How Much Does It Cost To Start A Bookkeeping Business?

Even if you feel you have already thought about all of these key details in your head, you’ll still want to get everything on paper for potential clients, lenders, partners, and even regulators. Planning will often be what makes or breaks a bookkeeping business. Additionally, having a firm business plan in place will also be essential for any bookkeeper that wants to take out a business loan or otherwise access outside capital.

Fees vary from a few dollars to a percentage of revenue, depending on your business location. You should consider the licensing fees when deciding where to locate your virtual bookkeeping business. While the steps outlined below need to be completed at some point as you establish your business, getting your first virtual bookkeeping client should be the first thing you do. This way, you’ll be growing your reputation alongside building your business. If you opt for a sole proprietorship or general partnership, there’s no formal paperwork to file to legally create your entity—you just start selling your product or service.

Steps to Starting a Bookkeeping Business

Be sure to check out my free Start a Bookkeeping Business checklist, where I explain this in a bit more detail. Our 4,418 case studies show you how ordinary people built businesses to millions in revenue – all starting from a simple idea or side how to start a bookkeeping business project. QuickBooks offers a very wide range of certifications that cost anywhere from $120 to $4,000 for the QuickBooks Expert certification. You can sign up for QuickBooks’s ProAdvisor Program and get access to their comprehensive training.

• Every business needs a bookkeeper, so you have a wide variety of customers to choose from.
• Bookkeeping businesses—especially if you’re the only employee—come with generally low startup costs.
• It can guide your decision-making, but you can also adjust it in the future if anything changes.
• Small business bookkeepers are needed year-round to help businesses with their books.
• LinkedIn offers online courses and access to expert-led tutorials for $19.99/month-following a 14-day free trial.
• There are many ways to go about creating a bookkeeping business, which can make the process overwhelming.

You can get certified in each of these programs, which can not only help you become a power user but can also help you market yourself as an expert. If you’re just starting a bookkeeping business, it’s likely that you’ll just be working solo, at least for the beginning. Consider starting your search into business entities for bookkeepers by looking into sole proprietors and LLCs. The latter could be a great option if you might bring in some help down the line.

Hiring Secrets from a 90-Person (Remote) Accounting Firm

Your website is where you can drive all your traffic from other marketing channels. It holds information about you, your business, and your services. It’s also a place for you to clarify for your potential clients why they should want to work with you. You can build your website yourself, but https://www.bookstime.com/articles/enrolled-agent-exam if you have the budget invest in a web designer and copywriter to help build it for you. You’ll also need to learn some basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practices or hire someone to help you. Small businesses often feel lost when it comes to bookkeeping, finance, tax and accounting.

Bookkeepers handle sensitive data for their clients, and an error on your part could be costly. Errors and Omissions insurance protects you and your assets if that happens. Email marketing sits near the top of the list of effective marketing channels.