The One About Victims
The One About Victims
Did y'all know I am married to a man in the Navy? He is amazing and I have never considered giving him up, but being a military spouse certainly has had its challenges, especially professionally.
And last week the military spouse community was pretty rattled by a Congressman who said employment struggles for spouses were to be expected and just part of the long list of sacrifices we will have to make because we chose to marry a service member.
Facebook/Reddit outrage! Victims of Uncle Sam's cold heart! “It is not our fault that we fell in love and made babies with a man/woman in uniform. Fix things for us!”
I am grateful for the folks who feel called to advocate for injustice where they see it. But honestly, I heard way more complaining than I did problem solving.
Many are outraged AND they don't advocate AND they don't do anything to help themselves.
So their situation is never going to change.
I was that person. I was that military spouse facing career struggles when my husband was stationed in places like Kingsville, Texas and Lemoore, California. (You have probably never heard of those towns and let's just say that job prospects are limited).
About 12 years ago I found myself crying in my bosses office telling him I was quitting my second job in only 3 years of marriage AND I was pregnant for the first time.
I was defeated.
I felt like a helpless victim of the big, bad Navy and there was nothing I could do about it so why even try. Let's just wallow in self pity (like, literally wallow because I was great with child 😆).
But thankfully I did not stay in that mental state.
I won't share the whole winding path, but I will say that for 6 whole years I thought the Navy took away my career and I made $0 dollars of income.
And then I found virtual bookkeeping and started my own company.
I did things I never thought I would do. It is by far the hardest thing I have done professionally. But I am now 6 years on the other side of that decision, and I am so glad I didn't remain in my victim mentality. So glad I relearned my Debits & Credits. So glad I learned QuickBooks Online even though there were days it made me want to cry. So glad I got those first few clients even though I felt totally broke because it took me so long to actually get my work done but I had given them a fixed fee (I’m much faster now!)..
I don't know what obstacles you have to navigate. And I know that many, many, many of you have much tougher situations than I do/did.
Children with special needs
Awful upbringing with little education
Crippling debt
Unsupportive or abusive family
Discrimination
Disabilities
Chronic health problems
The list of struggles could be a mile long.
But I promise you this. You are not the only one that has ever been through what you have been through. It might feel that way, but it is not true. And there are some people who choose to look forward instead of backward.
They say, “Yes, these are my circumstances. They are really tough and heavy. I wish they were otherwise. But I am not a victim. And right now, the best thing I can do for myself and my family is to work harder than I have ever worked and do all these scary and hard things, even though it feels impossible.
And you know what! One day, after years and years of hard work and wise choices, I can go back and advocate for those folks who are in those same hard, even horrific, situations that I was in.”
Honestly, the answer for you might not be bookkeeping entrepreneurship. It might be something else. I don’t know. But I do know that there is someone with the same or worse situation as you who is going to turn a switch and say “I can overcome the obstacles I’m facing.”
The Bookkeeping Side Hustle Community and myself are here to help you take all your hard, necessary steps!
I’d like to shout out to our sponsor, Pachira Business Solutions. If you’ve got technical bookkeeping questions or hit a wall with client work, reach out to them! These bookkeeping mentors will save you so much time on your bookkeeping business problems so you aren’t just banging your head against a wall by yourself!
Deals Deals Deals
💰 Gusto Next conference in their HQ in San Francisco. For only $25(!). Shoot, you’ll get waaayyy more than $25 worth of food and swag. That’s like MAKING money! Gusto puts a lot of investment into the wider accounting community (beyond just Gusto users). And you get to be in a room with other modern accounting and technology professionals. I hope you treat yourself to this event.
💰 5MB is having a pop-up sale on their Client On-Boarding Checklist. Use code 5mbchecklist to save $15 through May 31st. Grab your checklist HERE.
💰 Finish your QBO Recertification by May 31 to get a chance to win a $5000 Airbnb voucher. Use the Fast & Easy QBO Recertification course* for only $59 if you want to move through the training quickly, with the Quick Notes and Hands-On Practice this training company is known for.
Please always send me any news of deals that you hear of that others might benefit from.
Be There or Be Square
📅 Co-working hour is taking a summer break! See you in September!
📅 May 28: Getting Started in FreshBooks as an Accounting Pro. Come learn the skills and resources to welcome clients aboard and confidently optimize the value of FreshBooks. Register HERE. I hope a ton of your register and become my FreshBooks bookkeeping friends!
📅 July 16-18: Gusto Next conference in their HQ in San Francisco.
Featured Posts
🌶️ I’m crowd sourcing ideas of what kids/teens can do for a bookkeeping business during summer break. Do you have any ideas to add?
🌶️ Carissa P. asked about business continuity plans. Like, the “what happens if I get hit by a bus” question. Not an easy topic, but one we all need to think about.
🌶️ In case you were unclear just how tough doing invoicing tasks is for clients (I don’t do that service in my firm), Irina J shared her current pains with a new client for whom she agreed to do A/R. Lots of encouragement about how to renegotiate after you realize you underpriced something.
