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!

Take Our 10-Question Quiz to Find Out

A good boss makes his men realize they have more ability than they think they have so that they consistently do better work than they thought they could. - Charles Erwin Wilson

As you travel along your career path, at one point or another you’re going to determine whether or not you aspire to lead people and organizations to greatness. But it takes more than desire to become a leader, and you must first demonstrate your management abilities before you’re ever promoted to a management position. So what does it take to lead others? Take our 10-question quiz to determine whether or not you’re boss material. This week we’ll cover the first five questions.

1. Did you think “big picture”?
Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision. - Henry Kissinger.

You will never become boss if you lack the ability to see the big picture. Often employees get wrapped up in their own tasks and responsibilities and are unable to envision how those things are part of an organization’s broader mission and goals. Leaders can look beyond the tedium to see the final destination and can determine whether or not the organization as a whole is on track to get there.

2. Can you inspire others?
Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction and they, along with everyone else, sacrifice to get there. - John Kotter

Before answering this question you should ask yourself whether or not you’re inspired to greater things, because it’s impossible to inspire others if you yourself are uninspired. Great managers incite passion and enthusiasm in their employees. The people they manage are driven to greatness because they have been moved to envision not only the organization’s potential but their own.

3. Can you manage a team?
You have to enable and empower people to make decisions independent of you. As I’ve learned, each person on a team is an extension of your leadership; if they feel empowered by you they will magnify your power to lead. - Tom Ridge

Have you had the opportunity to manage a team? If so, this was a good test-run for your leadership skills. Team management requires amazing people skills and the ability to know what team members are working on and how that work fits into the project as a whole. These leaders inspire people to work together and can move a team, and their project, to successful completion.

4. Are you a leader or a follower?
People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, the boss drives. - Theodore Roosevelt.

The word “boss” has developed a negative connotation over the years. Truth be told a good “boss” is a leader while a bad “boss” is just plain bossy. Regardless of your career path it’s important to know yourself. Are you a natural leader or follower? Both are valuable to an organization, but only one can aspire to leadership positions.

5. Are you comfortable giving directions?
The art of management is the art of directing others to get the job done right first time. - Anonymous

Bosses must direct employees. This requires that they 1) know what needs to be accomplished, 2) know who can accomplish it and 3) can articulate how that can accomplished. This is where the boss must dissect that bigger picture into employee responsibilities and tasks.

So how did you fair? Sometimes just knowing what it takes to be a leader can inspire you to begin exhibiting those traits. Come back next week when we’ll cover the last five questions:

6. Do you delegate well?
7. Are you interested in helping coworkers develop and grow?
8. Do you communicate well?
9. Are you charismatic and engaging?
10. Do you really want to be a boss?

Contract employee, freelance accountant, self-employed bookkeeper. They’re all basically the same thing. When you do contract work, you are in business for yourself, working for clients who can choose to employ your services long-term or temporarily. There are many perks to consider when weighing the pros and cons of contract work. But before making any rash decisions you must determine whether or not you’re ready to run your own business.

I’m a freelance writer so I’m familiar with contract work. There are perks. You can spend the entire day in your bunny slippers. You can work early in the morning and spend the afternoons with your children. You can labor hard and long one week only to take it easy the next, controlling the ebb and flow of your workload. But there are also some serious differences between contract work and full-time employment. And I wouldn’t call them cons, but they do have a significant impact on your life should you choose the path of self-employment. Ask yourself these 5 questions to determine whether or not you’re ready to become a contract employee:

1. Are you self-motivated?
The biggest difference between contract work and full-time employment is the paycheck. When you have a full-time job you can expect a paycheck every week, two weeks or once a month, depending on the pay schedule. When you are a contract employee you only get paid for billable hours, meaning you won’t get a paycheck until you submit invoices. This means you are responsible for managing your time, prioritizing your work and finishing projects. As a contract employee you’ll have no boss (other than yourself) to crack the whip and see that you get it done.

2. Are you a go-getter?
I can promise you that work won’t fall from the sky into your lap (or onto your laptop); you must be willing to find work when necessary. This means changing your perspective so that you recognize an opportunity (or potential client) when you see it, and more importantly, go after it.

