Embarking on a New Freelance Journey: Seeking Advice for a Bookkeeping Venture

As my wife prepares to transition from traditional employment to entrepreneurship, we find ourselves on an exciting new venture. After dedicating 15-20 years to the Accounting and Bookkeeping fields, she is ready to embrace the freedom of freelance work. Her background is quite impressive, having held various roles including a staff accountant overseeing payroll for a large cable company, as well as serving as an office manager and bookkeeper for industries ranging from real estate development to construction and automotive services.

With extensive experience in QuickBooks and a commitment to professional growth, she is currently completing all available certifications from the platform. Additionally, her website is nearing completion, and she has thoughtfully crafted an engagement letter while refreshing her resume. All indicators suggest that she is on the cusp of launching her Bookkeeping services.

It’s important to note that she will not be offering tax-related services and is not a licensed CPA or EA. Instead, her focus will be on providing tailored support to smaller, mid-sized, and newer businesses seeking a cost-effective bookkeeping solution. With her skills, she can efficiently manage everything from cleaning up disorganized financial records to producing profit and loss statements and balance sheets. Automation also ranks high on her list of priorities, allowing her to streamline processes for her clients.

Our initial strategy involves reaching out to local CPA firms to establish potential partnerships. To this end, I’d like to gather insights from anyone with experience in the freelancing arena. What do you recommend as the best method for initial outreach? Should we opt for email communication, phone calls, or perhaps even walk-in visits? Any advice on making a strong first impression would also be greatly appreciated.

Additionally, we are looking at hourly billing as our primary model. If you have any further suggestions on attracting clients or general guidance for launching a successful bookkeeping business, please feel free to share your thoughts.

Thank you for your support as we embark on this new chapter!