I’ve thought about entering the accounting field for several years but really hadn’t made up my mind until Covid forced me to decide. During the lockdown, I took a course to get an idea of where my skill set was and realized I had picked up a lot over the past twenty years.
Until I had taken my accounting course, I thought most accounting jobs involved working at an office and you did the bookkeeping for them. I didn’t realize there were bookkeeping companies. I’ve heard of tax accounting firms, but not ones that focused on being the accounting department for small businesses.
After finishing my course work, I looked at three options
• Taxes Accounting through a company like H&R Block or Jackson Hewitt
• Work for someone
• Work for myself
I wasn’t interested in taxes, especially the tax season, and job hunting didn’t really turn up anything since some were concerned that I may end up not liking accounting since I’ve worked for myself most of my working career. Freelancing ended up winning out and I think I lucked out with the first client I had, which was a construction company.
I didn’t do a lot of prospecting for new business that first year since I felt I needed to get back into the swing of things. I worked on a few cleanup projects but decided to focus my attention on everyday bookkeeping versus taking on cleanup projects since I was currently a one-person operation.
As 2021 ended I decided to start ramping up my service offerings beyond entering day-to-day transactions but also include full-cycle accounting processes, such as cost accounting, financial reporting and analysis, budgeting, forecasting, business development, Cash Flow Management, and much more.
My approach with clients is to have a layered accounting process that involves more than day-to-day bookkeeping, but also oversight of the accounting process, which would involve another member of my team and/or a member of the client’s management team to help ensure the accuracy of the books.
My company, Main Street Ledger, aims to be the accounting department for your company. We focus on construction, trades, and Real Estate. Business sizes that are a good fit generally generate at least two million in yearly revenue and/or have about ten more employees. For more information visit us at MainStreetLedger.net
Main Street Ledger offers virtual Bookkeeping, Accounting, and fractional CFO Services for small and medium-sized businesses.
We recommend running your accounting department with at least two part-time people.
One person to do the day-to-day transactions (bookkeeper)
and one person to review the work of the bookkeeper.
The reviewer can be one of our senior-level accountants, someone on your management team, or a combination of an accountant and someone in your office. This ensures books are completed accurately and to your satisfaction.
I enjoy talking with business owners.
Learning how they got started and how they grew their company to where they are today.
One of my favorite podcasts is, How I Built This
Companies that are a good fit for bookkeeping and accounting services generally have at least Two Million in yearly revenue and/or roughly ten employees or more. Even though we're open to all businesses, construction, trades, and real estate are a good fit for Main Street Ledger.
Those in construction, trades, and real estate are good partners because they tend to work together.
Tax professionals are also a good partner if they're not also offering bookkeeping services.