How Ben Ditched The CPA Grind To Start A Bookkeeping Business Earning $1800 His First Month
Ben Chisholm • Published January 9th, 2024
ABOUT
Ben Chisholm
Outsourced Accountant
Beacon Accounting Solutions
From Greenville, SC
Started October, 31st 2023
Full-Time Job
Former Auditor, FORVIS
Started August 2022
SIDE-HUSTLE STATS
50
Hours Worked Per Week
$3100
Revenue Per Month
1
Founders
0
Employees
$250
Startup Cost
1
Months Before Profit
Word of Mouth
Main Growth Strategy
75%
Net Profit Margin
Table Of Contents
Working As An Auditor + Outsources Accountant
Unlike most full-time entrepreneurs, Ben didn’t have a side hustle before quitting his stable 9-5 job.
Instead, he quit his job and started his business, Beacon Accounting Solutions, at zero. Zero clients. And zero experience starting a business.
After spending 13 months working as an auditor for a public accounting firm, he did the math. He was “underpaid” for the amount that his company was charging his clients.
But Ben isn’t delusional. While he’s aware of his youth (25 years old), he was missing the confidence to actually quit his stable career path.
That was until Ben met a successful independent accountant who has 43 monthly recurring clients. She would be the missing piece—a mentor to allow Ben to find the confidence to take the leap.
Coming Up With The Idea
What made you want to quit your stable accountant job after 13 months and start your bookkeeping business?
The reason I waited that long is because I didn’t think I was actually going to quit. It didn’t hit me until June or July 2023. I honestly really like people. But most of my day was—95% me and Excel. So I was like,” Yeah, I am not enjoying this.”
When I worked at my full-time job, I would have my lunch on my desk and would stay at my computer cranking. I saw people in other careers and was like,” They’re not working anywhere near as hard as me.”
We tracked every hour, whether it was chargeable to a client or not. When I divided my salary by the number of hours, I was making, like, $29–$30 an hour. And I ran the budgets for our audits, so I saw that we were charging the clients $215 an hour for my work. Some people just want the steadiness of a job, but for me, I know there are easier ways to make $100,000+ a year and have a better life balance. At the time, I was only making $62,000.
When I was working in valet parking and getting cash tips, I was almost making $30 an hour.
I just bought this section of property in February 2023 that used pretty much all the cash that I saved up. And I was like,” Well, what can I kind of do?” Initially, I was planning just to do real estate. I joined a mastermind, started learning about flips, started networking, and going to a bunch of in-person networking events. Then I was like,” All right, either way, I need to save up my money.” So I started saving really hard.
Then in August, I went to speak on an accounting panel for my job and met a woman who had 43 clients paying for her own accounting business. I was like,” Oh, wow, I could do this to support myself.”
And then I built up my cash up until October 3rd, 2023, where I was like,” Okay, I’m ready to quit.”
First Steps To Starting
How did you get started with your bookkeeping business?
When I quit, I was literally starting at zero.
So, I went to a bunch of in-person things and reached out to any friends, family, anybody that I knew that had a small business. I’d say,” Hey, I just started this bookkeeping business. If you have a bookkeeper that you’re not happy with, or if you don’t have a bookkeeper and you’re tired of doing it yourself, I’d love to see if I could help.”
So I got two clients from that—one was from a referral from a family member and the other was from the mastermind that I’m in.
And actually, another one is a real estate guy here in South Carolina. I met the guy at one of the events, and we talked about real estate. Initially, that was what I was going to do. And then I told him that I started my own bookkeeping business, and he’s got three businesses. And he was like,” Yeah, I don’t want to do this. I’ve been doing it myself, and I don’t think I’m doing it right. How about you just do this?”
It’s cool because it gives me a good connection to other people doing real estate here in town.
For most business owners, I understand that usually the finance part is the most annoying part for a business owner or entrepreneur. They want to just focus on what they do to make money.
Growing Your Side-Hustle
How did you grow your customer base? What was your main marketing strategy?
Honestly, this bookkeeping thing is kicking off more than I thought. I have four clients now. I really like it because it’s residual monthly cash flow. On the first of the month, all four clients pay, so that’s my favorite type of business model.
I don’t have to keep going out to chase new clients. I just need to lock in a certain type of client that I work well with, and I get a good, sizable chunk of them.
I’m still trying to figure out how I’m going to go about growing this bookkeeping and accounting business.
And a lot of people seem to be using social media and building their brand there. And as much as I don’t want to do that, it definitely seems to be the best way to get in front of more clients because I can work with anyone in the country. It will likely get me to my ideal client rather than just working off referrals here locally.
