At least once a week, I get an email in my inbox that looks like this:
Dear Lana,
Stop doing all the hard work yourself! Outsource your clients’ bookkeeping to [insert cheap company name] in [insert location in the midwest or offshore] so you can make more money while doing less work!
If we don’t hear from you in 30 seconds about scheduling a meeting, we’ll probably email you again telling you all the reasons we think you should give your clients to us instead of taking care of them yourselves. What do you have to lose?!
Sincerely,
Cheap Company
I respond to these types of email in a couple of ways:
- No, thank you. Please remove me from your mailing list.
- Unsubscribe.
- *delete*
But Lana, you could fire your employees and still get paid by your clients. You could make so much money! Yeah, I could. But that’s not my jam. Here’s why we don’t outsource your bookkeeping:
Your Business Matters to Us
First off, I would never insult my clients by onboarding them and then passing them off to someone else to do the work. You hired my firm because you vetted me, got to know me, and decided that my team meshed well enough with yours to do the work.
The most important component of building your business advisory team is trust. People almost never like talking about money, let alone handing over all of their bank statements, receipts, and income information to a total stranger.
If you’ve chosen to work with us, it’s because you trust me and my team enough to show us those documents and take my advice about your specific financial situation. Handing that information to someone who isn’t part of my team would be an extreme breach of that trust.
I Got Into Bookkeeping and Consulting to be a (drum-roll please…): Bookkeeper and Business Consultant
It always baffles me when an email like this comes through. Most entrepreneurs I know got into the field they’re in because they love the work that they do. Why would I turn over something that gives me joy to a person I’ve never met? I have spent years cultivating knowledge, best practices, and a broad network of colleagues. I invest time, effort, and energy to get to know each and every one one of those individuals.
I know my team’s capabilities. Each one of us has spent countless hours training to be at the top of our fields and is a QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor. We keep up-to-date with all of the latest information coming in on local, state, and federal levels concerning business taxes and information – and most importantly, we have the experience to guide you on financial issues, big and small.
Perhaps most importantly, we don’t just onboard every client that knocks on our door. It doesn’t do anyone any good when a partnership goes one way. We want to make sure that when a client chooses us to be a member of their business advisory team, that we also want to choose them to partner with. It’s a two-way street.
As much as we strive to provide valuable services, we also want our clients to be successful. We take pride in not overloading our schedule so that we can devote the time and attention required to assist each of our clients reach their goals.
We’ve Done a Lot of Clean Up Jobs…
Most people who come to us for bookkeeping services have already tried to do their own books or have had a bookkeeper in the past. Usually we find their accounting software either has corrections that need to be made, transactions that need to be caught up, or both. While we don’t always find issues with previous bookkeeping jobs, sometimes we have to do a lot of clean up or work to bring a company’s books current.
Over 7 years in business, I have developed a proprietary workflow and cross-check process to ensure that all of our bookkeeping is complete and accurate. What happens if we send your file to someone else who doesn’t adhere to our guidelines and they do a terrible job? Either you see all the mistakes, decide we’re horrible at our jobs, and fire us or we have to fix everything before it goes back to you and we have wasted money and time. Clean up work is challenging enough as it is. I’d rather not have to clean up additional work that we were expecting to be done correctly the first time.
Our Promise to You as Your Bookkeeper and Consultant
When you work with us, there are a few things that we can promise you:
- All employees are U.S. based, vetted, and trained by me
- Everyone who touches your financial documents or QuickBooks file is a QuickBooks Online Certified ProAdvisor and goes through annual training and additional education so they stay current with software changes and best practices
- We take the time to build and honor our business to business relationships
If you have any questions about our bookkeeping services, reach out to us today. We’re always happy to answer any questions you may have!
