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Hey, it’s Bill Von Fumetti with booming bookkeeping business. And I’m here today with another one of my successful students. This is Rebecca.
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How are you doing, Rebecca? Good, good. Thank you. Thank you for, uh, for coming to share your story a little bit.
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Yeah, I’m excited. Yeah, I, it’s been a great, great venture already. Very cool.
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Very cool. So let’s start with where you were before you started your bookkeeping business. What did life look like for you? Before I started with you, I actually had a couple of clients.
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I do have some accounting background. Um, I had a couple of clients and, um, I was charging an hourly rate. That was, you know, not that amazing.
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It was kind of low and I didn’t know, honestly, I didn’t know that I was just kind of thinking, okay, this has got to be what the market looks like right now. And, um, I was very part-time, you know, I was just whatever kind of work that they, these two clients had for me. I was spending time working on that.
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I would send them an invoice at the end of the month and wait. Hope they pay it quickly. Um, you know, and that was kind of, that was kind of what my work life was like before I started with you, you know, before I found you.
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So you were, in terms of professionally, all you were doing was doing a little bit of part-time bookkeeping work. Yeah. Yep.
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Okay. And what about that situation just wasn’t, wasn’t great for you? Like what about it made you want something more? Um, I mean, I didn’t really, I, I was okay being part-time and, um, you know, I didn’t have, I didn’t honestly didn’t have to like bring in a full income for my household, so that was nice. Um, but I guess I wanted to, I felt like I could do more with that.
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I felt like, you know, in, in my heart, I was like, I know I can be, do this better, or I know I can do this more. Would it be, would it be fair to say you were looking for, you know, just more fulfillment, like you knew you had more in you? Yeah. Oh, for sure.
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Yeah. I knew I could do more. I knew I could do more.
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Um, I, and I thought, you know, in the back of my head, I was like, I could probably build a business. You know, I just, I didn’t have a lot of confidence though, I would say. And so I probably would, um, you know, like, how do you go and get a client? I mean, I didn’t, I wasn’t really like thinking that far out.
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I was just kind of, um, floating along with what I had, see what was going to come my way. Maybe, you know, I can get a referral. Maybe this, these clients could give me a little bit more business.
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Um, but yeah, I, I kind of feel like I knew sort of somewhere there that I could probably make it bigger. You know, a lot of people that’ll be watching this, they’re just starting out. Some of them know bookkeeping, some of them don’t.
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Um, I always like to say, you know, anybody can learn how to do it. You got to put in some work, right? You got to learn how to, you know, learn how to do a good job. But what would you say to somebody who’s kind of like, who’s willing to do the work, but what would you say to them if they were saying like, Hey, I don’t really know if I can do this whole bookkeeping thing? I would say you could totally do it.
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You do have to put in the time. Um, the, the, what I love about your program is that, um, I, I always call it a formula for success and how basically it lays it all out. I mean, it’s like everything that you need to do.
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You know, I had a piece here and there, but, um, you know, I mean, there, it’s the whole thing. It’s like, here’s everything you need to do step by step. When it comes to learning bookkeeping specifically, my program aside, what would you say to somebody who’s willing to work, you know, is that something that they can learn? I mean, I think it probably helps if you have an organized sort of analytical mind a bit, um, because you don’t, you have to make sure that you’re putting things in the right places and categorizing things properly and putting them in the right, um, you know, entering them into QuickBooks the right way.
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Um, so I guess some attention to detail, but I think it’s doable for sure. When it comes to starting your own business, like there’s typically people have a lot of fears. Um, one of the biggest fears is like, can I even, can I get clients? Uh, was that a fear that you had? And then what did the, can you speak about that fear and then what the reality ended up looking like? Yes.
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So, um, that was one of my questions. Like, how do you get, how do I get clients? Um, how, where, you know, I didn’t know some of the things that you taught were, you know, how to present yourself online, um, you know, setting up a Google, like a Google business page. And that’s not something I knew.
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Um, and I, and I certainly was, yeah, uh, concerned about how I would be able to get, to get clients. I mean, I, I was hoping word of mouth to be honest at that time. I was hoping, Hey, you know, and I asked my clients about it.
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Um, one of them did give me another client, which I still have today. So I’m very grateful for that. Um, but, but most of them have come from the Google page.
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What I’d love for people to hear is that, yeah, I was afraid of getting clients, but the reality and the reality was, as long as you know where to look, like you can get clients, even if you’re not, I’d like to, I’d like to, well, I’d like him to hear from you. Yeah. Yeah.
