Are you considering starting a bookkeeping business? That’s great – it’s a fantastic way to work for yourself and make your own hours. But where do you start? How do you learn bookkeeping at home so that you can confidently manage your new business?
There is a lot to consider before you jump in with both feet. In this post, I will outline the best way to learn to become a bookkeeper, so that you can get up and running as quickly and easily as possible.
How To Learn Bookkeeping At Home
To be successful as a virtual bookkeeper, you will need to develop some of the following traits: you must learn to be organized, learn how to accurately record transactions, and learn the importance of both accuracy and timeliness. Notice that I said develop here not… must already have.
Keep in mind that these are traits that you may not possess from the beginning but is something that can be learned. Understand that concept along with the fact that you need to be patient throughout the learning process and you will be well on your way.
What Does A Bookkeeper Do Exactly?
In a nutshell, a bookkeeper collects and records financial information for a businesses or other organization using accounting principles. They also examine the figures as well as prepare reports. These results are then used for making business decisions or showing the business owners ways of improving their bottom lines.
Within the past 7 or 8 years a new trend began to emerge. It has now become possible to learn how to do bookkeeping and start your very own bookkeeping business from home. Not only that, but it is also becoming more and more accepted by business owners as well.
It can be quite useful if you learn bookkeeping at home because it gives you the flexibility to make your own schedule which is great if you are a busy parent or have other commitments, and let’s face it, that includes almost all of us these days.
College Vs Online Course
Sure, you could learn how to do all this by going to a traditional college but keep in mind that it usually takes years of education and training before you learn the necessary skills. You also will not have any hands-on experience after you drop those tens of thousands of dollars getting an accounting AND marketing degree… OUCH!!!
It is also possible to learn bookkeeping at home by self-study, online, or through a combination of both. I would highly suggest avoiding the whole self-study path as well. It would be really difficult to know for sure if you are learning everything you would need to learn by going about this by watching YouTube videos.
In saying that, using those videos to reinforce or to further explain concepts that you learned about through a structured course can be a great way to cement certain concepts into your head.
Typically, an individual who aspires to learn bookkeeping at home will need to learn the fundamental aspects of accounting first which typically includes double-entry accounting.
What Other Traits Are Useful As Bookkeepers?
In order to learn bookkeeping at home, you will need to have proficient math skills. This is important because many times the figures that a bookkeeper has to record can be somewhat complicated and need to be double checked.
Notice that I didn’t say that you need to be some math wizard. Having a strong understanding of basic math concepts would be sufficient. After all, there is software that helps you to do all that math stuff but you need to be able to find where the problems are when things don’t match up as they should.
Bookkeepers should also be detail-oriented individuals and have the ability to concentrate for extended periods of time. Keep in mind that we are dealing with other businesses finances here. You, as a bookkeeper, need to be at the top of your game and provide the best service possible to your clients.
You will also need to become familiar with learning about payment processing because it is their job to record payments on the ledger when they are received by the company. This includes recording goods that are returned or services that are no longer needed or used.
Learning Bookkeeping At Home Puts You In Control
Another reason that you learn bookkeeping at home, and for some the main reason, is for flexibility in your schedule. Many people learn bookkeeping on their own so they can work from home and spend more time with their family.
There are many factors to take into consideration. You will need to make sure you can handle the responsibilities of being a bookkeeper and potentially a business owner as well. As with any new venture that you start, know that there are going to be challenges to overcome. Know that there are going to be times when you simply don’t feel like doing it.
If you think that you are unable to stay on task learning the skills that you need then I suggest you look elsewhere, bookkeeping probably isn’t for you. But, if you have the drive to be successful and won’t let anything get in your way then bookkeeping can be an excellent career move.
If you only have an hour a day to commit to learning, then you make sure that you use that hour wisely. If you have 8 hours a day then you will be good to go in no time at all. This is one of the main reasons why learning from home is awesome. You learn at your own pace. It makes no difference if you are able to race through things or if you have very little time, then important thing is that you actually do it.
The Best Path To Learn Bookkeeping From Home
As I touched on earlier, there are a bunch of different options available to you when deciding how to actually start the learning process. You want to pick the path of least resistance when it comes to money and time but also want the biggest bang for your buck as well.
When it comes to learning bookkeeping from home and how to start a business of your own, there is only on path that I strongly recommend among any other option out there. This particular course not only focuses on BOTH bookkeeping and marketing but, more importantly, how to be the absolute best bookkeeper possible.
As far as to how long it takes to go through it, well that depends on the amount of time you have to commit to it. It is a self-paced course, but it’s possible to learn everything you need and have an up and running bookkeeping business of your own in as little as 10 weeks!
Did you know that bookkeping is also the most profitable business out there? On average, you can earn somewhere in the ballpark of $80 an hour! Let’s do a but of math really quick. An established client is gonna take about 3-4 hours a months to make sure that everything is good to go. That is $320 a month for 3-4 hours of work.
Let’s say that your goal is to have enough clients to give you enough work to put in a regular 40 hour work week. That comes out to $3,200 a week, $12,800 a month, or $153,600 a year! Now imagine if you wanted to hire other bookkeepers down the road so that you can bring in additional clients. Are you beginning to see the posssibilities here?
I know that I am getting ahead of myself here but adding tax services is also a possibility as well. If you were to do that, those numbers I just mentioned are going to be much much higher!
Don’t forget that this does take work but as long as you actually put in the work needed this will happen you for… depending on your goals of course. Some people simply want to keep there little bookkeeping business as a side hustle and that is completely fine too. You are in complete control so you make it a big or small as you like.
Hopefully, at this point, you are curious as to how to learn more about this awesome course that I’m referring to. The next critical step in your journey is to check out my complete rundown of this program. Here you will learning everything you need to make an informal decision on whether this is the right choice for you.
Head over to the complete review to learn more!
Got questions? Feel free to drop them in the comments below and I will get back to you ASAP! You can also shoot me an email by clicking on the contact me tab as well. I hope you were able to find some value in this post and that you know realize the possibilities that a bookkeeping business can bring to you and your family.