Copyright © 2014 Business Evolution Consulting Inc. All rights reserved.No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form orby any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,or by any information storage or retrieval system, without prior writtenpermission from the author.

Business Evolution Consulting Inc.Suite 300, 160 Quarry Park Blvd SECalgary,AB. T2C 3G3

www.dreampractice.ca

ISBN-13: 978-0-99376-532-2

• Introduction..............................................................................1

• Course Overview......................................................................1

• Business Evolution Consulting Inc........................................4

• Resource 1: Website.................................................................5

• Resource 2: Sales Funnel.........................................................6

• Resource 3: Tursa Group.........................................................8

• Resource 4: Client Track.......................................................10

• Resource 5: Google Apps for Business................................11

• Resource 6: Zoho CRM.........................................................12

• Resource 7: Telpay..................................................................13

• Resource 8: Payroll Outsourcing..........................................13

• Resource 9: Cloud-Based Accounting.................................14

• Resource 10: CloudLinx........................................................15

• Resource 11: Value-Added Services....................................16

• Resource 12: DocuSign........................................................17

• Resource 13: Business Mentoring........................................17

• Appendix 1: Resources for your Virtual Office .................18

• Appendix 2: Recommended Reading..................................19

• Appendix 3: Virtual Office Progression Checklist.............20

• Appendix 4: 21 Solutions for Business Dominance...........20

Table of Contents

Introduction

Course Overview

Who Should Read This Guide?

Why Should You Read This Guide?

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If you are reading this, I will assume that you have read our white paper entitled “Scalable Bookkeeping Practice - Synopsis” and wanted to learn more about creating an efficient and scalable bookkeeping business. Our white paper simply describes 12 resources that will improve the results of your bookkeeping business, whether you implement one or all of the resources. We feel that there is a great deal of synergy if you implement all, so we wanted to make sure that you had easy access to this course.

Do not fear that you will miss something if you have not read the white paper. It was merely an introduction and we will cover the full details in this guide.

The key to building a bookkeeping business that creates wealth for the owner is to ensure that the business is truly a business – it has to be capable of functioning without the owner’s constant attention and it has to be scalable. Systems, processes, and technology are critical to building such a business. Continue reading if you are serious about building a bookkeeping business that is scalable and efficient.

The resources presented here have equal benefit to any type of business. However, this course was specifically written for the benefit of bookkeepers who want to increase the profitability of their business, reduce their time commitment, improve operational efficiency, or simplify how they do business in general.

Do not read this guide if you are satisfied with your current results and do not intend to grow.

The team at Business Evolution Consulting Inc. have significant experience working with small and medium-sized enterprises, focusing on developing and implementing growth strategies. Jeff Borschowa, our president and founder, has 23 years of experience in the accounting field. Jeff has personally worked to build his accounting practice and build the systems necessary to make it a commodity that could be sold.

In 2013, Jeff decided to focus Business Evolution’s research on providing solutions designed specifically for accounting service providers. This guide was written with bookkeepers in mind. If you are serious about dramatic growth, but need guidance, we have the expertise to provide that guidance for you.

We don’t mean to offend you with narrow definitions, but the traditional bookkeeping business tends to go through the following phases:

Take on any work that comes your way. Profitability is low and work satisfaction is lower. Typically, the owner is the sole producer and the business is entirely dependent on their efforts.

Owner is now comfortable and has determined what the business does best. The owner focuses on providing a fixed set of services to a consistent client base.

The owner becomes overwhelmed with work and brings in staff or sub-contractors to assist. Results are unpredictable at best, but the one common theme is that the owner is no longer as productive. The majority of the owner’s time is now spent dealing with quality control, training, and finding work for their staff. The quality of work sought drops as the owner brings in clients merely for the sake of keeping staff busy and covering overhead. I would argue that this is the toughest phase

The owner experiences burnout and frustration after dealing with unpredictable staffing levels and is drained from dealing with bad clients. The owner will usually retract to go back to a workload that they are comfortable handling on their own.

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INITIAL GROWTH

INTERMEDIATE GROWTH

ADVANCED GROWTH

RETRACTION

This is rare, but it is the most rewarding stage if attained. In this stage, the owner has implemented the necessary technology, systems, and processes to ensure that the business can run by itself. The majority of repetitive tasks have been systematized and the owner is only required to focus on the exceptions. Production levels are consistent, clients are consuming all products/services offered, and overall satisfaction is high for both the owner and for clients. The business is a business in all sense of the word and the owner can take time off.

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ENLIGHTENED STAGE

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The first step in our process is to determine your business’ current stage. The advice and strategies will vary significantly from stage to stage. This is not a scientific classification, rather a gut reaction to which stage you personally identify with.

