Save time and money by finding clients near home

Local businesses

If you are seeking clients, you will want to approach businesses in your community. Most people living within city boundaries will have virtually an unlimited number of businesses within a mile of their home.

Don’t believe it? Test it. Get a map of your community. Draw a circle encompassing the area within one mile of your home. Now, with pen and paper in hand, drive around within that circle and write down all the businesses you pass, including their addresses. Most people are amazed at how many companies are so close, and almost everyone of them are small businesses needing accounting services.

With this list, you will want to go to the library or city/county clerk�s office and obtain the owner�s name, mailing address, and type of business. This information is available to the public from the Business License records.

Now you are ready to mail out letters. This letter will look very similar to the letter you sent to your business contacts. It�s main difference is that it should emphasize the local community advantage.

By the way, don�t disregard franchise type businesses, mistakenly thinking they already have an accounting system. Only a few franchisers, provide accounting for their franchisees. Most franchisees are required to find accounting help in their area.

You will want to send out only ten letters per week; no more, — and no less. Initially, this might seem like a small number. That�s alright, because at first you will want to spend more time rehearsing and reviewing your presentations. Later, as you start setting up new clients, and follow up on past visits, ten letters will seem like a lot.

There are other articles showing easy methods of marketing your own accounting and bookkeeping service. For information on the other articles, you can link to them here:

The best way to market an accounting and bookkeeping service

How to get a new client every week

For complete information on marketing an accounting and bookkeeping service, see our section on Building a Successful Accounting Service at our Accounting Made Easy site.

For continual information on marketing tips and strategies, click here to sign up now for our newsletter.

Do Your Letters Help You Grow Your Bookkeeping Service?

For freelance bookkeepers, written communications are just as important as personal ones. Like it or not, you can’t conduct all your business face-to-face or on the telephone. Often you must write to get an appointment, say thank you, or keep in touch between visits. To make the right impression, you need good letter-writing skills.

Try these tips:

* Open with strength. Don’t try to work up to your main point. Come right out with it and give the client a reason to keep reading.

* Avoid “thank you” as an opener. Even if you’re writing a letter of appreciation, “Thank you” is a poor way to begin. The client may think you’re just following the etiquette book but have nothing more to say, and toss our letter out unread. A more personal style is a better approach.

* Watch that “I.” To hold attention, turn the spotlight away from yourself and onto your client. Write “you” often, “I” only rarely. In particular, don’t start paragraphs or sentences with “I.” That often makes readers start to skim, looking for the next “you.”

* Keep it short. Short letters, made up of short sentences and paragraphs, get the best readership. If you demand more than 2 minutes of the client’s time, you may be out of luck.

If you’re a student of ours, the template letters provided in Module VI follow these rules, and will certainly get you off to a good start.

Module 4 of our Professional Bookkeeper program, entitled “Building a Successful Accounting Service” describes other marketing methods to make your Accounting or Bookkeeping service grow!
To see an overview of marketing concepts that the Professional Bookkeeper course will teach you Click HERE.

Other sections from this week’s newsletter:

• It’s Raining Referrals
• Extended Follow-Up Support
• Be a State of the Art Accounting Service Provider

“All Glory Comes From Daring to Begin”
-Anonymous

Rocky was not only a great movie… Rhonda went with me.

I was a Sophomore in High School and Rhonda was a Senior. It was a long time ago, but I still remember my date with Rhonda.

It might not be a big deal now, young people are a little more sophisticated today than they were in 1976, but I was pretty pleased with myself. Back then, dating was a little more complicated than “hanging out” with friends. It required a certain level of finesse and daring. Especially if you were going to ask out a Senior girl.

Sophomore boys dating Senior girls was not a common occurrence in those days. So, like a mountain lion stalking prey, I waited for the right moment to approach and ask. Was I scared? Absolutely! Rejection was a big deal to 16 year old boys. Being rejected by a beautiful woman like Rhonda could have spelled disaster for my social life.

When the moment was right, I asked, and by some lucky twist of fate, she said yes. I have to admit, I didn’t remember much of the movie the next day, but I can still tell you what it felt like to be with Rhonda.

What on earth does that have to do with starting a small business bookkeeping service?

They Both Require a Little Daring

Over the last week or so, we’ve talked a lot about the opportunity to earn the income and create a lifestyle that frees you to spend your time doing the things that matter most. Understandably, you might still feel a little nervous. Rhonda was pretty intimidating too.

