Here’s the truth about building a profitable bookkeeping business:
At some point, more often than not, you’re going to hit walls.
The question is…
Do you want to figure it all out the hard way, or get help from someone who’s already been there and won?
In this article, I’ll show you what to look for in a bookkeeping business coach and how they can help you break through those walls faster.
Let’s go!
What Is a Bookkeeping Business Coach?
A bookkeeping business coach is a highly experienced mentor (usually someone who’s built and run a firm themselves) who works with you to build a more profitable and sustainable practice.
They’re not there to teach you technical skills. You already know how to do the work.
Instead, they focus on the business side of running your firm.
Think about pricing strategies, client management, and building systems that can run without your constant involvement.
(Keep reading to find out exactly what they can do for your business.)
How Can a Business Coach Help Bookkeepers?
Most people who are great at bookkeeping never planned to run a business.
But once you start a firm, you quickly realize you need to figure out pricing, hiring, marketing, and a dozen other things they never taught you.
At that point, you need a business mentor, which is where a coach comes in.
Funny enough, when I started Xen Accounting in 2013, I was completely opposed to offering bookkeeping work.
These were Xen Accounting’s earliest pricing plans:
No bookkeeping, super low pricing, and built on Kashoo (I switched to Xero shortly after because the tool didn’t give clients a good experience).
So, why didn’t the plans have bookkeeping?
I assumed it was easy enough that clients could handle it themselves, so I wanted to focus on higher-value services like tax planning and advisory work.
But I quickly discovered a problem:
Clients would sign up for our advisory services, then struggle to provide the clean, timely financial data we needed to deliver real value.
Without accurate books, our advisory recommendations were essentially worthless.
That model made it impossible to move the business forward.
So, 6 months in, I made a crucial decision:
No more clients without monthly bookkeeping services.
This helped increase our revenue and deliver the results we promised.
(And later on, it allowed me to scale and sell the firm.)
Looking back, that was one of the few things I got right on my own.
Most of my other early decisions were disasters that cost me time, money, and stress.
That’s how I realized I needed help from people who’d already walked this path.
Even today, with Future Firm, I opted to get help from a business coach — which is not cheap to say the least.
(More on that story later.)
Why?
Because I’d rather pay for expertise than waste years figuring it out myself.
At some point, you’re going to hit a wall.
You can either spend years trying to break through it alone, or you can learn from someone who’s already found the way around.
The question is whether you want to bang your head against them for years or get help navigating around them.
Here are seven ways a good bookkeeping business coach can help you:
1. Reach Higher Revenue Goals
I’ve been exactly where you are right now.
Getting from $0 to $100,000 with my firm was brutal, when I was cold emailing hundreds of prospects just to land a few clients.
I hit another wall at $250,000 when I hired my first employee, who left within three months because I had no clue how to onboard anyone.
Then, $500,000 brought operational nightmares I never saw coming.
While I eventually figured it out through way too much trial and error, every single revenue milestone felt like hitting a brick wall.
That’s why, when I started Future Firm in 2018, I changed my approach by getting help from day one.
I hired James Schramko as a coach and joined other programs that could show me the ropes.
While I initially planned to do one-on-one coaching in Future Firm Accelerate’s Premium plan…
James realized that the demand for the service was huge and suggested I offer a lightweight option (i.e., an Essential plan).
The result?
Future Firm Accelerate launched in January 2021 and instantly hit $500,000 in annualized revenue.
That’s what can happen when you have someone who’s already solved the problems you’re facing.
A good coach doesn’t just give you motivation.
They provide you with the strategies, pricing models, and systems that can help move revenue numbers and exceed your initial business goals.
And once you start hitting your revenue goals, it helps you gain more time for other more important things in life.
2. Unlock Better Work-Life Balance
Sometimes, being a great business owner comes at the expense of everything else.
As I shared on LinkedIn, success may not be much of a win if you’re missing out on life while building your business.
I see this all the time in my coaching work…
For instance, let me share the story of Grant Daffin, a member of my Future Firm Accelerate program.
Grant ran a small firm with his wife, charging by the hour.