We have worked with many bookkeepers who struggle to keep up with the work that they have and are afraid to take time off. Their reality has shown them that the business needs them at all times – taking a vacation is simply not possible. Such devotion is possible for a short period of time, but the reality is that a business dependent on one person (owner or otherwise) is not a business that can subsequently be sold. In effect, you have created a job for yourself.

The first step is identifying where you are, the next step is determining where you want to go. For our purposes, we will assume that maximum growth, increased profitability, and owner freedom are all critically important to you. Thus, we will recommend that you implement all of the solutions. In reality, you can pick and choose the right combination of solutions based on your own personal preferences.

We did not create this list with the intention of listing a multitude of options, we created a shortlist for each area based on products or services that we have personally integrated into Business Evolution Consulting or a client’s business. The goal of this list is to show you our favourite tools to build a bookkeeping business that is both scalable and efficient. The more you implement, the more value your business will realize. In the short term, this means higher profits for you. In the long term, it means that you have a business that can be sold, yielding a greater return to you as the owner.

For full disclosure, some of the following tools pay Business Evolution Consulting a referral fee if you purchase their products. We ask that you credit us for the introduction, as these referral fees allow us to continue to do our research and offer free and low cost reference materials for bookkeepers.

Our resources are not listed in any particular order. If you are impatient to get started, skip to: Appendix 1: Resources for Your Virtual Office for a list of websites to visit

Appendix 2: Recommended Reading includes a list of our favourite books

Appendix 3: Virtual Office Progression Checklist will give you an idea as to how your business should progress from its current state to a virtual business.

Appendix 4: Cloud-Based Solutions for Business Dominance is a list of 21 free or low cost tools that will help you to introduce cloud-solutions into your business. These tools can also be shared with your clients if you want to add more value to their businesses.

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What Stage Is Your Business In?

We offer a full range of services intended to help accounting service providers improve their own operations and provide more value-added services to their clients. In effect, we are growth and technology consultants to the accounting service industry. Our services include:

Free program to introduce bookkeepers to our concepts. We host monthly meetings to facilitate collaboration and provide high level advice. These sessions are perfect for the self-starter who just needs a nudge in the right direction.

Fee-based mentoring to maximize your results. We work closely with you to identify your goals and build an action plan to help you achieve them.

Across-Canada tour introducing technology and innovation to bookkeepers and accountants.

Business Evolution Consulting Inc.

1) GROUP MENTORING

2) ONE-ON-ONE MENTORING

3) ACCOUNTING PRACTITIONERS SYMPOSIUM

Two day events, one for accountants and another for bookkeepers, to explore current developments in practice management and ways to grow your business. Industry leaders are sharing their insight into the industry and offering solid solutions for immediate implementation.

Devoted to identifying unique options for practice management. We offer our insight and invite industry leaders to share their knowledge with our participants.

We have several forums devoted to specific topics of interest for bookkeepers and accountants. The forums are intended to create collaboration within the industry.

4) VIRTUAL ACCOUNTING CONFERENCE

5) WEBINAR SERIES

6) FORUMS

We have a blog devoted to practice management, business growth, and technology solutions.7) BLOG

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Based on our experience and client requests, we search through the available options and narrow it down to the best of the best. We sift through the myriad of options so that you don’t have to.

We work with our clients to create a project plan for implementing solutions and we then manage the project to ensure that it stays on track. We work with you to create measurable statistics for the project, making it easy to calculate the cumulative gains realized through improvements.

8) PRODUCT RESEARCH & REVIEW

8) IMPLEMENTATION

Websites are becoming very reasonably priced. As a business owner, you must invest in a personalized domain to add credibility to your business. Your website will also become the platform from which you launch marketing initiatives and attract new clients. Do not underestimate the value of a good website – your competitors are using theirs to grow, are you?. A good website designer will take care of the technical details for you and get you up and running very quickly. Your website should include the ability to:

• Encourage repeat visitors • Facilitate communications with your prospects and clients • Highlight your unique products and services • Schedule events • Allow clients and prospects to schedule appointments • Facilitate payment of invoices • Provide forms to allow clients/prospects to share information with you • Build prospects and fill sales funnel • Qualify prospects to weed out those that would not be suitable as clients

Personally, I have worked with both VH Marketing Ltd. (Calgary based) and The Profitable Firm (UK based). They both work with the business owner to create a website suitable for their needs.

VH MARKETING LTD. works with businesses across the full spectrum. Their specialty is Internet marketing and Search Engine Optimization. They design websites that are intended to sell your business and expand your reach.

THE PROFITABLE FIRM focuses exclusively on the accounting industry and works with you to build a full-featured online presence.

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Resource 1: Website

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Both of these providers offer a full service solution. They interview you to determine your needs, and they go through the entire process to deliver a great end product. If you chose to use another resource, make sure they are capable of providing a website that has all of the functionality (or more) listed above.

