The One With Help
TL;DR
Have you ever cried because of bookkeeping?
I mean, are you really even an accounting professional if a payroll journal entry or “your beginning balance is off” error message hasn’t made you weep?
You know what I’m talking about. You are frantically searching YouTube for the solution to your problem and have watched three different 12 minute videos, half of which didn’t exactly relate to your specific problem. Oh, and they all three suggest a slightly different way of dealing with your problem AND your bookkeeping software doesn’t look exactly like the video tutorial anyway (thanks developers for always changing things!).
And then you post your question inside a Facebook group and someone chimes in with a suuuuper helpful one-sentence quip that goes something like “Adjust it to retained earnings.” Or “Use a clearing account.” And you are like “I AM NOT A DUMMY, BUT I DON’T KNOW HOW TO ACTUALLY DO THAT!”
And most-tear-inducing of all 😢, you’ve quoted a fixed price for the project and so you do the rough mental math (price/hours worked), and you are currently sitting at about an $11.00 hourly wage and it is declining rapidly with each passing moment.
You need help. You know it. But where do you find it?
Might I suggest bringing in a mentor. A technical troubleshooter to teach you exactly how to solve your problem so you can quickly and accurately fix your problem and go get more paying clients.
Even though you will spend some money to hire a mentor to help you troubleshoot your problem, it is highly likely that you will end up much better off overall
You will arrive at the solution faster.
You will feel so much better because you will not be “guessing”.
You will learn many extra tips and tricks that weren’t specifically related to solving that problem that turned you into a puddle on your floor. The experienced technical pros are whizzes at this stuff.
I was about 2 years into my bookkeeping business journey before I hired a troubleshooter. It cost me $250. It was a Paypal problem. (Paypal is ALWAYS a problem! Can I get an Amen!).
I want to encourage the serious business owners among you NOT to wait as long as I did.
To that end, I’ve put together a panel for this community to be introduced to the idea of working with a technical mentor. Pachira Business Solutions (thanks for sponsoring the newsletter this week!) will be on the panel, as well as a handful more. And I’m going to ask each panelist to share the names of at least 2 other excellent mentors that they know perform similar services. I’m certain that by the end of the interview every listener will have heard of one particular mentor that will be the perfect fit for their needs.
Come learn about a wide variety of mentoring services for bookkeepers. This is NOT about bookkeeping courses or mindset coaches, FYI. RSVP here (no email required).
And speaking of “The One With Help”, life ain’t much worth living if we aren’t helping others. I hope every single reader tunes in next week to watch my panel interview about the nation wide community service project put on by the IRS called Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA). This is such an important program. You’ll help your low-income and elderly neighbors prepare their taxes. And you are going to learn so much about taxes through this program! RSVP here.
Deals Deals Deals
💰Buy One, Get One for Xero Roadshow Accelerate! For all that you get for $62, this is a no brainer to buy. I really believe these events will be a milestone moment for some of you. If you need help finding someone to take your extra ticket, I can help you find someone, I promise. I’ll be at the one in Austin.
💰The Ambitious Bookkeeper’s $500 off sale ended last night. If you woke up with regret because you didn’t purchase and know that that is the program for you, I’d just email and ask for the deal to be extended one more day. Worst that can happen is that she’d say “no”.
💰 The developers at RightTool, the hot new QBO extension that is making bookkeepers go wild, gave me a discount code* for this group. Use code hustle20 for 20% off the paid version of RightTool. Don’t forget you can use it for free, too.
💰 Bookkeeper Launch* is on sale for 50% off. It says through June 1st. If you wake up on June 2nd and regret not purchasing, I’d email them and ask them nicely for an exception.
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 June: Bookkeeping Side Hustle Community QBO RECERT STUDY GROUP to pass our QBO ProAdvisor Recertification tests that are due on June 30. Join me on on Zoom Mondays at 11am EST. Zoom link (password: HUSTLE). This will replace our normal “co-working hours”. No cheating. Just accountability to get the tests completed.
📅 +May 31: Make a Difference in Your Community: Volunteer Opportunities for Accounting & Finance Pros. Come learn more about the Volunteer Tax Prep VITA program and why you should consider vounteering (and learn a whole lot about taxes at the same time). RSVP for the live panel HERE.
📅 June 13-15: Value Pricing Masterclass with Mark Wickersham. Get your free ticket HERE*.
📅 +June 20: How to Work with a Bookkeeping Mentor. A panel interview with several experts who provide technical bookkeeping help when you are in over your head. RSVP for the live panel HERE.
Featured Posts
🌶️ Mercer Jaybee asked how you deal with family/friends asking a “quick question” that turns into a free consultation. What do you do in that situation?
🌶️ Christine Michelle’s post about asking for a raise as a contractor highlighted some interesting points - from the contractor’s view and the business owner’s.
🌶️ This post about “breaking up” with apps had some good advice on how to move forward when you are changing your tech stack. Anyone else feel “trapped” inside some of the apps you’ve chosen?
🌶️ Allison Cree wrestling with what to name her business. It is a little more complicated for her because she is a CPA. Someone chimed in with an app that helps generate business names, too.
