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Bookkeeping Business Plan PDF | Checklist for Starting a Bookkeeping Business

Starting a Bookkeeping Business
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How to Start a Bookkeeping Business - Bookkeeping Business Plan PDF

Are you considering starting a Bookkeeping Business and you’re in need of a bookkeeping business plan PDF? if yes, you'll find this free book to be extremely helpful.

This is a practical guide that will walk you step by step through all the essentials of starting your business. The book is packed with guides, worksheets and checklists. These strategies are absolutely crucial to your business' success yet are simple and easy to apply.


Don’t Start a New Bookkeeping Business Unless You Watch This Video First!

Checklist for Starting a Business: Essential Ingredients for Success

If you are thinking about going into business, it is imperative that you watch this video first! it will take you by the hand and walk you through each and every phase of starting a business. It features all the essential aspects you must consider BEFORE you start a business. This will allow you to predict problems before they happen and keep you from losing your shirt on dog business ideas. Ignore it at your own peril!


Here’s a Valuable Free Gift for You
This is a high quality, full blown business plan template complete with detailed instructions and all related spreadsheets. You can download it to your PC and easily prepare a professional business plan for your business.
Click Here! To get your free business plan template

The Single Most Important Ingredient for Business Success

The first and most important thing you need to acquire in order to succeed in a small business is... knowledge.

Sounds exaggerated? Listen to this...

According to research conducted by Dun & Bradstreet, 90% of all small business failures can be traced to poor management resulting from lack of knowledge.

This is backed up by my own personal observations. In my 31 years as a business coach and consultant to small businesses, I've seen practically dozens of small business owners go under and lose their businesses -- not because they weren't talented or smart enough -- but because they were trying to re-invent the wheel rather than rely on proven, tested methods that work.

Conclusion: if you are really serious about succeeding in a business... If you want to avoid the common traps and mistakes... it is absolutely imperative that you acquire the right knowledge.

"Why Invent Mediocrity, When You Can Copy Genius?"

That's an excellent quote I picked up from a fellow business owner a few years back. What this means is that you should see what is working and try to duplicate it. Why go through all the trouble of inventing something new, that you don't even know will ever work, when you can easily learn from and duplicate something that has been a proven success?

[ Note: One of the BIGGEST mistakes almost all new businesses make is that they WASTE tons of valuable time, energy and money on trying to create something "new", that has never been tested or proven... only to find out later that it was a total loss. Don't make the same mistake! ]

Hi! My name is Meir. I'm the founder and president of BizMove.com, a successful Internet based information business. I'm also the author of numerous books, mostly in the area of small business management.

I've been involved in small business for the past 31 years of my life, as a business coach, manager of a consulting firm, a seminar leader and as the owner of five successful businesses.

During my career as a business coach and consultant I've helped dozens of business owners start their businesses, market, expand, get out of troubles, sell their businesses and do practically every other small business activity you can think of.
You see, I have been there .... done it ... and bought the Small Business t-shirt! -- This free book contains techniques and strategies I've learned during my 31 year small business career.

Here's what you'll discover in the 'How to Start a Bookkeeping Business' book:

How to determine the feasibility of your business idea - a complete fill in the blanks template system that will help you predict problems before they happen and keep you from losing your shirt on dog business ideas.

A detailed manual that will walk you step by step through all the essential phases of starting your business

A complete bookkeeping business plan PDF template. This fill-in-the-blanks template includes every section of your business plan, including Executive Summary, Objectives, SWOT Analysis, Marketing Analysis and Strategy, Operations Plan, Financial Projections and more (a similar template is sold elsewhere for $69.95).

All this and much much more.

Success Tip: Setting Goals

Good management is the key to success and good management starts with setting goals. Set goals for yourself for the accomplishment of the many tasks necessary in starting and managing your business successfully. Be specific. Write down the goals in measurable terms of performance. Break major goals down into sub-goals, showing what you expect to achieve in the next two to three months, the next six months, the next year, and the next five years. Beside each goal and sub-goal place a specific date showing when it is to be achieved.

Plan the action you must take to attain the goals. While the effort required to reach each sub-goal should be great enough to challenge you, it should not be so great or unreasonable as to discourage you. Do not plan to reach too many goals all at one time.

Establish priorities. Plan in advance how to measure results so you can know exactly how well you are doing. This is what is meant by "measurable" goals. If you can’t keep score as you go along you are likely to lose motivation. Re-work your plan of action to allow for obstacles which may stand in your way. Try to foresee obstacles and plan ways to avert or minimize them.