I don’t recommend this to most, but if you have some technical ability and are looking for a hobby, you can do this yourself. The first step is to register a domain and find a hosting company. I use GoDaddy for all of my sites, as I am familiar with how they function and I know enough to be able to manage my website projects through their interface. GoDaddy has a NEW Website Builder, which is easy to use, has hundreds of new designs, and you get a free domain with each annual plan. This package costs just $1.00 per month! Use my referral code WOWdream2 at checkout to get 35% off additional purchases. For full disclosure, I also earn a small store credit if you use my referral code.

Bonus Tip: Social media is quickly becoming an essential tool for business growth. It is too broad to cover within the confines of this program. However, we have created a separate course introducing the concept of Social Media for accountants. Take the time to learn how you can implement Social Media into your sales process and it will be well worth your time spent.

First, let me address what I see as the biggest obstacle to growth in accounting services firms. Collectively, we all seem to believe that we are not in sales. Our clients love what we do, so they refer their friends to us. No sales arae involved, right? Wrong! Brace yourself, I am about to tell you something that may shock you. As service providers, we are all in sales. The extent to which we embrace this fact will determine our ultimate success.

We are selling peace of mind and our services. Clients buy from us because we have built rapport and earned their trust. They recommend us to their friends because of the level of trust that we instill. We can wait for this to happen over time, or we can consciously cultivate a sales environment and build our business deliberately.

If you are the only active participant in the business, you will need to take responsibility for sales. If you have staff, you can either take on this role yourself or delegate it. If you like meeting people, this might be an area for you. If you prefer to work quietly, alone in your office, this is likely the first role that you will delegate if you hire staff.

Regardless of who is performing the sales functions, you should have a clearly defined sales process - including your sales cycle and your intended sales funnel.

The term “sales funnel” might be new to you. It is a visual representation of the typical sales cycle. The multitude of unqualified prospects fill the top of the funnel. Your goal is to create an automated sales process that enables you to qualify prospects and convert the right ones into new clients. To build a sales funnel, you first need to determine who you wish to attract and what resources would be of value

Resource 2: Sales Funnel

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to them. A good sales funnel will integrate your website with a Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) solution. There are unique steps to every firm’s sales cycle. The intention of the sales funnel is to automate as much as possible in order to free up your time to focus on the good quality prospects and your current clients. Sales funnel planning should include consideration of:

• Ideal client – who are they and what do they do? • Niche development – do you have a specific expertise? • What products or services do you intend to offer? • Do you have a formal sales cycle process? • What are the stages in your sales cycle? • What key performance indicators do you track to determine the success of your current sales process? • What results do you hope to achieve through your sales process? • Do you have existing clients that could utilize more of your services?

We will explore this in more detail with an example based on one of our mentoring clients. Use these questions and the related answers to start the process for your business.

Question ExampleDo you have an ideal client? I focus on incorporated businesses who provide services

to the oil and gas industry. My focus is small businesses with annual sales between $500,000 and $1 million.

Do you focus on a particular niche? Strictly participants in the oil and gas field, specifically the service providers.

What products or services do you offer? We create a virtual accounting department for our cli-ents, handling all aspects of the accounting cycle includ-ing payables, invoicing, collection, management report-ing, and miscellaneous projects as required.

Do you have a formal sales cycle? Yes, we have a checklist that we follow for every lead generated by our website. Each lead goes through the same process.

What are the stages in your sales cycle? We start with the initial phase where we are introduc-ing ourselves to leads. Leads are then educated about our services and given enough information to make an informed decision about retaining our services.

What key performance indicators do you use? We track several, but the primary ones are:• lead response time• rate of contact and follow up contact• clicks from sales follow up emails• social media usage• usage rate of marketing collateral• opportunity-to-win ratio

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What results do you hope to achieve? We expect to grow by 25% per annum organically. Our first focus is to expand the offerings that we provide to existing clients. Our secondary focus is then to attract new clients.

Do you have existing clients that could use more of your services?

We rank our current clients in order to determine who is using our services. We want to ensure that our existing clients are aware of our full service line and we actively educate them in order to promote use of our services. Our ranking system considers the level of services being utilized and the potential to utilize additional services. We actively fire clients that are simply looking for book-keeping services.

We hope that by now you see the value of building a sales process and training yourself and your staff in the sales area. However, you may have noticed that there are very few resources. We have done our research and have worked with both of these:

THRIVING FIRM offers a sales training course geared specifically towards accounting service providers, entitled Sell Without Selling. This course is offered in an online format and they are also offering a two day live event in Las Vegas in June. Click here for more details about the live event. I used Sell Without Selling in my former accounting practice - all levels of staff, especially administrative staff, were trained and the results were phenomenal.

