Start a Bookkeeping Business

If you’re a freelance bookkeeper who is building your bookkeeping business, there are certain clients that you need to avoid to save yourself from constant stress. These are the clients who either:

1) don’t pay their bills,

2) have years worth of paperwork in boxes and

3) who are too difficult to work with.

I’ll go into further detail on each of these types of clients and give you strategies to help deal with them.

1. The client who doesn’t pay:

You typically won’t know if a client is bad about paying their bills on time until you actually start sorting through their paperwork. If you start coming up with a consistent amount of late bills, final notices and collection letters, you know you’ve got a client who doesn’t pay his bills in a timely manner. This should be a huge red flat for you. After all, you want to be sure that they’re going to pay your bill.

So what can you do to protect yourself? For all new clients insist upon a retainer up front before the work commences. The amount of the retainer will depend upon the amount of work that is required. Keep track of your hours. Once you’ve used up the whole retainer, request another one and inform your client that work will not commence again until you receive another retainer. You’ll learn really quickly how well your client is at paying you and you won’t be out anything as you’ve already been paid for the work you’ve done.

2. The client with piles of paperwork in boxes:

This type of client tends to be extremely disorganized. After all, if they can’t take the time to sort out their paperwork at least into monthly files, then you know you’ve got your work cut out for you. The question is: are you willing to spend the time to sort it all out? If you’re new and hungry for business, you may decide to take it on.

However, bear in mind that huge gaps of essential information might be missing and it will literally be like putting together a jigsaw puzzle trying to get your client’s finances in order. You will probably find yourself calling the client repeatedly to request documents.

This type of bookkeeping job requires the patience of a saint. Make sure that you’ve requested a retainer before even taking this type of job on. If you don’t think that you want to deal with this type of client, don’t be afraid to pass on the job. You might even suggest to the client that they could save money by sorting their paperwork into monthly files.

3. The difficult client:

As surprising as it seems, there will always be clients who need a bookkeeper but are their own worst enemy. These are the clients who you have to hound for checks so their government remittances are paid on time or don’t return your calls for additional information so that you can complete your job.

If you find yourself dealing with a difficult client who is just wasting your time, there are a couple of things you can do. You can raise your rates with this client, which will force him to either pay premium fees for being difficult or find another bookkeeper. Or you can tell him you can’t do his books anymore and explain why.

Being a bookkeeper you will encounter these types of clients during the course of your work. Being prepared so that you know how to handle them will greatly enhance your success as a freelance bookkeeper.

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