Set up your business:
I want you to do is think of a business name so take a few days to brainstorm. Some lists of names that you like um it could have your name in the title or just. Make sure you know it’s something easy to understand and pronounce for some people.
This is the hardest part of the whole process is just choosing that business name and then the next. I?m gonna have you do is create an LLC or whatever business structure that you want to create. So, you need to legally make your business an entity. So, I obviously can’t give out legal advice but make sure to do your own research on what type of business you want to create for me.
It was recommended to do an LLC because it keeps your business separated from your personal finances so if someone sued you, for example, they couldn’t take all of your personal assets so.
The next thing you want to do is register that LLC with your state and I am speaking to people in the united states you’ll have to do a little extra research if you’re outside the United Kingdom a lot of people want to get like an attorney hire an attorney to do this process.
But you can do it yourself it’s pretty easy and it’s way cheaper if you um if you just do it yourself so you need to go to your secretary of state’s website and file what’s called an article of organization.
Learn bookkeeping:
As you’re setting up your business and getting your license and all that you can also be taking these classes and learning the bookkeeping process.
So, don’t feel like you have to completely do one and then do the next but they can kind of overlap. All right so the first thing you need to do is pick software so I pretty much 100 recommend QuickBooks online and as a bookkeeper you want to get the accountant version so QuickBooks online accountant.
So, this is a website that you log into you can have a log in your client can have a login, and when you log into your account version. You can see all your clients so maybe you have eventually had like 10 clients. You can see each of them listed right there waiting for you and see how many transactions you have to categorize for each person etc.
I did start out using QuickBooks desktop which is just a software that goes on your computer and no one else can see it unless you’re remote in but that I think is getting less and less popular as time goes on and then the second most popular software is called Xero so you can look into that if you are interested, I exclusively work in quick books online I don’t want to be learning a bunch of different programs all the time.
Marketing:
I do recommend creating a website so, I use wax for my website and square space. I know is another popular option you can probably make it by yourself
I know they even have some free options on wax if you use their like domain name as a part of that you can also buy a domain name. So, you might want to reserve that now with whatever business name you picked reserve. That domain name now there’s going to be a yearly cost associated with that I think it ranges maybe from like 80 to 150 depending on the kind of were.
What you pick you could also order business cards if you think that’s going to be helpful for your area and then create some kind of logo as well and like a color scheme you can use in your website.
So, I use the program canvas which is free and it’s super awesome you can do so much in there I love canvas so much and then you also want to get a business email address so google is probably.
The most popular place to get that um and it looks the most professional if you after the at have your business name so do that within suite within google all right and then set your price so you need to figure out.
I would just start out charging by the hour so start out charging 40 an hour and then you can raise your prices as you go along and as you get more information. Then eventually, you’re going to want to do a fixed rate which means just charging your client the same amount every month so like charging 500 a month or 250 every month.
Ongoing:
One is setting goals making a business plan. I?m sure you can look on google or YouTube and find a lot of information and resources about business plans. So, that is just a great business practice, in general, you want to have some kind of contract of employment for new clients to sign.
So, you want to spell out what is expected of you what’s expected of them and how you each can terminate the relationship if something isn’t working out. So, I wasn’t really comfortable putting my contract on that.
I use on the internet just for free for everyone to use because I don’t know the liability for that I do give it to you in my class if you take my class the bookkeeper business coach so you can check that out if you want if you take bookkeeper launch. They also give you a copy of what they call the letter of engagement.
All right then you want to be saving for taxes so when I was starting out, I had a spreadsheet and every dollar be paying your taxes quarterly again when you’re first starting out it’s not a huge deal depending on how much money you’re making.