It worked fine until his daughter was born.
Suddenly, he faced an impossible choice:
Every dollar of growth meant more billable hours, which meant less time with his new family.
That’s when Grant made some key changes:
- He standardized his services into clear packages
- He moved clients to subscription pricing
- He built systems that could run without his constant involvement
The result?
Grant’s firm grew 47% while he worked just 35 hours per week.
He found a way to ensure long-term success for his business without sacrificing time with his daughter.
But Grant’s transformation didn’t happen overnight.
It required the right guidance at the right time.
Stories like this show what’s possible when you have someone who’s been there before.
Unlocking a good work-life balance is one of the biggest benefits a good coach can help you achieve.
Sure, a coach can teach you how to make more money…
But more importantly, they can help you build a business that gives more than it takes.
3. Build a Better Team
Many bookkeeping businesses follow the traditional firm setup where the owner handles everything important and everyone else does entry-level work.
While there’s nothing inherently wrong with this approach, it’s not ideal either.
Why?
Because you become the bottleneck, especially as the business grows.
What usually happens is:
You hire a junior person hoping they’ll take work off your plate.
But instead, you end up reviewing every single piece of work instead of stepping back to focus on bigger picture stuff.
So, what’s the right approach then?
Prioritize hiring senior team members first.
That may look simple enough, but executing it is where many struggle.
Here’s the problem: not all bookkeepers are well-versed in:
- Hiring strategies that attract quality candidates
- Interview techniques that reveal who can actually do the job
- Writing proper bookkeeping engagement letters that protect the business and set clear expectations
- Onboarding processes that set new hires up for success
- Team structure that lets you step back instead of staying involved
- Performance management so you know when someone isn’t working out
A good coach can show you how to get all of this right.
They’ll show you the exact team structure your business needs right now (not someday when you’re bigger).
They will also teach you the systems that turn hiring from a guessing game into something predictable.
When done right, the results speak for themselves.
Daniel, one of the firm owners inside my Future Firm Accelerate program, is a good example.
4. Stop You From Making the Same Mistakes They Did
Here’s an expensive mistake for you:
Back when I started Xen Accounting, social media marketing for accounting firms wasn’t really a thing.
But I had this brilliant idea to build a following on Facebook and use it to constantly market to potential clients.
Problem was, back then, I knew absolutely nothing about social media marketing.
My master plan?
Partner with Xero to offer a free year of software plus a free year of our services.
All people had to do was like our Facebook page to enter.
I paid for banner ads and expected hundreds of likes.
It was a very, very poor marketing plan as I got only around 10 likes.
Most weren’t even business owners.
The “winner” took the free year of services and immediately left when they had to start paying our regular rates.
Thousands of dollars and countless hours of work with absolutely nothing to show for it…
Because I didn’t know what I was doing wrong.
However, a business coach who’s been through these challenges can help you skip the painful learning curve.
They’ve already figured out the systems and strategies that work.
So, instead of spending years figuring out what doesn’t work, you get a roadmap of what actually does.
That said, it’s not just about avoiding mistakes…
Sometimes, the biggest breakthroughs come from seeing things differently.
5. Give You Different Perspectives
The best solutions are sometimes the ones you never thought of, or at least won’t consider.
For example, here’s how Dwyane was able to get clients the way he probably hadn’t thought about before:
To achieve that:
- He systematized something most people do randomly (asking for reviews).
- He removed friction by including the direct link.
- He combined client appreciation with business development.
This is why an outside perspective matters so much.
When you’re buried in your bookkeeping business day-to-day, you get tunnel vision.
You’re so close to your problems that obvious solutions become invisible.
But a good coach can spot pricing issues, workflow problems, or opportunities you’re completely missing.
For example, they might notice that you’re missing fundamental documentation like proper bookkeeping contracts that protect your business.
Or, they could identify workflow improvements you never considered.
Sometimes, all it takes is someone asking, “Have you considered this approach?” to change your trajectory completely.
A business coach can also…
6. Bounce Ideas With You
Let me preface this part with a question.
Do you think it’s a good idea to put prices on your website?