I can tell you, thousands of people have taken advantage of this wonderful opportunity and are living the dream of financial security and independence… right now. They spend their time doing the things that are the most important to them. Those precious moments with their family are enjoyed together. And they earn incomes that most people only dream about.

What’s the difference between those who achieve their dreams and the others that don’t start this lucrative and enjoyable business? They dared to begin.

The Tools to Start a Profitable Business Are all Within Your Grasp

The Professional Bookkeeper program provides everything you’ll need to know to do the books and accounting for any small business. You’ll have hands-on experience doing the books for several different small businesses. From a frame shop to a motorcycle shop, you’ll learn how to do Accounts Payable and Receivable, General Ledger and even Payroll. You’ll become a small business accounting expert.

In addition to the most complete small business bookkeeping and accounting education available anywhere, you’ll also learn how to find and keep the clients that will earn your practice a profitable income.

Investing a Little Time Now Will Pay Big Dividends Tomorrow

The time you spend learning small business bookkeeping and accounting will not only be informative, it also has the power to help you create a fantastic income. In as little as four weeks, you can complete the coursework and start your professional bookkeeping service. Thomas Edison said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

What’s more, unlike any other program I’m aware of, (and that includes any college or university course), it’s guaranteed.

Universal Accounting’s Ironclad 100% Money Back Guarantee

Purchase and complete the course, and if you don’t feel that you’ve received more than your money’s worth, you can return the materials and get a complete refund. All of us here at Universal Accounting are so confident that you will find this training to be worth every minute you invest in it, we all stand behind it, 100%

Today, Purchase the Best Small Business Bookkeeping Program at a Special Price

During the course of the year, we sometimes experience some packaging damage to the program materials. The DVD case may be scratched or the binders might show some minor defect. There’s no defect or damage to the actual course materials, but the packaging has been damaged or is defective in some minor way. If you act today, this could make the Professional Bookkeeper program an even greater value.

At this low price, the Professional Bookkeeper program is a terrific value. (Regularly $1940)

You’ll still have access to 6 months of accounting and marketing support after you’ve finished the program. You’ll also receive the help and encouragement of your personal coach to help you with your coursework and keep you motivated while you’re going through the coursework.

So, What’s Stopping You?

“All Glory Comes from Daring to Begin.”

There has never been a better time to start a professional bookkeeping and accounting service than right now. The Professional Bookkeeper program has the tools to teach you everything you need to know to make your business a success.

You really can experience the personal and professional rewards that come from owning your own bookkeeping and accounting practice and it will never be a greater value than it is today.

Start Part-Time and Build a Very Profitable Business

Most People Just Don’t Have the Means to Drop Everything and Throw the Dice

A bookkeeping practice is the perfect part-time business. Starting part-time (20 hours per week or less) is a smart way to start your bookkeeping and accounting practice and never risk your present full-time income.

Whether you’re a homemaker considering earning extra part-time income or working full-time and want to supplement your current salary, a small business bookkeeping and accounting business is a perfect choice.

Working from a home office is a great option. In fact, it’s what we recommend, even for people going full-time. Many successful bookkeepers and tax preparers work out of home offices. For them, meetings are always held at their client’s office anyway, making the need for leased office space unnecessary. This is more convenient for their clients and less expensive for them. It’s the perfect situation for a part-time or full-time bookkeeper.

Small business bookkeeping provides a consistent income for the hours you work so you can determine your workload and income based upon the number of clients your business serves. Let me show you how you can determine how many clients you’ll need to create a full-time income with a part-time commitment.

20 Hours Per Week Can Earn $2400 to $3000 Per Month

You’ll spend 8 to 10 hours per month to do the books for the average bookkeeping client. (As you become more efficient, you’ll spend less time.) As you start your practice, you can adjust how much time you spend to meet the needs of your clients. It it takes longer, you’ll charge more.

That 8 to 10 hours spent will generate a monthly income of $300 per client. That’s $30 to almost $40 per hour. As you become more efficient and more familiar with your client’s books, you can realistically expect to earn $60 per hour or more, since it will take you less time to aern your $300 per client. That’s a rare part-time income.

The graph at the right illustrates what you can expect to earn as you build your part-time bookkeeping practice. Since your average client earns you $300 per month, it won’t take many clients before you’re earning a very profitable income.

Experience has taught us that with very little marketing effort, you can expect to find one or two clients per month who will welcome your services and gladly pay for the expertise you contribute to their small businesses.

