The Freelance Bookkeeper

It’s a great time to be a bookkeeper and finding new clients will cost you only a bit of time and effort, even if you are just starting out.

Let’s take a quick look at just a few bootstrapping strategies for building your client base that you can put into action immediately.

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1. Networking, Networking, Networking

Referrals are usually the main source of new clients for freelance bookkeepers. Networking is a key method of getting those referrals flowing your way.

There are a gazillion ways to network, both locally and online. The nice thing about networking is, it is a soft way to let others know about your services without coming off salesy or pushy.

Relax. The most effective way to network is to just be yourself. Focus on meeting people and get to know them, and in the process, just let them know the benefits you offer to those who are in need your services. Be sure you always have business cards with you to leave with those who may want to contact you again.

Here are some easy places to find networking opportunities.

Locally:

* Chamber of Commerce

* Community Groups

* Talk to the service providers you use (Pizza shop, dry cleaners, etc.)

* Family and friends (be sure they know what you do and ask if they know anyone who might need your help).

Online:

* Social Networks - a few of my favorites are Women Owned Network; LinkedIn; and my latest discovery, FindVirtual

* Email - reconnect with past friends, acquaintances and clients, and be sure to send it from your business email. Sign your messages using a “signature” that is a one-liner for the benefit you provide, along with your contact information.

* Blog Posts - If you are subscribed to any blogs, you’ll want to post comments regularly and include a “signature” with a one-line blurb about your business and include contact info.

* Forums - same idea as blog posts. If you use QuickBooks, you SHOULD be involved with the QuickBooks Community forums.

INSIDER TIP: If you are well-versed with Quicken software, you have an opportunity that appears to be greatly underserved! There are A LOT of businesses using Quicken to keep their books! Participate in the Quicken forums and you’ll likely find clients who REALLY need your help!

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2. No-Cost Advertising

Online Directories are still a great no-cost way to pull in inquiries. These listings will show up when people are looking for bookkeeping services on the Web.

Here are a few of the good ones:

http://listings.yellowpages.com/
http://listings.local.yahoo.com/ (must have a Yahoo ID)
http://advertising.superpages.com/spportal/business-listing (SuperPages)
http://www.google.com/local/add (must have a Google acct)

Online Classified Ads are another way to let new clients find you. Craigslist is probably the most lucrative one you’ll ever find. You can run an ad for three weeks at a time for free. You’ll also find classified ad areas on both the QuickBoooks and Quicken Community Sites.

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3. Proactive Marketing

Search Help Wanted ads for part-time bookkeeper in newspaper listings. Most of these potential clients will want you to work onsite.

Many local newspapers publish their Help Wanted classified ads online too, so get in the regular routine of checking their website listings for a constant supply of fresh leads. And of course, you should check Craigslist for your area.

If you are able to work remotely with your clients (thus removing geographical limitations), you can even search Craigslist nationally.

Here’s how…

Contact local CPA firms. As I’ve suggested in previous articles, it is important to cultivate these relationships, since they are a great source of quality referrals.

From now through the early part of the new year, many of their clients will be scrambling to get their books in order to prepare for year-end tax planning and tax season in general. It’s therefore the perfect time to offer your services to local CPAs. They may hire you themselves, or refer you to clients in need.

Just remember that you will have to win their trust first, so be prepared to offer them references or a “free trial” period so they can see the quality of your work.

Other companies who you can partner with for referrals and complementing services are payroll service firms, office supply stores, and printing shops. You may even want to partner with other bookkeeping firms for subcontracted work or mutual referrals. Just be sure to seek ways to complement their services, not compete with them. Always think win-win.

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4. Quick-Fix, Short-Term Opportunities

If you’ve tried the above methods, but results are not coming fast enough for your budget, you can always take on some temporary work to fill the gaps until you build up your ongoing client base. AccounTemps is a great place to start, since you will command a higher rate than with a general temp agency. Of course, this will be far lower than your typical billing rate.

Recently, I was contacted by H&R Block who is apparently seeking experienced tax preparers for the upcoming season. If you do taxes, this might be a quick fix if you are cash strapped. If this is an option you want to consider, I suggest inquiring at your local H&R Block office, since I am not sure of the specific requirements for this new arrangement.

