6 Steps To Start A Bookkeeping Business From Scratch

Indexed: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]All right, guys. Let's jump right to the chase. You want to start a bookkeeping company? This is what you're going to do. You're going to copy me. You're going to copy me because that's what I did when I started. I copied other YouTubers out there. I copied Zach Pasquarello. I copied um I don't even know the the names of the other people I followed.

[00:00:18]But, bookkeeping is a worthy pursuit. If you have accounting skills, if you work at a tax firm, if you um do audit, if you do accounts payable, if you work at a bank, if you um work on spreadsheets, whatever, guys. Where wherever you're at. If you just enjoy finances, if you enjoy the numbers, this is the business for you. I'm telling you because what I didn't realize when I first started was how lucrative it would be. I thought that when I started I my goal was to get to like 150,000 in profit. I thought like if I could get to that, I would be set. I'd be happy. Um and I didn't know if a bookkeeping business could scale um like some of the other accounting firms out there. I thought you had to do tax. I thought you had to do audit to make a lot of money. What I didn't realize is that there's a ton of money, if not more, to be found in bookkeeping.

[00:01:08]And the best part about bookkeeping is that it's recurring monthly revenue. And so, in this video, guys, I'm going to give you six steps to starting your own bookkeeping company. If you're interested in it, if you're thinking about it, let me just push you over the fence a little bit, if you're on the fence, and get you going on this bookkeeping company because it'll be one of the most worth um worthwhile things you can do in your life, okay? And I'm speaking from experience because 5 years ago I was sitting in a cubicle with a polo, and I was commuting 45 minutes to work for somebody else.

[00:01:37]Now I work for myself, and I have a ton of control and flexibility, and I have extra money um for me and my family, which is ginormous. It's awesome.

[00:01:47]So, guys, here's what you need to do. If you're thinking about it, there are six steps that you need to follow. Number one is you got to figure out like what kind of business you're going to run. My model is very scrappy, and it's very simple.

[00:01:58]If you like you have to be able to define what bookkeeping really is. Like what is bookkeeping?

[00:02:04]Because the word bookkeeping can mean so many different things. It could mean accounts payable. It could mean payroll.

[00:02:10]It could mean sales tax. It could mean you know like I could you could be treated like a secretary.

[00:02:17]You got to be extremely clear about what you provide and I think if you follow my model you'll be successful, okay? You'll be able to scale this thing. If you don't follow my model, you will not be able to scale it in my opinion and you'll be and you'll you'll want to rip your hair out because it'll be too much work. And so it's important that you do it the right way. And so here's my model, guys. I do bookkeeping.

[00:02:39]I provide financial statements and I manage QuickBooks. So it's really two things actually. It's managing QuickBooks and then sending financial statements to my clients. Those two things.

[00:02:50]And I do these things after the end of the month. And so I'm not working in the operations of the business.

[00:02:56]I'm not like putting out fires on a day-to-day basis. It's very low stress.

[00:03:01]I create my own deadlines after the end of the month and it is a beautiful thing, okay? But like I said, I'm not like providing deep analytics. I'm not doing budgeting or forecasts.

[00:03:13]I'm not reaching out to my clients' customers. I'm not trying to collect payments. I'm not sending out invoices.

[00:03:19]I'm not working in the their operations.

[00:03:21]I am just sending them financial statements from the QuickBooks that I'm managing. I'm using QuickBooks online. I can log into their bank and I can categorize the transactions. I can reconcile those transactions to the bank statements and credit card statements and I can tie out the balance sheet and when I'm done with it, I have clean financial statements that I email to the client. That's all I do, okay? Now I've got 60 clients. I make over $30,000 per month in revenue and it's just it's a beautiful system. But I find that there are a lot of bookkeepers who try to do too much.

[00:03:53]If you focus on a little bit, if you focus on just those two services, financial QuickBooks management and financial statements, um you will be set. There are plenty of businesses that just need that. There are plenty of fish in the sea, okay? So, you got to lock in on that because that's the most sustainable way for you to grow this thing and for you to build your bookkeeping business to be as big as mine. Because now I'm on pace to do $275,000 in profit this year, okay? I've had a great first quarter and it's something that you can do, too, um if you're patient and you're and if you lock in on that model.

[00:04:26]Okay? So, that's step number one is just figuring out like what kind of business you are creating, okay? And keeping it simple, keeping it scrappy, not paying for a bunch of things, and just getting started, okay? So, step number two is setting the whole thing up, doing the boring stuff. And I'm talking about getting your LLC set up, creating a bank account, um figuring out your name, creating your logo.