Click here! to download your Bookkeeping Business plan PDF book for free


Here're other free books in the "how to start a business" series that may interest you:

Agriculture Assisted living Auto repair Bakery Bar Beauty salon Bed and breakfast Bookkeeping Boutique Bowling alley Carpet cleaning Car wash Catering Cattle farming Charity Cleaning Coffee shop Computer repair Construction Consulting Convenience-store Cupcake Daycare Dental Dog daycare Ecommerce Electrical Embroidery Engineering Farm Fashion Film Financial advisor Fitness center Flower-shop Food Food truck Franchise Frozen yogurt Furniture store Gas station Goat farming Grocery store Gym Hairdressing Hair salon Ice cream Insurance agency Interior design Internet Internet cafe IT Jewelry Landscaping Laundromat Laundry Law firm Magazine Manufacturing Microbrewery Motel-hotel Music Nightclub Nonprofit Nursery Online-retail Photography Pizza Plumbing Poultry farming Preschool Printing Private investigator Pub Real-estate Resort Restaurant Retail School Security company Service Software Spa Sports-bar Startup Supermarket Travel agency Trucking Vegetable-farming Website

Here's a Sample 'Executive Summary' for a Bookkeeping Business plan:

COMPANY NAME is a small, successful, two-person accounting and tax preparation service owned and run by OWNER’S NAME, CPA in Puyallup, Washington. The firm offers tax accounting, management accounting, and QuickBooks set-up and training for small business clients. To move beyond a two-person model, the business will expand its services to more small businesses. This will require an investment in marketing and staff to grow the business to include this complementary line of business. This business plan organizes the strategy and tactics for the business expansion and set objectives for growth over the next three years.
The business will offer clients bookkeeping services with the oversight of a CPA at a price they can afford. To do this involves hiring additional bookkeepers in order to handle more clientele.
COMPANY NAME is seeking grant funding in the amount of $353,000 in order to pay for expansion of the current facility, hire and train new employees and add much needed additional office equipment and supplies.
OWNER’S NAME
[INSERT CONTACT INFO]

1.1 Objectives

COMPANY NAME seeks to expand the company's line of services - small business bookkeeping and tax preparation - which will be offered to the same ongoing clients as COMPANY NAME currently seeks.
COMPANY NAME has set the following objectives:

  • To hire additional staff to take on more clientele
  • To achieve bookkeeping service annual revenues equal or greater to the current total revenues within three years (effectively doubling revenue)
  • To expand and renovate the current office space

1.2 Mission

COMPANY NAME seeks to provide a full suite of tax and management accounting services for small businesses in Puyallup, Washington, allowing business owners to not only save money over in-house accounting and ensure their compliance with tax laws, but to make valuable management decisions from their numbers.

1.3 Keys to Success

The keys to success for the accounting business include:

  • Building trust with clients
  • Maintaining up-to-date CPA certification and education on accounting practices and laws
  • Going beyond saving clients money to proposing how they can increase their revenues
  • Legal and ethical practices when it comes to transparency, reporting, and taxes

2.0 Company Summary

COMPANY NAME, established in 2004 by OWNER’S NAME, is a two-person CPA firm which provides tax services, management and cost consulting services.  COMPANY NAME serves small businesses (under $5 million in revenue) in the Puyallup, WA area, primarily in service industries. COMPANY NAME plans to add additional services to its suite of services to better serve its current and future clients.

2.1 Company Ownership

OWNER’S NAME is founder and 100% owner of COMPANY NAME, an S-Corporation.

2.2 Company History

Founded by OWNER’S NAME, CPA in 2004, COMPANY NAME has become a full-time endeavor for OWNER’S NAME.  OWNER’S NAME has over 20 years bookkeeping/customer service experience & over 14 years tax preparation experience. This is OWNER’S NAME 's 6th year owning her own accounting/tax office with 10% - 40% growth each year. This year we are currently between 12% - 20% growth over last year.
COMPANY NAME has grown significantly in past years, but has had difficulty taking on additional work due to the limits on OWNER’S NAME 's time. Client retention has been a positive factor, with clients repeating service.
COMPANY NAME offers general bookkeeping/accounting services, payroll services & all types of business tax services for the small to mid-sized business owner. The company also offers tax preparation services for individuals, partnerships, corporations, estates and non-profit organizations.  COMPANY NAME has seen consistent growth, even during the “recession”, because unlike the regular “box” stores (like H & R Block, etc), who utilize seasonal “lightly trained” staff and are motivated by the volume of customers processed, COMPANY NAME will ‘go the extra mile’ to build relationships and provide personal, caring customer service.  This ensures that the bookkeeping or tax preparation is done with the utmost degree of integrity and skill level.   COMPANY NAME takes pride in the quality of the work, the care of the client and the relationships built with communication on a personal, yet professional, level.
The business operates out of a small rented office which has enough room for one additional employee.

