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Last weekend, I attended the Institute of Certified NZ Bookkeepers annual conference where I was presenting at a session about my journey, from starting my bookkeeping business to selling it, and subsequently starting a business coaching business.

I had to give myself a good talking to a few days out from the conference when I realised that the language that I was using around my presentation was not helpful and was, in fact, just making me nervous and anxious about it. 

It was under the...

As professional bookkeepers trying to build our client base, it can be discouraging to see others advertising a (much) lower rate. How on Earth will you ever get more clients when others are offering the “same” thing for way less?

But here’s why you should try not to get discouraged.

If you haven’t read last week’s blog post Are you Charging Enough? then I suggest you do so before reading this one to remind yourself about all the reasons you shouldn’t...

A bookkeeper that I’m mentoring was recently advised that she couldn’t possibly charge market rate as she was just starting out.

Here’s why I wholeheartedly disagree with this, and why you shouldn’t charge a low hourly rate even if you are just starting out.

Market rate is market rate

Anyone charging less than market rate does the whole industry a disservice.

We’ve worked so hard since the days when I started my bookkeeping practice in 2007 to improve the profile...

#everymonthisaGSTmonth

Bookkeepers in New Zealand often find that their workload has pesky peaks and troughs that correspond to our 2-monthly GST cycles.

This often results in a more stressful workload every second month, not to mention the negative effect that it has on cashflow.

This is also sometimes compounded with "those" clients who are notoriously difficult about getting information to you in a timely manner, resulting in last minute filing (more about managing client expectations in...

Hi there,

How are you coping?

It's been a mixed bag for bookkeepers, these past few months, right?

On one hand, as bookkeepers we've all been doing a wonderful job of supporting clients through Covid, many of us busier than ever with extra work bringing in increased revenue - which is gratefully received! We feel lucky to be in that situation in these times. 

On the other hand, some of us have lost clients, consequently leaving a financial hole. That's a hard pill to swallow....

I wrote in last week’s blog about how I tend to live my life in the space between “fake it ‘til you make it” and “don’t make a dick of yourself.” 

The gap between those two points is most definitely outside the comfort zone but that is where growth and learning occur.

It's saying yes to something before feeling completely ready and then having the fear of making a dick of yourself propel you to be ultra-prepared, to learn or practice or...

Last week, after inviting bookkeepers in my free Facebook group The Business of Bookkeeping to share their bookkeeping origin story, I talked about my own bookkeeping journey; from starting a bookkeeping business from scratch, to building it up and selling it 8 years later in order to move into business coaching. 

I promised at the end to share my thoughts on what it takes to build a successful bookkeeping business; on what I consider to be integral to the growth,...

I had huge resistance to starting my bookkeeping business back in 2007. I thought anyone could do bookkeeping, and did, from their dining room table, for low pay.

Our landlord was an accountant and I remember her saying that people were paying others to reconcile their bank accounts. I looked at her dumbfounded. Like, why?? It’s so easy to do. Why would you pay someone to do that?

I sold Tupperware when my kids were little, and I remembered meeting a bookkeeper at one of the Tupperware...

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, all the times I talk about sales only to be met with a shudder and a look of horror. I’m not sure how and when the idea of sales people as disingenuous and pushy became so firmly entrenched, but if you find yourself feeling that you need to coerce or push a potential client into working with you then, either, you are doing sales very wrong, or they are not your target market.

I spent a good part of my earlier career in sales roles with limited training but with some...