Hello again, friends! By now, some of you might be wondering…when exactly IS the BABs revamp going live? And the answer is…drumroll please… I have no idea. I know, I know–I can hear the collective groaning from here! I am thrilled by how many of you are SO excited for this revamp, and I promise you it will be worth the wait…especially because I’ve chosen not to rush. I could push to get this revamp out faster. I could neglect other things to focus on reviewing and tweaking BABs. I could push mys...
Sep 30, 2024•51 min•Season 1Ep. 195
Raise your hand if you’ve always been a perfectionist. Now raise your hand if you’ve always considered that a positive quality. (Spoiler alert: it’s not.) Perfectionism is actually a carefully crafted disguise for one thing: fear. And when you’re starting a business, perfectionism has no place in the process. I didn’t do one thing perfectly in my business…and I’m so incredibly proud of how it turned out today. So if you’re a perfectionist, brace yourself…I’m going to tell you honestly why it’s t...
Sep 23, 2024•17 min•Season 1Ep. 194
Shopping for a bookkeeping course is ten times harder than back-to-school shopping. And having just done that for three kids, trust me…I know what I’m talking about. When you’re shopping around for the best bookkeeping course for you and your needs, a simple Google search isn’t going to cut it. There’s so many options out there, all of them teach different things and are taught by different people…and none of them are one-size-fits-all. So today, I want to give you a “shopping list” to make thin...
Sep 16, 2024•24 min•Season 1Ep. 193
When you break it down to the essentials, there are only two things you need in order to start a bookkeeping business: The technical skills to do the work, and The ability to turn those skills into a business. The second, most people understand. But the first…that one can be trickier. A lot of people believe bookkeeping is one of those “fake-it-til-you-make-it” skills. But if there’s one thing you take away from this podcast, let it be this… It is not. You cannot fake your way through bookkeepin...
Sep 09, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 192
Once upon a time, I was a bookkeeping biz beginner too… And while I’m incredibly proud of the way I built my business, I did make a misstep or two along the way. (Actually, I made six.) I don’t have any regrets, but there are six things that would have smoothed out + sped up the process if I’d done them differently. And if I’m going to teach you how to start your own bookkeeping business…why wouldn’t I teach you how to do it smoother and faster? So without further ado, here are six things to AVO...
Sep 02, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 191
If you’ve been wondering, “What is the best time to start a bookkeeping business, anyway?” then I have some bad news: You’ve already missed it. But don’t panic! You haven’t lost your only chance—in fact, no matter when you’re listening to this, you still have the chance to take advantage of the SECOND-BEST time to start a bookkeeping business. And if you don’t know what that time is, I have much better news for you: I’m going to tell you in today’s Best of Profits + Prosecco trip down memory lan...
Aug 26, 2024•21 min•Season 1Ep. 190
This week, we’re going to kick off a mini-series revisiting the best of the best on the Profits + Prosecco podcast…starting with the ultimate guide to starting a bookkeeping business! Starting a business is no easy feat. There are a lot of steps you need to knock out—some you probably don’t even know about. It would be so much easier if someone who’s done it before would just hand you a nice, simple to-do list you could check off step by step, right? Well, I happen to agree. So without further a...
Aug 19, 2024•20 min•Season 1Ep. 189
Attention, BABs grads…and bookkeeping moms in need of a happy medium between corporate accounting and owning your own bookkeeping business! I am thrilled to have Erin Reece on the podcast—FINALLY!—to chat about her journey to bookkeeping, her experience with her first BABs hire, and why she’s looking for another BABs grad to join the Bear Financial Solutions team! Erin isn’t just looking for a BABs grad, though—she’s searching for a mom who’s passionate about the work. At Bear Financial Solution...
Aug 12, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 188
If you’re on the fence about joining LIBBY, or wondering what exactly it has to offer…you’ve come to the right place. I’m so thrilled to welcome Kristina Hind, current LIBBY member, onto the podcast today! Kristina is a licensed CPA and graduated with a Master’s in Taxation. She started her career by following the path that was suggested in college, but felt unfulfilled and just wanted more. (Sound familiar?) So at the end of 2020, she decided to quit her 9-5. Some time later, she discovered thi...
Aug 05, 2024•58 min•Season 1Ep. 187
I am so excited to welcome Lis Lee—former BABs student, former corporate accountant, and current Tech Talks subscriber—onto the podcast to chat about the value of Tech Talks! Even experienced bookkeepers have questions and uncertainties pop up in their work. Every client is different, and even though many processes are mostly repeatable, unique situations will come up. And when you encounter them, having a space where you can go to ask questions is absolutely game-changing. Lis is living proof t...
