The One About Micro Conferences
Pick one. Please pick one.
TL;DR
This email is hitting your inbox while I’m on a plane to a giant conference called Scaling New Heights.
This annual conference was the very first accounting conference I attended back in 2021. It was truly a milestone moment for me.
It caused a huge mental shift. I didn't just have a cute little “mommy does some bookkeeping” business.
I was an entrepreneur who was investing in herself to grow a real business.
And y’all, I definitely think that you should attend Scaling New Heights if you ever get the chance. I give it a 10 out of 10. This will be my 3rd time attending.
So, I hope it is clear that I am a fan of this event.
But I do need to tell you that this event is huge. Huge in every way.
There are going to be tons of people there.
It is 5 days long.
It is in an enormous, swanky event center and hotel that has every possible amenity.
There are so many vendor parties to choose from every night.
There are so many great breakout sessions at every hour of the day that it can be hard to choose what to attend.
So, if that sounds overwhelming or out of budget or impossible to fit into your family schedule, I want to let you know about a different kind of accounting event.
I'm calling them micro-conferences.
My criteria is either that they are low cost OR short in duration OR have a limited number of attendees.
A micro conference might feel more like slowing wading into a zero-entry pool vs cannonballing into the deep end.
Keep scrolling to the Help You Hustle section to get a list of several that I have rounded up for you to consider, but before you scroll, click that graphic from our title sponsor Xero because they are hitting the road this summer and are likely coming to a city near you. They're going all over the US. And even if you don't serve clients on Xero (yet) I think you should go. Y'all know I made my decision a long time ago to niche in FreshBooks, but even I have attended a one-day Xero roadshow when it came to Austin, Texas. Because the accounting pros who attend Xero Road Shows are the type of people I want to put myself around and learn from.
And this event is so heavily subsidized (for real, check the price) that when you compare the low cost to the amount of swag you will get and the really good food and drinks they will serve you, attending this micro conference is almost like making money. Heck, tack on an overnight with your main squeeze, and call it a romantic getaway (biz-expense style!).
Deals Deals Deals
💰 I saw a discount code for the “Ask A Bookkeeper” community. Try it out for free for a month with code WELCOME30.
💰 Get 15% off the Bookkeeper Sales Script Vault* from 5 Minute Bookkeeper Academy with code 5mbjune25. Expires soon.
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.
📅 June 22 - If you will be attending Scaling New Heights, come see my presentation at 1:10. I’m teaching all about how and why I have built an “office hours” group membership service inside my firm. Be sure to say hello!
📅+ June 26 - Behind The Hustle. Tune in for the first interview of this new BSH series where successful bookkeepers share how they started their hustle. Subscribe to the BSH YouTube channel and click NOTIFY so you don’t miss it! More interviews coming this summer!
📅 Jun 30 - QBO ProAdvisor Recertification Deadline. Don’t let it sneak up on you (cough, cough…talking to myself). Akadian Accounting Education has a companion course just for the recert* if the materials from Intuit aren’t enough to pass the tests.
📅 July 1 - Bookkeeper's Networking Party* in Seattle. 10:00am - 2:00pm. This party is pretty meta because it is a networking party where you get to practice networking skills that you will use to get clients.
📅+July 9 - State of the Virtual Bookkeeping & Accounting Industry: 2025 Survey Results. Serena Shoup, The Ambitious Bookkeeper, and I will discuss the results of her survey. If you want all the results of this survey, go here*. RSVP in the FB group to get the link to watch.
📅 July 17 - August 21 - Xero US Roadshows. Get ready for an action-packed day at the Xero Roadshow! Experience hands-on product demos, expert-led sessions on advisory services, AI, and app stacks, plus valuable networking opportunities with Xero partners and industry leaders. There are going all over the US - see which one is closest to you HERE and GO!
📅 July 21 - Start date for the “college style” QuickBooks Online Complete Hands On Training* with Alicia Katz Pollock.
Featured Posts
🌶️ Vulnerable post from Annie G. She just lost one career to AI. She is asking if bookkeeping might be the next industry on the AI chopping block. 68 comments and counting.
🌶️ A client asks you to pull and email them 12 months of bank statements. How do you respond?
🌶️ A client asks you to do manual payroll instead of using a full-service payroll app. How do you respond?
Help You Hustle
💪 Keeper Demo. This updated Keeper Demo video is for the “Keeper-Curious”. The best time to implement a tool like Keeper was yesterday. The next best time is today. If you are serious about building a well run business (even if you want a small, lifestyle firm like I do), start implementing a practice management tool NOW.
If you’ve already implemented Keeper in your business, don’t forget about our “Keeper Power User” video for those who are already using Keeper and want to use it like a smart person uses it. Use your tools well, people!
💪 List of accounting “Micro Conferences” that I know of . They all meet the criteria of having a limited # of attendees, OR are inexpensive, OR are short in duration (or maybe a combination of these criteria).
