The One With Experiments
TL;DR
I’m not a big risk taker. I’d venture that most of the readers of this newsletter are not either. “Risk taker” is not a stereotype one normally associates with those of us in the accounting industry.
However, I have found that doing little experiments can really minimize the weight of a risky decision. Honestly, that is the fundamental nature of a “side hustle”. It doesn’t mean “low skilled”. It doesn’t mean “not serious”. I can just be a way to mitigate risk without a huge investment of time or money.
What skill/project/task/hurdle do you face in your business that you always put off for later because it feels too big? Consider how you can make that looming task more manageable with experiments.
Some experiment ideas for you:
Video creation
On November 1st, Twyla Verhelst is hosing another Video-Per-Day Experiment. It is totally free. I did it last year and really came a long way in learning about video production. There is no real landing page for this, but the best place to get info, follow along, and participate is probably this link. You can also comment below if you have questions on this one. I hope MANY of you do it.
Prospect Intake/Vetting forms
Kellie Parks shared her entire prospect intake form (shocked face) for folks to play around with. I really liked how she worded the part about her minimum pricing (about 10 questions into it). I’ve simply got to figure out how to do that.
To experiment, just use a free Google Form and keep iterating. That is what I’ve done thus far.
Work for someone else
Going from “zero” to “bookkeeping business owner” is way, way, way harder than people realize. You could create a longer term plan that includes working for someone else before building your own business.
You can’t get hired at Intuit if you really are starting at “zero”, but if you do have some accounting and QBO knowledge, I think working for QuickBooks Live could be a way to experiment with small business bookkeeping if you have some knowledge of accounting and QBO. 20 hours a week (with benefits) will give you a base level of income and then you can build your own business on top of that. You’d be exposed to so many different types of small businesses, too, which could be extremely valuable in determining a niche that you like.
Follow someone else’s marketing checklist
Kristen Corey from MediaBooks taught us about very low risk ways to improve your marketing in our Marketing 101 For Bookkeepers interview. Quit over thinking and just do the items on the free download she gave us in that interview. And you won’t even have to dance on TikTok…unless you want to.
And Ben Stein, the co-founder of Keeper, is an experimenter extraordinaire!
He started his accounting SaaS journey by building a cash forecasting tool, scrapped that, got a different co-founder, and pivoted to building the month-end close and executive reporting tool that Keeper is today.
He is by no means a Hollywood actor, but he has to crank out videos for the Keeper Resource Library all the time. I had a hunch that he was one to struggle with making the videos in his library so I asked him for some words of encouragement for y’all about experimenting with video (like the Video Per Day Experiment, people!!!)
”They [his videos] are not always perfect – the early ones are almost embarrassing to watch now – but in the words of Jake The Dog, ”Dude, sucking at something is the first step toward being sort of good at something.”
~ Ben Stein, Co-Founder of Keeper
All you need is $8 to spend, you can experiment with Keeper on one client. 👇
Deals Deals Deals
💰 Veronica Wasek just released a new course called Market like an Extrovert*. Sounds like a great way for those introverts out there to experiment with some of the successful traits that she, an introvert, used to build a crazy successful niche bookkeeping business and became one of the most sought after bookkeeper trainers in the industry today. Use code sparkle12bsh for 12% off through November 9.
💰 BKX 2023 conference tickets are still on sale for $400 off through November 1. Will I see you in Dallas in June?
💰 The QBO ProAdvisor Certs shut down on October 31st for their annual revamp. Cramming for the test is not a good way to actually learn so make sure you find other ways to truly, truly learn the software, but you can use Margie Remmers-Davis’ Fast and Easy QBO Prep to get these done in the next 2 days to claim the official badge. Use code “Hustle” for 10% off.
You need about 4 hours for the QBO Basic certification course*.
You need about 8 hours for the QBO Advanced course*.
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.
📅 +QuickBooks Live and Turbo Tax Live Schedule - I’m excited to host this Job Fair again for 2022. All interviews are at 4pm EST. Check the BSH calendar for YouTube links as the date nears. We have a great line-up this year, with recruiters, trainers, and experts.
11/1 - Job Fair Kick Off
11/2 - Meet QuickBooks Live Recruiters
11/3 - Meet TurboTax Live Recruiters
11/9 - Intuit Academy Bookkeeping Training
11/10 - Intuit Academy Tax Training
11/16 - Working at QuickBooks Live: What’s it like?
11/17 - Working at TurboTax Live: What’s it like?
📅 +Mondays in November: Office hours at 11am EST on zoom. Here is link, and the password is HUSTLE. Plan on doing whatever task you’ve been putting off. It is a little easier with friends.
