The One With A Comparison
TL;DR
Since my last newsletter, I had the great fortune of attending TWO (overlapping) conferences for our industry. First I attended Scaling New Heights put on by Woodard, and I skipped out on the last day to catch the second half of the BKX conference put on by Bookkeepers.com*.
These two events were my 3rd and 4th accounting industry conferences to ever attend.
To be clear, there were some unique logistical and financial circumstances that allowed me to do back-to-back conferences like this. I am not sure it is very likely that I’ll ever attend back-to-back conferences like this again.
Here is how I was able to do both: Because BKX was in Dallas/Fort Worth, that meant I had a free place to stay and got to visit my husband (He has moved to FW but I haven’t joined him yet). And for Scaling New Heights, I was selected to be a breakout session presenter, so I received a completely free conference ticket, 1 night in a hotel, and a small stipend for being a breakout session presenter (ask me if you want the $ figure). So I kind of feel like my total summer conference expenditures were about what most conference attendees spend to attend one conference, but I got to attend two.
Y’all interested in my opinions and comparisons of these two events? Yeah you are.
Some basic observations:
SNH has much more practical education. Like 8-10 breakout sessions per time slot. Some sessions are put on by vendors (they pay for that privilege), some are more inspirational/mindset type content, and some are super technical about specific accounting or power user software topics. There were always at least 2 sessions I wanted to attend at each time slot. Conversely, BKX was only a single schedule, meaning we were all in one giant conference room (better for folks with mobility issues). Next year (its 4th year), BKX will have grown enough to have some breakout sessions, but the organizer specifically said that it would still be mostly plenary-style. The organizer believes that conferences are not the best venue to learn technical stuff (I mean, he is probably not wrong), but are more about motivation and mindset.
I heard the conference organizers say that SNH had 1,400 attendees and BKX had 600 attendees.
My unscientific analysis is that BKX attendees are slightly younger on average. Somewhat correlated, I’d say that many of the BKX attendees are also younger in their business journey. SNH has attendees that have been in this business for decades.
Speaking of being in business for decades, the word “Desktop” is still in the lexicon at SNH. “Desktop” is a bad word at BKX.
I also would guess that BKX has a slightly higher percentage of male attendees, though both conferences are predominantly female.
The organizers of both events sell from the stage. They sell their masterminds & classes & extra conferences & certifications & really critical training. You can’t really blame them. They have families to feed and deserve to be profitable. But just be aware.
Both events have a bit of a “tribal” element to them, but BKX’s is a lot more noticeable. The vast majority of attendees have taken some sort of paid training from Bookkeepers.com*. Woodard has its own tribe of devotees, too, but has had a lot more time to reach out beyond its own student/customer group to get a broader audience. But anyone can go to either of these conferences.
SNH has somewhat of a more professional and traditional accountant vibe. BKX seems a bit more scrappy and hip. In my spirit and in my actual business, I am probably more similar to the average BKX attendee than the average SNH attendee. When you dig down under the surface though, I don’t actually think there is much difference in the overall messaging between the two conferences, or that one is wildly more cutting edge than the other, but the pulse is noticably different.
Here is just one example: BKX hired a young-ish, peppy Latina woman to MC the event. She would always take the stage in a pretty fired-up way. SNH has the founder Joe Woodard as the MC. He did a great job and is an unquestionably talented communicator, but he is not firing up the young'uns, I’ll just say.
The vendor halls of the 2 events aren’t really even comparable. I’m certain BKX is working hard at getting vendors to come. It will happen. But SNH had a football field’s worth of vendor booths and BXK had more like a pickle ball court’s worth.
So there is some feedback. Y’all, my honest opinion is that I don’t think it really matters which of these two conferences you attend. I think you’ll find things to like and things to dislike about both of them, but that over all, either event would be a net positive to your career.
So how do you choose (or perhaps pick a different one)? Well, you know how I would pick a conference?
I’d find a buddy/wingman/roomie and y’all look at your calendars and just decide what works for both of your schedules and locations (next year both SNH and BKX are in Orlando in June, though, so location is irrelevant). That is how I went to my first conference. I knew a gal online named Trinity Scott and she lived near the location of the first conference I attended, and we shared an AirBnB together. It was so wonderful having that support of a friendly face in a sea of strangers. Thankfully, I guessed correctly and she was not a creep. :-)
But, if you’re reading this and thinking, “Kate, I’m not making enough money to splurge on something as extravagant as a professional development conference,” or “Kate, I barely have time to take 1 day off, much less several days to attend a conference,”, well then, you need to check out the free Ultimate Guide to Creating a Profitable Bookkeeping Business from The Ambitious Bookkeeper. Grow your biz, fix your systems, raise your prices, and set a goal of attending a conference in 2024. Bang that graphic, y’all.
Deals Deals Deals
💰 Fast and Easy QBO is doing 50% off their training for the Advanced ProAdvisor Exam materials* plus 30 days of the QBO Gym for free.Total cost is only $249 only for the month of July (hint, even if you are on vacation or are swamped but know you want to get this cert, you can snag the training now).
💰 Get 30% off FinDaily.io for 3 months with code BKSH23. This app allows you to send automated, white-labled, daily updates of key metrics and balances to your clients.
💰 Since I’m talking so much about conferences, I’ll mention that BKX had a sale last November, so I can only assume that they likely will again. Woodard always has a sale on GroundHog Day (February 2nd, in case you’ve forgotten). Put a reminder in your calendars so you don’t pay full price.
