How to get started as a virtual bookkeeper in 7 steps

hi i'm veronica masik and i empower virtual bookkeepers to become confident professionals and business owners are you new to virtual bookkeeping in this video i'll go over how to get started as a virtual bookkeeper in seven steps virtual bookkeeping is a great way to be your own boss and make money working from home you can work with clients anywhere and set your own hours but bookkeeping isn't something you just decide to do when you make the decision to become a bookkeeper you're making the choice to become a professional and a business owner you have to be willing to put in the time and get training to use the right tools and become successful as a virtual bookkeeper let's go over how to get started as a virtual bookkeeper in seven steps let's start with step number one if you want to be a bookkeeper you have to get bookkeeper training you can give bookkeeper training in a few ways number one is on your own you can do the accounting coach bookkeeper training and there's also a new intuit certification to get that certification you first have to go through the training on coursera and get the intuit bookkeeping professional certificate and then move on to the actual certification and that is the intuit certified bookkeeping professional certification offered by sir deport another option is to do what i would call a complete training and certification program such as bookkeeper launch and universal accounting these programs will help you from beginning to end so they will walk you through they will give you all of the training all the support that you need everything from the technical aspects of doing bookkeeping to the technology aspects of doing the box as well as receiving support from the community and coaches and trainers another option is your local community college just take some bookkeeping courses from there as well as online learning from other online schools second step is to get quickbooks online training and certification so while the bookkeeper training is going to help you to get the theory and really the rules of doing bookkeeping you have to also learn accounting software and my software of choice is quickbooks online with quickbooks online i have been able to work with clients all throughout the united states as well as throughout the world and so really quick books online or another program like it is your gateway to working with clients virtually the great thing is that you can get training and certification for free directly from quickbooks you'll need to sign up for a free quickbooks online accountant account it will include the training as well as the certification so don't make the mistake of finding other programs in which you'll have to pay you can do it all for free from quickbooks online accountant you can also get free tutorials from my own youtube channel five minute bookkeeping so make sure that you subscribe to my channel so you can get all of the latest videos and also go through my youtube channel and the playlist and then you'll see where i have all of the tutorials then you can also get more in-depth training either from my own 5mb academy in which i have free and paid training as well as royal wise training and royal wise training really focuses on helping you dive deeper into quickbooks online and learning it inside and out and i really highly recommend them number three the legal staff if you're going to be a bookkeeper and you're going to do bookkeeping for other people you now own a business and so you need to come up with a business name i would encourage you to just avoid overthinking your business name initially in fact just start with your name and you can always change that later i see a lot of people who get stuck and who they just wait too long they're trying to find the name the perfect name they're asking people and it's just delaying you from getting started so just get started don't overthink it next is a business license check in your local area whether you're required to have a business license that all depends throughout the united states it's different in other parts of the world i'm sure it's different as well and then you'll need to decide on a business structure and here i'm speaking about the us because that's what i'm familiar with you might go for a dba or a doing business ass and that means that you haven't set up your business for legal purposes but you're still allowed to do business as a name different from your own name then you have an llc and that is a limited liability company this is an option that you can make at a state level it does afford you some legal protection but i'm not an attorney so i encourage you to consult an attorney for any additional legal structures if you're starting a partnership an s corporation in other types of legal entities consult an attorney as well as a cpa and also in the u.s get a tax id this is also known as an ein number and you get that from the irs the reason i encourage you to get an ein number is because otherwise you will have to use your social security number to submit like w9 forms and other types of forms and you really don't want to be sharing your social security number so get an ein number then we have banking you need to open a business bank account if you're not able to open a business bank account as an alternative you'll need to open a separate personal bank account that you will use only for your business and number four is marketing you have to do marketing in order to get clients start with a domain name you need to get a domain name based on your desired company name and again as i said don't overthink it maybe your domain name just needs to be your first and last