You’re not actually doing any.
You think you are, but honestly, you’re not. Bookkeeping is the act of looking at your bank statements and analysing them into categories, such as purchases, telephone, motor expenses, etc. Ideally, you will do this on digital software, or failing that, a spreadsheet that actually adds up.
Putting your receipts into a box and ticking them off against your bank statements is not bookkeeping, and never will be. It’s just ticking.
Anybody thinking anything different will be engaging in a fair and frank discussion on the matter, and I can guarantee two things:
It won’t end well and you won’t win.
You’re not reviewing your prices.
And by that, I mean both your overheads and also your selling price.
I’m no advocate of increasing your prices every time an overhead jumps up by 10p, but you do need to do a good review annually. These things creep up on you, and you don’t want to be caught napping now, do you?
Your invoicing is dreadful.
You’re either invoicing late, incorrectly, or, horror of horrors, forgetting completely. (and yes, I have seen the latter with my very own eyes). This is particularly frustrating when you see the legions of software solutions out there, some of which are free for invoice only.
You literally have no excuse.
if you’re a service provider and have regular clients, keeping track is as easy as a monthly list to keep you motivated and focused. Add it up each month to see how much you could invoice out on a monthly basis if you just damn well got on with it.
Break-even points.
Do you know what one is? Do you care? Put simply, the break-even point is the amount that you have to earn before you even open your doors. This works well with the list that you’ll be creating now that you’ve read the above paragraph. Won’t it?
Systems
Look, I’m not talking about running your business to emulate Microsoft, but a few techy shortcuts wouldn’t go amiss now, would they? List out all your systems and review what you can automate or shorten.
For example, if you have to take information from a new customer before you begin working with them, get jiggy with air tables or google forms and collect the information early.
Do you book online meetings? Get your booking app talking to Zoom or Teams and get that link sent over at the time of booking.
I think I see the light…
Does any of this resonate?
Are you now thinking ‘actually, maybe X process is a little long-winded’, or even ‘oh, so maybe the bookkeeping does need a good dose of looking at’.
‘Would it be so scary if I maybe had a think about this digital stuff that they talk about?’
Shall we chat?
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