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Hey, it’s Bill Von Fumetti with Booming Bookkeeping Business, and today I’m here with another one of my successful students. This is Joy. Joy, thanks for being here today.
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It’s my pleasure. Thank you for having me. What was your life like before your bookkeeping business? I’m a mom of six, and for most of my years as a mom, I’ve been a stay-at-home mom.
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I was an editor for years, and I was laid off a few months into the pandemic. And so that had me looking at other, well, for a while, I just focused on overseeing my kids’ remote learning, which was a handful. But yeah, I started to look at, okay, I’d like to have a job again.
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And what would I like to do? My grandmother was a bookkeeper. Of course, the very traditional, you know, paper-based bookkeeping, but she did that for many years. And that was, yeah, that was one of the things that I considered.
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Some of your materials were among the first that I came across, and I really liked how your program is comprehensive. So I was starting completely with no knowledge of accounting or bookkeeping. This is my first time opening or owning a business, and so the marketing piece was also completely new to me, and I appreciated how your program, Booming Bookkeeping, includes extensive guidance on that.
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So you got laid off because of COVID as an editor? Correct, yeah. Okay. And what was that like? Was that a scary time for you? A little bit.
We’re fortunate that we primarily rely on my husband’s income, so I think it was not as stressful for us as it was for some other people. But still, my income made life more comfortable, provided travel funds. Travel is something that’s really important to me.
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And while my husband enjoys it, I’d say it’s a little less of a priority for him. And so I feel that, okay, if I’m earning money, I just feel more like, yeah, okay, we’re going to travel. We’ve got funds for that.
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So you talked a little bit about being new. Can you talk a little bit about the fears that you had and then what the reality was after you got in and just started doing this? So some of my fears that I had, I think that I’m a little bit more of a go-with-the-flow type of person. I’m a middle child.
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I’m a little more maybe of a spontaneous person, not the most organized person either. And so I definitely had a concept of bookkeeping as being something where you need to be very organized, and you do. So that has been an area of growth for me.
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I also, it’s just helped me to grow up a little bit. I mean, it’s a little embarrassing to say that, but it’s sort of the buck stops with me. I own my business and I’m responsible at the end of the day for its success, for my client’s success, to an extent for their success.
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What would you say to help alleviate the concerns about whether or not they can learn bookkeeping? Entering bookkeeping is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes work. It takes learning and relearning.
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Some of the concepts can be tricky, certainly, but I’d say it’s within the grasp of most people’s cognitive abilities. And especially if you start a little bit slowly and don’t bite off more than you can chew at once, as far as taking on clients, I think that most people, the average person, could have a successful bookkeeping career. How about getting clients? Those people, you know, you were new, you got clients.
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There are so many ways to get clients. You certainly, in the program, provide so many ways, the avenues that are pretty traditional, like having a Facebook page and having LinkedIn and having a website, of course, and a really good Google business presence. But my first two clients, I got them by just throwing up on my private Facebook page, just throwing up in my stories, hey, I’m a bookkeeper, and if your business needs the help of a professional bookkeeper, it was just like a very basic infographic type of thing I made in Canva.
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It took me three minutes. If you have an internet signal, you can be a bookkeeper and you can get clients. That’s one of the most beautiful things about the profession, that you can do it from anywhere.
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You started where we all start, with a big fat goose egg, okay? But that’s not the case now. Tell us a little bit about what revenue looks like for you. How many clients? Oh, wow.
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All those types of things. Okay. So I have, right now, I have seven clients.
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They’re all for monthly bookkeeping. And then I also have two cleanups going right now. That’s a side piece of advice.
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I don’t, yeah, I’m not going to do that at this time of year again. One cleanup at a time. And so revenue, so last month was my biggest month so far.
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And that was, yeah, I think it was about 9,000, or maybe it was 9,500, somewhere around there for my business’s revenue. Yeah, so that was great. Very, very pleased, surprised, proud, thankful.
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What were your goals? I had like, so two goals that are not the same. But one was, I would like to retire my husband eventually. A financial goal, a revenue goal.
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I think I was like, yeah, I would like to, well, you know, I think initially I said, oh, 50,000 per year. That would be great. That would be a little more than I was making part-time as an editor.
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But then, I don’t know, it just like, it just went right past that. And I kind of didn’t even notice when it happened. And then I was like, oh my goodness, wow, okay.
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So I’m on track this year. If I continue this pace, this will be a $100,000 a year. Talk a little bit about how life is different now.
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So I would say there’s, from a financial standpoint, there is more disposable income. So that’s great. But I still am early enough in my business, running a business, owning a business, and being a bookkeeper that I think right now my life is, feels and looks a little more stressful than it will, perhaps even in six months, just as this is my third sort of pre-tax season as a bookkeeper.
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And every year I’m learning some, okay, don’t do that again. Okay, next year, make sure I take care of this a little earlier. And then certainly as hopefully I bring on an assistant bookkeeper in the coming months, I think that will also make my life, you know, just, you know, there will be less stress.
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That’ll be good. I love the flexibility I have to volunteer for my kids, you know, their Christmas party at school or go on a field trip with them, take them to a doctor’s appointment, pick them up in the middle of the day if they’re sick. I just have a lot of flexibility as a bookkeeper, which is, I don’t, I could never, I could never go back to having, to having, you know, an hourly or a salaried position where I have someone else as a boss.
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I really don’t think I could. I’m so, I feel very spoiled as, you know, as, you know, owning my own business and with flexible hours. It’s a good life.
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What parts of being your own boss do you like the most? So I am a night owl. And so I really like that when I’m wide awake at 11 o’clock at night, I can reconcile some accounts. I can do whatever I need to do.
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I can answer client emails so that the time flexibility is huge for me. Also, there are no arbitrary rules that I need to follow. That’s something that’s very difficult for me.
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I have a little bit of a rebellious personality, I think, at times. And so I don’t need to follow silly rules of a workplace. And, you know, I work from home, the comfort of my home.
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I live in a nice neighborhood in suburbia and it’s a lovely place to be. I don’t have to commute into a, you know, into a city or, you know, it’s ideal. It’s lovely.
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Joy, I really appreciate you taking some time today. Talk to us, share your story, inspire others, because that’s exactly, you know, what happened is that you’ve done some pretty incredible things and success leaves clues. So I appreciate you coming on and sharing with us.
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It’s my pleasure. Thank you for having me.
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Are you a stay-at-home mom who’s been laid off and is looking for a new career with flexibility? Joy, a mom of six, was in the exact same position. With no prior accounting or business experience, she built a business that’s now on track to earn $100,000 a year. She enjoys the freedom to volunteer at her kids’ schools and travel. If you’re ready to build a life of financial freedom and flexibility, visit our website to learn how you can start your own Booming Bookkeeping Business.