3. Are you organized?
You must be able to prioritize projects and allocate your time well. And don’t forget that some of your time must be spent building good relationships with your clients. It also helps to have all your files in order so you can minimize wasted time by finding what you need quickly and efficiently.

4. Are you flexible?
The 9 to 5 schedule is out. You must be willing to rethink your work schedule to accommodate some clients and projects (and of course, your family). Learning how to juggle all those interests will require flexibility (and a hearty dose of creativity).

5. Can you manage uncertainty?
As mentioned in number one, there’s a certain amount of uncertainty or risk involved in becoming a freelance accountant. But any investment requires a certain amount of risk, so don’t let that scare you away. The best way to deal with uncertainty is to have a contingency plan that anticipates problems before you encounter them.

Universal Accounting Center’s Special Business Package

Another way to manage the uncertainty is to ensure you have all the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed. Universal Accounting Center (UAC) can help you appeal to a lucrative niche market: small business. Not only that, but we’ll train you how to market those skills and build a significant client base that will ensure your success.

The Professional Bookkeeper PB Program

While universities and other accounting training programs prepare students to work for large companies, over 85% of accounting opportunities are with small businesses that need accountants who understand their unique needs. For over 25 years UAC has been training individuals like you who are looking to become freelance accountants. And it doesn’t matter how extensive your experience; our program is designed to help beginner, intermediate, and expert accountants.

The Universal Practice Builder (UPB) Program

Once you have the skills, you’ll need to market them to that niche market. 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!

This new program offers the following:

• $30,000 in new annualized billings in only 12 months
• Tactical goal planning and setting
• The generation of 15 to 25 qualified leads per month
• Phone marketing instruction and training
• Training in the benefits of newsletters and websites
• 12 proven marketing strategie.
• Financing options

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!

And if you don’t recognize what a valuable offer this is, let us tell you! Over 80% of the small businesses that use accounting software have chosen QuickBooks. But knowing that is not enough to build a bigger client base. UAC has created this 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 in such a way that you will be asked the question that we are all longing to hear: “How much do you charge for your services?”

With this one investment you’ll not only achieve your potential but you’ll surpass it! Your practice will grow and become more profitable than you could have imagined. Take advantage of this special package quickly, before we run out of inventory. We expect them to go fast, so order now!

By Andrea Kay — Gannett News Service

Some rumors just won’t go away. Take the one that your resume is only supposed to be one page long. Since the late 1980s, I have given speeches and workshops to get workers to stop fretting about length and focus on content. I even wrote a book on it. But the rumor prevails.

So here, from my you-may-think-it’s-true-but-it’s-not file, is why you should erase this crippling belief from your mind.

Whenever someone brings up the one-page resume rumor — which is usually the first thing when I’m trying to help him or her develop a new and improved version — I ask, “Why do you think that?” Responses are always the same: “Employers only spend 10 seconds reading your resume.”

Ten seconds? I don’t know about you, but I can only read about 30 words in 10 seconds, let alone a one-page resume. What could an employer possibly glean from a 10-second read?

What these busy managers who are inundated with hordes of resumes are more likely to do, is glance, not read. They take a quick scan of the document to decide if it’s worth actually reading at a calmer moment in their day.

To get them to that point with your resume, a short document is not the solution. Shoot for creating an enticing one.

In addition, if you’ve got experience, a one-page resume can’t do you much justice. Let’s say the employer is looking for someone with ten years in public relations. If you’re worth your salt, a one-pager does not leave room to summarize your knowledge about media and community relations and expertise in employee communications over 10 years.

Glance they do. That’s why you need to highlight the most relevant information someone in your industry cares about with lively language in an easy-to-read format that helps the reader quickly see you’re a contender. Even with the tendency to scan, if you can say boring things in an interesting way, zip up descriptions of yourself and share juicy facts that show you’re a star, the manager might even forgo e-mail to read for three minutes.