Working part-time (20 hours per week and 8 hours per client per month) you can earn $3000 per month or $36,000 per year. That’s a pretty good part-time income, don’t you think?

Many of our graduates find 10 clients a great benchmark for either making the jump to full-time or semi-retirement. The beauty of this business is your ability to make that decision for yourself. You determine what’s best for your family and your circumstances. To learn more about how you can semi-retire in less than 12 months, even with $0 in savings today, click HERE.

Going Full-Time Won’t Be a Gamble Either

Very few businesses offer you the opportunity to provide this kind of value to your clients and get paid to do it. You might be asking yourself, “Can I really go full-time? I thought CPA’s did this kind of thing for small businesses.”

Although some CPA’s offer small business bookkeeping and accounting services, they typically charge rates too high for the average small business. In fact, most CPA’s charge between $100 and $200 per hour. As a small business bookkeeping and accounting expert, you’ll charge $30 to $60 per hour and feel confident that you provide more value than a CPA. Most CPA’s don’t learn small business bookkeeping in college. (Over the years we’ve trained a lot of CPA’s to work with small businesses too.)

Unlike many business opportunities today, taking the step to a full-time bookkeeping and accounting business is usually a smooth transition. As you work with clients and become more and more familiar with different businesses and their accounting needs, you’ll find you become more efficient. This adds up to more freedom to spend time doing just exactly what matters most to you.

Take another look at the graph above. Look at the income potential with only 20 clients, (what we consider a full-time business). Working 40 hours per week or less, you will enjoy the freedom that earning $6000 per month creates. It’s up to you. Part-time or full-time, bookkeeping and accounting is a great way to reach your financial goals. To learn why a small business bookkeeping and accounting business is such a great way to reach your goals, click HERE.

What If I Have a Question or a Problem?

Unlike any other distance learning program I’m aware of, from the moment you start the Professional Bookkeeper program, you’ll have a personal coach on the other end of the phone to answer questions about bookkeeping as well as how to build your business. Not only that, you’ll enjoy the security of that support for a full 6 months after you’ve completed the course.

Help with questions and encouragement to keep you on track are part of the program. You’ll have the confidence of knowing that 25 years of accounting and tax education stand behind you 100%. From small business accounting professionals to answer your bookkeeping questions to some of the best marketing talent in the accounting industry to help you find and keep clients, you’ll have the support team that other business owners only dream of, or pay a fortune for. Your bookkeeping practice will be well on the way to creating the income and lifestyle that allows you to spend more time doing the things that are the most important to you and your family.

The Professional Bookkeeper Program is Not Only the Most Complete Education Available Anywhere, It’s Guaranteed!

Universal Accounting’s Ironclad 100% Money Back Guarantee

Purchase and complete the course, and if you don’t feel that you’ve received more than your money’s worth, we insist you return the materials for a complete refund. All of us here at Universal Accounting are so confident that you will find this training to be worth every minute you invest in it, that we all stand behind it, 100%

A Great Deal On the Most Complete Small-Business Accounting Training Available Anywhere!

Having a solid understanding of the Accounting and Bookkeeping methods and procedures is a great first step in learning the concepts behind Financial Business Analysis. You will learn to do books for small to mid-sized companies and how to analyze the books to prepare reports. You will learn to interpret reports so that you can advise your clients how to reduce costs and to better understand their financial standing and profitability. Your clients will look to you as an invaluable source of information about the financial health of their organization.

If you are considering adding Tax Preparation and Planning to your Financial Services business at some point, you get a great price by purchasing both programs as a bundle (Save $$$ by ordering them together.)

The Right Work From Home Opportunity Perfectly Fits Your Lifestyle

Earn the Income that Allows You to Spend Your Time Doing What Matters Most

Juggling career and family can be a real challenge. Most people never get to spend their time doing the things that matter most to them. In fact, Henry David Thoreau said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Is it any wonder they call it the “rat race”?

It doesn’t need to be that way for you and your family. You can spend time with your family and earn a wonderful income. This may sound hard to believe, but it can be a reality for you and your loved ones. Don’t waste your time doing something that won’t let you create the freedom and lifestyle that you are looking for. Let me show you how.

This is Not a Get-Rich-Quick-Scheme

You might be thinking, “I’ve heard this before. The newspaper and the Internet are full of get-rich-quick schemes that promise the world… but never deliver.”