SANDLER TRAINING offers a variety of training programs, focusing on management and sales. We cannot speak for the entire franchise, but we have worked closely with their Calgary based franchisee, Hamish Knox, and have seen great results.

The Tursa Group provides a variety of services, including business process outsourcing. They provide a project manager to help you go paperless and digitize your office. Once you eliminate paper and enter the digital world, your business is instantly ready to go to a higher level. A digital office allows you to offer better service to your clients, reduce your costs (particularly for Information Technology and labour), and evaluate outsourcing as a competitive advantage.

Tursa offers the following outsourced services:

• IT strategy and cloud solutions • Marketing, Public Relations and Social Media • Finance and bookkeeping • General Administration

Resource 3: Tursa Group

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We have worked with many bookkeepers who were initially reluctant to consider outsourcing. However, the results speak for themselves and quickly change people’s minds.

• Drastically reduce labour costs - full time bookkeepers cost as little as $1,000 per month • Significantly lower overhead costs – less office space, fewer computers, etc. • Faster turnaround time – differentiate your services by offering guaranteed completion dates. Your turnaround is predictable because you can increase or decrease staffing levels as needed to meet demand. • Virtually unlimited capacity – never turn away a good client due to heavy workloads. • Flexible staffing – increase staffing in anticipation of additional work, decrease staffing in low volume periods. • Standardized training and integration of staff – Tursa provides a complete training solution tailored to your business and clients, allowing you to quickly take on new staff. • Reduce IT costs - Tursa works with you to implement cloud-based solutions, eliminating the need for a local server (and a local IT person).

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An added bonus to working with Tursa is that their solutions will also work for your clients. You can work with your clients to implement Tursa`s recommendations. Your work will serve as an additional service that you can bill to the client. Tursa also offers referral fees, you can earn additional revenue without additional work on your part. Tursa pays the referral fee for the duration of their relationship with your referred client.

For full disclosure, we work closely with Tursa, they provide a significant portion of our back office support. We recommend them because we use them and have seen the results first hand. Contact us if you would like to receive case studies from actual firms that used Tursa.

Bonus Tip: Many bookkeepers think that their options are limited to working from home or paying for expensive office space. The risk associated with office space is that you need to have a minimum work volume in order to cover expanding overhead. Working from home brings many challenges, one being that it is awkward or inconvenient to meet clients at your house. If you build a truly digital and virtual business, your staff (local or outsourced) can literally work from anywhere.

You can pay them a higher rate because you are not burdened with overhead. How? There are office centres around the world that provide space on an as needed basis. Business Evolution uses Regus (http://www.regus.ca/) for our virtual office. Regus provides a full time receptionist, meeting rooms, board rooms, and professional office space. We pay for what we use - nothing more. Our virtual package allows 5 days of office usage per month, so we schedule all client meetings for those days. We work from home offices the remainder of the month. This is a very affordable solution and it is scalable and flexible to suit our needs.

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Resource 4: Client TrackClient Track is a software package designed to give you complete control of your business by combining the necessary office management tools in one place. With Client Track, as the name implies, you can track your clients, tasks, and projects. Features of Client Track include:

• Project Management • Time & Billing • Full Accounts Receivable (AR) • Appointment Scheduling • Task Management • Email Merge • Document Merge • Address Book • Document Vault

We believe that the benefits are far more important than the features:

• A complete solution allows you to gather the necessary data to make timely business decisions • Quickly generate client lists to quickly and easily automate client communication • Integrated task tracking and project management reduces risk of missed deadlines • Easily integrate external staff (outsourced or sub-contractors)

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We have seen firsthand the impact that an integrated practice management solution can have on the value of a bookkeeping business once fully implemented. The software formalizes your business and creates something of tangible value should you decide to sell your business. The immediate benefit is that you, as the owner, can plan your vacations and down time with certainty, knowing that you are proactively managing your clients.

Contact us if you would like to receive case studies showing how firms have implemented and benefited from Client Track.

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Resource 5: Google Apps for Business

Google provides a great platform for email, which in itself is enough reason to pay their low monthly fee. However, email is just the beginning. They offer a wide range of tools, including calendar, scheduling, customer management, and document management.

We recommend Google Apps as it allows you to take your entire business into the cloud. The freedom and flexibility means that you and your team can literally work from anywhere at any time. The only requirement is internet access, if you have it, you can be fully functional regardless of your location.

