The One About Mini-Retirements
TL;DR
Confession: In my bookkeeping business, Heritage Business Services, I would make a grand total of about $400 per month if I stopped working. I have hired help on 3 small monthly clients and keep a cut of the monthly fee I charge.
I mean, $400 is $400, but I recognize that is like 2 trips to the grocery store in this economy.
My point is, if my rear end is not at my desk, I basically don't make money. My business is ME. I earn a respectable income as a bookkeeper because I do bookkeeping.
Side note: As I always try to make clear by very obvious disclosures, I do make money from my “Bookkeeping Side Hustle” persona. That income would probably still come in for a few months because links on the internet still get clicked, but it would certainly dwindle.
But there really are real life grown ups with real responsibilities who take very deliberate steps to be able to walk away from their jobs for extended periods of time. I got very jazzed about this recent episode about “mini-retirements” from Choose FI. I’ve already listened to it twice.
Now, I’m not looking to stop working forever (I believe God created humans to do productive work, paid or not), but could I be one of those people who has a business that I can leave and the business still operates? Could you?
Mark Wickersham applies this concept to our specific industry in this recent podcast episode called “Designing A Business For Success”. The more I learn about him, the more I realize he has practiced what he preaches, and that is a good person to learn from. He changed his life to one where, instead of having a large business with 30 employees, he has built a business that allowed him to move to the beaches of Portugal, ride his bicycle a lot (that tan, y’all!), and employ his life partner and their 2 daughters.
Next week he is hosting the 2023 Value Conference where, yes, you will learn about value pricing, but also about how to earn more money, doing more enjoyable work and working less hard. The more that you are able to capture the value that you bring as an outstanding bookkeeper, the more you’ll be able to build that life that could lead to…whatever you are dreaming of.
Maybe it is not “mini-retirements” that you dream of? Maybe it is
Employing a certain demographic and paying them really well.
Spending summers with your children.
Being a short-term respite provider for foster families.
Being an adult camp counselor at a summer camp for children with disabilities.
Coaching the football or robotics team for your child’s school.
Face it. It takes money to give you options like that. Mark teaches bookkeepers tactics on how to earn more money. Use code HUSTLE75OFF for 75% off when you register for this event!
Deals Deals Deals
💰 The 2023 Value Conference starts THIS Tuesday! Use code HUSTLE75OFF to get 75% off your ticket! Get your tickets HERE.*
💰 Have you always wanted that QBO Advanced ProAdvisor Cert? Only 10% of us bookkeepers can say we have the Advanced ProAdvisor Cert. Use code 46SEPT23 for 43% off the Advanced Certification course* from Fast & Easy QBO. That is one heck of a deal. BUT the catch is, you really need to complete the course in October, before Intuit pauses the course in early November to update it for 2024.
💰 Join Breakaway Advisors before the fee goes up in October. If this affordable franchise model is of interest to you, tell them I sent you.
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.
📅 Oct 3-5: Value Conference 2023 with Mark Wickersham. Use HUSTLE75OFF to get 75% off.
📅 Oct 3: FreshBooks Unveiling The Future of Accounting. I’m definitely going to listen to this one! Whether or not you use FreshBooks, you will want to attend this virtual event. Twyla Verhelst and Geni Whitehouse will be presenting how you can expand your practice and increase your firm’s value. Register HERE. Oh, and one lucky attendee stands a chance to receive a gift package worth over $4500 USD.
📅 +Oct 4: How To Start Offering Advisory Services In Your Firm. Luke Templin from FinDaily will talk to us how to offer advisory services in your business. If this idea seems out-of-reach you will want to watch this, as he will help explain how to do this with any client. RSVP HERE so you don’t miss the live recording or catch the replay HERE.
📅 Oct 10: Prepare for Year-End Webinar. This webinar hosted by Xenett will show you their Intelligent Clean-Up Tool that can help you expedite and streamline your review and close processes and make sure January is not a disaster.
📅 +Oct 26: Fowardly Demo. Learn more about Fowardly, a real-time payments solution for small businesses. This demo will show how this payment processing software works. RSVP for the live demo HERE or catch the replay HERE.
📅 Oct 31 - Nov 2: Accounting Salon Speaker Series. Join industry leaders for a six-session, CPE-qualified series on important practice management topics on October 31, November 1 and November 2. The entire series is free, but you must register for each session individually.
10/31: Content Creation for Accountants with Lorilyn Wilson
10/31: Using ChatGPT in Your Firm with Brian Clare and Heather Smith
11/1: Empowering Your Clients to Trust Technology with Tate Henshaw
11/1: Growing Intentionally - A 4-Step Approach to Unlocking Sustainable Growth with Keila Hill-Trawick
11/2: Unlocking Accounting Mysteries to Empower Your Clients with Twyla Verhelst
11/2: Disengaging with Grace and Ease with Sherrell Martin
Featured Posts
🌶️ Sarah W. has had some issues with 3rd party authentication with multiple people using the same apps. This is SUCH A HEADACHE for our industry. We all face it. How have you overcome this problem?
Help You Hustle
💪 I made up a new phrase last week- "Accounting Adjacent Income".
You can learn all about what I mean in this interview with Hughes & Strong. They found an unmet need in our industry, and they filled it.
See, they consult on the reporting and client management app called Keeper. They earn a living in the accounting space, but not doing direct client accounting work. The reason I brought them on to talk to you, is that I want you ALL to think of something else you can do in our industry to make money that lines up with your skills, background, and passions. Open your eyes to start looking for money in more places.