What I’m about to share with you is different. Unlike the other “opportunities” available today, let’s talk about a legitimate and lucrative business that professionals have successfully ran out of their homes for years. In fact, for over 500 years, these professionals have helped small business owners all over the world create profitable, healthy businesses.

Why Does a Bookkeeping Business Make Such a Great Home-Based Business?

That’s a good question. Paul and Sarah Edwards, authors of The Best Home Businesses for the 21st Century, consider it to be the “Best of the Best.” That’s high praise from someone outside the accounting industry, looking purely at the business opportunity. I agree.

To learn what makes a small business bookkeeping and accounting business the “Best of the Best” home-based businesses, click HERE.

550,000 Opportunities Every Month

A few days ago we talked about the 550,000+ new businesses created every month in the United States alone. What a tremendous opportunity for someone willing to acquire the right education to provide the services they’ll require.

Because accounting is mandated by law, every business must keep accounting records every month. Unfortunately, most small business owners don’t have the background or expertise in accounting they need to effectively make decisions and manage their businesses. They need the services of a skilled and qualified small business bookkeeping and accounting expert.

The Perfect Home-Based Business is Also the Perfect Family Business

I started in the warehouse and drove the delivery truck. I learned to work at the feet of my father. He didn’t make it easy, but he taught me to value customers and take pride in my work… and myself.

As my father and I swept the warehouse floor together, I learned the importance of doing a job right, even if it was just sweeping the floor. By washing the delivery truck every week, I learned to take pride in my appearance and how I presented myself. My father made sure I learned these important lessons when I was young enough to still listen.

Owning a profitable and rewarding home-based bookkeeping practice provides a wonderful opportunity to share your values with your children and teach them skills they’ll never learn in school, like the value of an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. You’ll better prepare them for life.

Whether or not they make accounting their career, they’ll learn skills that will prove critically important in real life, regardless of the profession they choose. I don’t work with my father anymore, but the lessons he taught me are still a big part of who I am and what I do. (And I haven’t worked for him for almost 25 years.)

Read more about why this is such a great family business by clicking HERE.

The Professional Bookkeeper Program is Not Only the Most Complete Education Available Anywhere, It’s Guaranteed!

Universal Accounting’s Ironclad 100% Money Back Guarantee

Purchase and complete the course, and if you don’t feel that you’ve received more than your money’s worth, we insist you return the materials and get a complete refund. All of us here at Universal Accounting are so confident that you will find this training to be worth every minute you invest in it, that we all stand behind it, 100%

Working From Home Never Felt So Good

When my children were growing up, my wife and I were unaware of anything like this. The ability to work from home, create a fantastic income and spend that precious time with our family would have been an easy choice. Don’t let these fleeting moments with your family pass you by. You really can make it happen.

Listen to what Victoria Richardson has to say about the positive impact that owning her own professional bookkeeping practice had on her family. You can live the life most people only dream of without sacrificing those valuable moments with your loved ones. Don’t you owe it to yourself to learn more? Listen to Victoria’s story by clicking HERE.

A Great Deal On the Most Complete Small-Business Accounting Training Available Anywhere!

Having a solid understanding of the Accounting and Bookkeeping methods and procedures is a great first step in learning the concepts behind Financial Business Analysis. You will learn to do books for small to mid-sized companies and how to analyze the books to prepare reports. You will learn to interpret reports so that you can advise your clients how to reduce costs and to better understand their financial standing and profitability. Your clients will look to you as an invaluable source of information about the financial health of their organization.

If you are considering adding Tax Preparation and Planning to your Financial Services business at some point, you get a great price by purchasing both programs as a bundle (Save $$$ by ordering them together.)

Less Can Be More

Cutting Back on Networking Efforts in order to Cultivate Strong Business Alliances

In his article “Less Networking Can Mean More,” Ivan Misner suggests that referral networking is more like farming than hunting. Imagine each contact as a seed you’ve planted. If you leave your contacts in order to continually plant more seeds, then all your networking efforts are in vain. You must take the time to cultivate your business contacts in order for them to become profitable alliances. Because of this, cutting back on your networking efforts in order to nurture relationships with current contacts could be the best thing you ever did for your business. While we’re not suggesting you stop networking altogether, we are encouraging you to evaluate your referrals and see what you can do to cultivate those relationships into profitable business relationships. Here are five tips that will get you started:

1. Aim for quality, not quantity
At some point it’s important to sift through your contacts and determine which you’d like to develop into strong business alliances. This requires you focus on quality rather than quantity. Look at each contact and determine how valuable he/she could be to your business. Which have the potential to provide you with the most referrals? And which do you feel a natural connection with? Once you have a solid list of leads to follow, you must take action and cultivate those relationships.