As an example, one of my mentoring clients had integrated Google Apps. She travelled five hours to attend a business seminar. Upon arriving, she found a client email that required immediate attention. Previously, she would have skipped the seminar and driven back to her office to resolve the problem. However, with her new setup, she was able to access the information she needed and resolve the issue, all during a brief coffee break

We specifically recommend the following solutions from the Google Apps marketplace:

• Email - easy sharing and access, both online and through smart phones. Instant access to your emails, regardless of your location. No more lost emails or access challenges. You can also eliminate the cost of a Microsoft Exchange Server set up. • Calendar - easy sharing and access, both online and through smart phones. • Google Drive - you can store all of your data in the cloud. Google Drive allows you to easily set up file sharing and syncing files with your personal devices. • Sites - Google offers a great tool for building sites. We use them with our clients to create Intranet sites for data storage. • YouTube - we use YouTube to store and share training videos for our clients. The videos can be kept private for internal training or can be made public. Public videos can be used to train clients or educate prospects. • Google + is a tool for building a community and sharing information.

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This is not an exhaustive list, just our favourites. The reality is that Google has a vast marketplace with hundreds of solutions for every conceivable business challenge. The great thing about using products from Google’s Marketplace is that they all integrate with minimal effort. You can do amazing things with integrated solutions.

You can either find a local reseller or contact the Tursa Group. Tursa has project managers that will implement the broad range of Google Apps into your business as part of their digitization process.

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Resource 6: Zoho CRM

Generally, we simply recommend that our clients implement a Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) solution and leave it to them to determine the best one based on their specific needs and budget. A good CRM forms an integral part of your sales funnel. This will give you the ability to track and manage your leads and prospects for follow up. We recommend a separate CRM for prospects as it does not clutter up your client database (such as Client Track) with prospects that never become clients. If you successfully convert a prospect, their full details would be entered into Client Track and their status in the CRM would be changed to indicate that they are now clients.

Zoho deserves particular attention for the smaller businesses out there for two reasons: simplicity and pricing. Zoho makes implementation incredibly simple to use. They provide excellent support and video training to get you up and running quickly. Zoho is also fully functional and can meet the demands of large or growing firms too.

As for pricing, you can’t beat their starter price – free. They offer a package designed for businesses with three or fewer employees and it is entirely free. Their most expensive package is still reasonably priced at $35 per user per month. The free plan provides everything you need to get started.

WHY USE CRM?

• Track leads – you need to know where your leads are coming from so that you can encourage the most active referral sources. • Measure effectiveness of advertising - If your leads are strictly from advertising, you can easily measure how effective each type of advertising is for your business. • Repeat contact – prospects need an average of seven positive experiences with a business before they are willing to purchase from them. A CRM allows you to track and encourage contact. • Higher conversion rates – knowledge is power. A good CRM allows you to accumulate and utilize information about your prospects. This data can be analyzed and mined to increase the rate at which you convert prospects to clients. • Higher fees – a properly implemented CRM allows you to gather relevant data about prospects. If you identify their true needs, you can provide the services that meet those needs. Your understanding of their needs will allow you to charge higher fees – the prospect will feel that you understand their business, thus are the only one capable of providing service to them – fee pressure virtually disappears in this context.

To get the most benefit from your CRM, it must be an integral part of your sales funnel and work with your website. Collectively, these tools will help to identify prospects, convert them to warm

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leads, and eventually bring them to the point of becoming clients. Your CRM should allow you to automate your sales process. For example:

• A prospect fills out a contact form on your website requesting information • You have an autoresponder that automatically sends out the missing information • The lead is entered into your CRM • Rules determine the next level of contact • Contact initiated at regular intervals to bring the prospect closer to becoming a client • Statistics are maintained and are readily summarized in management reports to determine effectiveness of various advertising campaigns.

Resource 7: Telpay

Resource 8: Payroll Outsourcing

Telpay allows all sizes of business to implement electronic payments. Paying bills electronically can streamline your business and it is also becomes part of a value-added product that you can offer to your clients. Telpay allows you to simplify bill payments for your clients. You can input the payables, schedule payment, and forward to your client for approval. Processing payments in batches shortens the bank reconciliation process, as you have significantly fewer transactions to enter.

Telpay has an Accounting Service Providers program to encourage cooperation and reward referrals. Integrating Telpay with other value-added services provides an excellent opportunity to reach out to your existing clients and it becomes a marketing feature for prospects. See the value-added service section for more details. Telpay is fairly easy to implement, so we will not cover it in any further detail.

We found that payroll did not fit in with our business model. Payroll required too much time and effort on our part – keeping up with legislation, ensuring timely payroll calculations for clients, and preparing necessary reports. If we did it in-house, we could not make the work profitable, despite our best intentions. For some time, we absorbed this as a cost of doing business. However, finding a good payroll outsourcing solution became a game changer.