Keep in mind that with both of these options, they should be considered a last resort. Working as a temp bookkeeper or tax preparer will not really grow your business because you will be restricted from soliciting new clients from their customer base. But it will add to your experience and promise some guaranteed cash for a short while.

If you’re a bootstrapping freelance bookkeeper, the opportunities to pull in new clients truly abound. So what are you waiting for? Get to it this week! Then tell us about YOUR bootstrapping success!

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WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR OWN BLOG OR E-ZINE? You have permission to re-publish it, as long as you include the following author’s bio and link:

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Gabrielle Fontaine, PB is a freelance Professional Bookkeeper and Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor. She also publishes an interactive blog especially for bookkeepers who are ready to break free and run their own home-based bookkeeping service. Get more information at www.TheFreelanceBookkeeper.com

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When I was a kid first learning how to ski downhill, I actually read a book about it. (Yes, I know. I’m a geek. But I didn’t want to break any bones, since I knew that skiing could be risky.) I checked out the skiing equipment, talked to a few friends who already knew how to ski, and tried to imagine how it worked - the mechanics of it all. But I didn’t really figure out how to ski until I got out there myself on the bunny hill and started watching the little kids zipping around like it was nothing. They made it look so easy.

It wasn’t.

But when I finally got the courage to put on the skis myself and ”Just Do It,” I learned. Sure, I fell down a lot. But I continued to watch those who were skiing much better than I was, watching their techniques, how they handled different challenges. Then I’d try doing them myself. And you know what? I became a decent skier in a relatively short period of time!

It’s really no different when it comes to starting and building your own freelance bookkeeping business. However, when I was starting out, I didn’t really have any role models to learn from. I just read a few books (the few that I could find) and jumped in. Yep, I tumbled more than a few times too. But now, 18 years later, I think I’ve got the hang of it.

But the path I took when starting my business was not typical, and I didn’t face some of the challenges that I know many of you do. So instead of just drawing on my own expeience, I wanted to provide a more well-rounded appraoch for seeing how it can be done. That’s why I’ve decided to interview several freelance bookkeepers who are at diffrent stages of success with their business in the coming months.

The idea is that we can all learn, grow and improve, no matter what level of success we’ve achieved so far. No one knows everything there is to know about everything. There are so many ways to start and run your freelance bookkeeping businesss. By seeing a variety of real life examples–sharing the ideas that paid off, and the ones that bombed–we can all reach our goals quicker and easier.

This month, accomplished freelance bookkeeper Sylvia Jaumann has stepped up to be the first case study and share her experiences of how she was able to get her home-based bookkeeping service off the ground from zero to what it is today, a thriving full-time business.

Thanks Sylvia for letting me interview you for the blog! So let’s get right to the questions, shall we?

What was it that made you decide to start your own bookkeeping service?

I’ve pretty much always wanted my own business because I have a strong independent streak. I also got tired of working for bosses who didn’t value my skills or pay me what I thought I was worth.  Once I found out that I could be making $10 - $15 more per hour working for myself, it seriously motivated me to launch my own bookkeeping business.
 
What were the very first steps you took in getting your business going; how did you get your very first client?

I struggled for the longest time with all the logistics I would need to run a freelance bookkeeping business.  Getting a business license and setting up my office was a no-brainer for me.  But when it came down to how I would keep track of all my clients, track my billing and stay organized, I was immobilized with doubt and fear.  I ended up subcontracting for another bookkeeper for a year and this helped me fill in all the blanks as I learned a ton of organizational skills from her.

I picked up my very first client through word of mouth.  I’ve acquired the majority of my clients this way.  I’ve done newspaper advertising and have received enquiries from potential clients, but I seem to find better quality clients through referrals than from other ways to promote myself.   

How much experience and/or technical training as a bookkeeper did you have before starting your business?

I’d had about five years experience working for others before I felt confident enough in my abilities to venture out on my own.  My formal education consisted of basic bookkeeping courses and an income tax preparation course.  I’ve found that’s all I’ve ever needed and it’s worked well for me.
 
What are the three biggest mistakes you see people make when they try to start their own bookkeeping business?

1. Undercharging for their bookkeeping services, thereby undercutting other local bookkeepers.  Not only is this unfair to other bookkeepers, but it’s a disservice to themselves.  Generally, it’s a lack of confidence that prompts bookkeepers to not charge enough for their services.
   
