The Successful Bookkeeper Podcast

"Everybody ultimately wants to be the surgeon. Ultimately, you want to do the part of bookkeeping, that had you become a bookkeeper and had you open a bookkeeping business." -Gina Cotner Taking on an assistant can sometimes feel like a burden. When we are already overwhelmed, the last thing we need is a new person in the mix, one we have to train, oversee and constantly course correct to get thing...

"We're testing these same services in my business, seeing what's working, what's not. And then going out to the marketplace and saying, 'We know you have this problem, would you be interested in letting us help you?' " -Mark Kappleman When getting started in business there is often a pressure to be a generalist, to try and learn and do everything for any possible client. But, there is nothing wron...

"You're juggling balls in the air, and some are rubber, and some are glass. If you're going to let a ball drop, don't let it be a glass one." -Jessica Lackey It is unfortunate, but we often have to suffer to learn what it is we truly value. It is okay to make mistakes, but if we get to a point where mistakes are our dominant choices, it is time to reach out for help. There are many different measu...

"What story are we telling ourselves about why they don't get it? Then, finding a way around that and asking the question…what unites us?" -Sally Helgesen Communication is the cornerstone of business. Yet despite this many of us struggle to communicate with people different from ourselves. Not only that, but we also find it uncomfortable to effectively communicate our value and worth to others too...

"You've got to do the work in yourself first, otherwise we can't do the work in our practices." -Christina Foxwell All too often we are consumed by the idea of competition, that to be successful means constantly proving ourselves in every room we enter. While a certain amount of competition can be a driving force for growth, too much makes us a nervous wreck, so concerned with how we are showing u...

"I like the idea of considering the workplace to become a source of well-being, rather than a source of distress." -Dr. Karen Doll As bookkeepers, we understand the finite nature of available resources. We find the balance in our clients' books. And yet when it comes to ourselves, we often don't consider the nature of our own available resources. This could be our emotional capacity, our time or o...

"It's like following a leader off of a cliff… just because they said jump, you jump. You want to be able to have that freedom to be able to push back and disagree and think about it." -Stephan Wiedner It isn't easy to speak up in the workplace. A lack of psychological safety often prevents us from being as honest and open as we might be with others. This kind of disingenuous polite agreement stifl...

"You've got to take time out to take care of yourself or there will be no business." -Crystalynn Shelton Bookkeepers at our core, desire to help people. We love to take the parts of business others struggle with and make it simple for them. But this desire to help can sometimes lead us into uncomfortable and unfair relationships with our clients. Working for someone, doesn't mean you have to do ev...

"We aim to truly be seen and act like partners in their business and we're right there along with them." -Alex Frolek We will never be successful if we look at our client's success as separate from our own. Of course, there is nothing wrong with just doing the books. But over years of bookkeeping, our accumulated knowledge and experience are invaluable when applied to the success of others. When g...

"The numbers don't lie, but they don't tell the whole story." -Adrienne Barrett Planning is something we have all struggled with, most of us find it hard to plan for the worst, afraid of willing those scenarios into existence. Even fewer of us plan for success. Plan for what it might look like should all of our hard work pay off and our business grows beyond our ability to manage it alone. This pl...

"The mission of my business is building a business that serves my family, instead of my family serving a business." -Becky Daniels Being good at a certain thing doesn't always mean you will be good at running it as a business too. There is an ever-expanding demand for bookkeeping advisory services, as more businesses become aware they are missing out on a wealth of benefits while they try to focus...

"It is really important for people to feel like, 'I'm in touch with people I trust.'" –Karen Wickre Building meaningful connections isn't easy, especially online. We have all felt an internal cringe at connecting with someone on LinkedIn only to be hard-sold their product or service. Some of us may even be a little guilty of doing that too! But networking is about more than having the confidence t...

"But the problem was, I was the one who knew how to do everything, and I didn't get it out to my staff very well." -Heidi Adams Stepping out on your own can be scary, but if you have a real love for what you do, you'll never really work a day in your life. Sometimes our own successes can overwhelm us. Afraid we will never get a referral again, we take on as many as we can. Many of us run this way...