Suddenly, work that did not inspire us became a marketing tool. We were able to offer full service, introducing the right solutions, without having to devote time or energy to the service. More importantly, we knew with certainty that our provider was taking care of the client and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Ceridian or Payment Evolution are both good service providers for payroll outsourcing. Ceridian has a great partner program where they will work with your team and your clients to ensure a seamless solution. I am impressed with their new Human Resources division – they offer HR expertise on a consulting basis – giving you and your clients access to industry experts on demand.

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Resource 9: Cloud-Based AccountingCloud-based, for our purposes, simply means that your data is stored on a remote server and accessed via your Internet browser. Xero and Wave Accounting are two of my favourites. They both serve very different client bases, so together they provide solutions that will meet the needs of the vast majority of your client base.

XERO originated in New Zealand, but has a significant international presence. They are not officially in Canada yet, but still have 10,000 registered Canadian users. Xero is ideal for clients that need some form of complexity or customization. They have hundreds of add-ins that cover every aspect of business. For example, we have two clients in the construction industry that are working with Xero and an add-in called SimPRO. SimPRO allows our clients to manage inventory, track their vehicle fleet, provide quotes for projects, and manage their staff schedules. The combined package is incredibly powerful and the overall cost is less than $100 per month. We have seen comparable industry programs that offer some of this functionality and the starting price is upwards of $50,000. Xero provides an extensive training program for accountants and bookkeepers, offering a certification program. Certified Xero partners receive referrals and advertising on the Xero site.

WAVE ACCOUNTING is based in Toronto and is truly Canadian. Wave’s data is hosted in Canada. Wave has been designed specifically for businesses with 9 or fewer employees and is entirely free. They offer payroll processing and credit card processing, which is how they can offer the free service. Wave is ideal for independent consultants who do not have a significant number of clients.

Xero and Wave both integrate with an online credit card processing service called Stripe. Stripe allows you to send an invoice from your online accounting software and accept payment online. The cost is higher than in person credit card processing, but it is still reasonable and can have a significant impact on cash collection and the cash flow cycle.

Why Cloud-Based Accounting Solutions?The bookkeeper will realize a few key benefits:

• Conversion to cloud solutions is a great value-added service and can yield significant fees. As the expert, you can charge significant fees for converting historical bookkeeping data into Xero or Wave. There is also potential for earning fees if you train your clients in their new accounting package’s unique aspects.

• Demonstrated knowledge of modern solutions differentiates you from your competition. You can offer consulting services in order to assist clients with business challenges that traditional accounting software packages such as QuickBooks and Sage 50 cannot solve.

• Enhanced ability to monitor clients – both parties can access the data in real-time and simultaneously, allowing greater collaboration. You can work with your client to ensure that data is both timely and accurate.

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• Reduced travel time – fewer trips to client locations to fix issues. You can fix problems online and show the immediate impact to your client.

Your client will realize benefits as well:

• Faster answers to questions • Timely reporting • Ability to quickly share accounting records with bookkeeper and accountant • Quicker file turnaround time

If implemented properly, cloud-based solutions will enhance the client relationship and improve your profitability.

Resource 10: CloudLinxCloudLinx offers a great solution to reduce your IT costs. They have cloud-based virtual personal computers. This may be a bit complicated for a short introduction, but essentially, your computer is now in the cloud. You use an Internet-browser to access your files – the processing and storage is all managed by a server.

There are a several advantages to cloud-based virtual personal computers such as:

• Secure – The CloudLinx team manages your infrastructure and ensures that it is secure. • Completely portable and device independent – you can access your client records from anywhere, using any device with Internet access. • Scalable – you can increase or decrease the size of your team without worrying about IT, CloudLinx can quickly change the number of PC`s that you require. • Cost – cost should not be your only factor when making IT decisions. However, CloudLinx reduces your costs by minimizing the requirements of new computers that you acquire (full processing is done by the cloud PC), down time is dramatically reduced, and system maintenance is included in your overall price. • Version control – you can centrally manage the software installed on your computers, minimizing the risk of incompatible versions causing data conflicts.

I have a business mentoring client who has implemented all of these strategies. She went on vacation to Cuba last year, taking only her smart phone with her. She had committed to checking email daily as she was in the midst of a major project with a client. One day, she received an email indicating that the project was at a standstill until the client received up-to-date financial reports. She went online, using her smart phone, and sent the necessary information to her client. The project was back on schedule and the bookkeeper was able to enjoy the remainder of her vacation.

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The previous items focus on improving how your business operates and how to attract new clients. Arguably, the fastest and lowest-cost way to build your bookkeeping business is to provide more services to your existing clients. Your clients welcome the chance to have more of their needs met by someone they already know and trust.

If you can provide valuable business advice, they will be loyal clients and you will be able to charge higher fees over time. What value-added services can you offer?