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Exactly. Yes. And I, I, it’s been kind of organic.
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I haven’t, I have intentionally gone slow. I say slow because if I look back, you know, when I joined maybe a year, year and a half ago or something, I mean, you know, I had my two clients and now I have a lot and it’s booming. So what would you say to somebody who’s like, if I, if I were, if you were talking to me and I was saying like, I’m probably going to have to spend a lot of money on advertising or, you know, like people won’t want to go with me if I’m new, what would you, if you could speak directly to me, what would you say? I haven’t spent any money on advertising, to be honest with you.
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I just, I didn’t even do Google ads. I just put my Google, you know, Google my, or what is it? Google my business on there. And, um, that’s, that’s been enough for me.
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I think, um, I would like to do more cause I, I do want to grow more. Rebecca, I’m brand new. What would you say to convince me to believe that I can get clients, even if I’m brand new? Like, in other words, it’s just a mindset thing is what I’m like, not like necessarily strategy, but like, yeah, there’s tons of clients out there.
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You just got to know how to get to them, like something along those lines, if you’re comfortable. Okay. Um, but I mean, I would just say, put yourself out there.
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And, um, there’s a lot of people looking for bookkeeping. Every small business in America or in the world needs a bookkeeper. And, um, you know, you’re, you can present yourself in a way that they will find you.
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And, and, um, you know, and then you do your best to make them your client. So you’ve talked about, you went from no clients, no, well, not no clients, no revenue, but you grew, you started small and now you’ve got lots of clients. Tell us about that.
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What does revenue look like? What does clients look like? What does all that look like for you? Oh gosh. Oh, you want me to tell numbers? Like as much as you’re comfortable, give ballpark, you know, as much as you’re comfortable. So let’s see.
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So I started out at $45 an hour. That was my first hourly rates. And, um, it took me a while actually to convert my current clients to, to the higher, you know, to a monthly rate.
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How about people propose it that way? I didn’t say a higher rate. I just said, you know, we’re going. And now it looks like, so I don’t know, let’s see for revenue wise, probably in the beginning I was maybe, oh gosh, I don’t remember like, you know, a couple thousand dollars and now I’m closer to like $15,000 a month.
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When you say you started a couple thousand a month and now you’re at around, you know, around 15 K a month. Yeah. Do you ever stop and think about that? And if so, how does that make you feel? Oh my gosh.
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Are you kidding? I’m fine. I’m very, very proud of my growing business. Yeah.
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I’m very proud. I, um, you know, I, I have a couple of employees under my belt and they helped me, um, you know, be successful too. So what does your husband think about all this? Cause you’re saying I just started out and I didn’t need to be the biggest company in the world.
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What does he think? Oh, no, he loves it. He loves it. He’s like, he’s, he’s one of my biggest cheerleaders, I would say.
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He really, he’s really sweet about it and he’s very, very supportive. And I mean, he even said that he’s like, yeah. You know, I’m like, do you just watch out? I’m going to make more money than you.
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And he’s like, yes, do that. So, so yeah, he is, she is, he’s on board for sure. You know, a lot of people are watching this or going to be watching this and they’re saying, you know, Hey, I’m thinking about doing this.
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I’m thinking about doing this. What would you say as they think through this? Like, what would you, what would you say to encourage them to bet on themselves, to take a chance? Um, well, from, from my experience, I would say, you know, being, feeling good about the benefits of men running for my fiddle and the flexibility and the income and the, um, you know, just the feel good for helping other, other, you know, my customers and helping other people grow their own business. I mean, I think, you know, I think a lot of, a lot of those things are what the reason you should do it and why, you know, um, you know, it’s helped me hugely with just being more confident in me and knowing that I can do it.
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I mean, it was scary and I was like, could I do this? I’m not sure if I could do this. And I have, I have. And I look back and I’m like, look, look at this.
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This is what I did. I like that. I like that.
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I appreciate that. Um, well, you know, I can’t thank you enough for coming on and sharing your story with us because I know it’s helpful for other people. So thank you so much.
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Yeah, no, you’ve been awesome. Thank you so much for your help too. All right.
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You’re welcome. You’re welcome. I will talk to you real soon, Rebecca.
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Sounds good. Thank you. Bye bye.
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Bye bye.
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Are you feeling stuck, knowing you have more to offer but unsure how to grow? Rebecca was there, earning just a couple thousand dollars a month. Now, she runs a thriving business that brings in nearly $15,000 a month and has her own employees! If you’re ready to stop floating along and build a business that makes you proud, visit our website to learn the formula for starting your own Booming Bookkeeping Business.