Chapter 1 - How Do You Start or Restart Your Accounting or Bookkeeping Practice?

Maybe the next question needs to be, “How Do You Want To Finish?”

Then I don’t think of this just in terms of my business, but in the bigger picture, “where do you want to be when this is all done?”

What do you want to be doing? Sitting around eating Bonbons? Bonbons are really good, actually.

So what does a day in your life look like at the horizon of your vision?

Something tells me it doesn’t look much like what it looks like today. Most accountants and bookkeepers I talk to are tired of the compliance work, and you want to get out of that and into something that doesn’t take SO much time to earn SO little money.

That is. Relatively speaking when you think about it. The hours you are putting in and the ROI you’re getting on all of this work. Is it really worth it?

I remember when I told my therapist that at 48 years old (about 3 years ago) I was getting nowhere near the ROI that I felt I should be considering how much I had done and was doing. I also told him that if things didn’t change significantly I was going to quit. Get a job. Try and salvage what I could with my remaining working years and build towards some kind of retirement.

My therapist asked me how much money I would need to have in the bank to be comfortable? Then he asked, “what would you do once you achieved that?

I didn’t see it then, but he was planting an important seed.

As it turns out, by 48 I had worked hard for many years to build and evolve an infrastructure as well as a community so that it just took a slight shift in focus and a little imagination along with some help from some friends whom I hired ??.

And that’s why at 51 I am here writing this article and not looking for a job.

And by the way when I did achieve that goal that I had outlined with my therapist. I didn't do what I promised I would do initially, which was that I'd take a whole month off.

But last December I did take off an entire week around Thanksgiving and the entire last half of December. Maybe this year I'll take off the entire month of December. It depends how my well eCommerce course does ??.

So what did this Chapter 1 look like?

I went all in. The Bulletproof Bookkeeping? Course idea was born and this meant I would go 100% all in with course and content creation. Sure I kept some clients on, took on some new ones and let a few go, but this was not going to be my focus anymore. For a long time I wanted to do both, but I remembered something someone said to me. That he did not think he could have been as successful as he had become if he had tried to do both.

I will always want to have some clients to keep me fresh, but getting them would not be my top priority. Creating courses would be.

Even as I built what is now called, “Bulletproof Bookkeeping? Mastery Course with QuickBooks Online” it was hard to stay focused. I couldn’t break my commitments to my existing clients, but I knew this was what I really wanted.

I forced myself to make the time by making another commitment. I presold the course once the first section on banking and bank feeds was done, and then I promised new content weekly until the course was done.

People put their trust in me and gave me their hard earned money. Now I had another commitment to keep, and I take my commitments seriously.

I worked on Saturdays writing, recording, editing, and publishing new lessons. Some weeks I only squeezed off a single lesson. Other weeks it was more.

I made sure that I produced SOMETHING each week that moved me in the direction of where I wanted to go. Nobody was going to do this for me. Nobody gave a shit if I made it there or not. This was 100% on me.

That September (2019) I completed the course and threw a launch party.

Then in Jan 2020 I hired another “friend.” He showed me how to do a “launch” on a course. Initially I hesitated because this course had already been launched!

“It’s already been brought!”

I’m laughing now because this clip comes to mind:

My new friend showed me how to do it. How to “bring it” again. And I did. In April 2020 I relaunched the course with an audacious bonus offering. The launch generated more income in a week than I'd ever made before. It beat most months I had had up to that point.

I learned a whole new marketing process and I learned a TON in general.

Chapter 1 was being written again.

Only by this time, I had other plans. You know that whole “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series?

Well I planned on applying that concept with my Bulletproof Bookkeeping? Courses.

And now I have produced the following (I linked these just in case ??):

• Bulletproof Bookkeeping? Mastery Course with QuickBooks Online
• Bulletproof Bookkeeping? Course with QuickBooks Online for Real Estate Brokers
• Bulletproof Bookkeeping? Guide to Factoring Receivables
• Bulletproof Bookkeeping? Course with QuickBooks Online?For?Property Management
• And The Bulletproof? CFO Training Program

Next I plan to launch Bulletproof Bookkeeping? Course with QuickBooks Online for eCommerce in Late May or Early June.

But I have no interest in creating courses Seth, so how does this apply to me?

First, you have to look at the “concept” of what I am showing you here, not the actual “thing” I’m doing.

I got focused.

I said, “This is the way!” (I always love to throw in a good Mandalorian reference where I can ??)

So what’s YOUR version of my courses?

What do YOU want to get 100% focused on while leaving everything else in the wind?

Maybe it will help you to think about it if I share how the Bulletproof? CFO Training Program came into being?

After I relaunched the original BB course my friend and mentor asked me what would represent the “next level” for someone after mastering the bookkeeping part.

I didn’t actually have to think that long or hard about it.

I said I could shorten the journey getting from bookkeeper straight to fractional CFO.

But this was not going to simply be a course. It had to be something more. Something bigger. It had to include both 1:1 and group coaching. And plenty of resources.

I had to build a “high ticket offer” and that meant bringing “high ticket value” to people.

So I started researching other programs that promised to turn out CFO’s and I learned something really interesting really quickly.

Most of these “CFO” programs taught you how to get the clients, but none of them seemed to teach you the actual skills.

And the skills, much more than the marketing were my forte.

Cash Flow Projections, Ratio Analysis, KPIs (and why most of these are a waste of time) - these are a few of my favorite things. I already had a lot of success any time I offered to teach webinars on how to do cash flow projections.

Like real ones that include all of the financial statements:

• Balance Sheet
• Profit and Loss
• Statement of Cash Flows (Remember that one? It’s actually like ridiculously important!)

Getting these into a spreadsheet and getting them to balance can be very challenging, especially in your forecasted months.

So my high ticket offer is creating a program the teaches you the skills you need, so that you can create your own high ticket offer - Providing CFO and Advisory services.

What am I suggesting for you, specifically?

Let me answer this by recapping everything from above really succinctly.

You have to MAKE the time by going onto your calendar and scheduling the time to work on your High Ticket, advisory business.

Then get to work developing your CFO Services offering.

You can and should charge something on the order of starting at $2,500month. More like $5,000/month when it starts to increase in scope and complexity.

What does this look like?

First you build the forecast.

And you work closely with your client on these. These sessions alone will provide so much insight for your client (because it forces deep focus on every single line item in their financials). They will already feel like they can’t believe they went all this time without doing this.

And at this point you are just getting started.

When you get the forecasts set up, and start reviewing the variance analysis monthly, this is where you will get the insights you need to be able to “advise your clients intelligently."

And your client will look at you one day and say something like, "I can't imagine any business NOT doing this. It's like driving your business while blindfolded."

And that is what advisory services are all about.

Removing the business owner's blindfold.

Shinning light on what they can't see.

Advice.

Really, really valuable advice.

In the end, I created a high ticket offer that gives accountants and bookkeepers the skills to offer their own high ticket offer.

And this is your “TICKET” OUT of compliance and INTO advisory.

But the only way you will get there, is by carving out the time and forcing yourself to spend the time building this new vertical.

Think of this as building a whole new business, because it really is.

Set aside one day per week where all you do is learn the skills and find the clients.

And you likely already have a great starting point for prospective clients.

Look at your existing tax and bookkeeping clients. I guarantee you there is at least 1 or 2 that immediately pop into mind whom you know are ready for this.

And let’s face it. Every business needs it. Your job is to go out there and start showing them why they need it, and how valuable it is to have it.

And that is how you write and rewrite your Chapter 1!