Jul 29, 2024•49 min•Season 1Ep. 186
Today’s episode is going to be a little different. It’s short and sweet…but you’re going to want to bookmark it. Because it’s designed for you to come back and listen to as many times as needed. This is for you: the aspiring bookkeeper with ambitions to start your own business, but you’re unsure if you can tackle the complexities of being an entrepreneur. The stay-at-home mom looking for a way to make money and be financially stable without sacrificing her time with her kids who’s afraid that st...
Jul 22, 2024•8 min•Season 1Ep. 185
So, we’ve gone over different types of failure that we worry about as aspiring bookkeepers, the worst-case scenario outcome of these fears…and what comes next for us. But as we went over the “Now what?” solutions to the worst-case scenarios, I couldn’t help but notice something interesting: most of the solutions we identified can be achieved through something available in my product suite! If you haven’t listened to the last episode yet, go back and start there. Then come back to hear which of m...
Jul 15, 2024•23 min•Season 1Ep. 184
“I want to start my own business, but…what if I fail?” That’s a very good question. What if you DO fail? The fear of failure is totally normal…and in many cases, it can be valid! Failure does happen. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that you absolutely won’t fail when you try something new… But I am going to tell you that failure isn’t the end. There is an “after” we often forget about when it comes to failure. We can’t see past all of our fears to realize that if we fail, there are things...
Jul 08, 2024•24 min•Season 1Ep. 183
To my fellow stay-at-home moms: If you’re in need of additional income, but absolutely can’t fathom the idea of going back to (or entering) corporate life… I understand, because I was there once, too. Once I’d tasted the stay-at-home mom life, I knew for a fact it would be impossible to go back to corporate life while still being the kind of mom I wanted to be…but I also knew I was going to need a source of income before long. So I poured myself wholeheartedly into growing my bookkeeping busines...
Jul 01, 2024•26 min•Season 1Ep. 182
My number one piece of advice for those thinking about starting or scaling their bookkeeping business: Do. Not. Wait. There is no perfect time coming, no matter how long you wait for it. You know how I know? Because I’m living in what many, many people would probably consider the “best” time to start a business. All my kids are in school. I’m at home. I have five hours away from them every day. This is the first time since I started having kids that I haven’t had one of them home with me all the...
Jun 17, 2024•44 min•Season 1Ep. 181
Bookkeeping can sometimes be a discouraging field to work in…especially when you see large corporations offering “bookkeeping” (it’s not the same thing) for much cheaper than we as individuals can offer it. My good friend Misa Bacon and I were discussing this via DM, but it’s such an important conversation to have that I wanted to bring it onto the podcast! If you aren’t familiar with Misa, she is the Founder and CEO of Perfectly Kept Books® and your go-to for bookkeeping and QuickBooks Pro. She...
Jun 10, 2024•38 min•Season 1Ep. 180
Some of you may have heard me talk about CFO services in the past, and you might be wondering… “What is a CFO, exactly? What do they do?” Or, if you’re a bookkeeper familiar with what a CFO is, you might be wondering how YOU could begin offering those services, too. Whether you’re an aspiring CFO yourself or a total newbie, this week’s episode is going to open up a world of possibilities for you…because I’ve invited Adam Lean, co-founder of The CFO Project, to come on and chat with me about all ...
May 27, 2024•46 min•Season 1Ep. 179
If there’s one thing I want you to take away from today’s episode, it’s this: Your worth is not your work. I’ve talked before about how, as accountants, we tend to glorify hard work. We compete to see who can work the most hours, who can miss the most school events, who can eat the most lunches at their desks… All because we think working hard is what makes us worthy. Well, I’ve finally unlearned this definition of self-worth…but it wasn’t easy, and it took a long time. So today, I want to help ...
May 20, 2024•32 min•Season 1Ep. 178
If you’ve been listening to me talk about Kajabi, have been wanting to get it, but it’s just too expensive to justify when you’re first starting out… I have some amazing news. Kajabi has just come out with a brand-new tier called the “Kickstarter” plan…for only $69 a month. I’m on the Basic plan, which costs $149 per month—and for me, that plan is worth its weight in gold. So for them to be offering a new tier just below it at $69 is insanely cheap. Almost too cheap. They haven’t said this plan ...
May 13, 2024•18 min•Season 1Ep. 177
By now, we all know what I believe about time: it is your most valuable resource. And, in a lot of ways, the saying “time is money” is LITERALLY true. So when you save time, you save money… But you’ve got your hands full, and there aren’t any balls you can drop. So how can you increase your profits by saving your time? The answer is automation—and the tool is Kajabi. I’ve raved about Kajabi before, and for good reason—it is THE ultimate software for building out your website and creating automat...