2. Follow-up
Call or email your contacts as soon as possible. It’s important to make this connection while your initial introduction is still fresh on their minds. The longer you wait to cultivate these relationships, the more likely that initial enthusiasm will fizzle and disappear. And most important as you follow up - be genuine and friendly. Your business relationships should be mutually rewarding and all correspondence should communicate your interest in building win/win relationships.

3. Meet regularly
Consider your most valuable friendships. Most are built through regular, enjoyable interactions. In order to build profitable business relationships you must meet regularly. This can happen over lunch, at the gym, on the phone or via email, but it’s important that each interaction promote your business alliances with these associates.

4. Ask questions
It’s important for you to understand what makes your contacts tick. What are their interests and goals? Only then can you determine how you can benefit their efforts and make yourself more valuable to them. Asking questions is the perfect place to start. In his article “How to Cultivate a Network of Endless Referrals” Bob Burg suggests starting with these questions: What do you enjoy most about what you do? And how can I know if someone I speaking with would be a good prospect for you? These questions illustrate how it’s not only important to ask questions, but to ask the right questions. The right questions imply an interest in your contact that will go far in building a profitable business alliance.

5. Demonstrate your willingness to give
If you’re asking the right questions in number 4, then you’re demonstrating an interest in helping your contact just as much as you would like them to help you. Refrain from giving that schpeel about your business; be willing to listen to what your contact has to say. Offer to help their efforts when possible, always demonstrating your interest in building a give-and-take relationship.

While networking is an important tool in building your business, unless you cultivate those contacts into profitable business alliances you’re wasting your time meeting and greeting people whose contact information will remain filed in your rolodex. Take time to assess your contacts and then cultivate those relationships that will be most profitable to you and your business.

References
Burg, Bob. “How to Cultivate a Network of Endless Referrals.” About.com
Misner, Ivan. “Less Networking Can Mean More.” Entrepreneur.com 29 October 2007

Earn $30 to $60 Per Hour Without a College Degree

I Can Make Over $30 per Hour in as Little as Four Weeks?

I hope you’ve enjoyed the DVD we sent you. It’s packed full of information that holds the power to help you earn a better income and spend time doing what matters most to you and your family.

The income most people only dream about doesn’t require a college education. If you have the determination and courage, we’ll show you how to get the skills in as little as four weeks. All you need are the right skills and a little determination. In fact, what I’m about to tell you you’d never learn in college.

For over 500 years the accounting profession has provided an excellent income for millions of people. Everywhere in the world, businesses require skilled and qualified bookkeepers and accountants. It’s even mandated by law. Every business must do accounting every month.

Let Me Tell You a Secret…

In the United States, for example, every single month over 550,000 new businesses get started. Most of those entrepreneurs don’t have the background in accounting they need to ensure their fledgling business will be a success. And what’s more, colleges and university accounting programs don’t prepare their graduates to provide the specific services these small business owners need most.

University programs prepare their graduates to work inside large Fortune 500 companies, not to deal with the complex and rewarding challenges of small businesses. Despite knowing that small businesses provide over 85% of the opportunities for their graduates, college and university accounting programs train their graduates to serve less than 5% of the companies out there. Quite a disparity, don’t you think?

To learn how to make your small business bookkeeping business a part of this explosion of new small businesses each month and generate a profitable income for yourself click HERE.

How do You Learn to Be a Small Business Bookkeeping and Accounting Expert?

Universal Accounting has taught small business bookkeeping and accounting for over 25 years. Since 1979, thousands of people just like you and me have learned to become the small business bookkeeping experts that business owners depend on to provide the information and advice they need to navigate their business.

It doesn’t require a college education… only a specialized set of skills that will help you offer any small business owner the information and advice that helps them make informed decisions in their businesses. The Professional Bookkeeper program will teach you everything you need to know to become a small business profit expert.

To learn how skilled and qualified bookkeepers provide valuable information to any small business owner and earn $30 to $60 an hour in the process, click HERE.

Hands-On Learning is Hands-Down the Best

Experience has taught us that the best way to learn is by doing. Hands-on learning has long been considered the most effective way to master new concepts. In all my searching, I have not found another bookkeeping or accounting program anywhere using the hands-on teaching methods found in the Professional Bookkeeper program. You’ll not only learn the concepts necessary to offer small business bookkeeping services, you’ll master them.