📅 November 8: Royalwise is having a Sales Tax in QBO Class. Learn more and register HERE*
Featured Posts
🌶️ I did a clean up for a client. And did two hours of training for him (for which he paid $125 per hour). He loved me. As our training time was running out, there were a few more issues to deal with. He told me he would like me to handle it on my own and invoice him. AND I DON’T KNOW HOW TO CHARGE HIM FOR THAT. Fight all you want about value price vs hourly vs long term relationship vs scope creep vs WHO CARES. There is no textbook on how to handle this.
Here is the thread full of conflicting comments I received from the Facebook group including
Either charge him $125 or do it for free (this was from one person).
Charge him your hourly rate not your training rate (I did not know I should have different hourly rates for training vs just doing client work).
Charge him for an hour minimum even if it takes less time than that.
How would you handle it? Comment below.
🌶️ Alisha Page wins the award for best post this week about a $1million dollar revenue tire company wanting to pay less than $200 per month for bookkeeping. She gave him an actual “Lord have mercy” and our entire industry is better for it.
Help You Hustle
💪 You can blur sensitive information on video in Loom now. Deets of how to do it. No excuses not to create “explainer videos” people. NO EXCUSES!
💪 The Gusto Certification Challenge was such a huge success. We had our big wrap up on YouTube. I recommend watching at minute 3:39 for 3 minutes where I read feedback from participants about what the learned and liked best about the training. And then make sure you watch at minute 12:01 to see this slick trick to post your badge to LinkedIn.
💪 Do you need those “cookie” thingys on your website? Do you have them and not know it? What even are cookies? Do you need to actually eat a real cookie (o.k…that one I can’t help you with). This $100MBA episode was a great explainer on this. I did not really know any of this, though I admit that I have a plugin installed saying something about cookies because…well…it seemed like a thing to do???
💪 Thanks to Joana Linares for sharing info about an upcoming free webinar from CPAAcademy about Reasonable Compensation and Entity Selection. To me, this could be titled “Help! My little bookkeeping client emailed me to say he wants to become an S-corp.” Those of us who are just offering bookkeeping services should not start offering tax or entity selection advice, but you simply must have a basic understanding of what goes in to this. As soon as your client tells their tax preparer they are in business and pays them for any sort of tax planning, it is highly, highly likely they are going to come to you tell you that they have made an S-corp election.
💪 I heard about a new program for new bookkeeping entrepreneurs called Rock The Books Online by Sherrell Martin. I met her in person recently and know she put a lot of effort into building this program. Looks like the entry point into checking out her program is to join her free Facebook page. You can stalk her LinkedIn Profile here to see if she is the kind of coach that would be a good fit for you.
For Fun
💀 Scare a bookkeeper in five words - did you share yours? Go read them - there are some good ones.
Jobs
Note: Facebook changed the “Topic” concept and now if you click on the hashtag #jobopportunity on the left side of the screen and now it is just a dumpster fire of posts NOT from the Bookkeeping Side Hustle Group. Use the magnifying glass and search for the names listed below to find the posts.
💼 Any of y’all listen to NPR and hear those advertisements from Your Part Time Controller? Well, they have part time, virtual jobs! (P.S. If you get hired by them, can you remember me and come back in a few months so I can interview you and someone from HR and help more people learn about these jobs?)
💼 Intuit is hiring, hiring, hiring for QuickBooks Live and TurboTax Live. Apply here.
💼 Financial Cents (a bookkeeping practice management app) is hiring for a community manager. Might be a great job for someone with an accounting background who is not so in love with the debits and credits and tax returns anymore. They posted their job on CloudAccountingJobs.com.
💼 Nathan Hirsch shared that EcomBalance is looking for a part-time catch up/clean up bookkeeper.
💼 My Virtual Bookkeeper is hiring a part-time contract bookkeper. Check out Erica Paynter’s post.
💼 Christina Mazzacone Planbeck is looking for a part-time bookkeeping assistant that is familiar in QuickBooks and DropBox.
Don’t forget the standing opps on my Find A Freelance Job article. 1099 and W-2 opps.
Kate Builds In Public
🎢 Some updates on my proposal process upgrade to Practice Ignition
My two most recent clean up proposal packages with 3-tiers have required additional phone calls after I’ve sent the proposal. That was really frustrating. Especially because I am apparently (embarrassingly) allergic to phone calls that are less than 20 minutes and I only take client calls on MWF mornings! Clearly I have some work to do to get this proposal delivery system to go correctly. If I’m going to have still “sell”, then I am not getting a lot of the benefits that Ignition claims to provide. I’m still thinking it is mostly user (ME!) error, but if I can’t improve my proposal skills before the end of my 4 month discounted trial, I don’t think I’ll be able to justify the cost of the platform.