Help You Hustle
💪 Financial Cents demoed how AI has been integrated into the software. Learn more about how the software can help you run your business, and sign up for your free trial. Watch the video HERE.
💪 If you are a stay-at-home-parent of little kids, don’t forget to organize “kid swaps” this summer with another entreprenur (any industry). The extra bonus is that I was usually able to work on the day I had my friend’s kids because my kids don’t need me as a playmate. 😁
💪 I shared how I was so impressed by 2 episodes of the Fish Food Podcast. This is produced by Keila Hill-Trawick, CPA. Read the thread and see if you can do the exercise I recommend to make your bookkeeping brain bigger. I’m want to bring her on the YouTube Channel this summer to learn about using a podcast to build a bookkeeping/CAS/tax business. Would that interest you? Comment below.
💪 Y’all know I’m such a huge proponent of in-person industry events! But I know they can be overwhelming for folks. So I’ve saw four small conferences that might be more your style:
Bookkeeping Buds Retreat hosted by Cindy Shroeder
Capped at 50 seats.
There is a link at the bottom of the landing page for a chance to win a free ticket.
I’m speaking at this one. 🎤
Women-only event.
The Virtual Ascend hosted by Samantha Hallburn
Capped at 30 seats.
10% discount through May 31 with code VIRTUALASCEND.
It is in Bozeman, Montana! Talk about getting away. My kind of retreat location (I had my honeymoon in Montana!)
Women-only event.
Creative Business Models for Accountants hosted by Hector Garcia (don’t be turned off by the word “accountants” because remember that bookkeepers do accounting with every single click of the mouse…I’ll die on this hill!)
He told me there would be an “early bird” sale for $250 off in June.
This one is co-ed. Guys welcome.
Tax Savvy Pros Freedom Retreat hosted by Meagan Hernandez.
For you beach people!
Doesn’t say it is for women only, but there is pink on the landing page, so might be???
Pick one!
For Fun
😹 Thanks to Joanna for always sharing the funny posts. This one exceled.
Jobs
💼 New jobs were added to the Jobs Guide - be sure to check it out!
Don’t forget the standing opps on my Find A Freelance Job article. 1099 and W-2 opps.
Kate Builds In Public
🎢 I’m not really fielding new client inquiries right now, but I did acquire two new easy 2 hour FreshBooks training clients. It is really the only kind of work I want to do right now. This brings new bookkeeping business in the month of May to $4,392.
(Transparency alert: I did end up subbing out the clean up I mentioned last newsletter, so that is a gross figure for new business. Always ask yourself if a number is Gross or Net when you see anyone talking about revenue numbers).
🎢 I asked the AI inside my Financial Cents* to “create a checklist with the legal and administrative tasks required to relocate a single member LLC with an S-corp election from Virginia to Texas”. This is an AI use-case I can get behind! Check what it spit out for me. I am very unexcited to do all these tasks, though. Not my strong suit. So far I found a co-working space in Fort Worth to be my business address. But that is all I’ve done.
🎢 Life has been absolutely bursing with joyful activity and my heart is grateful. Field trip with my 3rd and 2nd graders on Monday, Field Day on Wednesday, End of School Ceremony on Thursday, and Wizard of Oz on Thursday night. All while prepping for a cross-country move. The Navy packers/mover arrived yesterday. We are saying our goodbyes to folks, and now I have nothing in my kitchen! At least I have my bed for a few more days.
Here are my three little actors. The entire cast crushed it during our little school’s very first play.
From The Vault
⚡I’ve been sharing about attending conferences lately that I thought I would share this playlist with videos from my first bookkeeping conference in 2021. Watch it and then comment where you went for your first conference!
Letters To The Editor
✉️ Last Saturday morning from Lynsi Ingram: “Umm…Kate McGill Johnson... no newsletter today??” And then she wrote: “I was laying in bed twiddling my thumbs waiting on the email😂 I guess because the info & opportunities have been so valuable for me lately I just got greedy! Keep up the great work!”
This was the most flattered I’ve felt in a while. One of you readers waking up on a Saturday morning waiting for my newsletter. 😍 But this newsletter comes out only every OTHER Saturday. I try to make sure at least 70% of the newsletter is “evergreen”, so you can always read something from the archive if you are itching for more.
Classifieds (Clickable)
Want to have an ad in the Bookkeeping Side Hustle Pub? Click HERE for more info.
Keep hustling!
Kate
-Chief Hustler-
Get your copy of The Bookkeeping Side Hustle Guidebook: Actionable Steps To Becoming A Virtual Bookkeeping Without The Overwhelm
Easy and FREE ways to support Bookkeeping Side Hustle
Follow @BookkeepingSide on Twitter
Thanks for reading The Bookkeeping Side Hustle Pub! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
I am down right rabid about transparency and full disclosure. If a link has a * beside it, it means it is either an affiliate link where I might receive compensation if you make a purchase, at no additional charge to you. Or it could be a tracking link that another business provided me to see how many readers click on that link.