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 July: Bookkeeping Side Hustle Community Co-working Hour. Join me on on Zoom Mondays at 11am EST. Zoom link (password: HUSTLE)
📅 July 15: Call for Papers for Scaling New Heights 2024. Y’all, shoot your shot! Not sure where the submissions will be collected, but this URL would be a good place to watch.
📅 August 1: Profitable Bookkeeping Bootcamp. If you want to get better paid for your hard work – if you want to be able to price your bookkeeping services confidently – this is the training to unlock the secrets. Mark Wickersham FCA and Teresa Slack will be showing you the precise steps you need to get higher prices for bookkeeping work, and it will be highly practical! Register HERE!
📅 August 1-3: Taking Your Firm Virtual. Learn strategies to confidently and securely take your firm to the cloud. Find out more HERE.
Featured Posts
🌶️ Sandra shared about utilizing LinkedIn Learning for FREE with your library card!
🌶️ Tonya L bravely shared an advertising graphic she made that outlined her pricing tiers. She received such great feedback on the prices and what is included in her packages.
🌶️ Angie G shared that she visited with her local SBA as a way to get clients. Lots of folks agreed.
🌶️ Joana Linares reminds us about the amazing treasure trove that is CPAAcademy. Not much you couldn’t learn for free from that site. And it is not just for CPAs.
Help You Hustle
💪 I was a guest on a big podcast called Frugal Friends talking about how bookkeeping can be a great side hustle, especially if you don’t have a lot of capital to invest in starting a business. I share how much I think people should pay for bookkeeping courses. I give my opinions about what bookkeeping software to use. Spilling all the tea. If you’ve already dove into this industry, perhaps this podcast episode could be a good one to share with someone else.
💪 I asked for feedback from folks who attended Scaling New Heights and BKX. The rules were to say 2 things you liked and 1 thing that could have been improved. And please note, these are not the only accounting conferences out there. Check out this GIANT list at AccountingConferences.com
Crowd-sourced feedback about Scaling New Heights 2023
Crowd-sourced feedback about BKX 2023
💪 In the last newsletter I told y’all that a WHOLE BUNCH of y’all should apply for the Intuit Partner Council. I’m going to keep pestering folks to do this! Here is an informational video by Matthew Fulton (and panelists) about the application process and what the commitment is like. Application closes July 14.
💪 My presentation at Scaling New Heights was about getting started using video in your business. Here are links to the resources I passed out to the session attendees.
For Fun
💀 Who knew categorizing office snacks would get so many confident comments. How do you categorize office snacks?
Jobs
💼 A part-time job was added to the guide in the FaceBook Group. Find it HERE.
Don’t forget the standing opps on my Find A Freelance Job article. 1099 and W-2 opps.
Kate Builds In Public
🎢 It’s my birthday this coming week! I’m turning 42. If anyone is inclined to help me celebrate with a gift, would you make a donation to the Accounting Cornerstone Foundation? This conference gives new bookkeeping entrepreneurs the life changing experience of attending their first industry conference.
🎢 I signed a new member to my FreshBooks Office Hours for DIYers! Plodding away. It is the thing I’m most excited to sell. This person is an Amish carpenter and woodworker. A true artist. He is just the coolest and makes a lot of jokes about how he is bad at zoom because he is Amish. 🤣
🎢 My internet situation and housing situation is just too in flux for me to properly run my business this summer. I’m opting to use the word “Sabbatical” to describe this summer. I get plenty of inquiries from FreshBooks users, but just am not set up to take on a lot of work. One thing to note for anyone trying to go nomadic with a hotspot, when I did a zoom call with my Netgear Nighthawk with my video ON, it seemed to take close to 2 gigs of data. When I did one with my video OFF, it was about ½ a gig. But I have never made it a full hour without getting kicked off of zoom and scrambling to get reconnected.
🎢 This might offend the pit bull apologists out there, but if it saves even one person or animal from an attack, I won’t apologize for using my platform for a non-bookkeeping matter. So, 5 minutes before my presentation at Scaling New Heights (talk about unfortunate timing), my sister texted me to tell me that my sweet, very elderly 14 year old dog had been attacked by a pit bull. She was lifting my dog into the back of her car when it happened. My dad rushed over to start punching the pitbull in the skull and trying to pry its vicious mouth open. My sweet pup ended up with a neck absolutely ripped to shreds and full of stitches. Thankfully no humans were hurt. But as for me and my house, we’ll be actively avoiding pitbulls from here on out. Moving to the other side of the road when we see one. Declining any invitations we might receive to a home where a pit bull lives. It is simply not worth the risk, no matter how much “yeah, but my pit bull is so tame and would never hurt a fly” justifying an owner does. Sure they don’t hurt anyone, until they bite and don’t let go.
From The Vault
⚡ Last week I attended 2 conferences, and you know I think everyone should have the chance to go to one. Here is a short (less than 4 minutes!) video explaining more about the Accounting Cornerstone Foundation and the scholarships they give out to first-time conference attendees.
Letters To The Editor
✉️ Cindy Schroeder offered more details about her past experience applying for the Intuit Partner Council.
Kate, you are correct about applying more than once if you are serious about getting on the Intuit Partner Council. I applied 4 times before I got in. The 4th year I actually asked three people to write letters of recommendation even though it wasn’t required. Not sure if that's why it worked or not. But yes, more folks should apply! ~ Cindy Schroeder
Classifieds (Clickable)
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Keep hustling!
Kate
-Chief Hustler-
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