• Payment processing – integrate a paperless solution with Telpay to instill yourself as their payables department. • Invoicing and collection – utilize cloud-based accounting to assist your clients with invoicing. Enhance the offering by providing professional follow up to outstanding receivables. • Management reporting – show your client that bookkeeping can generate meaningful data that can be used to support management decision making. Monthly or quarterly review adds a great deal of value. • Key performance indicators – assist your clients to create and monitor key performance indicators. Demonstrate how measured business activities can lead to better decision making. • Cash flow forecasting and planning – work with your clients to implement and monitor budget performance, providing many opportunities for additional client contact. • Business diagnostic – review overall operations to determine pain points. Once pain points are identified, you can become part of the solution simply by researching and recommending a solution to their pain. You do not have to be an expert at all things, you just use your connections in the business community to find solutions.

Resource 11: Value-Added Services

How Do You Save Money With CloudLinx?If you have a firm with five people, CloudLinx would consolidate your computing solutions into one virtual network. Pricing varies, but your monthly cost would be approximately $260. At this price, you would be in a position to eliminate your onsite server (replacement cost upwards of $10,000) and reduce reliance on onsite technical support (ranging from $50 to $150 per hour). CloudLinx will use existing software licenses, so you will not incur additional costs unless you add more users. An added bonus is that you are no longer dependant on physical computers. You can reduce what you pay for computers and replace them less frequently. Downtime is limited to how long it takes you to bring in a new computer. We often buy low cost clearance computers at Staples. We save an average of $1,000 per computer based on what we used to spend. Our downtime has been reduced from two days to under two hours - a significant cost savings in itself.

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• Year-end reporting – prepare an impressive reporting package to be shared with the external accountant. Going the extra mile here has an added benefit – if you impress the accountant, they will bring you referrals to ensure that their clients are also taken care of by you. • Project management – Tursa has a team of qualified project managers available to assist you and your clients. If you have clients going through major projects, you can be involved by bringing in a project manager to assist you. Your participation ensures that any bookkeeping related issues will be addressed as they arise, not after the fact. • Business planning- work with clients to create cash flow forecasts and implement monthly performance analysis. • Bank financing packages - work with clients to create professional packages for their bank, to support current or future financing options.

There are more services that you can offer as a bookkeeper. However, those listed above will be easy to implement and will provide greater fee opportunities in minimal time. Also, the above were listed because they are all within the expertise of the average bookkeeper – training time is minimal.

We strive to know industry leaders that can impact our client base directly. Our research allows us to identify new products and services before they are available to the general public. If you have the inclination, this can be an excellent way to build relationships with service providers and clients.

In addition, it can help you identify new consulting and service offerings. We have introduced these services on the assumption that you already have the knowledge and experience in-house to develop the products themselves. If you would like templates and guidance, we have a separate course covering these services in detail.

I absolutely hate chasing clients for signatures, especially if we need multiple parties to sign the same document. DocuSign is a cloud solution that allows you to have all parties digitally sign documents. Their system allows monitoring, follow up, and document tracking. More importantly, their digital process ensures that your documents are legally enforceable.

Last but not least, engaging a business mentor or coach will have a significant impact on your bottom line. The time and money that you invest in the mentoring process will yield significant results, straight to your bottom line. A good mentor will work with you to identify your particular business needs and will help you capitalize on your strengths.

Resource 12: DocuSign

Resource 13: Business Mentoring

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Business Evolution Consulting Inc. provides a free monthly group mentoring session and paid one on one mentoring sessions. The free sessions are provided in order to focus on high level issues and introduce our processes to bookkeepers who may not yet be ready to invest in a dedicated mentor.

The one on one sessions allow us to work closely with our mentoring clients and provide full implementation of the products that are most beneficial to their practice. We build a specific plan for each of our mentoring clients, including a guarantee that your results will be measurably improved. Our clients are our greatest asset, we work to build their value through:

• Implementation of business improvement strategies and tools • Guidance in developing and integrating proven product offerings • Owner and staff training • Niche development • Business diagnostic and strategic growth plans • Referral building

Thank you for taking the time to read our program. Our intent has been to provide you with valuable tips that will allow you to simultaneously improve your bookkeeping business` profitability and increase efficiency.

If you have read this and are still concerned that you might need additional help, feel free to contact us or visit our website to find out more about our live events and our mentoring programs.

Appendix 1: Resources for your Virtual Office

Company Name DescriptionAccounting Practitioners Symposium Cross-Canada tour sharing technology and

innovation with accountants.

Virtual Accounting Conference Industry conference bringing international thought leaders into the Canadian market.

VH Marketing Ltd. Website design and marketing.The Profitable Firm Create an online presence.Thriving Firm Thriving Firm empowers accountants to manifest

their dream practices.Sell Without Selling This powerful selling system teaches you a very

different and highly effective sales approach that has been designed exclusively for accounting and business advisory firms.

