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Hey, it’s Bill Von Fumetti with Booming Bookkeeping Business, and I’m here with another one of my successful students. This is Kat. Hey there, Kat.
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Hi. Hey, so thank you for taking some time out today to talk to us a little bit, share your story, and let’s start with what life looked like for you before you entered the world of bookkeeping. I grew up in a family business, and the family business, it sounds like The Sopranos, but I assure you it’s not.
The family businesses in New Jersey, it has to do with material handling equipment, and we all had our roles, my brother, my sister, and myself. So without giving too much away, it was just time to go. It was time to go.
Anyone who grew up in a family business recognizes that it’s time to go, when it’s time to go. You just kind of hit your ceiling, and that’s all she wrote. Eventually, I was given time to get on my feet, but I basically had really nothing to show for it when I left.
My background was actually in music, and I’m a drummer by trade, and I have endorsements and accolades in playing out in clubs and big venues and everything like that, but every band I’d ever been in always asked me to do the admin work, and I always learned how to improve upon that working for my family. So, you know, keeping ledgers nice and tidy, keeping, you know, accounts payable, accounts receivable, what do the vendors look like, what do, you know, all these other things. That stuff actually is meaningful in the entertainment industry as well.
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So finally, I got to a point where on my birthday, that was kind of when my stipend was over, and I wound up getting a job installing phones at Rutgers University for Cisco. So it got me, it got me my foot in the door to, well, at least to keep a roof over our heads for the time being until I could figure out my stuff. So I’m going into different professors’ rooms and offices and classrooms, and I wound up going to Mason Gross, which is the School of Music and Arts and all that other stuff, and I learned that all of these individuals, and this is just my perspective, this is just my perspective, being on this side of the glass, right? So being on that side of glass, I felt like a puppet, and I felt like a, you know, like dance monkey dance kind of thing, and it’s, and seeing these students feeling like they’re going to, oh, I’m gonna play for the Philharmonic one day.
It’s like, okay, you’re gonna play for the Philharmonic when somebody retires. That’s how you’re gonna get that, you know? Until then, you gotta figure something out. So once I saw that, and I saw all the other professors and having all these interesting things that they did, they did charity work, they had little side hustles, they had little interesting things that they did, and all these other things, and finally, I was like, so you can be like more than one person? That’s kind of awesome.
Okay, I could do that. That’s cool. So I was meandering about going to, I was meandering about going to, what do you call it, going on the YouTube or whatever, and I actually came across your ad.
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What were some of the fears that you had about starting a bookkeeping business? So one of the fears I had, actually, was if I fail, I have to go back. That was a major drive for me. If I fail, I have to go back, and I don’t want to go back.
I don’t ever want to go back, you know? Not that they, not that I don’t love them, but it wasn’t helpful for me in a mental health standpoint, and space was necessary at that point, honestly, and we’re a lot better now, you know? Honestly, we’re a lot better now, but I think anybody who has some kind of conflict with their own family members can attest to the need to have that space for a certain amount of time, especially, you know, when they have questions, and you’re the only one who can answer them, kind of thing, you know? So there was that. I didn’t want to go back. So that was a major drive, but it was also a major fear, and then another fear was, do I know what I’m talking about? Which kind of goes back to imposter syndrome.
Do I know what I’m talking about? And even now, currently, people still question the work. They still question, like, why did you do it this way? Why did you do it that way? And as you progress, just as a professional, you start picking up tips, and you start picking up tricks, and you start learning from people who are better than you, which is just like how it was when I was playing. So, and I never, even when I was playing, I never took it as, I never took it personally, because I’m learning from somebody better than me.
I want to get better. That’s the whole point. So, a lot of people are concerned about whether or not they can get clients.
Was that a fear for you? And then, sort of, what did you realize to be the case after you got started? It was a huge fear for me, because I was like, who would want to work with me? Oh, my God. Like, no. Who would want to do that? No.
I’m a scaredy cat, you know. I want to be holed up in my cocoon and just work. I don’t want anybody, I won’t talk to nobody, you know.
So, I had my first client when I had the guts to actually do the thing in 2021. So, I started in the middle of the pandemic. And then, in the middle of the pandemic, I started, like, literally, like, doing the marketing this spring of 2021, you know.
And I finally had the guts to do it. Like, I was, I was doing the stuff. I was, since I love art, and I love to do, like, the artwork, you know, I started, like, doing my logo, doing the things, and going through the motions of setting up the profiles, and setting up the paperwork, and just making yourself a legit entity, you know.
And then, and then, finally, when it came to the Facebook, and the Google My Business, and the posting, and that freaked me out, because I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t want to do any of that. And I don’t know if anybody else feels that way, but that wasn’t for me, until I knew I needed to do it, and put myself out there, and just swallow my pride. Because even fear is a, is a mild sense of pride, you know.