[00:04:48]Those are things that are just fun. I think they're fun. Talk to ChatGPT about how to do the LLC. You know, you might have to dish out 75 bucks or whatever it is for your state. Um but you need an LLC in order to create a bank account and you need a bank account just to keep things clean. You're a bookkeeper, so you probably should. And that's where you'll accept and receive money.

[00:05:07]So, the bank account and then the name, guys, I'll just my The only thing I'll say about the name, I think it's important. I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

[00:05:14]Your name, I think, should be your location and the word bookkeeping. It shouldn't be some generic name like, you know, uh something advisory or financial services or accounting. It should have the word bookkeeping in it and it should have your location in it. So, for example, my business name is Winona Bookkeeping. Zach Pasquarello's bookkeeping business is Harrisburg Bookkeeping.

[00:05:40]There's something special about like your location. Because here's what I found. I found that the clients that you're going to going to get are going to be in a 20-mi radius of where you live. And so, if somebody sees your town's name in the word bookkeeping, they're going to be more drawn to you because if they're in a 20-mi radius, they're going to recognize that word and they're that that location and they're going to it's going to instantly bring them like a sense of familiar fami- familiarity and comfort. And so, definitely use your location name in the word bookkeeping to be ultra clear about what you provide and who you provide those services for.

[00:06:18]The lie that I believed in the beginning was that I could get clients from any state in the country, from any city. But that's And it's fair it's it's true.

[00:06:27]Like I work remotely, I could work with anybody.

[00:06:30]But for whatever reason, guys, people hire local bookkeepers. People hire um bookkeepers that are within a stone's throw away. And so, keep that in mind when you're setting it up, when you're creating the name, you want to create a name that um will draw in the local businesses, okay? Okay, so that's step number two is doing the boring stuff, setting it up, getting your EIN, LLC, bank account, all that stuff. Not super um difficult to do. I think it's fun. Step number three is creating your website. You need a website. You absolutely need a website.

[00:07:00]We're not We don't have a brick-and-mortar store. We don't have billboards on the highway. We have to market ourselves online, which is great.

[00:07:07]There's plenty of um eyes online. And so, you need to create a website or you're not really a legitimate company. So, create your website, use Claude to do it. Um if you it's 20 bucks a month for Claude. I think I paid for my domain, which was like 15 bucks per year. And so, it's very cheap to create your own website, and you can do it in a very professional way. So, do it through Claude.

[00:07:30]And a couple things about your website.

[00:07:32]Number one, I would be transparent. I would be transparent about your pricing.

[00:07:36]I would be transparent about who you are and what services you provide. You want it to be simple and clear. You don't want it to be cluttery and fluffy. You want to get to the point. You want somebody when they come to your website, you want to you want to answer the questions that they're going to have about their price, about your service.

[00:07:55]And um and you want it to be personal, too. You don't want to come off as this big corporation. Again, you're attracting local businesses. And so, put your face front and center on the website. Talk about your family. Talk about your hobbies. Talk about why you're passionate about bookkeeping.

[00:08:11]Because if someone's going to hire you if someone's going to hire your company, they're going to hire you. They're going to want to They're going to want somebody that they can trust. And so, that's huge, especially in a world where there are a lot of offshore accountants.

[00:08:22]There's a lot of um you know, fraudulent people out there. There are a lot of scams out there. And so, if you, you know, advertise yourself on your website, um that'll help you a lot.

[00:08:31]Okay? So, that's step number three.

[00:08:34]Step number four is just get excited.

[00:08:36]Get excited about your business. Tell everybody that you know about your bookkeeping uh journey. When I started, it was terrifying but at exciting at the same time.

[00:08:45]And so, when you all go to church, tell everybody in your church. When you go to your social circles. When you go to your sports teams. When you go to those birthday parties. Just tell everybody about the new business you're creating.

[00:08:57]About the bookkeeping um world that you are entering into.

[00:09:02]Because while you might not be talking to business owners, you're going to be talking to people that know business owners.

[00:09:08]And so, the more often you talk about your business, the more um referrals you're going to get from friends and family. You'd be surprised how many business owners know your friends and family. And so, if you get the word out, if you talk tell people that you're looking for clients, eventually um you will get clients, okay? Because like I said, everybody knows at least one or two business owners. So, get excited about it. Talk about it. That's what I did. I couldn't stop talking about it.