Xero Road Shows - US, Summer 2025
Bookkeepers Networking Party* - Seattle, July 2025
Bridging the Gap - Denver, July 2025
Reframe - Miami, November 2025
Wave - Seattle, May 2026
CEO Weekend by Stephanie Manley occurs quarterly
A few more might get tagged on this LinkedIn post I made asking for folks to chime in.
If you know of other events that could be added to this list, comment with your favorites below! I by no means trying to be exclusive. I put out a call, and this is what came up.
Jobs
💼 Check out the Job Guide for new job postings - and don’t forget to use #jobopp when posting your jobs.
My Family Circus (43F, 40M, 13M, 12F, 11M)
🎪Experts are amazing
In my mind, I know that (most) museums are important and the things in them are there for a reason, but sometimes museums can make me feel like a big dummy. “Why is this fragment of a rock so special? I swear I have 8 just like it at my own house.” Or “This painting looks like a toddler painted it, so why is it worth a gajillion dollars?”
But there are people out there who really care about that rock fragment or art history. It's their jam.
So did you know that you can just send emails requesting a private tour to all the nearest museums in your area and say that you and your friends are a “summer homeschool group” (which is not really a lie if you live the kind of nerdy lifestyle my family lives and keep the kind of friends that we keep). And some of them will write back and tell you that you are welcome to come in for a guided tour with a docent.
You won't regret it.
I have done this many times in many places in my life.
Some museums make the group tour request form harder to find than others, but most of them have some way to request a tour if you are persistent.
It is such a priceless opportunity to give children (and adults) a chance to cultivate their appreciation for beautiful things and expert knowledge, and to practice their civility.
We did this for the 2nd time last week at the Kimball Art Museum. If you live near DFW, ask for the “Sketch and See” tour for an interactive experience (remember how I told y'all here how we frequently draw as a family when we go someplace cool together?).
Kate Builds In Public
🎢 Y'all, I told you I would do it! And I did it!
Well, sort of. In this past newsletter edition from January, I told you that I was going to work hard to reach $500 as my regular monthly referral payout from Relay. And I just got a deposit for $870 for May!
Technically, I said I would hit that goal by March, which did not happen. But the average of March - May is $468. Pretty darn close.
How are you learning about (ethical) referral sales? What successes have you had in this regard? Will you share in a comment on this newsletter?
I am going to declare to the world that I want at least two months to be over $1,000 by the end of 2025. Want to watch me do it? Subscribe to this dang newsletter!
👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇
🎢 I did another thing I said I would do. I told y’all I do not like to create content that only gets used one time. It took me almost 6 weeks, but I was finally able to book another virtual venue to deliver my “Choosing Your Financial Tech Stack” talk. I think this will have an even larger audience than the first time I delivered it. (Reminder, I have made this presentation available for sale for accounting pros to take and deliver on their own).
Now I still need to find another accounting professor to let me in their classroom in the fall to redo the FreshBooks session I did in April for students at UT Dallas. Any accounting professors reading this?
And I need to find another place to push out my “Paid Membership Communities” talk I am going to deliver to the Scaling New Heights attendees tomorrow. This one is for y'all accounting peers to learn about how I offer my FreshBooks Office Hours group service inside my firm. If you are reading this and have connections to accounting education spaces, hook me up!
From The Vault
⚡Speaking of conferences, Keeper has hosted an event called Keeper Karaoke for the last 5 years. I’m super excited to get on that karaoke stage with mic in my hand Sunday night in Orlando. Any suggestions for what song I should sing?
Should it be this oldie-but-goodie Bookkeeping Side Hustle Anthem that I wrote and recorded for the community YouTube Channel. (What was I thinking?!?!)
Letters To The Editor
✉️ In response to the recent edition about becoming a true expert in the handful of tools that you use most.
Thanks for the inspiration, Kate! I know I'm not using any of my tools to their fullest capabilities (maybe not even 50%), and I get frustrated with myself when I see how others are using the same tools. I'm going to accept your challenge and I'm going to start today! Beth S.
✉️ I’m always glad to hear how the BSH Pub helps - even beyond the bookkeeping world.
I love what you shared about delaying cell phones. I read The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt earlier this year (I now recommend it to all my friends raising kids!) and he suggests a similar idea of communicating with other parents in your circle/school. It is always easier to implement this when others are on board! I still have two school-aged boys (9th and 4th) and while my 9th grader has a cell phone, he has no social media. And we are delaying that (along with a phone for the 4th grader) as long as possible. Thanks for sharing this! It is encouraging to hear other parents are doing something similar!
I just signed up for your newsletter earlier this month and I am enjoying it!
Jennifer A.
Classifieds (Clickable)
Keep hustling!
Kate
-Chief Hustler-
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I am down right rabid about transparency and full disclosure. If a link, including Amazon Links, 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.
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