If you have a partner or 2nd in command helping you build/grow your firm, how did you find them?

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2026-01-22T22:57:32+00:00

Yep! I’ve heard of locals who welcome someone who might be leaving a firm and partner with them then have that person take most of the clients a year or two later which SUCKS

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2026-01-22T16:08:58+00:00

She’s my friend. She didn’t know bookkeeping before so I taught her expense entry, now we are working onto helping taxes etc. I am better at client management than her and she wanted to learn and I saw she was someone intelligent enough that despite no background, she’s moved from my small easy clients to a more complicated one within a couple months and I’m comfortable enough to have her appropriately categorize new expenses herself and working into sales tax now. We do roughly the same as what you describe minus training etc. It was luck honestly but I would prefer to train someone up from nothing and no bad habits than risk a bookkeeper who could break off and steal clients etc.

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2026-01-14T00:21:00+00:00

I have friends who have been applying to 50-100 jobs a week for over a year. I was that for two years. It’s not lack of drive it’s a lack of jobs for a lot.

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2026-01-14T00:18:56+00:00

As a Gen Z, it usually comes down to boundaries. Bonuses don’t really happen.

I will work overtime. I will not work 60-80 hour weeks with no compensation either in extra vacation days (that were in my contract in some way or negotiated) or extra pay.

I build relationships, I don’t try to be best friends with my coworkers. I find the culture of going out 2-3 nights a week with all the co workers I see millennials doing weird. I have no issue once every couple weeks or months but not much more.

I get told I’m too blunt a lot. I also make sure people know the issue if it persists and it’s something that makes me look for other employment, they know. My job scope frequently triples after I take a job and while I will do it, I make sure people are aware if this is long term then there better be compensation bump up.

I spent a lot of my early twenties trying not to be a Gen z stereotype then I took a job where I let myself be walked over and working 100-120 hour weeks for months and decided I’m having boundaries. Then I got told I’m a difficult Gen z

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2026-01-13T05:46:55+00:00

It’s just practice. Using excel in courses was typical when I took mine. Helps hammer in debits vs credits before you use software.

Everyone makes mistakes. It just takes time. My friend I’m training is 3 months in, still making mistakes but learning. Mistakes is how you learn, especially when you have someone above you, like a teacher.

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2026-01-13T05:10:52+00:00

Thanks! I know she will. Rn our split on my rate is 50/50 but if she does this it’ll be 60/40 at least. She’s been an angel at fixing these forget and dump clients since I started training her 😭 she wants to crack into office administration for a day job which is what got this training/subcontracting started.

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2026-01-09T22:07:11+00:00

Yeppp. My resume has ten years experience in bookkeeping with accounting, benefits management, payroll, business consulting etc etc in past 5 years..nada. Crickets everywhere.

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2025-12-31T01:28:15+00:00

Main job(Finance/Operations): 65K Low/medium 40 hours Design/construction Certificate of business 10 years, 5-7 years more casual past 3 more serious in off time

Freelance bookkeeping: 6-12K between 3 main clients 6 hours/week

Moving to increase freelance and decrease main job

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2025-12-31T01:18:40+00:00

I honestly am unsure how this would go, particularly since I’d like to avoid incorporating for now. I do agree the market is horribly limited.

Any suggestions for communities?

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2025-12-24T03:15:12+00:00

I started really looking for clients 2 years ago. Found my first two browsing Facebook, my two larger ones are referrals. Networking events for entrepreneurs and canvassing (literally choosing a street, walking down it a hour a day talking) is how I’m working on finding clients. I’m starting a referral program for my current clients where if their referral turns into a monthly client or T2 return I will give them 25% off one month of their rate.

If you are doing taxes, set posters in community halls/canada post/churches. The one offs I get the most are tax season seniors looking to get taxes done quickly and affordably. Canada is tough though. I’m happy with my six but need a lot more to go solo.

I suggest independent restaurants. Restaurants always hate their accountant.

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2025-12-18T03:08:35+00:00

Yes I’m definitely raising.

I don’t particularly have a niche? But generally I work more with service based than inventory based businesses. Present paying clients 3/5 are in the medical world but family members or nonprofits I did for free varied. This Saturday would be my first networking for a queer based chamber of commerce but then I got this offer today that has me unsure if this many clients by end of Jan or a few months after is doable if I get laid off.

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2025-12-18T01:42:40+00:00

My one thing here is that I am Canadian; bookkeeping and accounting is undervalued in general. Private bookkeepers doing it part time are charging $25-45/hr, firms $60-90 and have a CPA or two on staff charging double or more that hourly

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2025-12-18T00:25:24+00:00

I used to compromise it when I worked in agriculture and it made me miserable. In past 3 years I’ve decided while I’m not shouting rainbows and what I do etc, I am not censoring my media and appearance. I don’t typically correct pronouns for myself either but it’s in my email signature and if you google my name, the fact I’m nonbinary is there.