name right now and then get an email address so that should be your name at your domain name avoid using gmail addresses yahoo addresses they're not very professional and that's just the sign that you're an amateur or that you're just getting started and you want to convey a sense of confidence when you're talking to prospective clients so that you know that you you know you're forming a legitimate business next you need a headshot make sure that you have a nice headshot people want to do business with real people and you'll be using your headshot a lot throughout your social media and if possible when you can afford it get a professional headshot here's an example of a headshot that i did just with my camera i mean it looks okay but i mean you see like kind of junk in the background um you know it just could look a whole lot better and then the picture on the right is actually in the same room but i used my professional camera with a a blurred background and i also edited the photo to get rid of some imperfections which there were a lot but as you can see you can do a lot even on your own if you're handy with the camera and with editing software and if not assess it go to a professional photographer who can really capture and bring out the best in you then you'll need to set up your social media accounts you'll need a facebook page for your business i encourage you to also set up an instagram account and a linkedin account and a lot of people ask do they need a website right away well not right away and in fact i'm going to advise you just to work on it later and that's just so that you can keep moving along in your journey otherwise you'll get stuck you'll overthink your website just work on it later number five sales so what do we do with clients once we once we get these clients what do we do with them at the very minimum you need to have an engagement letter you can find a free engagement letter template at my free virtual bookkeepers toolbox and then you'll need to have some idea about your pricing check out my free pricing strategies for bookkeepers and accountants and also my simple pricing system these are all included in my 5mb academy you'll find these at 5mbacademy.com a lot of people also worry about what do i ask my potential client what questions should i ask i'm so nervous and i know i was so nervous when i talked to my first perspective client but what i learned over time that yes there are some questions you need to ask about their business but the most important thing you need to do is that you need to learn to listen and stop worrying about you know what are you going to say what are you going to ask because when you're doing that you're not really listening to your prospective client so just let them tell you what their issues are when they tell you things then say hey tell me more or why is that an issue why is that a problem so just get them talking they'll tell you everything you need to know so don't worry so much about what you will ask focus on developing your listening skills number six workflows how are you going to work with virtual clients how are you going to deliver your services and work efficiently with them when you're working virtually well it's all about systems and workflows as i said you want to work officially with virtual clients you need to know what documents to get from them you need to know how to get those documents from them so that they're not emailing you a bunch of documents you need to know which apps in which software to integrate with quickbooks if you'll be doing any integrations or providing additional services and you'll need systems for working with virtual clients and delivering services check out my 5mb academy at 5mbacademy.com check out my free virtual bookkeepers toolbox also look for my paid program the virtual bookkeepers roadmap and also the qbop diagnostic review and there are a lot more courses some of them are free some are paid so check that out the 5b academy is really all about helping you to streamline your business and work efficiently using proven systems and workflows and finally you need community and support one of the things that i struggled with when i started my own business was that there wasn't a community there really weren't any people to talk to or people who were doing what i was doing and it felt so lonely and i just had so many doubts and and i just had to figure everything out on my own which was really hard and so i decided to build a a community on facebook it's called the five minute community in which you can come and ask questions it's a safe and positive place for you to learn from others to ask questions of me ask questions of the group and learn from others who are just like you and who are either where you are or who are further ahead of you which is really important than to learn what others are doing and what they have learned along their journey so how do you get access to all of the links and everything that i mentioned in this video download my free virtual keepers toolbox i've linked that below in the description for you if this content is helping you then subscribe to my channel ring the bell and give me a thumbs up and let me know in the comments if there are any other topics you'd like me to cover in the future i'm here to help you i'll see you next time

Channel: 5 Minute Bookkeeping

Views: 92,702

Keywords: 5 Minute Bookkeeping, Veronica Wasek, Five Minute Bookkeeping, Become a bookkeeper, how to be a bookkeeper, bookkeeper training, virtual bookkeeper, virtual bookkeeping training, bookkeeping certification, bookkeeper certification

Id: vypbp80ksbE

Length: 12min 36sec (756 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 22 2021