The intent of your ideas is good – to provide some tangible value to the client.

Something to consider, though…. if you do a… “you get X or my services are free” you (1) need to make sure that you can absolutely deliver on the promise. Otherwise, it could backfire and hurt your reputation. On promises like saving taxes or increasing profits, you may not have as much control over what the client’s results are, especially if they are not following the advice that you give them that would produce those results… and when that happens, they will blame you. Also, (2) the feeling of these first two ideas also hit me as though you have too much competition, if you’re willing to offer it for free if you can’t deliver. That turns your service into a commodity.

Now, that’s just how it hits me, for what it’s worth. It may not hit others that way. So my feeling is it would be better to not use an “or my services are free” type of offer. I’d love to hear others’ thoughts on this though, too.

BTW, I may be a little sensitive to this type of offer because some time ago I hired an expensive consultant for a specific outcome and his promise was that if we didn’t achieve the goal, he would give me up to 3 additional months’ consulting until the goal was realized. This was his results guarantee.

We were not able to reach the goal during the time I consulted with him (I later achieved it on my own!) but he reneged on his guarantee, saying it didn’t apply. In reality, it was an unrealistic goal for the timeframe, but his guarantee really did apply to the situation. I was left with a somewhat soured feeling and my confidence in his “expertise” was compromised since quite honestly, I felt he should have known what it would have taken to reach the goal if he was the “expert” he claimed to be.

Now the good news – I like the feeling behind your third idea because it is more realistic, and it could be used to position you as more than a bookkeeper. It shows that you will give support over and above a typical bookkeeper, acting more as a partner / consultant who really cares and helps the client USE the bookkeeping information. You are also leaving the responsibility for success on the business owner’s shoulders (where it should be). That is actually what is needed for so many small businesses (and they desperately want someone to talk to about their business). Many CPAs are not filling this need.

Business owners often view bookkeeping as a necessary evil that they don’t understand or don’t want to be bothered with, but if we can show them the HUGE opportunities on how to use their financial information to reach their financial goals and manage business better, we will get life-long clients.

Bottom line, whatever promise you (all of us) come up with, we’ve got to make 100% sure you can deliver on it.

Thanks for your input, and let’s keep THIS discussion going.

Great question!

If you have zero real-world experience in bookkeeping, you are not really ready to start your own freelance bookkeeping business. I say that because what you learn in the “perfect” academic world is a far cry from the incomplete and convoluted information many clients will provide you. Also, you will have a certificate in bookkeeping, but do you have any experience with QuickBooks software? That is far and away the #1 small business software program and you would need to have a thorough knowledge on how the program works to use it properly for clients. So if you haven’t already, you should take a course to learn QuickBooks as well.

My best suggestion would be to either get a part-time bookkeeping job so you can get comfortable with some real life bookkeeping work, or you could also try to subcontract bookkeeping work from an established accounting firm. In that way, you would not be totally on your own. If you try to take on clients fresh out of school without any experience, you will likely get in over your head very quickly and do more harm than good for your clients and your reputation.

Hope that helps!

Gabrielle

This is an awesome article. I can’t count the times someone comes to me trying to sell me their services and just rattles off what is easily seen as a script.

(Notice the mention of the word “trying”)

Thanks so much for a great share!

Ely

How about “I show businesses how to add at least twice as much profit to their bottom lines as my services cost or my services are free”?

I’m thinking that may meet all of Jim’s criteria.

Or, “I show companies how to save at least twice as much in taxes as my services cost or my services are free.”

Or, “I help businesses get accurate data so they can see areas of opportunity to dramatically boost their bottom-line profits.”

Thoughts on these?

- John

Thank you for your website I find it very informative. I’m working on getting my bookkeeping certificate now and I wanted to know from your opinion my ultimate goal is that I would like to be a freelance bookkeeper but right now I don’t have any bookkeeping experience when I’m done with the course I will just have the training and certificate. Do you think I have to get a job as a bookkeeper first and gain experience then eventually get my own clients or can I work my normal job and get my own clients now part time.

Thank you,

Denny

We will actually be turning this webinar into a paid training. So it will be recorded, but there will be no free replay available. However, for everyone who registers, we are giving the option to get access to the replay and all the bonus materials that will be added to the class.

This sounds interesting, but I have a prior commitment during that time. Will you have it available for listening at a future time, or will you publishing a synopsis later?

Thanks!