Coursework includes doing the books for a number of different small businesses from a frame shop to a convenience store. You’ll work with Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, General Ledger and even Payroll. You’ll posess the skills to offer complete bookkeeping services. You’ll learn to market your skills in such a way that you’ll earn $30 to $60 per hour. Other training prepares you to work as someone’s data entry clerk for $8 per hour. You deserve better than that.

To find out what many consider the “perfect” small business bookkeeping curriculum, click HERE.

An Education With a Guarantee?

Universal Accounting’s Ironclad 100% Money Back Guarantee

Purchase and complete the course, and if you don’t feel that you’ve received more than your money’s worth, we insist you return the materials and get a complete refund. All of us here at Universal Accounting are so confident that you will find this training to be of value that we all stand behind it, 100%

Order Today and Get a Great Deal On the Most Complete Small-Business Accounting Training Available Anywhere!

Having a solid understanding of the Accounting and Bookkeeping methods and procedures is a great first step in learning the concepts behind Financial Business Analysis. You will learn to do books for small to mid-sized companies and how to analyze the books to prepare reports. You will learn to interpret reports so that you can advise your clients how to reduce their costs and to better understand their financial standing and profitability. Your clients will look to you as an invaluable source of information about the financial health of their organization.

If you are considering adding Tax Preparation and Planning to your Financial Services business at some point, you get a great price by purchasing both programs as a bundle (Order Today and Save $$$)

Keep Your Profits “All in the Family”

Make Your Bookkeeping and Accounting Business a Family Affair

I started in the warehouse and drove the delivery truck. I learned to work at the feet of my father. It wasn’t always easy, but he taught me to value customers and take pride in my work.

As my father and I swept the warehouse floor together I learned how important it is to do the job right, even if it was just sweeping the floor. And by washing the delivery truck every week, I learned to take pride in my appearance and how I presented myself. My father made sure I learned these important lessons when I was young.

Dad always said, “Son, there are givers and there are takers. Make sure you don’t become a taker.” I learned some important lessons sweeping that warehouse floor. Not the least of which was the requirement to “give” your best everyday. He was a tough task-master sometimes, but it was a valuable education that I couldn’t have found anyplace else.

I don’t work with him anymore, but the lessons I learned from him are with me everyday.

Universal Accounting Started as a Family Business

Alf Bostrom started Universal Accounting over 25 years ago as a means to help small businesses. He was widely known for helping ailing businesses get back on their feet financially by implementing sound accounting principles. His son, Allen Bostrom, President of Universal Accounting credits his father Alf, with teaching him the basics of sound financial management as a young man. He says, “I watched him, learned from him, and enjoyed how much business owners respected his advice. His example acted as a spring board for me as I have been able to learn from him and experience even more.”

Teach Your Children The Important Life Lessons as They Work With You

Whether or not your children stay in the accounting field, they will learn skills that will help them throughout their life. Understanding the accounting process is a valuable skill that anyone in business should know, but most people never learn.

Allen’s early exposure to bookkeeping consisted of inputting accounts receivables and payables into the ledgers for his Dad. This experience with bookkeeping didn’t involve a computer, and allowed him to learn the nuts-and-bolts of the accounting process. This provided a valuable education that most teenagers never get.

Hands-On Learning is Hands-Down the Best

The way Allen’s Dad taught him is the way we’ll teach you. The Professional Bookkeeper Program is unique in its hands-on teaching method. You’ll actually complete the full set of books for several different small businesses. You’ll do the books for a bakery, a motorcycle shop, a frame shop and a convenience store, just to name a few.

With the confidence you’ll gain from this unique method of hands-on learning, you’ll be able to approach any small business and be comfortable with your ability to provide a valuable service. And you’ll be able to earn a very profitable income too. I’ve not found another course that uses this method of instruction like Universal’s Professional Bookkeeper Program.

We’ve been teaching small business bookkeeping and accounting since 1979, that’s over 25 years. There’s not a more complete course on the nuts-and-bolts of small business bookkeeping anywhere. No wonder we’re called the small business accounting experts.

A Great Deal On the Most Complete Training Available Anywhere!