[00:09:33]Don't be annoying but get out there, okay? Step number five is hustling, okay? So, of course you're going to talk about it in your social circles, but you can do more than that, okay? So, you need to do as much as you can to land your first client because landing your first client is the name of the game. That is what this is all about. Getting your first client and then your second client and then your third client. Adding clients. You just keep stacking the clients. You keep stacking the recurring monthly revenue.

[00:09:58]And once you get to 20 clients, you'll be making $8,000 per month in recurring monthly revenue. And that's where you want to get. You want to be able to make 100k um from the monthly recurring revenue.

[00:10:08]And when you get to that point, you most likely should be able to support your family with that. And everything on top of that is just icing on the cake, okay? That's my experience and um it's something that is totally doable, but you need to hustle. You need to send the cold emails. You need to look at all the industries in your area and find email addresses email addresses and send personalized emails to each of those business owners.

[00:10:33]You need You should do Google Ads. Put 500 bucks a month into Google Ads because in my opinion, Google Ads and I didn't do a lot of Google Ads, but I see a ton of value in it because every client is worth a lot of money, okay?

[00:10:46]You think about it. A $300 per month client is $3,600 per year.

[00:10:51]I've had clients for 5 years. They haven't left me. And so, 5 years at $300 per month, do the math and you you're over $20,000 um in What is that? Yeah, it's close to $20,000 that you received from one client, okay? So, it is worth it to spend $500 per month on advertising because if you get one client, it already pays for itself.

[00:11:14]Google Ads Google Ads is what I meant just mentioned. And then social media is just a no-brainer. You should be posting three times per week. Um you should be posting about your personal life. You should be posting about your journey as a bookkeeper. And you should be flexing your accounting skills so that people know that you know what you're talking about, okay? You need to be on social media, that's just a a a a a a given.

[00:11:35]You need to be on there.

[00:11:37]Um there's other things you can do. I have other videos on how to find clients. You could reach out to CPAs.

[00:11:41]You could provide a um bonus referral.

[00:11:44]Anybody who refers a bookkeeping client, a monthly bookkeeping client, gets the first month as a bonus. Um I did, you know, presentations at co-working spaces. You can do whatever you want, but the key is, guys, is finding that first client and figuring and you need and figuring out where the business owners are. If you can find the business owners, those are the people that you are going to be selling to, and that's where you should be spending um, you know, most of your time with.

[00:12:11]The last step, guys, number six, is landing your first client and learning as you go. Okay, so hopefully you get your first client, and when you do, this will be so exciting for you, but it'll be kind of intimidating. Because when you get that first client, um you're not really going to fully know what you're doing. You're going to feel like um you know, you you sold yourself too much in the beginning, but that's because you're going to have to learn as you go.

[00:12:37]So when you get invited to their QuickBooks account, you'll log into their QuickBooks, um and you'll start to just learn how to do things. You'll learn how to categorize transactions. You'll learn how to um create a clean balance sheet and profit and loss.

[00:12:51]And the first client will be the most uncomfortable intimidating client. Every client after that will just get easier and easier.

[00:12:58]But you need to land your first client, guys. If you can land your first client, you'll gain confidence, you'll gain experience, and it'll be so much easier um from there after, okay? So guys, that's those are six steps. If you can follow those, you will be successful. You'll be able to get to where I'm at now, and if you copy me, um there's no reason why you can't do what I'm doing. I'm nothing special. I am a normal person who used to work in a cubicle. I just figured out how to break free from the employee life. I was fed up with that life and I knew I needed to be an entrepreneur and I found this world in bookkeeping and I am now hooked and I love talking about it and I love running my bookkeeping business, okay?

[00:13:40]So guys, if you're interested in learning more, think about joining my community.

[00:13:44]Um my community is awesome right now.

[00:13:46]I've got over 50 people in it. We do weekly group calls.

[00:13:51]I have content in there that's not anywhere else. I have resources and templates. I've got a bunch of cheat sheets on my website that are also um for that are also free if you join as a community member. Um I I have exclusive content like videos on in my community that you get access to. I have a section of I have a maybe six or seven videos of me literally doing the bookkeeping work and so I call it over the shoulder and it's basically me sharing my screen of you know, me doing a real client and I I kind of I blur out the sensitive information, but I show you how to actually do the bookkeeping.

[00:14:28]So if you're interested in learning more about that, I'll put a link to my website in in the description.

[00:14:33]Um but if you like this video, please like it and if you could subscribe to my content, I would really appreciate it.

[00:14:38]Thank you.