And I knew this was bound to happen, but a new client called to say that he needed to be able to pay by credit card, which I, of course, had disabled. Ignition definitely won’t work for me if I’m going to get hit with CC fees. Thankfully my Ignition rep gave me a super detailed workflow about how to handle it in Ignition if someone requests to be able to pay by CC, but it is definitely more work. I also asked me rep for wisdom and guidance about how other firms tackled the processing fee issue and actually had a great email exchange about this more “philosophical issue”. How do you handle this issue, reader? Do you worry about processing fees? Have your thoughts on it changed in the course of your business? Comment below on the newsletter.
🎢 My 5th grader had a book report on the book Johnny Tremain. They had a basically free rein to do whatever they wanted, so of course I talked him into writing a script for a video report. As a part of this project, here are some things he learned:
How a green screen worked (we had colonial Boston Harbor pic as his background).
How to access the YouTube free audio library to add soft background music behind his speech (he chose Yankee Doodle on a wooden flute).
How to read from a teleprompter (which I spent $175 on last November when I did the VPD Experiment and it has been worth EVERY PENNY).
But you know the best part of all. When I was helping him edit, he was squirming because he was self-aware about how bad his delivery was. He had a great attitude about it, though. We laughed and moaned together about the awkwardness. I was able to talk to him about how OF COURSE IT WAS GOING TO BE BAD. He is only 11, but he is getting his “bad” reps now. And learning how to embrace that 99.9% of people are going to be bad at everything they do for the very first time. Oh, and he is learning editing skills that I will one day pay him for!
🎢 So, I have officially run Facebook Ads. Well, my sister (doing VA work for me) has run Facebook ads for me. Here are some facts about this project:
Our strategy is to run a video ad to my “5 ways your FreshBooks is wrong” video. Then we will retarget to those who viewed the video to get them to download my free weekly bookkeeping checklist which would require them to give up an email. Because as much as it hurts my soul, apparently you can’t make a living in 2022 if you aren’t willing to send a gagillion emails to people. I’m just accepting it (says the gal who wrote this email that you are reading…but at least I only send it 2x per month!).
The daily spend is capped $5 per day. This is an experiment at this stage. Dipping my toe in. Also, I don’t exactly want it to bring in a ton of clients. I am counting on Facebook to be smart enough to help me find IDEAL clients. That is the lofty promise they make.
My dashboard in the Facebook Ads Manager says that my “Thruplays” are 455 and my “Cost Per Result” is $.09 cents. I have no idea if that is good or not! Anyone care to comment below and share what your stats are, if you’ve run Facebook ads. Let’s share a little behind-the-scenes info so we can all benefit, y’all!
🎢 Same 11yo offspring of mine learned a new skill this week while “on the clock” for me. I had him send emails to everyone who completed the Gusto Certification Challenge so they could claim their prize.
Some things he learned:
Copy and paste an email address from a list in Excel into a new email in Gmail.
Use TextExpander plugin to create hot keys for repetitive text (he sent the same email 50+ times).
How to tick things off as you make your way down a long list.
Could this have been automated? Sure. Could we have used a mega cut-and-paste and put all the emails in BCC? Well, of course. I’m no dummy. BUT THAT IS NOT THE POINT. He has never sent an email before. So I wanted to start with the basics.
The squirt is already mentally calculating how many hours he will have to work to be able to buy a plane ticket for one of his friends to fly to visit him when we move next year. THAT is the point. My job is going to be to find meaningful work for him to do that he can successfully complete that I can pay him for.
Signing off from Annapolis at my husband’s 15 year college reunion!
Keep hustling!
Kate
-Chief Hustler-
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"And I knew this was bound to happen, but a new client called to say that he needed to be able to pay
by credit card, which I, of course, had disabled. Ignition definitely won’t work for me if I’m going to get
hit with CC fees. Thankfully my Ignition rep gave me a super detailed workflow about how to handle it
in Ignition if someone requests to be able to pay by CC, but it is definitely more work. I also asked me
rep for wisdom and guidance about how other firms tackled the processing fee issue and actually had
a great email exchange about this more “philosophical issue”. How do you handle this issue, reader?
Do you worry about processing fees? Have your thoughts on it changed in the course of your
business? Comment below on the newsletter."
A: For a few small businesses, I work as a freelance OBM, although invoicing is free, credit card payments cost 3% per payment. By adding the 3% to all my prices through markup, I can circumvent this charge discretely. Suppose I need $35 per hour to perform collections for a small business, then my price sheet will show $36.50 (after rounding). Markups are calculated on all my up-front (flat) pricing and updated annually.
A 3% markup on $35 is calculated as follows: 35 ÷ 0.97 = $36.08
In order to calculate a different percentage than 3%, like 8%, you would subtract 8 from 100 (100 - 8 = 92) and move the decimal point over. It would be .92 in this instance - I hope this was helpful to you or others.