The One About Plagiarism
TL;DR
This week I had to complete an orientation for an online school with my 3rd grader (he hasn’t been accepted to the in-person school we want him to attend with his brother and sister yet 😭). One of the orientation topics was about plagiarism. The little guy and I had a great discussion, and it got me thinking about my own business and my peers (you, reader!).
This little 3rd grade training exercise walked my son through all the people that were hurt when someone plagiarizes. And the group that caught my attention was that the entire community was harmed when one student cheats. It hurts the entire school.
How true.
Applying the concept to bookkeeping and business ownership, when any one of us steals from another, it hurts ALL of us.
I’ve seen plagiarism in our industry.
Hiring people to take the ProAdvisor test for you. 🤥
Reusing social media images and text. 💩
People have copied other people’s online courses and sold them as their own. 🤡
Shoot, some thief even took my Bookkeeping Side Hustle Guidebook and put it on their site. 👿
How do these robberies hurt all of us?
It breaks trust between us.
It makes the industry as a whole dumber.
It will cause the more experienced among us not to create teaching material, etc, because they won’t be able to get a sufficient ROI for creating education and content that those of us who want to be smart and build reputable businesses need.
Think back to the times in your life when you have been tempted to steal someone else’s work? For me, I think there are two broad categories when I’ve felt this way.
I did not allocate sufficient time to study, prepare, create, etc (a.k.a Do the task).
I am out of my area of expertise.
The cures for these to problems are
Prioritize time to do the tasks I need to do that I am currently capable of doing.
Get the training I need to fill in my knowledge gap when I can’t do something.
There might even be a few other cures, assuming you want to use someone else’s content just because you are out of time, not because you don’t know the material.
You can just cite your source (this is what I do all the time when I’m sharing someone else’s content to clients/prospects) or ask the person you are wanting to emulate for permission to borrow and then riff on their idea and see what they say.
So thanks for coming to my sermon about stealing from other people’s brains. Don’t do it. It hurts me, it hurts our industry, it hurts your clients, and ultimately, it hurts you.
Alyssa Lang, the Workflow Queen has an upcoming free training that will help you build the systems you need to free up your time do the tasks you need to do in a controlled and confident manner. And she will help you fill in those knowledge gaps so you can ethically build your business to ultimately become a removable CEO. And best of all, my favorite marker of an industry coach to follow, she legitimately has her own bookkeeping business called Magnetic Bookkeeping and Consulting. 👏👏👏
Bang that graphic to have your next Breakthrough now!
Deals Deals Deals
💰 Margie Remmers-Davis has her Basic ProAdvisor Exam course is on sale for only $59 for the month of August (that’s a rich discount at $100 off!). Grab it now and have the course on hand to use when your kids are back in school.🤪 Use my link and code SUMMER59 to get the discount.
And please don’t forget that obtaining your QBO ProAdvisor cert does not make you a good bookkeeper! It shows you can pass a basic knowledge test about a particular software. You still have to have a solid grasp of accounting fundamentals or you are going to make a mess!
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.
📅 Mondays in August: Bookkeeping Side Hustle Community Co-working Hour. Now that I’m living in the real world (read: somewhere with service), I will be hosting the weekly co-working hour on Zoom on Mondays at 11am EST. Zoom link (password: HUSTLE)
📅 August 10-11: AI/ChatGPT for Accountants and Bookkeepers Virtual Summit -Mark Wickersham FCA will guide you through the intricacies of AI application in accounting, demonstrating how ChatGPT can revolutionize the way you work. You'll receive real-world examples and actionable steps to help you become an AI master. Sign up HERE.
📅 August 21-25: The Power to Breakthrough Bootcamp is for bookkeepers & accoutants who want to scale their firm. Hosted by The Workflow Queen. Sign up for this FREE event HERE.
📅 Sept 14-15: Bookkeeping Buds Retreat. I’m speaking at this one! Let’s hang!
📅 Sept 30: Deadline for Scaling New Heights conference presentation topics.
Featured Posts
🌶️ Joana L. shared a great post as usual. This time it was about the average bookkeeper hourly rates per state. Food for thought.