2. Being so hungry for work that they accept every bookkeeping job that comes along, even those jobs that they should probably be passing on.  Bookkeeping jobs that involve a year’s worth of paperwork stuffed in a box are not for the faint of heart.  It can be very frustrating, as often times critical information is missing.  Then there are the clients who don’t pay their bills.  Many times you only find this out after you’ve begun work on the project.
   
3. Not requesting a retainer for new clients.  This is a huge mistake made by bookkeepers who think that if they request money up front, the client will run.  Most clients will not bat an eye if you request a retainer as long at it’s reasonable.  Lawyers and accountants demand them, so why shouldn’t we?

What’s the best way to avoid those mistakes, or to fix them if someone has already made them?

1. Find out what other bookkeepers are charging and raise your rates accordingly.  You may have to gradually increase your rates with existing clients.
   
2. If you discover that you’ve received a box of unsorted paperwork, request that the client organize it for you (unless you want to do it yourself).  If you explain to the client the amount of money that they will save by sorting it out themselves, oftentimes they will do it.
   
3. Always request a retainer up front for new clients.  If a client is not paying your bill on time and you’ve already taken him on, inform him that no further work will be done until your bill has been paid.  Then get a retainer for all future work.  Once the retainer is used up, request another one.

If a close friend came to you and asked for your advice on getting started with a bookkeeping service, what would you tell her or him?

I’d tell them about the organizational systems I’ve developed in keeping my clients on track.  Setting up a system so that you always know at a glance what remittances need to be paid as well as being able to find important information at a moment’s notice. These are crucial skills for freelance bookkeepers.  Also, I’d tell them to always get a retainer up front before beginning any new bookkeeping jobs!
 
If you had it to do all over again, what would you do differently?

I would have taken the leap a lot sooner than I did. I wouldn’t have let fear and doubt hold me back from living my dream. I wasted too many years working for other people and missed out financially because of this. 

If you had to do it all over again, what would you do the same way?

I’d talk to people and not be afraid to mention that I have a bookkeeping business.  I’ve obtained so many clients by just doing that one thing alone!  Also, I’m not afraid to ask for referrals.
 
What do you think are the biggest challenges facing freelance bookkeepers today?

The biggest challenge I’ve come across are the mom and pop businesses where the mom (with no bookkeeping experience) ends up doing the bookkeeping herself in order to save money.  These small business owners think that as long as they can learn an accounting program that they can easily do the bookkeeping.  We all know this isn’t the case.  Then, at year end, the messes that have been created by the lack of experience ends up costing them more with their accountants than if they’d let a competent bookkeeper handle it in the first place.  It’s frustrating when people aren’t willing to invest in the essential expertise needed to run their business.
 
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your business so far?  How did you overcome it?

My biggest challenge was finding the self-confidence to actually make the leap into starting my own business.  I knew how to do bookkeeping but had no idea how to manage clients.  I was worried about finding the right systems to keep track of all the work and possibly missing important remittances and deadlines.  To overcome this, I ended up subcontracting for a bookkeeper for a year and learned many tricks and tips from her.  It was a good educational experience for me and gave me a huge shot of confidence.
 
How long did it take you to get enough clients so that you were working full time?

This is tricky because I’d had clients off and on for years before I finally decided to venture out on my own full time.  I’d say from the time I finally decided that I wanted to do this full time to when I actually did, was about eight months.  During this time I gradually reduced my hours at my job.

Do you have any “secret” tips, tricks or techniques that you can share with us that very few people know about that will give us an edge?

I don’t know if this is much of a “secret”, but a trick I use consistently is to setup as many recurring transactions as possible in each client’s accounting data.  I do this for bank charges, monthly debit charges that appear monthly on bank statements, vendor invoices and even for deposits.  Once I’ve figured out where something should be posted to, I don’t want to have to look up the account number every time I post.  This saves a ton of time and keeps me posting consistently to the same accounts.
 
Thanks Sylvia! You shared some really great information and insights with us!

