“A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don’t have a J.O.B.” -Fats Dominoe
Fats is right. The degree isn’t the goal. The income to create the lifestyle you want is the goal. Unfortunately, a college or university education doesn’t necessarily guarantee you’ll get a job, much less a job that will provide a great income and lifestyle. The same is true of the “wrong” education in bookkeeping and accounting.Speaking to university graduates, Michael Mandel in BusinessWeek:Online wrote on September 8th, “I’m sorry for obsessing about this, but I can’t help it. I really do wonder whether we’ve passed over a critical threshold where a college degree alone is no longer enough.”
With the “right” education you’ll “make your own luck.”
Most bookkeeping and accounting training programs only teach you enough about bookkeeping to get a data-entry job making $8 bucks an hour, but I don’t think that’s the lifestyle that most of us are looking for. The “right” education must give you the tools and training to help you “make your own luck.”
Introducing what makes the “right education in Small Business Accounting the “perfect” education.
Maybe we should be a little more specific about what you should demand from a curriculum on bookkeeping and accounting. And that includes Universal Accounting. If we don’t measure up, don’t buy our training either. These are the basics. If they aren’t in the course, don’t take it! That said, let’s see what you’ll need.1. The nuts-and-bolts of small business accounting. You should expect to learn T-Accounts, the General Ledger, Journals and the other Ledgers. You should learn about how they interact with each other and the information they provide the business owner. This is where it starts.2. The Balance Sheet and what it tells you. You should understand where assets, liabilities, accruals and capital fit on the balance sheet and understand what they are telling you.3. Business entities. What makes a corporation different from a proprietorship? What difference does this make your client? You should expect to have a complete understanding of the different business entities and how they effect the accounting process.4. You should become an Earnings Statement Expert. For most small business owners, this is where the rubber meets the road. With a complete understanding of the Earnings Statement, the value of your service gets powerful. You might be surprised to know that most business owners don’t have a complete understanding of what the Balance Sheet and Earning Statement are really telling them.5. You should know payroll. There are payroll services out there, but many small business owners don’t use them. As a small business bookkeeper, if you understand payroll, you are way ahead of your competition. One of the biggest monthly headaches for small business owners is the payroll process. Make that easier for your clients and you’re worth your weight in gold. If your bookkeeping education doesn’t teach about payroll, it’s incomplete, and not the right education.6. You should have hands-on experience. Like most things, hands-on learning is hands-down the best way to learn small business bookkeeping and accounting. It takes more than a text book and a lecture to enable you to “master” the tools you need. You need experience doing the books for a variety of different small businesses, to become a small business profit expert.As you search for the “right” education in bookkeeping and accounting, if these 6 areas of instruction are not a part of the curriculum, it isn’t a complete education and is not the “right” education for a successful bookkeeping business. Knowing that, I should tell you, I think these 6 areas of instruction are only a part of what you’ll need to have a successful and very profitable bookkeeping business. There’s still more you’ll need to know to create a truly profitable and rewarding bookkeeping and accounting business.
Okay… show me what the “perfect” education must include!
Now let me introduce you to the half dozen things profitable tax services know that will turn the “right” Bookkeeping Education into the “perfect” education. Realize that this is not offered everywhere. (But don’t worry; at the end of this e-mail, I’ll give you some information on where you will find it.)
- In depth marketing strategies. Time-proven techniques save you years of experimentation and frustration and teach you how to attract and keep the most profitable clientele. Since the best knowledge only turns into a great income when you have paying clients, learning how to quickly find and keep clients must be a part of the “perfect” curriculum. A library of prospecting letters and fliers to help you jump start your Professional Bookkeeping Business with sufficient clients should be in your course material.
- Coaching from marketing experts. If there’s not someone on the other end of the phone to help you with your efforts to attract and keep clients, it’s not the “perfect” education.
- How should I charge for my services? How can any school that would make you guess what to charge for your services consider itself to be the “perfect” education?
- How should I interview clients to get the information I’ll need? Without the right information, it will be difficult to really service your clients. Any school that doesn’t offer instruction on how to interview your clients to serve them effectively and efficiently is not the “perfect” education.
- Accounting Support. Your first six months as a professional bookkeeper, you’ll likely have questions you need answered. If your education doesn’t include access to experienced professionals for that critical start-up time, I don’t think there’s anyway it could be the “perfect” education.
- Proven management techniques. If your education doesn’t teach you the proven management techniques that will best optimize your time, you guessed it, it isn’t the “perfect” education. Running your business like a pro makes it possible to live the lifestyle that you and your family deserve.
Now you know what I consider the “perfect” education in professional bookkeeping and accounting. If you are able to find the right education, you’re on the right track. But if you want to “Make Your Own Luck”, you’d better demand the “perfect” education.
Did We Set Our Sights Too High?
Does anyone really provide this kind of real-world bookkeeping and accounting training? Yes, but most of them are called a “franchise” and can cost up to $80,000 to start. There is one exception. Universal Accounting’s Professional Bookkeeper Program is that exception.Click Here to Learn More About The Costs of Buying a Franchise and Why You Don’t Need to Most people don’t have the money to buy a franchise, but they can still create a profitable bookkeeping business. Universal Accounting has been teaching the ins-and-outs of small business accounting and tax preparation for over 25 years. And yes, the Professional Bookkeeper program meets every single criterion of both the “right” education and the “perfect” education… but you probably guessed that already. We’ve been called the small business accounting experts. Click on the link below and learn more about how to start your bookkeeping business with something even better than a franchise. Show Me How to Start a Lucrative and Exciting Bookkeeping Business Today
