The One About Muscles
Now, when it comes to building physical muscles in your body, I am not someone you should listen to. I'm a little bit soft and a little bit slow. I try to stay healthy, but I’ve never been one to love working out.
But I do think I know a thing or two about building “muscles” related to bookkeeping and to entrepreneurship.
It's actually not that different from working on our physique.
Here is what it takes:
Long term commitment to doing lots of reps of a variety of exercises that are increasingly difficult.
Let's break that definition down.
Long term commitment - Having noteworthy technical accounting skills or software skills won't happen overnight. Learning how to talk to prospects or how to manage workflows all come from time and experience. You can't really speed that up, though the more reps you do, the faster you will see progress. Which leads us to…
Reps - No real replacement for just sheer repetition. That is the athletic concept of muscle memory, where the thing you want to do that used to be difficult is just natural now. Want to run far and fast? You've got to run 100s and100s of miles. Want to shoot like Steph Curry? That's 100s of 3s PER DAY. So the more accounting practice you can get, the better. The more QBO tutorials you can watch, the better. If you want to start sending Loom videos to clients, you need to force yourself to make 20 Looms in a month (they can be about almost anything you want). Want to get better at talking about your bookkeeping business, go visit 100 businesses in your town and ask if they need a bookkeeper. You will be a bumbling, scrawny, chicken-legged weakling when you start and a dang ripped Superman by number 100, ready for the next hard thing.
Variety of Exercises - You’ve heard the concept of coaches having their NFL football players taking ballet classes, right? That is an extreme example, but it illustrates cross-training perfectly. If you really want to get your brain really jacked and capable of learning harder and harder things, you have to do a variety of exercises. I don't ever want to do taxes, but I did the VITA volunteer tax preparer program because it was a very different accounting exercise for me. I am making myself do 1-on-1 training of Freshbooks clients instead of just trying to get a handful of monthly Freshbooks clients because I need to see a variety of use cases and problems if I am going to know FreshBooks inside and out. And I made myself build a website when I had absolutely zero experience with anything like that. And y’all, I am a somewhat tech-averse person! Sure, my website is kinda lame-ish, but it gets the job done, and it made me think that I could conquer almost anything. And I have the added benefit that I can update it on my own, which is huge! For my own personal business journey, the website task was like the story of the extremely overweight person losing 200 pounds.
Increasingly difficult - If you only ever lift 5 pound weights you might be generally healthy, but you won't be swole. If you only jog 2 miles at sea level, you will never do a half marathon in Colorado. So, for example, if you want to use the power of video to grow your practice, you can't just make individual Loom videos for clients. You have to push yourself and figure out how to put your common generic responses on YouTube to reuse them. In a bookkeeping software, you can't just classify cash basis bank transactions as expenses. The client will eventually buy a truck or get a loan or bring on a partner and that is harder accounting. You can't just mark all the deposits to Sales if you ever want to advise them on Item/Service profitability. You can't start charging Advisory prices if you don't start learning about KPIs and forecasting or budgeting.
But look, I don’t want to oversell myself. I mean, if any of you could ever literally watch me work in my business, I promise you that you wouldn’t think I am taking steps to become the bookkeeping or entrepreneurial version of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. I plan on staying pretty regular. But I do make a lot more money and have a lot more confidence than I did when I started. If I had a “before and after” photo like people take when they start to transform their bodies, you would say “wow”. But it is WORK!
The Kate of 5 years ago would not believe her eyes when she saw Kate of today and what she can do.
I want you to build bigger bookkeeping business muscles with me. It feels so good!
You know, some people are self disciplined enough to set out on their own and build a home gym and work out on their own every day. But there is a reason Orange Theory and local CrossFit boxes are so popular. A lot of people realize they need companions, a trainer, and accountability.
Our sponsor Pachira Business Solutions is kind of like that. I do think their model is a great fit for many bookkeeping entrepreneurs who want to quickly make moves to have a successful business. They will tell you exactly what to do to build certain muscles quickly. They offer customized bookkeeping training, help you set up your essential systems, and also offer emergency support when you find yourself in a big bind with a client.