Sylvia told me that she loves to help others get started in this business because she knows how rewarding it can be. In fact, I found out that that is the very reason she has actually written her own ebook on how to start your own bookkeeping business. It’s called, appropriately, “Secrets to Starting & Running Your Own Bookkeeping Business”

I’ve read her book and I can recommend it to anyone who is looking for a systematized way to handle the business. As you can tell from the interview, that’s a key point to what has made Sylvia’s business so successful. She’s developed and proven her techniques. I’m glad to have her ebook in my virtual library because I’m always looking to improve by watching others who are doing well (just like I did when skiing!). Would you benefit by doing that too?

Check out Sylvia’s book here———> Click Here!

So, what did you like best about the interview? What insights did you pick up from Sylvia’s experience? Did she say anything that raised questions for you? Let’s hear about it from you!

Share your comments right here on the blog!

~Gabrielle

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One question I’m asked quite often by bookkeepers who want to start their own business is, “How do I get my first few clients?”

In May I shared some strategies for positioning yourself as an expert so that clients will find you. (See “How to Attract New Clients Like a Magnet.”) But you may also want to take a more direct, proactive approach to finding new clients.

One way is to send out personalized letters by good old fashioned postal mail. This was one of the most effective tactics I used when I got my business started back in 1990. Yes, it still works.

Build Your List

The most responsive recipients will be those who already know you. So the first people you write to should be family, friends, and those who currently provide services to you, such as your doctors, insurance agent, accountant, etc.

The next best list of people to write to are those who are part of a specific industry in which you would like to specialize.

What types of businesses are you already familiar with? Are there any clubs or associations for that industry? If so, you may be able to purchase a list of their members in your area to whom you could announce your services.

If your specialty is not very narrow, you may also be able to do a mailing to a list of members for your local chamber of commerce or other business organization. If you are a member, you can position yourself as reaching out to fellow members, and even offer them a special one-time deal.

The purpose of your letter is to get the attention of business owners who may need your services. The trick is to get their attention. The challenge is, you have competition. Small business owners are constantly bombarded with sales messages.

So how can you rise above the “noise” and get your audience’s attention long enough for them to reocognize the benefits you offer?

Write a Compelling Letter

When composing your letter of introduction, be aware that the receipient is looking for what matters most to him or her. The question they are asking themselves is, “What’s In It For Me?” (also known as WIIFM).

Don’t make the same mistake 95% of the bookkeepers I’ve seen make when attempting to market their services. Don’t talk just about yourself! Your prospect doesn’t really care about you. Sorry. What they care about most are the benefits you have to offer them and their business.

Here are some important points to keep in mind when figuring out what to write in your letter of introduction:

Point #1 - Your letter must focus on the big benefits your prospect gets for working with you. This is made more powerful if you offer something of value that isn’t available with just any bookkeeper. (This is one reason specializing can give you an edge with a targeted audience.)

Point #2 - Let them know that you feel their pain. Usually the reason your prospects know they need your help is because they are experiencing some type of problem that’s hurting their business. Maybe they are getting slapped with a big, unexpected tax bill because they haven’t done their books until their tax returns are due. (For corporations who filed an extension, that’s September 15th, and for most others, it’s October 15th.)

You can use this common situation to demonstrate how your services will save them from the need to ever feel that pain again.

Point #3 - Keep the letter to one page with a clear call to action. Most business owners are short on time, so they will want to get through your message quickly. Use bullets and short sentences, and bold the most important points. Make it clear what they need to do next. Tell them to call you or email you to get the benefits they want.

The Fortune Is in the Follow Up

Sending out just one mailing will not fill your business with new clients. To get the most reward for your marketing efforts, you must follow up.

Repeat your mailing at least three times, a month or two apart. You can use the same letter, or write a few different versions. In either case, your name and what you have to offer will start to become more familiar to your prospects. This alone, over time, will yield results.

For the fastest response, pick up the phone. If you follow up your letter with a friendly phone call a week later, you will immediately distinguish yourself as a serious professional. More often than not, these calls will turn out to be surprisingly positive.

And there’s no need to worry. When calling prospects, no hard selling is necessary. Just a brief call to confirm that they received your letter, to answer any questions they may have, and to see if they, or someone they know, are in need of your services. Quick, friendly and to the point.

When it comes to getting new clients quickly, being proactive pays off.