Having a solid understanding of Accounting and Bookkeeping methods and procedures is a great first step. You will learn to do books for small to mid-sized companies and how to analyze the books to prepare reports. You will learn to interpret reports so that you can advise your clients how to reduce costs. You’ll show them how to better understand their financial standing and profitability. Your clients will look to you as an invaluable source of information about the financial health of their organization. You’ll likely save them more than they pay you, so selling your services to them is easy.

The first step to one of the most rewarding and satisfying businesses available is only a few mouse clicks away. There has never been a better time to start your own professional accounting and tax business than right now.

Are You Leaving Money On The Table?

We are often asked how a business owner can minimize costs, and time while maximizing the potential profits from an account. This, quite frankly, should be the object for any “for-profit” business anywhere, but for each of us in the Accounting and Bookkeeping business, this can take on a special significance because literally our time equals money in our pockets. And if we can spend less time doing the same services while still maintaining the quality of the services, we need to look for such tools to add to our business.

When you go into a meeting with a client or a prospective client your object should always be: How may I turn the most profit for my company with this account? Keep in mind that you always want to strive to provide to those you do business with a value-added service that makes you invaluable to them, and as you keep their books you’ll become an invaluable ally in their achieving their business profitability goals.

While providing this essential service, however, you need to keep asking yourself, “Is there more I can do with this client?” and, “Am I leaving money on the table that could easily be captured?” In every working relationship, there is an area of profitability where on one end gives you the work, but doesn’t make you the profit, and on the other side where it makes you the profit and has little or no benefit to your client. We’ve all experienced those “work-no-profit” accounts and projects in our professional careers. Although it is fun to take on one or two of those, it’s even more fun to have the profitable ones to keep your business viable and growing on those accounts and projects that make you money.

This line of profitability questioning leads to similar types of question of how well you are doing in what you are doing. As a business owner, you have to always be measuring how well you are doing in business. Questions like, ” How well am I accomplishing my goals? How can I be doing better? How can I bring in more income with less effort?” In a nutshell, is there a better way for me to accomplish what my business is doing in more efficient, time-saving, cost-cutting methods to realize bigger profit margins? There most certainly is.

Times-Savings = Cost-Savings = Higher Profits

Universal’s program for QuickBooks Training, The Professional Bookkeeper’s Guide to QuickBooks, is what you need to work in less time and get more done. As a corporate accountant, or a freelance accounting professional, QuickBooks is the perfect vehicle to get done what you need to, for each of your accounts in a quick and efficient way. Universal’s QuickBooks Training is for you! By becoming a QuickBooks Specialist, mastering the software with our training behind you, maximizing your profits can become a reality. Its streamlined workflow helps you get what you need accomplished done more quickly and its easy-to-use desktop features will put what you need at your fingertips. Add in the hands-on practice our QuickBooks Training gives you and you are cutting hours off the time it would take you previously.

Just think about it; let’s say it is taking you to do the books of one of your accounts about 2.5 hours each week. That’s 10 hours a month at $30 an hour would equal $300 per month. As we have said before, $30 an hour is a great wage for most of us. Let’s add to this equation the QuickBooks Software, Universal’s comprehensive training and complete hands-on practicing and see what we get. Let’s be conservative and say that QuickBooks cuts your per week time on an account down to 1 hour ( in reality it could bring it down to as little as 35 to 45 minutes per account per week). So for the sake of round numbers you are doing in 4 hours what used to take you 10. Does your profitability go down as well? No! Reverse engineering your monthly billing of $300 divided by the 4 hours per month it takes you to do the books for the account and you get a whopping $75 per hour! Hey, you just gave yourself a raise!

Now, let’s grow this big. Let’s say you have 10 total clients, bringing you a total of $3000 per month. At your old way of doing things, for those 10 clients it would take you 100 hours a month to do their books, or 25 hours a week. A pretty good part-time money maker for you. Let’s take that same 10 accounts, and add in the Universal QuickBooks training and reverse engineer it once more. For $3000 per month, you are doing 10 hours of work per week instead of the 25 hours. Your new “QuickBooks Specialist” way of keeping your accounts’ books is saving you 15 hours a week that you could use any way you would like!

Let’s grow this bigger still. Let’s say you like the extra 25 hours of work per week and just want to maximize your time with your profitability. If you get out there and get 15 more clients to fill in your per week allotment, you gain an extra $7500 billable dollars per month. A grand total of $10,500 per month on a part-time basis of 25 hours per week. Just think of going full-time with this, at 35 to 40 hours a week? I know that time factors are absolute here and that this is maximum profitability, but even if you edge this down by 20% for human nature and down time who wouldn’t want to make $8400 a month part-time? There’s a lot you could do with that, couldn’t you?