Help You Hustle
💪 What was your main takeaway from The “Accounting Nomads” live stream? Did you print off pictures of New Zealand to motivate you? Put in an offer for a property you can AirBnB in Spain? Thinking how you could do 6 months out of a backpack in South Asia? Or start shopping for a huge dually truck and 3-bedroom 5th wheel RV? Comment here on Substack with where you dream of going as a virtual entrepreneur.
Also, there was lots of interest in the portable laptop stand that was no bigger than an electric tooth brush. Aneisha said this is a non-negotiable for her, and she travels with just a backpack!
💪 Seth David of Nerd Enterprises recently shared his personal Debt Payoff Tracker. Totally free. The man has Excel Skills! I’m so impressed. He is working on a free course about how to use it. To be released this summer. But you are probably smart enough to figure it out now. Freedom from debt gives you options.
💪 The Accounting Cornerstone Foundation is closing applications for 2024. There is still time to apply for XeroCon and QuickBooks Connect. Apply by May 31.
💪 You still have time to nominate yourself or your friend for the Xero Awards! Do it!
For Fun
😹 Financial Cents went all out to create a remix of the rap “Ice, Ice, Baby” called “Workflow Baby”. Hats off to FC for not taking themselves too seriously. And for making accounting fun!
If you appreciate their company culture and want to get into those Workflow beats, use the BSH referral link with code “Hustle” for a 20% discount for 3 months.
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!
Kate Builds In Public
🎢 New Business: Not much to share in the realm of new business. I did get one new FreshBooks Office Hours member and my normal flow of hourly training clients. I haven't worked as much in the last 2 weeks because my dad visited for a week and I spent 3 days at The CFO Accelerator in Dallas.
🎢 Last week I went to The CFO Accelerator Live put on by Michael King*. I’ll tell you some of my general takeaways (next newsletter I’ll tell you my feedback about this specific coaching program).
Cash Flow: Fractional CFOs use the word “Cash Flow”. All the time. Like a broken record. In my own client work, I basically never use the word cash flow. Not in a serious way, anyway. I know it is one of the 3 basic financial statements, but I do not spend time there. In my firm, I only serve clients looking for compliance bookkeeping, and cash flow reporting is not required for tax prep. The fCFO crowd is forward looking. There are big bucks in the future-looking planning, budgeting, forecasting, and cash flow management kind of services. I’m over here eating Ramen Noodles compared to these folks seeking the high dollar monthly engagements.
Executive Presence: The phrase that stuck most with me was that a highly paid fCFO has “executive presence”. Whooo boy. Those two words have been taking up a lot of free rent in my mind. A fCFO is someone who can make executive decisions. When I think of myself, I’d say I have more of a “ragamuffin presence”. Maybe a “teacher presence” on a good day. The highly paid advisor engagements require technical chops (like understanding how to use a rolling 13 forecast and a budget) AND decision making confidence. I can tell you that, personally, I ain’t spitting no executive vibe. But could I? Do I even want to? (wait…there I go, not having executive presence in my own life! 🙃)
Different Crowd: Our life trajectory is influenced a lot by the company we keep. It felt pretty different being in this company for 3 days. This was just a different crowd than the other accounting industry conferences I’ve been to. All the previous conferences I’ve been to have had a strong emphasis on bookkeeping. Yet the word bookkeeping was barely even said at this conference (it is assumed that someone will be doing the books before a fCFO can do the work, but it ain’t being done by the highly paid fCFO). The dollar amounts people said were just higher (like $2k-$5k per month). I know revenue doesn’t mean they are necessarily more profitable than a bookkeeping firm, but the dollar figures mentioned were at a different level than in my firm. I would also say that the average age was younger than the other conferences I’ve been to. And the crowd was also more men than women, which is very different than the other conferences I’ve been to. Makes me wonder if the gals are out there as lower paid bookkeepers and the dudes are out there as higher paid CFOs. Please know that I love the bookkeeper friends I’ve made! I’m just making observations, not judgements.
🎢 I kinda want to throw up sharing this, but while I don’t want a 7-figure firm, The CFO Accelerator did highlight that I can’t grow without a team. So I have started to work on a job application for an EA/VA. ChatGPT helped. This is still a total work-in-progress, and I might not ever pull the trigger on this. I’m scared! (READER, this is not an invitation to apply for this job. Only to share my journey and also to let you riff on the text in the Google Doc).
From The Vault
⚡ The CFO Accelerator Live was themed around “Building a 7-Figure Firm.” Reminded me of the video I made about what I would do if I wanted a million dollar firm.
Letters To The Editor
✉️ It is always nice to get feedback from you readers. Thank you Jeanne J. for sharing this in the group. If anyone else wants the community referral link for Seth David’s courses, here it is:
I actually read the newsletter in Substack last night and it is now at the top of my list to read regularly. I love the links. I have been looking for a refresher bookkeeping course to take and I was inspired to look at Seth David courses.
Classifieds (Clickable)
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Keep hustling!
Kate
-Chief Hustler-
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