The fact is, there is a huge number of small businesses truly in desperate need of help with their bookkeeping. When you focus on the very real value you have to offer your prospective clients, you will not only get their attention but, very likely, their business too.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR OWN BLOG OR E-ZINE? You have permission to re-publish it, as long as you include the following author’s bio and link:

Gabrielle Fontaine, PB is a freelance Professional Bookkeeper and Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor. She also publishes an interactive blog especially for bookkeepers who are ready to break free and run their own home-based bookkeeping service. Get more information at http://TheFreelanceBookkeeper.com

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When you decided to start your own business, did you realize that you’d chosen something that ultimately only about 5% of the general population ever accomplishes?

If you succeed and prosper with your business, you are part of a very exclusive club indeed. That’s because far and away the majority of all small businesses fail. We’ve all heard the bleak statistics.

But why do so many fail so miserably?

Often it’s because when success isn’t realized as quickly and as easily as expected, most would-be entrepreneurs just throw in the towel and give up. They conclude that they just can’t do it.

But is there a secret key to running a successful small business that most everyone is missing? And do you need that key to start a profitable freelance bookkeeping business as well? Yes, there is, and yes, you do.

Since I started writing articles like this one, more than a few people have approached me for advice on going freelance. In fact, just this week I was chatting with a CPA who has been working closely with many small businesses for over 10 years. He’s seen firsthand those that have succeeded and those that have failed. A few weeks ago he resigned from his job. He’s decided to start his own accounting practice.

But there’s a problem.

He confided that now he is quite worried about his plan. In fact, he told me that if a high-paying offer from another employer should happen to fall into his lap, he’ll immediately abandon his entrepreneurial aspirations.

I have serious doubts about whether he’s got what it takes to make it in his own business.

And then there’s the case of a young woman who has a good business sense who used to call me periodically for advice on setting up her freelance bookkeeping service. Not long ago, she missed our telephone appointment. I haven’t heard from her since. On that call she was supposed to have come up with her own version of a client contract that she would use in her new business, based on some guidance I had given her.

It seems that she may be missing the key as well.

I could go on with many more real life examples, but I bet you’d rather know exactly what this key is, and more importantly, figure out whether you’ve got it or not!

The key is positive, proactive persistence.

Back in 2005, an article in Psychology Today stated, “Psychologists have found that the ability to persist in the face of obstacles is at least as important a factor in success as is talent.” 

Chew on that for a minute.

Habit #1 in Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is, “Be Proactive.”

And the power of positive expectations has been studied and documented in medicine as well as education, time and time again. They are known as the Pygmalion effect and the Placebo effect.

Is it any wonder that the combination of a positive, proactive persistence in the building of your business just might make a significant difference when it comes to your success?

Persistence is extremely important when you work for yourself. You must take the initiative to keep the billable work coming in to pay the expenses. The ability to persist with positive expectations in the face of obstacles when the going suddenly gets bumpy will serve you far better than an alphabet of academic designations strung after your name ever will.

Calvin Coolidge really hit the nail on the head when he said…

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

So what does all this mean for you and your freelance bookkeeping service?

It doesn’t take any special genius or talent to succeed. You might want to learn the technical skills involved in doing the bookkeeping work. But then again, that’s not absolutely necessary. You could instead, hire someone else who’s far more skilled than you are at doing the billable work, if you want. It’s really not the technical skills of bookkeeping that will make your business prosper.

It’s your determination to use the true key to success: Positive, proactive persistence. If you do, sooner or later you will reach your goals.

It’s “sooner or later” because you will also make mistakes along the way. There’s no doubt about that. You’ll face many problems too. You may even need to work much longer and harder than you ever imagined necessary. But if you refuse to give up, if you proactively keep paying attention to what’s working and expect success, you WILL make it.

Be determined to do it and don’t give up!

A line from the song that has become the theme for my own business success is from ”Icarus Ascending” by Dan Fogelberg. The line is…

“There is a gamble in each proud act of flight,
but the losses pale before the winnings.”

I truly believe this, when it comes to taking your business to the next level. If you do too, then be determined to always use the key to success to reach your goals–positive, proactive persistence–and it will unlock the door to winnings for you as a freelance bookkeeper.

Now you know the secret.  So the next question is, what are you going to DO about it?