Tursa Group Business process outsourcing

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Sandler Training Sales Training, Customer Service Training, Sales Management and Business Development programs.

Hamish Knox Hamish is my go to person for sales training in Calgary.

Regus Virtual office solutions.Client Track Project management softwareZoho CRM Cloud-based Customer Relationship Management

solution.Google Apps Email, calendar, etc. for a truly portable businessTelpay Electronic payment processingCeridian Payroll and HR outsourcingPayment Evolution Payroll outsourcing.Xero Cloud-based accounting solution.Wave Accounting Cloud-based accounting solution.Stripe Online credit card processing.CloudLinx Cloud-based personal computers.Dream Practice Mentoring, consulting, and education programs for

bookkeepers and accountants.CutePDF Writer Convert documents to PDF as easily as printing.

Appendix 2: Recommended Reading

Book AuthorProfessional Guide to Value Pricing 2000 Ronald J. Baker

The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded andUpdated

Timothy Ferriss

Endless Referrals Bob BurgThe E-Myth Accountant: Why Most Accounting Practices Don’t Work and What to Do About It

Michael Gerber

Implementing Value Pricing: A Radical Business Model for Professional Firms

Ronald J. Baker

The Firm of the Future: A Guide for Accountants, Lawyers, and Other Professional Services

Paul Dunn and Ronald J. Baker

The World is Flat Thomas Friedman

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These are just some of my favourite books. Personally, I don’t care if you buy or borrow these books, but I do strongly recommend that you take the time to read them. Individually and collectively they will change your life and business.

Completed StepDigitize all the paper by scanning in house or outsource to a company such as West CanadianEnter data into accounting system with outsourced labourGet VoIP Phone system set up so outsourced staff can also be Client Account ManagersHave value add reporting done by outsourced staff (such as the five minute video report of KPIs)Add Automation into your processes, such as auto reconciliation through third party toolsGet Cloud based through Google Apps or through Cloud alternativeDownsize office spaceCreate value packages based on number of transactionsGrow your client base through Content and Email marketing and Networking

Appendix 3: Virtual Office Progression Checklist

Appendix 4: Solutions For Business DominanceMost of the following software solutions are low cost and cloud-based. They will all help you take your business to the next level. This list is not meant to be all inclusive or detailed, just an introduction to help you start your own research for solutions tailored to your business. This list intentionally includes duplicates from throughout this guide because I want to stress how easily a bookkeeping business can utilize cloud-based solutions.

1) Google Canada – I take Google as a given, but I have a lot of contacts who somehow function without Google as their default search engine. Google is not the only search engine, but it is good enough and consistent enough that I see no reason to check out their competition. 2) SimplyBook.me – free and easy online reservation tool, allowing your customers to book times that work for both parties without the back and forth. 3) Google Chrome – a fast, free, lightweight browser that lets you use a profile to synchronize browser favourites and history across multiple devices.

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4) Zoho CRM – track prospects, opportunities, and clients all in one place. 5) Google Apps for Business – email, calendar, and online cloud storage are just the start – see what else the Google Apps Marketplace has for your business. 6) BB Flashback Express - A free screen recorder to capture video and audio. Use this as a tool for staff training videos. The program itself is not cloud-based, but it helps you get information ready for the cloud. 7) Audacity - Audacity is free, open source, cross-platform software for recording and editing sounds. I use it to record and edit podcasts for clients. The program itself is not cloud-based, but it helps you get information ready for the cloud. 8) Xero – online accounting software suitable for businesses from a simple start-up to complex. 9) Wave – small business accounting software, specifically targeted towards businesses with fewer than 10 employees. 10) ProWorkFlow – manage projects online, include your team and your clients. 11) Asana – teamwork without email, tool to encourage collaboration and track tasks. 12) Expensify – digital expense reporting that works 13) Mailchimp – create email newsletters and campaigns to communicate with your clients 14) Box.com – simple, secure file sharing from anywhere. I use this as an alternative to a portal. 15) XMind – I use mind mapping to help with collaboration – this is a great free tool to visually demonstrate project requirements and work flow. The program itself is not cloud-based, but it helps you get information ready for the cloud. 16) Apache OpenOffice - a free and open productivity suite that provides a free alternative to Microsoft Office. Not technically cloud-based, but it allows you to create documents. 17) Send Pepper – email marketing software for small business. 18) SaneBox – sort and categorize email, eliminate spam and reduce unimportant emails. 19) Skype – video conferencing, instant messaging and voice calls all in one place. 20) YouTube – I use YouTube channels to share videos, either internally with staff or externally with clients and prospects. 21) e-courier – safe and secure means to transmit large files, very similar to email but without the security issues and file size limits.

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