It is a mild thing of, you know, it’s, it’s pride. So, I did it. And I got my first client July.
Actually, I got my first client, and they started, they started courting me in March, and I didn’t get them until July of 2021, and I’m still with them. They’re, like, my biggest client. Let’s talk a little bit about that success, in terms of, like, you, obviously, you started at, at zero, right? Where, what do things look like now, for you, in terms of monthly revenue? Monthly revenue, I make about, make about a little over 12k, 12 to 15 now.
A couple of people I dropped off. So, what’s been your, what’s been your biggest month? My biggest month was 20, and that’s during tax season, because I, I wanted to learn about doing taxes, you know. I wanted to learn about doing taxes, and I wanted to learn more about tax planning, as well.
I wanted to learn more about that. And since that was a really good month, and the planning seemed to have worked well, super fun, I believe I will be implementing that more, you know. And then, over the years, as I kept looking at my reports, I’ve been steadily growing, like, steadily growing by a good 15, 20 percent.
So, that’s pretty impressive. So, now, what are we looking at, in terms of goals? So, the goals now, like, as far as the next phase goes, so, since I dropped off some of the clients, it’s gonna make room for, like, better ones. And you know what’s funny? I don’t think I mentioned this before.
Those clients came from word of mouth and QuickBooks. The funnel, I didn’t even do the funnel yet, at that point. So, all of this revenue came without the funnel, you know what I mean? So, I’m, I’m like, holy cow, what is it gonna be like with the funnel? So, and, and please keep in mind, this happened, this, this award happened with the free marketing strategy, okay? It, it, it didn’t happen with anything else but the free marketing strategy, you know? So, this week, I’m gonna deploy it with, with the, the funnel itself.
This week, I’m actually gonna be deploying the funnel and, you know, using the, the Google ads and the Facebook ads and, and following through with that. So, one more time, I’m going back to the, the modules. And, and I’m like, I know for a fact that that’s gonna just, you know, simply because now there’s a reputation and now there’s, you know, now I have clout and everything and, and again, it’s, it’s all relationships.
Do you have some goal, do you have, like, final, like, goals in terms of revenue? And what do those look like this year? So, this year, this year, I’ve been peaking at 15 to 20 this year, a month. And that basically means that I’m almost fully independent, which is kind of, it was always a goal of mine, that was always the first goal to, to accomplish that, which is just mind-blowing. I never dreamed I would get to this point.
So, the next phase is I want to branch out into real estate and get, like, rental properties because I’m a very methodical person. What would you say to somebody who’s considering starting a bookkeeping business? There’s lots of things that you can do. They’re willing to put in the work, they’re willing to learn, they’re willing to do all those things.
What would you say to them? It’s a slow burn. It’s a slow burn, okay? So, it’s not overnight. It’s, I would use that time, while it’s burning slow, I would use that time to improve upon your skills and improve upon what your quote-unquote competitors are doing and improve upon how you can, how you can just give more value to the client, you know, because in the, in the end, it’s all about them.
It’s all about what they need. So, you’ve got somebody in front of you, let’s say that person is me, like, I’m willing to learn this, I’m putting in the work, this is for me, 100%. I get all of what you just got done saying.
Can you speak a little bit about my chances of success? Anybody willing to do the work, the chance of success is practically 100%, as long as you’re willing to do it. You’re not willing to do it, don’t expect much out of it, you know, if you’re not willing to do it. The drag, if there is a drag, the modules do require a little bit of, of focus on your part, because there’s, this is probably a topic that a lot of people are really unfamiliar with.
There’s going to be a lot of vocabulary words you’re probably not familiar with. There’s going to be a lot of structure items that you’re probably not familiar with. There’s going to be interesting things that you might be like, oh my god, whatever, why do I need to know this? You know, that might be a thing.
And that’s, that’s going to come with the territory. And as long as you are open to being coached, and open to learning, especially in a way that you’re probably not used to, or in a way that you are most likely not interested in, if you’re willing to, if you’re willing to learn, just in general, and willing to internalize the information, you’re gonna be fine. So I appreciate everything that you’ve done, everything that you’ve said it, I mean, it means more to me than you know, I appreciate it.
Like, this is kind of a cool opportunity for me to get to know, get to know people a little bit better. So it was awesome. Thank you for your time, Kat.
And we’ll talk to you soon. Yes. Awesome.
Thank you. Thank you so much. You’re welcome.
Bye.
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Do you feel like you’ve hit a ceiling, and your biggest fear is having to go back to a job that isn’t for you? Kat left her family business with nothing and turned that fear into fuel. Now, she earns up to $20,000 a month and is building a life of true independence. If you’re ready to build a future you never have to look back from, visit our website to learn how you can start your own Booming Bookkeeping Business.