Coming Full Circle

There certainly is a way you can realize the money that is on the table in your profits. By working more efficiently and effectively is the way you can accomplish that! Universal’s Professional Bookkeeper’s Guide to QuickBooks is designed to do just that. We teach you how to streamline your processes so that you can do the work more efficiently, more accurately, and more effectively than before.

Here’s a brief rundown of what you get with each session:

Sessions 1-3

The fundamentals of daily bookkeeping tasks, and gaining a better understanding of the tasks that a bookkeeper performs. You will learn the key indicators of a company’s financial health, how to calculate them, and what they mean to your company. You will learn to interpret financial data to turn it into actionable business wisdom.

Session 4-6

You will learn the must-know principles of marking down assets and how to depreciate them for the largest tax advantage in as little time as the law allows. You will learn methods of depreciating fixed assets and how to calculate allowance for bad debts. You’ll learn the benefits of each business structure and which form will legally allow you to pay the least taxes possible.

Session 7

Master the technique that will enable you to navigate the debit/credit maze and learn to use the accountant’s troubleshooting tool. You’ll be introduced to preparing financial statements and how to interpret them into practical steps to take to increase your profitability.

Session 8

You’ll be introduced to gross profit, what it is, and what it means to the financial condition of your company. You will learn how the income accounts connect into the balance sheet.

There’s no better time than now to get started on the QuickBooks Training that will be the difference in your profit margins in your work. Part-time, to full-time or even as a hobby you will be able to turn out more quickly the cost-savings you need, with less time dedicated to doing it. At the same time, widening those sweet profit margins that make you and those you provide for happy.

Because Most of Your Clients Won’t

You might be surprised to know that most small business owners don’t know as much about their business as they think they do. This provides a real opportunity for a qualified bookkeeper or acccountant because without a comprehensive understanding of the financial health of the business, the business owner is unable to make the informed decisions that are required to keep his business healthy and growing.

Successful business owners and department managers know what’s going on inside the business, but there are many businesses that don’t. Without a sense of the financial figures, their ability to make good decisons is crippled. Since many business owners don’t have a complete sense of the numbers, they either need to acquire that understanding or hire someone that they can trust to look at the numbers and interpret them in their behalf.

A Skilled Bookkeeper Can Provide This Expertise

Since you’re here, reading this newsletter, I think we can all agree that a qualified bookkeeper or accountant is the answer for many of these businesses. Of course, like anyone, the business owner may not be willing to admit that he doesn’t understand what all the numbers mean and what the implications of the numbers are. (And it doesn’t serve anyone to point a finger and say, “You don’t know what your business is doing.” So we aren’t going to do that. )

However, as you meet with your clients and potential clients, it’s important that you have a complete understanding of their understanding. Some help in what questions to ask are found in “In The Black”, a book by Allen Bostrom himself (here’s a link to the site) Develop a series of questions that are needing to be answered to know such as; What are the daily, weekly and monthly sales totals? The per unit cost of production of what the company offers? The overhead expenses? Etc.

The questions that you develop should not try to be an all-inclusive list, but will give you a baseline to start from. As you go over the questions on the list, it should become apparent that this information is important enough to hire a professional to help collect and interpret the information on a monthly basis. Feel free to use this list you develop as you meet with your clients or as a thumbnail of the figures that you will need to put together for your clients each month.

For Your Clients to be Profitable, the Numbers Need to be the Right Numbers, Done the Right Way at the Right Time

As you do the bookkeeping and accounting each month you’ll have access to all the information that will help your customers make the kind of intelligent and informed decisions that make a business profitable.

It’s important that your clients communicate the results of this anyalyses to all of their employees to make sure that everyone in the business knows where it’s going and how well it’s progressing. When employees know what is being measured, it seems to improve.

The Tools to Make the Proper Financial Analyses are at Universal Accounting

Having a solid understanding of the Accounting and Bookkeeping methods and procedures is a great first step in learning the concepts behind Financial Business Analysis. You will learn to do books for small to mid-sized companies and how to analyze the books to prepare reports. You will learn to interpret reports so that you can advise your clients how to reduce costs and to better understand their financial standing and profitability. Your clients will look to you as an invaluable source of information about the financial health of their organization.

Get more acquainted with the right way, the Universal way of doing business as a Professional Bookkeeper