One way to get and keep their attention is to offer a bird’s-eye view of yourself in the first section of your resume where they will probably glance first. This is where you describe your experience, mention that you’re self-motivated and can evaluate complex legal cases and express ideas succinctly and have a reputation for prosecuting difficult patent cases. You’ll get into details of where you did all this in the experience section and later, show examples of how you made a difference.

If it captures your individuality, downplays potential liabilities and gives proof you have what it takes to do the job you want, then make your resume more than one page. So what if it takes two or three pages to separate you from the pack? If you don’t get noticed, what’s the point?

It’s unfortunate that so many people are conditioned to create a short resume, believing the employer will give only a 10-second read. It would be much wiser to develop a document that easily captivates an employer upon first look so that he will give you the time of day.

How To Differentiate Yourself

To make yourself stand out in a crowd, you need certification. In an ever more difficult job market, you need every edge you can get to find the top-tier jobs. It is a simple fact that if you are not where you want to be now, you must do something different than you have done in the past to get a different, better result. the Professional Bookkeeper program gives you that kind of competitive advantage. Its focus on small to medium sized businesses is unique among Accounting and Bookkeeping training.

Universities teach Accounting for the largest 2% of companies. We teach Accounting and Bookkeeping for the other 98%. This segment of the market needs your help the most and has the fewest bookkeepers well-qualified to serve their needs. So if you really want your resume to get results, the Professional Bookkeeper designation on the end of your name will get you the attention your skills deserve.

Learn How to Get the Professional Bookkeeper Designation So Your Resume Gets Noticed

Under the Universal Business Model (UBM), there are three business functions that must work well together in order to increase profit. Accounting is one of these three functions. If you work in any department that deals with accounting, bookkeeping or taxes for any business organization, you have access to much of their financial data, and as a result, you have the capacity to become a priceless resource: the Profit Center Expert.

Accounting, marketing, and production are the three functions that must work well together to ensure success. Any business function that acts independently of the other two can doom a company. For example, if production has not told marketing what it currently produces, marketing dollars are wasted. Likewise, if accounting does not tell production what products are profitable, the company losses money.

As a accounting professional, you should not only encourage communication among these functions (when possible), but you should lead by example in freely sharing your information with others. This begins with the business owner — freely communicate and explain your findings. And your focus should not only be to prepare taxes, but to help your clients save money, and possibly make more money next year. Encourage tax planning and show your clients how they may be able to save money in the end by working with you year-round.

You have access to financial data that can inform crucial decisions and make the entire company more profitable. And when you encourage this communication, others will follow suit, especially when they see how it can improve business. When one business function is working well, but the others are failing, it is like two people on a small boat out to sea. One person says to the other accusingly, “Your half of the ship is sinking!” When the boat goes under, it will be of little comfort to the accuser if his half of the boat sank last.

A good example of this is a frame shop that frequently bragged about how much business it was stealing from its competitors. But once you looked at it more closely, it was found that every sale was losing money. They were outselling their competitors only because their competitors couldn’t afford to sell the frames at those low prices either. The key difference is that their competitors were aware of this fact. A profit expert not only has access to this information, but shares it with those in marketing and production so the business doesn’t lose money.

The important thing to learn here is that these functions can begin working closer together today. Finding the problem is only useful when there is still time to do something about it. A coroner wastes his time scolding bodies on his slab when he tells them they should have exercised more. Make sure that you don’t wait to analyze your financial data during a “post mortem” exam. Begin working more closely with the other two functions today. This will not only improve business profitability, but it will increase your value as a tax preparer.

As an accounting professional you enjoy the tremendous capacity to increase your value to the businesses you work with. Imagine advancing from your current position to full-financial service provider. You will then have the ability to inform business owners of key decisions they can make to increase profit and enjoy true financial success.

Universal Accounting Center can help you become the Profit Center Expert of any organization you work with. UAC’s expertise in small business accounting can help any tax preparer become that invaluable cog in the business machine. Most small businesses lack the confidence and the knowledge to analyze their fiscal standing and make profitable financial decisions. With training as a Professional Bookkeeper, you could provide the information and direction they need to make their businesses succeed. Don’t wait to give yourself a promotion as the Profit Center Expert of those businesses you work with. Enroll today!