Imagine you get to wake up, take your kids to school, and be there when they get home. But you still need to work to help support your family.
If you don’t want to sacrifice family time for your work, consider starting a bookkeeping franchise. Bookkeeping for beginners is a fantastic option for anyone who needs a flexible work schedule.
Whether you’re a new parent or want to juggle work and school, consider if bookkeeping is right for you.
Bookkeeping vs. Accounting
One of the most important things to understand is how bookkeeping differs from accounting. On the one hand, both roles deal with money and company finances.
However, accounting focuses more on analysis and strategy while bookkeeping records transactions. Accountants also need to get a degree in the field and sometimes obtain certification.
If you want to become a bookkeeper, you don’t need a special degree or certification. As long as you’re good with money, it’s easy to start bookkeeping for beginners.
Bookkeeping Terms
As you start a bookkeeping business or career, you’ll encounter a lot of the same terms over and over.
- Assets: inventory, other stuff the business owns, money that customers and clients owe
- Balance sheet: a list of what the business owns and owes and the total value
- Expenses: money the business has spent
- Income: money the business takes in
- Income statement: includes income and expenses
- Liabilities: the total that the business owes
- Owner equity: money that the owner adds to or takes from the business
You’ll see assets, liabilities, and owner equity on the balance sheet. However, the income statement covers the day-to-day transactions and financial changes.
Types of Bookkeeping
Whether you want to start a bookkeeping business or franchise, you should understand the two most common types of bookkeeping: single-entry and double-entry.
You may use one or the other, or you might need to use both. Still, knowing the differences can help you no matter what clients you have.
Single-Entry
Single-entry bookkeeping is the business version of balancing your own checkbook. It’s suitable for sole proprietors and other small businesses that don’t have a lot of transactions.
You’ll track each transaction once on a balance sheet, either as income or an expense. It’s a fantastic option when you need to determine your net profit.
However, it’s not useful for tracking your assets and liabilities or creating a balance sheet. You’ll need to use double-entry bookkeeping for those tasks.
Double-Entry
As the name suggests, you’ll enter each transaction twice when using double-entry bookkeeping. Each transaction will involve both a credit and debit transaction.
For example, taking out a loan would involve a credit to the assets. However, a debit of the same amount would go toward the liabilities.
This type of bookkeeping is great for growing businesses because it better classifies each transaction. That makes everything easier to log for you and your client.
Bookkeeping Best Practices
Another crucial part of bookkeeping for beginners is to follow bookkeeping best practices. Especially when doing bookkeeping for a client, you don’t want to fall behind on your work.
By following some best practices, you can stay in good standing as a business owner and keep your clients happy. Then, you can maintain your bookkeeping franchise or business.
Update the General Ledger Regularly
You should update a business’s financial records each week or even each day. That way, transactions won’t pile up and take hours to enter.
Updating the general ledger will also keep financial records current. When doing this for your business or a client’s you can see how financially healthy the business is.
And you can send regular updates to your client so that they understand the state of their business.
Save for Taxes Now
Updating the general ledger will also help you or your client save money for taxes. When you can predict your annual profit, you can get an idea of how much you’ll owe in taxes at the end of the year.
You’ll be able to use that number to determine how much money to take out of each sale or invoice. Put that money in a savings account to help it earn a little bit in interest.
Then, you’ll have enough money to cover taxes each quarter and at the end of the year. And you can avoid having to pay late fees on your taxes.
Transition Slowly
Whether you want to switch from bookkeeping on paper to a computer or from one software to another, do it over time. If you transition too quickly, you might forget crucial records.
By taking more time, you can learn the new system and be comfortable with it before you give up the old one. And you can review the old system to make sure you don’t forget to move any transactions over.
Even after you transition, keep the old system going for a while. That way, you can review it multiple times to ensure you don’t have any errors.
Review Everything
Going over financial records after you work on them can seem like a waste of time. However, reviewing your work gives you the chance to catch problems that could have huge effects on a business.
Take a few minutes each time you work on someone’s bookkeeping to look over everything. The records might be fine, but you can have peace of mind for yourself and your client.
Why Start a Bookkeeping Business
If you want to be a bookkeeper, you can work for a company full-time. However, there are many benefits of starting a bookkeeping business and working on your own.
Whether you want to start a business or invest in a BooXkeeping franchise, you can enjoy a few advantages.
Be an Expert
As a business or franchise owner, you control the work you do, so you can be an expert. Learn as much as you can about bookkeeping so that you can provide excellent service to your clients.