Here is an analogy to the sports industry. The main task of {generic Sports Ball sport} is to have two teams play each other. But there are so many ideas for sports adjacent income:
Parking lot if you live close by
Swag
Custom-built fan barbeque pits
Fan podcasting
Journalist
Photographer
Painting school logos on people’s driveway curbs like all these dang purple TCU addresses on my new street. 🤮
This interview is especially good for people in this bookkeeping/accounting/finance/consulting industry who struggle to truly love recurring bookkeeping and monthly reporting and building a “traditional firm” (like me).
💪 Have any clients on Xero? Quick! Tell them to apply for the inaugural Beautiful Business Fund from Xero. They are giving more than $450K globally to small businesses. A small business client can earn between $12,500 and $30,000! The deadline to apply is October 6th. Here is a letter template Xero wrote for you to share this opportunity with your clients.
💪 The #AccountingSaloon (not to be confused with the Accounting Salon mentioned above) is a monthly Twitter chat about Advisory Services that is just getting started. It is the 4th Thursday of every month. These types of Twitter hashtag gatherings have been done in the past in different forms, and I can tell it is how a lot of introverted accounting folks make some really good friends. And you can only type 280 characters, right? How badly could you mess that up?😉 Become an early participant! Click here and then click the “follow” button to follow the hashtag.
💪 Are you looking to boost sales? I’m personally looking to line up more project work over the next 2 months, not in December (family) and January (year end reporting and stupid 1099s). So I’m going to utilize this “6 word email that can boost sales” from Ryan Lazanis from Future Firm. I’ve already sent this to a few select clients. I’m a little afraid to send it to my entire ~200 person prospect email list, but I might do that if my selective method doesn’t work out.
Ready for the text of the email??? 👇
"Hi {first name},
How's business coming along?
{your name}"
For Fun
😹 This video is a good representation of the consultant/client relationship, but if you watch, you have to watch to the end. Thanks Jennifer R. for sharing!
Jobs
Note to people looking to hire help: NOW is the time of year to be finding and training help for Year-End. Hired help will be no good to you if you wait until December or January when you can’t sleep because you are overwhelmed. You can list your positions in the Facebook group. Be sure to add #JobOpportunity in your post so we can add them to the “Guide”. And make your application a bit “tough”. Require a written answer about an accounting problem. And/or a short Loom video about anything (most important KPIs for your niche, or how they handled a tricky bookkeeping situation, etc).
💼 New job opportunities were added to the Job Guide. Check out the guide if you are looking for work like this:
Multiple part-time bookkeeper positions
Part-time QBO proficient position
One-time bookkeeping gig for a non-profit
Temp position for a clean-up job
Northern Virginia real estate bookkeeper
Don’t forget the standing opps on my Find A Freelance Job article. 1099 and W-2 opps.
Kate Builds In Public
🎢 In the last 2 weeks alone, I have had 5 businesses sign up for Gusto using my referral link. Each one is $300 to me and $100 to them. I can't express to you how little I do to promote this. I have a single video on my tiny client-facing YouTube channel about Gusto. And I have shared it ZERO times after I first uploaded it, but I assume that is how I’m getting the clicks for them to sign up for Gusto. I need to get thinking about how I can share the link with my tiny email list without feeling like a slimy shill. What would you do to (ethically) get your referral link from your preferred payroll provider in front of more businesses. Please reply below right here on this newsletter.
🎢 I finished two easy 2023 clean ups in record time in the last 2 weeks ($800 and $840). BOTH of these clients also paid for 2 additional hours of 1-on-1 training and they joined my office hours group. These engagements are exactly my most desired type of client engagement.
Giving them a healthy and accurate bookkeeping file (what a powerful and respectable service to provide an entrepreneur)
Training them on the software (I love this)
Supporting them in my office hours support group for DIYers (where I am not actually responsible for their books and have no deliverables other than showing up for the weekly zoom Q&A)
🎢 I have received 2 new testimonials from happy clients. Here is the text I have saved to send clients after I’ve done some good work.
It was a pleasure to help you with your FreshBooks account and small business questions.
If you were pleased with my service, would you mind leaving a review on my Google Business Profile? The direct link to do so is here (linked to my Google My Business).
And if you found value in working with me, the best way to say thank you is to pass along any referrals of other small business owners who need help with their bookkeeping on FreshBooks.
🎢 I told you I signed up those 2 new clients to my office hours. Unfortunately, I also lost one gentleman because he switched his bookkeeping from FreshBooks to Odoo. Do you know that Odoo has a partner program that you can join? In the US, the directory currently has only TWENTY TWO people listed. Anyone going to become the world's best Odoo consultant?!?! C'mon! Be different!
They have a free Road Show event in Louisville Kentucky THIS WEEK on October 5. If you live within 3 hours, you should go! Business expense! This one event could change your life. And the event is for SMBs, so I’d bet you $100 you’d get a client if you said you could do bookkeeping. Then just scramble to learn the software.
If you go to this event, please tell me and I’ll interview you about it! (someone please find Odoo’s marketing person and tell them they need to advertise in this newsletter or at least give me a referral link 🤑!)
🎢 My father came to visit for 3 days and my mom and stepdad dad will come for 4 days next week. I worked some, but not a lot. It is really nice to just block off my calendar where no clients can book me.
From The Vault
⚡ Are you saving your hard earned money? One year ago Sean Mullaney came on the BSH YouTube channel to talk about Solo 401(K)S and retirement planning for bookkeeping entrepreneurs. He mentions that October is a good month to get things set up…and tomorrow is Oct 1st.
Classifieds (Clickable)
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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.
In regards to your Gusto question, always make it about them! The client. How does it help them? Easy to use, excellent customer service, on time pay, etc.
Of course the $100 reward is a perk too!
(I’m with you on always disclosing that I get a kickback too.)