 

***Special Resource***

This neat little video (created by my favorite business mentor, Jim Edwards) reminds me why I went into business in the first place. It’s truly inspiring. You will also see the tool I now use to put positive, proactive persistence into action in my business every day. Enjoy!—->Watch Video Now

 

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR OWN BLOG OR E-ZINE? You have permission to re-publish it, as long as you include the following author’s bio and link:

Gabrielle Fontaine, PB is a freelance Professional Bookkeeper and Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor. She also publishes an interactive blog especially for bookkeepers who are ready to break free and run their own home-based bookkeeping service. Get more information at http://TheFreelanceBookkeeper.com

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Do you have a website up and running, telling the world about your freelance bookkeeping services?

Your website serves as your virtual business card. Without one, prospective clients may wonder how serious you are about your business. Even if you only plan to serve clients within your local area, I highly recommend that you consider putting up a website as soon as possible.

If I had it to do all over again, knowing what I know now, this is exactly what I would do, immediately upon opening the doors to my bookkeeping business. I’d do it by using a WordPress blog as my main website.

WordPress is the best kept secret for a fast, easy, and cheap online presence that can give you a great looking site in less than an hour. No kidding!

For the price of a Web hosting account (at the moment, less than $5 a month!), you can have a do-it-yourself website. And you don’t need the technical abilities of a programmer to do it either.

In fact, this site that you’re reading right now is a WordPress blog. And believe me, I really didn’t know what I was doing when I created it. I’m using The Freelance Bookkeeper site as a traditional blog (online newsletter/interactive web log), but the WordPress software has since been improved so much that you can now use blogs very effectively as your complete business website.

Some of the advantages of using a WordPress blog over static HTML pages are:

1. It’s like an entire website in a box, using pre-made designs called themes, and there are zillions of them available for free. You can also change the colors and design of your website instantly, whenever you want, with just a few clicks.
2. You can add and update existing pages without the need for special technical skills or software, and the navigation and organization of the information on your website is updated automatically for you.
3. It’s an all-in-one solution. You can do everything a traditional Web page does AND have your own online newsletter to help your prospective clients get to know, like, and trust you, as well as highlight the services you offer, all on the same site.
4. They pull more traffic. If you update your website regularly, the search engines will send you traffic faster than a regular website. They just LOVE WordPress blogs.
5. They are easy to customize. If you want special features added to your site, you’ll find many, many mini-programs that can enhance and add functionality to your site, most of which are free or inexpensive. These are known as plug-ins and widgets.

Are you convinced yet that a WordPress blog is a great idea for creating your business website?

If so, I’ll bet you’re wondering how to do it, huh?

Here’s everything you need to put up your WordPress blog as your business website quickly:

A domain name and a hosting account. That’s it!

You can buy them separately if you like. Or, if you use the hosting company I use, you can get your (first) domain name registered free when you open a new account. I use and highly recommend Lunar Pages because they have great customer service, they’re reliable, and they offer a lot of what I need for the price. I’ve used them for several years now and have been very pleased with the results.

But if you’d rather shop around, be sure the hosting company you choose uses a C-Panel interface with Fantastico (which is where the WordPress software is available for free, along with many other free programs).

You can also get WordPress software free by downloading it from WordPress.org. However, unless you are somewhat of a techie, I suggest you use Fantastico, because it is the simplest way to set-up and install the blog on your hosting account. It takes only a few clicks. Fantastico will also notify you and help you install software upgrades when they become available.

You could also get a blog without the need for a hosting account by using WordPress.com, where they will host your blog for you. But I don’t recommend that. It makes you look less professional and gives you less control over your website. They have also been known to deactivate blogs without warning.

If you want specific guidance in the nuts-and-bolts of putting together your blog site, you can also find free video tutorials by simply typing “WordPress tutorial” in Google. WordPress is extremely popular, and tons of free support is available so that you can be up and running with your blog very quickly.

So what are you waiting for? Get your website up this week and hang out your virtual shingle for your freelance bookkeeping business.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR OWN BLOG OR E-ZINE? You have permission to re-publish it, as long as you include the following author’s bio and link:

Gabrielle Fontaine, PB is a freelance Professional Bookkeeper and Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor. She also publishes an interactive blog especially for bookkeepers who are ready to break free and run their own home-based bookkeeping service. Get more information at http://TheFreelanceBookkeeper.com

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