🌶️ Jennifer A. offered the idea of being a podcast guest to find clients, specifically on LOCAL podcasts, even though you should serve local clients in a virtual way. Go check out the post to see her guest appearance and drop a link to any podcasts you’ve been on!
🌶️ Sunetra Z. asked about FaceBook ads and it seems like they aren’t worth it unless you have a bigger budget. Have you had success running FB ads?
🌶️ Nicholas B. asked the best way to communicate sensitive information and yall provided lots of good ideas.
🌶️ Movi H. shared about a spam/scam FB business review. Seems like this isn’t the first time yall have seen this. Some tips were shared in the comments, but man! Why are some people scammers!
Help You Hustle
💪 This “Waitlist” concept from a Texas tax pro (though do note that he is trying to build the monthly recurring revenue bookkeeping side of his business 😉) has been on my mind a lot lately, mostly related to how my life circumstances have turned this summer into more of a sabbatical for my business. It has been rough knowing I can’t take on much new work this summer (other than my one-on-one training calls that I love). But if I planned a very nice “waitlist” workflow starting in May of next year, I could keep the pipeline full for the school year and also present myself as a pretty “in-demand” bookkeeper. Anyone else use a waitlist concept during peak busy times? How do you manage it? Comment below in Substack.
💪 I just saw that A2X eCommerce integration has a certification. 👀 Over 500 of our peers have completed it. If you aren’t learning about eCommerce, you are behind the ball. My hunch is that the cert would be enlightening about the unique needs of eCommerce accounting in general, beyond just teaching A2X. I’m not exactly sure about the process to sign up, but the serious among you will do the digging required to figure out how to get signed up for the cert. If you do this training, will you come back and offer the Bookkeeping Side Hustle Community your feedback?
For Fun
💀 Do IRS and speedier belong in the same sentence?
😹 Not related to accounting at all, but the Leanne Morgan comedy special on Netflix is what got my funny bone with week. Pretty clean (I think she might say 2 cuss words), but not for kids.
Jobs
💼 Checkout the Job Opportunities Guide in the BSH Facebook Group for the latest job postings.
💼 Here are some of the latest job posts:
One time tax job
Bookkeeper/Staff Accountant
Part-time Virtual Assistant/Bookkeeper
QBO Clean-up job
Don’t forget the standing opps on my Find A Freelance Job article. 1099 and W-2 opps.
Kate Builds In Public
🎢 I drove to the Xero Road Show in Austin last week. There is still time for you West Coast readers to go to the one in southern California on August 17. Get your ticket here. I highly recommend it. I wrote a short twitter thread about it. Hope to write more about my learnings later. But for now I’ll just say, new bookkeeping entrepreneurs and freelancers, you simply must check out Xero! I truly believe it with all my heart.
🎢 I received a rejection letter for my 2 topic submissions to QuickBooks Connect. Whomp, Whomp. Never feels good to get turned down. But I’m still here. Plugging along. Didn’t die. At least I tried. I’ve never paid attention to the sessions topics before (I’ve never been to that conference), but I’m going to really study the session titles and descriptions when they come out so I can get a better sense of what they are looking for.
🎢 Got another new member of my weekly office hours group. Huzzah!
🎢 We closed on a house in Fort Worth and the kids and I are reunited with my (smoking hot) husband!
🎢 I am not counting the days until school starts. I am not counting the days until school starts. I am not counting the days until school starts.
From The Vault
⚡ Corry J asked about jobs for your kids on your payroll, and I wanted to share this video I made when I hired my 11 (soon to be 12) year old.
Letters To The Editor
✉️ I shared a link to Megan Tarnow’s QuickBooks for Nonprofits Facebook group as a place to get help with nonprofit bookkeeping. I trust her to emphasize and explain the complexity of nonprofit bookkeeping. She responded:
THANK YOU if you happened to mention my fb group in yours yesterday! I woke up to 35 requests to join! ~ Megan Tarnow
Classifieds (Clickable)
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Keep hustling!
Kate
-Chief Hustler-
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