Finding A Mentorship
Did you stay in touch with the woman with 43 clients paying for her accounting services?
Yeah, so she’s kind of my mentor, actually. We’ve gotten to the point where we developed a friendship.
She was a manager at a public accounting firm, quit, and started her own thing. She pretty much did the same thing as me—she quit cold turkey and had cash reserves built up. Now, a year and a half, almost two years later, she’s got something like 40 clients.
One thing I’ve noticed, whether it’s real estate or whatever, is that these entrepreneurs all pay for coaches. They all pay for mentors a pretty good amount of money.
And at first, I was like,” Wow, that seems crazy to pay $20,000 for a coach.” You know? But I put it in perspective, and I’m like,” I have a lot less than most people, and I was willing to go into student loan debt to go to college and to get my master’s degree. It gave me a piece of paper and a job, but it didn’t necessarily make me money.”
So I was like,” Okay, how about I just work something out with her?” I told her,” I’m just working off my cash reserves and don’t have enough money to pay you a bunch of money up front. But I also don’t want to just use your time. Is there anything we can work out where I can pay you as I get clients?”
We came to terms, honestly, cheap as far as money goes. My total payout to her is a thousand bucks. But we’ve traded that off for helping each other with our goals. So I’m spending time helping her with that.
We meet every other week and I can’t say this enough, but I would not even be close to where I’m at without having this mentorship.
Any questions on, hey, how should I structure this? How should I quote this? Like how do I do the quoting for clients? Like how do I do? I mean, she’s helped me in every aspect of my business. Um, and it’s like, you know, immediate.
Benefits Of A Mentor
How has having a mentor help you learn faster and grow your business?
Any questions, like “ Hey, how should I structure this? How should I quote this? How do I quote the clients?”
I mean, she’s helped me in every aspect of my business, and I’m given immediate actionable steps where I can actually go do it. You’re still going to be doing a lot of your research on your own. But you can just compare what you’ve learned online to what they did in their business.
My mindset is that you want to collapse time frames as much as you can. I don’t really care to be some crazy multi-millionaire. My biggest thing is that I want time, freedom to enjoy life, joy, travel, and time with family, and to impact other people’s lives. I could sit here and spend hours and hours on YouTube, or I can spend some money and grow at a much faster speed.
Revenue + Earnings
On average, how much do you earn from your side-hustle each month?
Startup Costs + Tools
How much did it cost to start your bookkeeping business? What tools do you use?
Accounting Business Tips
How do you typically charge a client? What services do you sell?
For a cleanup, I usually charge up front. For my first clean-up, I did a pretty decent-sized cleanup and collected 50% upfront and then 50% on the back end. That way, I don’t get in there and do all this work to have an issue with collecting payments.
But my mentor collects 100% upfront. But I didn’t want my first client to feel nervous, thinking,” Oh, I gotta pay all this before any work is done.”
For the month-to-month clients, there’s a lot that goes into it. I need to know things like,” How many bank accounts do I have to reconcile every month? How many credit cards? How much activity do they have going on every month? Am I doing their payroll?” Some businesses get a little more complex.
You may have to make certain journal entries every month. For example, one of my clients has a brokerage account. So I have to break out how much commission is to him and how much commission is to his agents. And that’s a lot of manual tasks.
With every client, I can’t just offer you a flat fee of $400 a month. Some clients may be cheaper, and some may be more expensive, but it all depends on what the business is doing and asking,”How much time is it going to take me every month to do their work?”
General Side-Hustle Advice
Do you recommend starting a business without an existing side hustle? Any tips for others?
How Are You Different?
Everyone needs an accountant. What differentiates your accounting services when compared to others?
Right now, I work with service businesses and real estate investors. I think I provide a unique value to real estate investors because I invest in real estate myself.
I have a background as an auditor, so I can help make sure you’re compliant. I also take pride in the fact that I understand why a big pain for entrepreneurs and business owners is the stress related to cash flow and knowing,” Can I hire somebody to continue growing? Can I put more into marketing?” Those business decisions mean you have to have organized books and know where you stand financially.
My ideal clients are real estate investors and service businesses like landscapers, plumbers, lawyers, and dentists. I don’t really deal with businesses that have inventory. That’s just kind of a different animal to take on.
But my goal is to make the lives of small business owners easier. I have several entrepreneurs in my family. One of the biggest things that I’ve heard them complain about and have issues with is the back-end bookkeeping stuff, because that’s not where they make money.
Where Can People Find You?
Where can people hire you to solve their accounting challenges?
Ben works with clients all around America. To get in touch with him about his accounting and bookkeeping services, visit Beacon Accounting Solutions.