Table: Past Performance

Past Performance

 

 

 

 

2007

2008

2009

Sales

$35,427

$81,235

$93,764

Gross Margin

$35,157

$79,834

$92,908

Gross Margin %

99.24%

98.28%

99.09%

Operating Expenses

$35,051

$53,721

$71,522

 

 

 

 

Balance Sheet

 

 

 

 

2007

2008

2009

 

 

 

 

Current Assets

 

 

 

Cash

$872

$301

$428

Other Current Assets

$2,396

$2,987

$8,029

Total Current Assets

$3,268

$3,288

$8,457

 

 

 

 

Long-term Assets

 

 

 

Long-term Assets

$0

$0

$0

Accumulated Depreciation

$0

$0

$0

Total Long-term Assets

$0

$0

$0

 

 

 

 

Total Assets

$3,268

$3,288

$8,457

 

 

 

 

Current Liabilities

 

 

 

Accounts Payable

$0

$0

$0

Current Borrowing

$1,322

$2,780

$5,394

Other Current Liabilities (interest free)

$0

$0

$0

Total Current Liabilities

$1,322

$2,780

$5,394

 

 

 

 

Long-term Liabilities

$0

$0

$0

Total Liabilities

$1,322

$2,780

$5,394

 

 

 

 

Paid-in Capital

$780

($25,747)

($41,578)

Retained Earnings

$11,130

$36,113

$28,386

Earnings

($9,964)

($9,858)

$16,255

Total Capital

$1,946

$508

$3,063

 

 

 

 

Total Capital and Liabilities

$3,268

$3,288

$8,457

 

 

 

 

Other Inputs

 

 

 

Payment Days

15

15

15

3.0 Services

Current services offered by COMPANY NAME include:
Tax Services:

  • Tax preparation
  • Tax planning
  • Addressing tax problems (audit representation, back taxes owed, payroll tax problems, IRS issues, bankruptcy)

Management/Cost Accounting Services:

  • Audits
  • Cost and Margin Analysis
  • Financial Projection

Current services are either provided entirely by OWNER’S NAME or available through resources on the COMPANY NAME . website. Greenwood will provide referrals to credit card processing companies or some specialty consultants when the need calls for it, but focuses his work on general small business services of use to the widest variety of businesses.
Each business will have a consistent bookkeeper assigned to it. The bookkeepers will be trained by OWNER’S NAME directly in proper techniques. 
To add additional value, OWNER’S NAME  will supervise and audit the work of the bookkeepers, answering their questions when questions arise, and providing quality assurance.  OWNER’S NAME  will review the files and reports created by the bookkeepers to ensure that they follow proper formats and are prepared correctly.

4.0 Market Analysis Summary

The small business accounting market consists of virtually every small business in the United States. As businesses grow larger than one person sole proprietorships, they generally require expert help with at least their tax preparation, and often with additional bookkeeping and accounting services. Even many non-employer sole proprietorships will use accounting help at some point. While some small businesses hire bookkeepers or CFOs directly, many successfully outsource these types of services.
The accounting service market as a whole includes the following:

  • Corporate accounting and auditing firms: The "Big Four" (PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, and KPMG) and their competitors
  • Small business accounting
  • Personal accounting (by H & R Block and the like)

The National Society of Accountants states that it represents more than 30,000 independent practitioners who provide services to 19 million individuals and businesses. The continuing evolution of U.S. tax laws guarantees work for tax accountants on an ongoing basis. The market is somewhat recession-proof, as businesses which are contracting use accountants to help cut spending and limit tax liability just as growing businesses will use accountants to launch and prepare financials for expansion, mergers and acquisitions.

Is This the Time to Make a Radical Change in Your Business?


Certain business realities signal us that we should make a change if we are to survive. Herewith, a list of some of those signals.

1. You find more and more competitors in your market.
An indication that it's a good market, but being fractioned. Unless what you offer is both different and better, look for another niche.

2. Your market disappears.
OK, you make the world's best buggy whips! Wake up.

3. Your interests and values are out of sync with your business.
A formula for business disaster and personal misery. Revisit your vision and mission--and align them with your values. Now start again.

4. Your customers are leaving for your competition.
Either figure out why and fix it or find another business.

5. You dread going to work in the morning.
Figure out why. If it can't be changed, do something else.

6. You notice your competitors changing.
Have you noticed that, like it or not, it's a race? Do what it takes to win or join another race.

7. Working on the business is taking more time than working in the business.
If your revenue can't support more help, find a way to simplify and streamline your business (your competitors probably are).

8. You're losing key employees to your competitors.
A sure sign of "trouble in River City!" Conduct "exit interviews" with departing employees--figure out what the competition's got that you don't.

9. Your business no longer supports your lifestyle.
Well, change either one or the other until they're in sync.

10. You're neither learning nor having fun any more.
Certain death if you stick it out. Time for a fresh start.

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