Accountant and Bookkeeper Articles

The Second Half of Our Self-Employability Quiz

If you’ve ever considered becoming a freelance accountant you need to ask yourself some serious questions before taking the plunge. There are a lot of variables to consider when becoming self-employed, and very few of them have to do with your accounting skills. Last week we posed the following five questions:

1. Are you self-motivated?
2. Are you a go-getter?
3. Are you organized?
4. Are you flexible?
5. Can you manage uncertainty?

This week we’ll talk about the final five questions of our self-employability quiz:

6. Are you patient?
Most likely you won’t have a flood of clients come through your door as soon as you hang your shingle. Building a solid client base will take time, and you will need to exercise patience throughout the entire process. There are other things that may require your patience as well: going full-time with your business, having enough money to hire staff employees, and collecting payment from some of your clients.

7. Can you promote yourself?
When it comes to contract work you must be able to promote yourself. Clients won’t come and find you; you must find them first and then illustrate why your services are better than any others being offered. Not only must you be able to promote yourself, but you must also believe in what you’re promoting: YOU!

8. Do you appreciate your business value?
When you recognize your business value, a lot of things will happen. One, you’ll emanate a confidence that will put clients and potential clients at ease. Two, you’ll be able to charge what you’re worth. And three, you’ll keep plugging away even when things get difficult.

9. Can you set clear boundaries?
With a traditional full-time job you work from 9 to 5 and then go home where you’re generally not expected to continue working. The difference with contract work is that your schedule can be more fluid, enabling you to work whatever hours you choose. This will require a bit more flexibility as you respond to client emergencies, etc. However, you will have to set some boundaries to avoid being taken advantage of. And once you set boundaries, be sure to abide by them.

10. Do you have enough knowledge and skills?
There’s no higher authority you can consult if you run into a complicated or difficult issue. As a freelance accountant you’re the higher authority. If you don’t have the knowledge or skill to run your own accounting practice, that’s your first order of business. Look for quality training programs that will help you gain the expertise you need.

Universal Accounting Center Offers Quality Training Programs

Last week when we introduced the first five questions of our self-employability quiz, we also shared our special professional package, designed to help people like you open a successful accounting practice.

The Professional Bookkeeper (PB) Program
Regardless of your expertise, whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or expert accountant, the Professional Bookkeeper (PB) Program will teach you small business accounting, enabling you to promote your service to a large niche market. You’ll learn everything you need to know to help your clients’ businesses become more profitable. Imagine gaining the reputation as a Profit Expert, granting the Midas touch to every business with which you work. The PB Program will give you the skills to analyze a company’s finances and determine how they can best increase their revenue and become more profitable. Once the word gets out you’ll have more work than you can handle.

The Universal Practice Builder (UPB) Program
But getting the word out is sometimes problematic. While accountants may be comfortable crunching numbers, they generally are not comfortable marketing their services. Wouldn’t it be nice to learn a proven system for marketing your newfound small business accounting skills? Universal knows how to do that, and we want to teach you! For years we’ve been offering the Universal Practice Builder Workshop, designed to train you how to market your practice in order to experience significant growth and profitability. You had to attend this two-day workshop in order to glean all the amazing information offered. Now, to accommodate students and make this information more convenient we have turned this workshop into a DVD program. Imagine all that you could learn from our experience training thousands of individuals like you!

Receive a Free Gift
But wait, there’s more! We want you to take advantage of this offer so you can realize your potential. And what better way to help you accomplish that than by combining these two powerful programs with another profit-building program, QuickBooks Made Profitable, for FREE!

UAC has created this amazing program to teach you how to use QuickBooks to generate more clients. You’ll be trained in a proven system of how you can use QuickBooks to attract larger numbers of potential clients offering expert QuickBooks services. Learn how to leverage your time, meet potential clients and offer them services that will help them reduce taxes, increase profits and put money in the bank. With this added service you’ll become even more valuable to all those clients, securing their loyalty and the longevity of your business.

There is a certain amount of risk involved in starting your own business. But when you’ve proven your skills by earning a professional designation your chances for success rise significantly. Do all that you can to prepare for your success. Purchase this professional package today!