How to Start a Successful Home-Based Freelance Bookkeeping and Tax Preparation Business [Paperback]

C. Pinheiro (Author), Gabrielle Fontaine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2009

This book is a genuine resource, packed with proven methods, and valuable interviews with real bookkeepers and accounting professionals. These ideas and techniques show you how to quickly build a flourishing full-time or part-time home-based bookkeeping or tax practice, and keep it running profitably.

Some of the topics covered in this volume:

How to get started and obtain all necessary business licenses

How to manage your cash flow for maximum profitability and business success

How to get clients and keep them

How to attract the most profitable clients

How to increase referrals

How to set and collect your fees

How to offer tax services to your existing clients

How to get referrals from CPA offices and other financial professionals

Information on how to become a Certified Bookkeeper through the AIPB

How to comply with the IRS recordkeeping requirements

How to avoid your liability for the dreaded IRS Trust Recovery Penalty

And much, much more!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

• Gabrielle Fontaine, PB is a freelance Professional Bookkeeper and Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor. She has over 20 years of professional bookkeeping and tax preparation experience. She is also the author of The Freelance Bookkeeper online e-zine (TheFreelanceBookkeeper.com).
• Christy Pinheiro is an Enrolled Agent and financial writer. She is the author of muntiple non-fiction books, including a study guide series for the IRS Enrolled Agent Exam. Her finance and tax articles have been nationally published online and in various periodicals.

Product Details

• Paperback: 140 pages
• Publisher: PassKey Publications (January 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0981897142
• ISBN-13: 978-0981897141
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #408,659 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #100 in Books > Business & Investing > Skills > Bookkeeping

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book for learning some basics, but not worth the money, July 13, 2009

By 

Denis L. (Charlotte, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Start a Successful Home-Based Freelance Bookkeeping and Tax Preparation Business (Paperback)

This books certainly contains some helpful information if you're going to start you own bookkeeping business, but 3 major things make me recommend you think twice before purchasing this book:

1. To say frankly, this books is about starting ANY professional service business, not just bookkeeping. It certainly refers to some accounting topics - i.e. choosing accounting software etc., but essentially it gives you no idea about how to build competitive advantage of your bookkeeping business and doesn't tell you any ins and outs of this particular business type
2. This books is poorly edited - it has two authors and it looks like these authors wrote different part of the books and nobody took time to make sure that the book is cohesive and doesn't say the same ideas twice. Pictures in this book just magnify the impression of a poor editor work - they are absolutely not stylish and resemble the standard picture set of MS Word in 1990s. This is certainly not to say that poor editing will preclude you from understanding what this book is about, but I expected much more from the item priced at $40.
3. Talking about "Tax preparation" part of this book, the whole content of this chapter can be put into one sentence "At some point of time in developing your bookkeeping business, you might find it interesting to expand your services into tax preparation field". Well, this looks too simplistic to me - taxation is one of the most complicated areas of finance and just to say that sometimes you will wake up and decide to get into this field and next morning you will be there is just odd.

To put is short, if this book cost $15 and were titled "A couple of nice ideas about getting into the world of services business", I would certainly give it 5 star. But a combination of this book's actual name and its $40 cost only earns a 3 star rating.

28 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars CAUTION!!!, November 22, 2009

By 

Josh (Elizabethtown, Cayman Islands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How to Start a Successful Home-Based Freelance Bookkeeping and Tax Preparation Business (Paperback)

I am an MBA/CPA and must wave a caution flag and DO NOT recommend this book. I purchased this book because I am considering starting my own practice and wanted to avoid mistakes of others. This book is a step in the wrong direction and let me explain why:

First, the recommendations are VERY general. For example, "to start a home bookkeeping business you need BASIC bookkeeping skills." I hope so! I hope that business starters also know a bit more about bookkeeping than the BASICS!

Second, the author suggests during tough times to start selling items.... such as a printer!!! WOW! A financial advisor's nightmare!

Last (and I could go on and on), the authors use this book as an opportunity to promote there other books and organizations. Pinheiro uses the book as promotion for her EA Review course - which I would be highly skeptical of.

To conclude from the authorship of this book, please spend your $40 on another investment to develop your skills. The lack of professionalism also makes me question the success of their personal business endeavors. In no way am I trying to offend the authors, but they should be held to much higher standard if they are going to be any respectable authority on bookkeeping!!!

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Useful Book, December 13, 2009

By 

Sunni Morris "FaerieMound Books" (in the SW desert) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: How to Start a Successful Home-Based Freelance Bookkeeping and Tax Preparation Business (Paperback)

This book gives you all the basics you'll need to know to get started in your own work from home bookkeeping business. It's a well written and easy to follow step by step guide. A must have for anyone considering starting this type of business.