Apr 29, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 176
It has been a minute since I had a GUEST on the podcast… It’s time to rectify that, don’t you think? I am so thrilled to welcome Christy Steinman, CPA and LIBBY student, onto the podcast to share about her journey from corporate to quitter’s club to full-time bookkeeping business! Christy’s path started out much like mine…college, accounting, etc. But some of the twists and turns her journey took afterward are TRULY fascinating, and I can’t wait for you all to hear just how many different paths ...
Apr 22, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 175
For most of 2024, I’ve been sharing about Become a Bookkeeper, my program set up to help teach people the practical skills of bookkeeping. But some of you might be wondering…what do you do if you already HAVE those skills—you just don’t know how to turn them into a business? Enter Life By The Books, aka LIBBY! LIBBY is the program I created for people who are already skilled in bookkeeping, but need some support to take those skills and build a sustainable, life-honoring business on top of them....
Apr 15, 2024•46 min•Season 1Ep. 174
I’ll be honest…lately, I feel a bit dried up on podcast topics. Luckily, I don’t have to come up with ideas alone. When I ran out of inspiration on my own, I called in an old friend: ChatGPT came to the rescue! After a few rounds of refining my questions, I asked ChatGPT this: “Why do people have a dream and not act on that dream?” Now, this is a hard question for ME to answer, so I wasn’t sure what ChatGPT would say…but it gave me some really great answers. And after narrowing them down, I chos...
Apr 08, 2024•18 min•Season 1Ep. 173
I have a very, very simple question to ask you: What do you want? It seems like an easy question to answer, right? But does it feel easy…or were you surprised by how difficult it was to come up with a “good” answer? That’s our problem right there: instead of tuning in and actually listening to our own wants, we judge ourselves for them instead. “I can’t have that because I wasn’t raised in a wealthy family.” “I can’t have that because I never graduated college.” “I can’t have that because I’m no...
Apr 01, 2024•14 min•Season 1Ep. 172
I have been asked this question over and over and over again… “What is the best way to get new bookkeeping clients?” And every time, I have given the same answer: “The best marketing strategy is being REALLY good at what you do.” I continue to stand by this answer. However, this strategy only works with these three caveats: YOU know that you’re really good at what you do. Your clients CPAs know that you’re really good at what you do. Your CLIENTS know that you’re really good at what you do. If y...
Mar 18, 2024•26 min•Season 1Ep. 171
It’s finally here! Welcome to Part 5 of the BABs Revamp miniseries, where we’re finally going to discuss what you’ve all been eagerly waiting for: the parts of BABs we will be updating! With the help of DreamPro, a talented team of online course creators who helped me with building the original version of BABs way back when, Become a Bookkeeper is getting a very exciting facelift. We’ll be updating things by adding a new client example, adding a new practicum, redoing things with the latest vers...
Mar 11, 2024•41 min•Season 1Ep. 170
If you’ve been listening to me talk about the upcoming BABs (Become a Bookkeeper) revamp and thinking, “Wait, if she’s changing it, does that mean it’s a poor-quality program now?” then I want to let you know… The answer is “Absolutely not.” BABs is an exemplary program, and it has taught and enhanced bookkeeping skills for over two hundred students. But I realized recently that you might not know that…because I haven’t shared NEARLY enough student testimonials about the difference BABs has made...
Mar 04, 2024•41 min•Season 1Ep. 169
Welcome to Part Three of my miniseries dedicated to Become a Bookkeeper, my program that teaches the technical skills of bookkeeping regardless of experience level! Last week, I went over the hesitations I struggled with as I debated the doability of building a course to teach bookkeeping…one of which was that I believed I would have to teach QuickBooks. QuickBooks is the name of the game for bookkeeping—it has been for a long time. Most accountants would recognize QuickBooks before they recogni...
Feb 26, 2024•39 min•Season 1Ep. 168
Welcome to Part Two of my miniseries dedicated to Become a Bookkeeper, my program that teaches the technical skills of bookkeeping regardless of experience level! Last week, I took you back in time with me to the year 2019…a year when NONE of us knew what the future had in store for us, least of all me. But that was the year when the seed of BABs first got planted in my mind…and two years later, it finally came to fruition. However, those two years weren’t without their challenges. Before I coul...
Feb 19, 2024•29 min•Season 1Ep. 167
As I mentioned back in Episode 164, there are some big things happening in 2024… Including a revamp of my program that teaches the technical skill of bookkeeping, Become A Bookkeeper! Over the next few weeks, I’m taking you on a behind-the-scenes tour as we work on the program and share the story of how BABs came to be, what it teaches, why we’re revamping it, and what that revamp is going to look like. However, it’s a looong story…so today, we’re starting at Chapter One! The story begins five y...
Feb 12, 2024•20 min•Season 1Ep. 166
