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Hey, it’s Bill Von Famitti with booming bookkeeping business. And today I’m here with another one of my successful students. This is David.
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David, thanks for joining me today. You’re welcome. Nice to be here.
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So tell me a little bit about what life looked like before you started your bookkeeping business. So it was, um, like Groundhog day all over again, right? So, you know, it was the same, it was so, uh, I worked in accounting and an audit for years and it was the same thing over and over again. It was, you know, go to work, do a good job, and then see the people that I reported to get promoted and get more money and get more vacation time and everything else.
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And I’m sitting there going, wait a minute, something’s not right here. This is a little crazy. What I was putting in, I wasn’t getting out.
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And that was kind of, you know, frustrating. I know sometimes hours can be crazy. What did that look like? When I worked for some CPA firms, the hours were nuts, clearly.
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But then I got that, I knew that that was not for me, like no way. Um, so then I got into more, um, you know, private accounting and auditing. And that was, you know, those hours were, you know, they’re, you know, they’re minimum 40 hour weeks.
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They weren’t this crazy 65, 70 hours. Frankly, that really wasn’t the part that bothered me. The part that really bothered me was like, my daughter’s all played soccer.
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And I had to ask permission to go watch my daughter play soccer. I’m asking permission to go watch my, like, no, this is not for me. No way.
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This is ridiculous. Why bookkeeping? Why was bookkeeping the kind of the next thing for you? So, um, I actually met a, um, another bookkeeper, um, who did, who did a lot of work with some small businesses here in, in my hometown. And he said, look at, and we were just kind of talking about employment and everything else.
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And he said, you know, look at it. He’s like, you should really get into bookkeeping. And like, after the fourth time he said it to me, I’m like, you know what, I need to do this.
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Like, I need to at least try it. I can always go back to work for somebody. Like, you know what I mean? Did you have some concerns or fears when you started your business? You know, going from a, um, a certain salary that you get paid every week or two weeks or whatever it is, um, you know, having, yeah, I’m blessed enough to be married and I have a wife who was able to get health insurance for us and everything else.
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So, you know, that piece of it was taken care of, but for somebody else that really would be scary, right? So, um, just those, and just the unknown, not, you know, never, never doing this before, um, was probably the biggest fear, to be honest. What would you say to somebody who has the drive and the willingness and the aptitude for all this, what would you say to them to help alleviate their fears that they can learn how to, how to do bookkeeping? You got to put in the work, right? So, um, you know, again, having an accounting degree helps, right? But without having that accounting degree, if you were going to start a bookkeeper, you know, look at, there’s a plethora of resources out there. Um, if you’re willing to do the work and willing to learn and frankly, willing to make mistakes and learn from them, you know, it doesn’t happen overnight, it’s going to take time.
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Um, you know, you’re going to mess some things up. Uh, you’re going to some days be like, oh man, you know, I screwed this one up. Right.
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You got to have some thick skin, I think is kind of important. Um, but all that being said, it’s very learnable. How about getting clients? That’s a fear that a lot of people have, whether or not I’ll be able to get clients.
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Was that a fear that you had? Um, is that a concern you had? And then what did the reality look like for you? Getting a client is, is difficult. Again, it’s work. It’s like anything else.
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Um, again, you’re going to fail. You’re going to fail a whole, a lot more than you succeed, but that shouldn’t scare you away from, um, making the attempt. A lot of it is, is frankly word of mouth.
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Um, you know, being active on, uh, you know, Facebook. Yeah. Not from a marketing perspective, but just from a, you know, a feed perspective, like taking a look at your feed and saying, this guy’s looking for a bookkeeper.
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Look at that. Like people are like begging for help. Right.
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Where you’re at now, obviously we all start at zero. What does revenue look like for you now? And number of clients, those types of things. Um, so right now I have, uh, four clients.
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I don’t want to have 35 clients where I’m not able to spend the amount of time that I want, but the clients that I have, I’m more about building a relationship, long term relationship with a certain number of clients, you know, revenue wise over six figures. Um, so, and that’s great. Tell me a little bit about how life has changed for you and potentially your family as well.
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Clearly flexibility. Um, you know, it’s, I was at a point where I hated going to work and I don’t hate going to work anymore. I don’t, I don’t see, I don’t even see it as work.
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I really don’t. I see it as me interacting with other people, small business owners who need help. And we have, we have conversations daily, multiple times a day, the, um, ability to help people, the, the, the satisfaction that I get of helping someone else and see the happiness on their face.
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How does it impact your family, your family life? I get to go watch all my daughters play soccer whenever I want. Um, you know, my wife loves it because, you know, she’s, um, she’s a nurse practitioner, so she’s, you know, obviously not working from home at all. Um, I am sort of the flexibility to, you know, Hey, throw a little laundry in, you know, start dinner.
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Um, you know, whatever, whatever it needs to be done. I remember when my daughters were young and I had to, you know, leave work to either take them to practice or pick them up from practice. And I would get, you know, looked at sideways and that wouldn’t have happened if I was doing this.
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Like, and just the, to kind of go back to my other questions, I think the other benefit of this is this reduced stress. What would you say to somebody who’s considering starting a bookkeeping business, um, to encourage them to start a bookkeeping business? Don’t be afraid to fail. You know, the, um, being afraid of failure is a self fulfilling prophecy.
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You, if you’re afraid, you’re probably going to fail. Is everybody going to be successful? No, but at least you tried, you know, at least you gave, you gave, you’ll, you’ll know if you gave a hundred percent, you’ll know if you gave 50%, you’ll know if you gave 25%, you’ll know that. And if you can look yourself in the mirror and say, yeah, I tried it.
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I tried it. It didn’t work. You shouldn’t have any regrets at all.
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Let’s say you had a chance to speak to yourself before you started your bookkeeping business. So, you know, what kind of person you’re talking to? What would you tell your, you know, your former self about your chances of success at doing this? You had a, a much larger chance of success than you thought you did. You were, you were minimizing your potential.
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Um, and it was holding you back. I appreciate you coming on, sharing your story, helping others, you know, see what that process looked like for you. Fantastic.
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Are you tired of the corporate “Groundhog Day,” putting in all the work while others get the rewards? Are you fed up with asking for permission to attend your own kids’ events? David was. Now, he runs a six-figure bookkeeping business, never misses a soccer game, and loves his stress-free life. If you’re ready to stop trading your life for a paycheck and start building a career with real freedom, visit our website to learn how you can start your Booming Bookkeeping Business today.