It seems like a simple yes or no, but there are so many variables to consider.
This is just one out of hundreds of decisions a bookkeeping business owner often makes by themselves.
That’s why there are always firm owners asking for second opinions in my Future Firm Accelerate forums:
Even seasoned firm owners get doubts…
But sometimes you’re facing a situation that’s completely new territory.
Scenarios in which the only way to know what works is to try it and either:
- Watch it succeed
- Learn from expensive mistakes
When you have a good coach, those doubts start to fade because you know you have someone who’s been there before in your corner.
They help you work through decisions before you make expensive mistakes, challenge your assumptions when needed, and validate your gut when you’re on the right track.
Plus, coaches are happy to help even with seemingly small questions.
As an example, here’s me asking my business coach about which AI tool to use.
(This thought would’ve occupied my headspace if I didn’t ask!)
Like I said, questions like these may seem small…
But they prevent you from getting stuck in uncertainty and indecision.
This leads to the next thing coaches can do for you.
7. Give You Confidence
Here’s the thing about confidence…
You can have all the right strategies, perfect systems, and solid advice, but still freeze up when it’s time to execute.
I see this all the time.
For example, bookkeeping business owners who know exactly what they should charge but are terrified to raise their prices.
In one of my LinkedIn posts, I shared 3 reasons why:
You can know your worth and understand market rates, but guilt, uncertainty, and fear still stop you cold.
This paralysis doesn’t come from lacking knowledge.
It’s from lacking the confidence to pull the trigger.
But a good coach has already watched many people make the same scary decisions you’re facing.
When you’re stuck in analysis paralysis, they give you the push you need.
Not because they’re cheerleaders, but because they’ve been there before and know what to do next.
To demonstrate how much of a game-changer confidence can be, here’s a handwritten note one of my Future Firm Accelerate members wrote for me when I helped her 20x her pricing (yes, 20x!):
The difference wasn’t skill or knowledge…
She already had the ability to deliver great service to her clients.
It was having the confidence to act on what she knew.
Sometimes, you just need someone who’s been there to tell you what you already know deep down: you’re ready.
Now that you know how a bookkeeping business coach can help, the question becomes: how do you find the right one?
What Qualities Should You Look for in a Bookkeeping Business Coach?
Choosing a coach is an investment in your bookkeeping business.
Make sure you’re betting on the right person by looking for these qualities:
- They’ve already built what you want: Look for someone who’s been in the trenches dealing with nightmare clients and cash flow problems. They understand that success requires both technical expertise and the soft skills for accountants that modern bookkeepers can’t ignore. (I don’t want to toot my own horn here, but I’ve built two successful businesses myself. 🙂)
- Industry knowledge: Bookkeeping firms face unique challenges around busy seasons and compliance that generic coaches won’t understand. Your coach should get why chasing clients for bank statements every month drives you crazy.
- Systems-focused: You need frameworks you can implement, not just advice. Look for coaches who can teach you how to improve your accounting processes with methods that apply directly to bookkeeping operations and create repeatable systems that run without you.
- Proven results: Ask for specific client examples with real numbers. Don’t just take their word for it. Look for case studies showing actual revenue growth and concrete improvements.
- Compatible style: You’ll work closely with this person. If their communication doesn’t click with you, it won’t work. Trust your gut during initial conversations — coaching is personal.
- Results over time: The right coach cares about your revenue and work-life balance more than hours spent together. You’re paying for outcomes, not just their time and attention.
- Honest about limits: Be wary of anyone promising guaranteed results. Good coaches set realistic expectations upfront and acknowledge that your success depends on implementation, not just advice.
Level Up Your Bookkeeping Business With the Right Coach
Building a profitable bookkeeping business shouldn’t require sacrificing your sanity.
The 7 benefits we covered aren’t just theory.
They’re what happens when you get the right guidance instead of trying to figure everything out alone.
I run Future Firm Accelerate and would love for you to check it out.
But the most important thing is getting help somewhere…
Whether that’s with me or someone else.
If you want to talk through your situation, just shoot me an email. 🙂
