How To Start a Bookkeeping Business With Pay Stubs Now
A passion for numbers, recording, and organizing stuff are enough to get you started in the bookkeeping business. So whether you have worked as a bookkeeper or intend to provide value for people by organizing their financial records and documents, there are several steps to actualize your dream.
This blog post from Paystubsnow will discuss everything you need to start a bookkeeping business. So now, let's get started!
What is a Bookkeeping Business?
A bookkeeping business is one where you keep daily financial records for a living. Essentially, you can work for an establishment as an employee or operate your small business as a solopreneur. Whatever route you decide to take, the bookkeeping business offers vast opportunities for everyone. But, you require passion. In addition, you do not have to be a professional bookkeeper or accountant to excel. Interestingly, you can make it in the bookkeeping business as a freelancer, working on your terms. However, before launching into the world of financial organization and recordkeeping, you need to understand what is expected of you in the business precisely.
What are your responsibilities in the bookkeeping business?
Being a bookkeeper might not look like much but believe it or not, it is a critical position and a vital responsibility, especially when you consider the business operations of any establishment. The reason is that the duties of a bookkeeper are instrumental to the profitability of the business through proper record keeping. Without reasonable bookkeeping procedures, the enterprise and business owner are as good as blind.
Here are the primary duties of a bookkeeper to build career success in the bookkeeping business:
- Managing all accounts payable and receivable
- Curating financial statements like generating employee W-2 forms and paystubs.
- Operating accounting software to manage the company or business finances.
- Studying, understanding, and interpreting business, economic trends, etc.
Now that you know your responsibilities and obligations in the bookkeeping business, here are some helpful steps to begin your career.
How does Pay Stubs Now help you to start a bookkeeping business?
Generally, several bookkeepers utilize accounting softwares to enable them to discharge their duties effectively. Essentially, the bookkeeping business is a pretty competitive industry. As a result, online paystub generators like Paystubsnow offer relevant tools to people in the bookkeeping business whether or not they are employed.
Here are appropriate steps we suggest you take:
Choose your Niche
The bookkeeping business is broad, cutting across several niches since business process optimization and tracking is critical for every business. As a result, niching down is essential to stay relevant. The reason is that picking a niche presents you as an authority in the field. As a result, you can attract specific clients, customers, or more prominent employers to subscribe to your bookkeeping business or services. In addition, if you are self-employed, you will have no problems determining your target customers and advertising to them. But, it would help if you had basic market research to help you choose your niche.
Create your bookkeeping business plan
No business survives without a plan and indeed not a bookkeeping business whether or not you work for yourself. Essentially, your business plan is a written down schematic or blueprint for how you intend to run your bookkeeping business. Also, the SWOT analysis is a critical approach to writing an impressive business plan which you can pitch to high-paying clients. What's more, a business plan helps you create focus and direction for your business. You will need a business name and some certifications to complete your business plan. However, professional certification as a bookkeeper is not compulsory to create a viable bookkeeping business.
Get your business registered.
Business registration is critical for officially flagging your business. But your business registration process depends on the type of business structures you choose to operate. Whether you want to run a sole proprietorship, a partnership, or a corporation, you need to familiarize yourself with the requirements for business registration. As a result, choosing a business entity becomes critical. Additionally, it would help if you worked on insuring your business to guard against unexpected losses and liabilities.
Automate your bookkeeping business process
Automation is critical in several businesses to drive and increase sales and profitability. Therefore bookkeeping softwares are handy. Also, you will need payroll softwares to assist you with payroll and other administrative processes. Essentially, bookkeeping software is vital for how successful your business turns out. While there are many bookkeeping software out there, you can look up samples online to get options from which you can choose.
Create a business infrastructure
Your business infrastructure constitutes those visual tools or equipment that represents your business with which you can begin work and pricing. Examples of business infrastructure include but are not limited to a website, an office, database, data sharing tools, collaboration materials, a bank account, etc.
Set up your price
Pricing is the final step you need with a functional business. Essentially, pricing can be pretty tricky to set up. The reason is that you want to create a better compensation plan for your work. Also, pricing gets more complicated when you have employees to pay. However, you can get an average price range by researching the industry to find out the average price. Such information can guide you towards setting a competitive price in the industry. But, ensure that the amount you charge is fair considering your years of experience, skillset, and materials you use. It is also important to note that your prices are not fixed. Therefore you reserve the right to change your pricing to suit the present economic situation of things or your business capital.
Final Thought
As is customary among other business types, growth and success heavily depend on your skillset. Therefore while you aspire to reel in more clients, you should focus on skilling up. The reason is that clients will only entrust sensitive business information like financial information to you when they can trust your abilities.
FAQS: Can you teach yourself bookkeeping?
Can you teach yourself bookkeeping?
Although some professional courses and programs offer bookkeeping certification, they are not essential to start a bookkeeping business, as you can very well teach yourself bookkeeping. In addition, while you do not need an accounting degree, you should have basic knowledge of accounting and financial management.
Are bookkeepers in high demand?
Economists project employment opportunities for bookkeeping and accounting to decline in the coming years due to existing software. Regardless, there is a significant gap for accountants, virtual bookkeepers, auditing clerks, and even payroll administrative workers.
How do you differentiate a bookkeeper from an accountant?
Bookkeepers are responsible for daily curating, recording, and analyzing financial transactions and information. In contrast, accountants are responsible for deep analysis of the company's raw data and generating accounting reports for the bookkeepers to record.