"I love the accounting ability to be able to fix problems for people and make things better. But, I also have to learn there is a certain point where I need to be doing them for me, so my systems are in place." -Shannon Lavender Too often we design our businesses solely on the people we wish to emulate. The ones we call successful. We get stuck in habits and patterns of trying to live a life that...

"I wrote this book for people who want to learn how to build and run a business, and hopefully not make the same mistakes I made." -Sandeep Chennakeshu Starting a new business isn't easy. It requires us to get very good at a lot of different things. Once we get used to wearing so many different hats, it can be hard to let go and trust in others to help scale our businesses to new heights. It is co...

"If you can say your 30-second commercial while you're holding marbles and a glass of water, you can say it at a networking event much more easily." -Mindy Morrison It can sometimes feel like we have a never-ending checklist of things to do before we can even begin to start our business or follow our dreams. We build an idea in our head of what success is, not realizing we are often creating unnec...

"It seems slightly daunting, but at the end of the day, it is pretty straightforward, and man can bookkeepers add a lot of value to a manufacturing business." -Shawn Coultice Have you ever considered a manufacturing bookkeeping niche for your business? Some bookkeepers focus on dentists or lawyers, but why not manufacturing companies? In this episode, our host, Louie Prosperi will explore further...

You don't know what you didn't know. And everything that's living in your head, we've got to get it out of there! -Melissa Morris It is often easy to feel like no one can do what we can do and yet, we rely on hastily written to-do lists or checklists quickly passed off to our employees. If things in your bookkeeping business aren't running smoothly, it is unlikely to be because of employees being...

"If you're going to work with someone and they're going to give you access to their client base, they're really going to have to trust you." -Jeff Jacobs Trust is fundamental to any relationship and yet so many of us struggle to build long-lasting and trusting relationships. Expectation plays a key role in how trust is formed. When someone lets us down or fails to deliver on a promise, it shakes o...

"You really need to identify your target audience. If you don't know what market you're in and who your ideal client is then how can you even begin marketing?" -Amy Anderson Marketing ourselves isn't easy and in the bookkeeping industry especially, where we tend to be more introverted, it can be hard to build an exciting and outgoing profile. Fortunately, marketing ourselves doesn't have to be all...

"They depend on us to relate to them important information on how to minimize tax, how to reach their financial goals. If we do it in a more structured way, our clients are going to see the value in that expertise." -Nadia Rodriguez Expanding your bookkeeping business to include advisory capacity is scary for many. We are our own worst enemies when it comes to self-belief and self-confidence. But...

"I would say, if you are never really wrong, you are never really right either, you need to put things down (on paper) to get clarity, to move work forward and make things happen." -Adrienne Bellehumeur Getting good at effective documentation isn't easy. Whether because we find it hard to take notes while actively listening or we are afraid of losing face in a room full of people who aren't taking...

"That's the beauty of this industry, you can be as big or as little as you want to be, it's so scalable." -Kim Wolfe This is the question that has paralyzed more than a few good people when it comes to wanting to start their own bookkeeping business. It can be difficult to trust ourselves, and not judge ourselves too harshly for previous failures. Often, it is the expectation more than the outcome...

"No one can do it the way you are doing it, but it doesn't necessarily mean your way is the best way or the only way." -Jamie Van Cuyk Hiring the right candidate is challenging, often we are better suited to, or skilled at other areas of our business. Sometimes we may even think putting out a job advertisement is a piece of cake and yet are baffled when we don't get suitable applicants or worse, h...

"The first thing to becoming successful is defining who you want to work with, who is your ideal client?" -Jennie Moore Welcome back to another Successful Bookkeeper Spotlight session with your host, Louie Prosperi. Our lives revolve around conversation, we hope that all of our interactions will be good, but often, this is not the case. Differences of opinion, expectation, and understanding can le...