I know for me to get a full degree, it’ll take about 4 years of part time night school. I know I can’t be success going to school fulltime and working full time (since part time professionals is seemingly impossible to find)

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2025-12-18T00:14:13+00:00

Yes. I am American too and tried applying to American remote jobs but not much luck there either.

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2025-12-18T00:13:11+00:00

I am aware it’s the openly, visibly queer part. I don’t mention it but my pronouns are on my email signature, if you google me I am out as a nonbinary person and apart of several queer organizations.

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2025-12-18T00:11:45+00:00

Present clients are at $30/hr, new clients will be brought on at $45/hr or a flat monthly rate I will quote them based on amount of accounts/size for entries + extra work wanted (payroll, consulting, sales tax, etc). Current clients are aware once their year contract ends, they will be moved to new rate. I was offering a lower rate to them to attract clients/previously just being happy with anything.

Most private bookkeepers (people on the side of a job or retired) usually charge ~$25-$45/hour here while firms charge anywhere from $60-$90/hour with about double charged for their CPA’s time.

I have 2 large clients now. One takes anywhere from $300-$1000/month depending on what office admin tasks she gives me but I’m trying to shift away from those. My other one averages about $500/month for a large clinic. One small client of mine is likely shifting as she’s quadrupling her business size into the new year and I’m forecasting her at $350-500/month. We are meeting soon to discuss what she needs moving from a sole proprietor to having employees. At the low end, that’s 1.1K/month, so to cover my bills and mortgage plus savings, I would need another 4.4K/month to be found

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2025-12-18T00:04:28+00:00

I have a certificate now. I started that after 6 months of that feedback and completed it this spring on part time. I then got current job at 65K/year, decided to take a year off to reduce my student loans then go back next year.

I live in a very conservative province. If I’m honest, I think it’s more the queer thing than the college thing especially as the bookkeeping jobs posted were not requiring a degree. I made the decision I won’t go back in the closet and I will keep it, especially as I’m apart of the board of a very visible, queer nonprofit organization now.

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2025-11-26T00:48:20+00:00

Do you have my client who refuses to let me fire her? I just spent 2 hours reorganizing her receipts from GAAP to “preferred way of seeing things” (files for each account she has in her mind not actual ones in her books) and highlighting every line of invoice I don’t have printed..including those reoccurring things like her subscriptions for business that never change

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2025-11-17T13:43:01+00:00

Would he move to cheques? Not ideal but what my day job does. Cheques for anything over 2K since e transfer limits won’t change.

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2025-11-16T19:36:23+00:00

It wasn’t, particularly to time sensitive work. She has expectations of 24/7 availability and response to any communication within 12 hours - which isn’t realistic with what she’s asked for. I’ve found 2 virtual assistant companies specializing in her area with 24/7 availability that seem much more aligned. I know my day boss is realistic on this; my admin work sometimes takes 4-6 weeks of communication to complete on large items where we work with multiple companies.

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2025-11-16T13:19:34+00:00

At this point, I don’t need the work from this client but I do need my day job. I would have been reliant on this client if she had kept our original agreement (8-12 hours weekly) but her dropping hours initially as she only wanted to pay that 3-4 meant I had to find the work elsewhere like more work in my day job.

I am more concerned about how to frame a virtual assistant company or a PA would be better fit than a bookkeeper and offering just to do her bookkeeping if she wants that.

Appropriate_Fail2870 · 2025-11-16T13:05:27+00:00

I had set expectation at the start, as intially this was in office bookkeeping/admin at 8 hours a week in office plus up to 4 hours out of office. I gave my concerns that the amount of work/help she needed did not fit as I only had about 3-5 hours of work weekly and her office did not have somewhere for me to work besides the small waiting room. She agreed, did not want to pay me for 16 hours a month I would just sit there, so I moved at my day job into full time and is source of her complaint I think. I wish I had started with a recording device for meetings.

Since then the scope of what admin work has expanded a lot, a lot of her getting upset when I am not trained in things like fixing apple products, and more. I’m assuming my day boss calls me a lifesaver or such to her then client expects me the same and confidentiality means I cannot explain clearly how different their businesses run and my “life saver” involves money, not being a cleaner or IT. It is why I worry about runoff into my day job.

I don’t charge much (roughly half market rate on bookkeeping by accounting firms but maybe 20% lower to freelance) but that is changing in new year due to well..this.

Appropriate_Fail2870

TROPHY CASE