weeks with excitement and joy to do that kind of work again. And in the mean time, I hope to have time to work on these things instead:
Update my pricing on my website.
Coming up with a template for social media posts to use when people give me reviews or great feedback on my FreshBooks YouTube videos. The comments on my videos have people gushing praise about me, and I never share that praise on social media anywhere. I need a system to toot my own horn.
Plan out a “Get Started With FreshBooks” video course.
Plan out videos with two different apps that have built integrations with FreshBooks that I would like to test and demo that will lead to affiliate commissions if FreshBooks users sign up for those integrations. These apps are banging on my door for this, and I keep putting it off because I’m busy with client meetings! Gah! And I know that it is this kind of work that gives me the passive income long into the future. Gotta get it done.
Break up with one of my longest clients who is so far outside of my ideal client, it is not even funny. I should have disengaged over a year ago.
Update The Bookkeeping Side Hustle Guidebook for this community.
🎢 My mother visited for 4 days then took the kids and me home with her for the week of 4th of July. My husband joined us later. The highlight of this family time is that I rescued a baby deer who had fallen through a cattle guard. Y’all, I held a tiny fawn in my hands! This baby was going to die a miserable death of dehydration or snake bite. I’m about 83% confident that the little tyke found it’s momma. But told my kids I was 100% confident the mom was waiting just inside the brush. So, so glad I spent last week driving around the south Texas countryside making these memories with my kids.
From The Vault
⚡ I’m on the road (again) with family, and I am having to get creative with my work spaces. Here is a video I made about my “mobile” office. How do you handle your office space when travelling?
Letters To The Editor
✉️ It was nice getting this note a month after an edition of this newsletter was shipped! My hope is that people do read the old editions! I try hard to make them mostly evergreen so you can read them at any time.
I'm catching up on old issues of the newsletter -- especially loved this one! Nancy M.
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Keep hustling!
Kate
-Chief Hustler-
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