When you work for an employer, they may assign your other tasks. If you’re able, you might have to also handle more advanced accounting, or you might have to work on payroll.
But working for yourself means you can focus on bookkeeping and be an expert on your position.
No Degree Necessary
Even if you did want to get a traditional job, some employers might have strict requirements. A company might require that you have an accounting or business degree.
However, bookkeepers don’t need a degree or certification to start working. When you employ yourself, you control the training and experience that you receive.
That way, you can start working without any formal bookkeeping experience.
Save Time
This benefit is more for your clients than you, but you can help other business owners save time. Bookkeeping is critical to the success of any company, but doing it takes a while, especially for non-bookkeepers.
You can use this to help sell your services and get clients. Tell them how you can save them hours each week or month by working on their finances for them.
And you can save yourself time by focusing only on bookkeeping because that’s one task you can master and repeat.
Work for Yourself
Another significant advantage of a bookkeeping business is that you don’t have a boss. You can choose when and where you work, so it can fit your schedule.
It’s a great option for students and stay-at-home parents because it’s so flexible. You don’t have to sit down for eight hours a day if you have classes or children to take care of.
While bookkeeping isn’t the only business you can start, it’s something that businesses will continue to need.
How to Start Bookkeeping for Beginners
If you’re ready to start bookkeeping from home, you should start a franchise. Working with an existing bookkeeping company can make it easier to get clients quickly.
You’ll receive support and training so that you can improve your skills. If that all sounds good, here’s how you can start a bookkeeping franchise.
Brush Up on Your Skills
Bookkeeping for beginners isn’t that difficult, but having a few skills and traits will make it easier. For one, you should know how to use a computer and input numbers.
A good bookkeeper is also good with numbers, organized, and has attention to detail. You need to be able to communicate with your clients both about good and bad news.
If you don’t have all of those skills, take time to learn them. That way, you’ll offer the best service possible to your clients.
Set Up Your Workspace
Next, you need to decide where you’ll work. Running your business from home can be great if you want to save money and don’t have too many distractions.
However, you can also invest in a coworking space so that you have a place just for work. This option is great if you can work full-time, but a home office is more efficient for students and parents with erratic schedules.
Either way, make sure you have a computer, good lighting, and anything else you need to be productive.
Choose a Niche
Another thing to consider is if you want to niche down as a bookkeeper. Your niche can be working with a specific type of business, such as a non-profit or a sole proprietorship.
Or you might want to work with businesses in one industry, such as beauty or health. Maybe you want to specialize in offering single-entry bookkeeping.
Whatever it is, think about what you enjoy doing to make sure you’ll want to work.
Determine How Much to Charge
As you get closer to booking your first client, you should determine your rates. Think about if you have any bookkeeping experience, where you live, and the services you’ll offer.
Your rates should be high enough to pay for business expenses and support you. However, they should be low enough that you can get clients.
Pricing isn’t easy, but you can always change your prices later if your initial rates don’t get you many clients.
Create a Marketing Plan
You could be an expert at bookkeeping, but that won’t matter if no one knows about your business. As you start, you might get a few clients through word-of-mouth.
However, don’t be afraid to test out other marketing strategies, such as social media or email.
Think about your niche and your ideal customer. Figure out where they spend their time so that you can reach more people more efficiently.
For example, you might be able to reach eCommerce business owners on social media. But local businesses might be easier to reach with ads in the city newspaper.
Know When to Hire
At some point, you may have too many clients to handle yourself. Instead of giving up some clients, consider hiring a contractor or employee to help run your business.
You can look for another bookkeeper to handle some of your clients. Or you might want to outsource other aspects of your business.
Consider hiring someone to manage your social media or email list. If you need help with more stuff, an administrative assistant may be a better fit.
Keep Learning
Once you have a successful bookkeeping franchise, you should stay up to date with changes to the industry. If the software you use has a major update, figure out what changed.
Owning a business or franchise will change over time, and you need to adapt. Consider taking courses or reading books on updates so that you can keep your business running.
You don’t need to spend hours a day on education. However, you don’t want to keep using outdated bookkeeping methods years down the line.
Is a Bookkeeping Franchise for You?
Bookkeeping for beginners can seem daunting, but it’s a great career path. You don’t need any special degree, and you can set up a business to work for yourself.
And when you set up a BooXkeeping franchise, you get access to resources to help you. Then, you can have a successful business as a bookkeeper.
Are you ready to get started? Invest in a BooXkeeping franchise now.