Deals Deals Deals
💰 Bookkeepers MUST know how bookkeeping translates to the tax return. Tax Ready Books LIVE 3-Day Small Business Bookkeeping Bootcamp helps us learn that. You can get $100 off special pricing, but it ends on Monday, April 15. Use this link* to sign up and get $100 off!
Here are the deets from Maritte Martinez 👇 This LIVE 3-Day Bootcamp starts on Monday April 22nd and will be held for 3 consecutive days through April 24th. We will provide a BONUS 90-Minute session on Friday, April 26th. A 3-hour virtual session will be held each day from 10-1pm PT with a small break. All live training sessions will be available to watch as replays in addition to getting full access to the Tax Ready Books Online Course immediately after completing the 3-Day bootcamp. This live learning option + online course is ONLY available twice a year, so don't miss out!
💰 Veronica Wasek’s training arm, 5MB Academy, is having a spring sale*. 12% off all courses and templates from April 23-30. Check out the library today and put a reminder in your calendar.
💰 GrowCon* will be in Jacksonville, Florida, on May 6-7. Use KJ200 for $200 off.
💰 The CFO Acclerator is $500 off * through April 15 PLUS you get a free ticket to The CFO Accelerator Live event in May. I’ll be there at the live event because I want to start to learn to “speak CFO” and charge advisory-level prices!
💰 XeroCon will be in Nashville, TN, August 14-15. You can use code XCNASH24-first-access for $150 off your ticket to XeroCon through April 30. Hurry! Prices go up April 1! I thin there is HUGE room for folks to niche in Xero as a way to stand out from the bookkeeping crowd.
Please always send me any news of deals that you hear of that others might benefit from.
Be There or Be Square
📅 +April 15 & 29: Co-working Hour. Ever have tasks you are dreading? Me too. I save those for Monday morning BSH Co-working Hour. RSVP to the FB event so you get a reminder and get those tasks done! April 15 and April 29.
📅 +April 23: Homeschooling Bookkeepers. If being a homeschool family has ever crossed your mind, come join me as I interview a panel of 3 bookkeepers who also homeschool. RSVP and drop your questions HERE.
📅 April 22-24: Tax Ready Books Bootcamp with Mariette Martinez. Learn more and register HERE*
📅 +April 25: How To Get Started in Bookkeeping. Come join me for a 2nd Q&A session. This is a time for you to ask questions about starting your bookkeeping biz. You must register to join - I want everyone to feel safe asking their questions. (reminder: I WILL NOT be answering technical bookkeeping or software questions). Register HERE.
📅 May 2: Keeper Demo. Learn about the 2024 updates in Keeper from Co-founder & CEO Ben Stein. RSVP in the Facebook group to get reminders and grab the link to watch.
📅 May 15-17: The CFO Accelerator Live conference in Dallas*. Want to sit with me? Let me know you are coming.
Help You Hustle
💪 Appy Camp is taking applications via this form. This accounting conference has an education bent. They are trying to gather all the folks that want to create educational content related to accounting, whether it be writing, courses, speaking at conferences, etc. I went to the inaugural Appy Camp in 2022 and have gotten paid speaking gigs at conferences and grown a second YouTube channel about FreshBooks. Much credit goes to Appy Camp. Learn about the camp hosts, Heather and Liz, at their facebook page.
💪 There a new directory for CPAs. The creator of it called it Yelp For Accountants. Saw it on this Twitter post and the webpage is here. (The webpage is rough, but there are some legit firms listed already, so this doesn’t appear to be a joke). I got up in their DMs asking if non-CPAs (like yours truly) could be on the list, but they said it was only CPAs for now. Boo. But I advocated for them at least including Enrolled Agents. We’ll see how this grows. Looks free to join as of now.
💪 Back to the concept of doing lots of reps. I’ll share my recommendation about how I got lots of awkward practice talking about opening my bookkeeping business.
I was a guest at 2 local BNI meetings. Little bit cult-ish, but I know people who built their entire bookkeeping biz by BNI membership alone. I never wanted to be a paying member, but everyone of you can go for a free visit to you local chapters. It was exhilarating standing up and saying what I did! BNI has thousands of chapters. Just go! You won't be any worse off.
I saw the local Virginia Beach Real Estate Investors Club was having a “Speed Networking” night. I paid $20 to be an outside visitor to the meeting. That meeting was how I got my first client.
The course I took to get my business started just recommends putting 100 business cards or postcards in local business’s hands. Then follow up.
💪 If you are looking for reps of hands-on practice and simulations in QBO, the best place I know of is The QBO Locker Room* (free) and The QBO Gym* (paid, and better/harder than the Locker Room)
💪 If you are looking for basic accounting lessons and exercises, there seems to be a consensus that AccountingCoach.com is a great place for that.
For Fun
😹 Come add to the list of the weirdest expenses a bookkeeper has ever had to classify.
Jobs
💼 Check out the BSH Job Opp Google sheet. Click HERE to see the list and go apply!. Be sure to use #jobopp when posting about jobs!
My Family Circus
New section of this newsletter for 2024. Completely non-bookkeeping related.
🎪 I grew up down on the Texas/Mexico border and Mexican culture has something called cascarones for Easter. Instead of dying boiled eggs, they delicately remove the yolk from eggs and fill them with confetti and then crack them on each other’s heads. It was a annual tradition in my childhood, and I’ve kept is going with my own kids.
It is way more fun that just dying hard boiled eggs. And it is not that hard. Just search for a YouTube video about it. You can even make them for special occasions, like birthdays, graduations, last day of school, etc. Easy way to add spice to your life.
What are some of your unique ways to make memories and fun in your house? Comment below.
Kate Builds In Public
🎢 I have told y’all endless times in this section of the newsletter about my idea to build semi “passive income” via a group membership program for FreshBooks (read the archive, y’all). Well, I am losing members of my FreshBooks office hours more quickly than I thought I would. I can’t crack the 20-member mark. I just feel like I should tell y'all that. This plan I had to have a bunch of people pay me to have access to me via a weekly group meeting about FreshBooks is not going nearly as well as I had hoped. Easy money ain't so easy. I truly think these people who are leaving the group really need my support. But I am not demonstrating the value, I guess.
🎢 Summertime is almost here. I am getting nervous. In the last 12 months, I have made most of my money in my bookkeeping business via 1-on-1 FreshBooks training. I literally could have as many 1-on-1 trainings as I wanted at $125 per hour. And I love how much I am learning about FreshBooks because I am seeing so many different use cases that I get to fix or puzzle through. But tons of scheduled appointments on my calendar are not a great fit for a summer with a 12, 10, and 9 year old at home, if I don’t want them begging to be on a screen or have to pay for camps or sitters. Here is how I’m coping, but I’m still having some mental hang ups because I feel like I can’t “have it all” (in this case, an idyllic summer PLUS working as much as I want on the tasks I want to work on).
Kid swaps - I’ve arranged for a couple of kid swaps with 2 different moms. But this isn’t as easy as it was in our old town where I had strong friendships before we moved to Fort Worth this year.
1 camp each month of summer, on the same week.
I’m going to change my Calendly appointment settings to only allow clients to book appointments on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but I’ll let them be closer together and allow more of them (currently my settings only allow for 2 meetings per day of my 15 minute prospective client call and my hourly training call). This will make for possibly harder days on those days, BUT still preserve 3 days a week for no meetings and maybe no work.
From The Vault
⚡ How do you think about giving a portion of your money away? I’ve made 2 videos about how I think about tithing and how things changed when I became a business owner.
Note, these are on my client-facing YouTube Channel. The internet is a wild place. You can just capture your thoughts and share them to the entire world and prospective clients might like what you have to say.
Classifieds (Clickable)
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Keep hustling!
Kate
-Chief Hustler-
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