The Successful Bookkeeper Podcast

“By offering corporate services, compliance services, payroll and sales tax registration services to their clients, they're actually not only enhancing their trusted advisory services, but they're also scaling their revenues, increasing their revenues. More importantly, they are keeping that client with them long term because they're becoming a one-stop shop.”
-Nellie Akalp

Nellie Akalp, CEO of CorpNet.com, shares how bookkeepers a...

“Go out, stick your hand out, say hello and start talking. It's not easy, but over time it becomes easier and it's definitely worthwhile just creating the relationships either virtually or physically in the community.”
-Holly Corcoran

Holly Corcoran, owner and CEO of Corcoran Business Advisory Services, shares her journey from running a traditional CPA firm to launching a virtual, advisory-focused business that specializes in veter...

“If you think about the most common mistake that most small and mid-sized business owners make when it comes to cybersecurity, it's this assumption that ‘I'm not very big. It's not going to happen to me’. And so they're not doing any security or they're doing minimal security measures in place.”
-Nick Mullen

Cybersecurity expert, Nick Mullen, founder and CEO of Entoo Security, shares the rising threats facing bookkeepers and accoun...

“Define your customer first. I only want to work with people who understand that accounting is important to their business.”
-Debra Kilsheimer

Debra Kilsheimer, owner of Behind the Scenes Financial Services, shares her journey from growing up in an accounting household to running a modern, client-focused bookkeeping business. She discusses the power of flat-rate pricing, building strong client relationships and how emb...

“As I was building all these processes in my mind, if I had been documenting them, I would have not had to spend that two years documenting everything after the fact when the team started to come. If you're good at what you do, your accountants are going to find you and they're going to start referring business to you. So just to have those processes documented and you're ready for when they come, that's gonna be a hug...

“People came to me thinking that I was an expert. They saw the posts that I was posting about bookkeeping for law firms, and they already had buy-in to use my services. So I didn't need to sell them that much. I just needed to prove that I was a real person. I don't want to be out there selling my services. I want people coming to me already sold on my services.”
-Brandy Derrick

Brandy Derrick, owner of Legal Ease Bookkeeping, disc...

“In the bookkeeping and accounting world, if someone gets sick and that client can't get what they need, they just get back into the universe and another bookkeeper picks them up. So you lose everything.”
-Christine Siegenthaler

Christine Siegenthaler, founder of Succession Security, discusses the importance of contingency planning for solo bookkeepers and small bookkeeping firms. She shares how Succession Security helps ensure bu...

“If it's consistently where you're feeling behind like you can never get on top of your to-do list, that you're always having to reschedule stuff for tomorrow, that's probably a sign that you have too much work on your plate. That's a sign that you could use more help within your business.”
-Jamie Van Cuyk

Jamie Van Cuyk, owner of Growing Your Team, joins the podcast to help solo bookkeepers and small business owners master hiring...

“I remember being on Zoom and we saw our colleagues' children, people got personal and talked about the health challenges they were dealing with or that a family member was dealing with. I saw leaders and bosses having to have that same transparency. It was human to human. Since the workplace has evolved, employees are expecting that same transparency. They're expecting the same collaboration. And what they want specifically for th...

“Money is an energetic source in our world. When you get it, you feel really good, and when it leaves, you feel very bad. That's an energy. That's an exchange.”
-Lou Clarke

Lou Clarke, who is a CFO and profit strategist, discusses the power of confidence, pricing strategies, and how bookkeepers can shift into advisory roles to better serve clients. She also explains the importance of understanding money dynamics and building a bus...

“If a majority of your leads come from LinkedIn, that's great, and you should keep doing that. But it doesn't hurt to diversify and to make sure that you have a couple of lead sources to pull in from different avenues.”
-Kristen Corey

Kristen Corey, founder of Media Books, dives into the importance of a well-designed website, how to make your firm stand out online, and common pitfalls to avoid. 

In this interview, you'll also lea...

“My workflow was going to tell me exactly what I needed to do that day. And I very intentionally and very consciously grounded myself into my work and into that routine and into that process, because that was the one thing in my life that was certain. My business got me through that time, that certainty and that control when everything else was so chaotic.”
- Stephanie Kelcey

Stephanie Kelcey, owner of Capture Bookkeeping, shares h...

“I don't see a world where the profession of accounting is totally taken over by AI. There'll always be that need for human touch and validation because we do audits and we need to make sure that we get their taxes right. So I would just say, embrace it, think about how it's going to give you that better work-life balance, and then just go for it. Give it a try.”
-Karen Ainley

Karen Ainley, Head of the Accountants Business Unit at ...

“I put my clients on notice in the first week of December. All of my clients get an email blast so that they know what to expect, and that helps so much. So we are having this conversation now in the third week of January. All of my clients who gave me their information are tax-ready. And I could not have said that five years ago.”
-Jessica Fox

Jessica Fox, founder of Florida Virtual Bookkeeper, shares how she transformed her busin...

“And so I went through all of the little folders and things that I had stored different goals, and I pulled them all into one place and had a whole week to really think about what I wanted my goals to be for next year. And that brought tremendous clarity.”
-Nancy Gwynne-Vaughan

In this episode, Nancy Gwynne-Vaughan, President of Graham Consulting & Training Inc., explores the realities of running a small business in the bookkeeping...

“I had no niche. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I knew the clients I really didn't like to work with. But they were also talking about, ‘You got to find your niche.’ And I'm like, ‘How do you find a niche?’”
-Leslee Hickerson

Leslee Hickerson shares her inspiring journey from a small Ontario town to becoming a successful bookkeeper and consultant specializing in law firms. She reflects on her challenges during the pandemic, her...

“You think that you're competing against other accountants, but for people who are just starting, you're competing against ‘free’. As far as they're concerned, ‘I've been doing my bookkeeping and I was doing fine and it didn't cost me anything, so why should I pay you?’”
-Keila Hill-Trawick

In this episode, Kyla Hill Treywick, founder and CEO of Little Fish Accounting, shares her journey into accounting and the lessons learned whil...

“As a business owner, as an entrepreneur, I feel like there are 50 million things that I want and need to do all the time. So I find it very easy to get distracted. So I think about what are the top things that I need to put my attention towards, what are the biggest things that I want.  I've got this little sign on my wall up there, ‘Where your attention goes, the energy flows.’ And that has really helped keep me sort of focused. ...

Kick off your new year with inspiration and actionable insights in this special year-end episode!

Host, Michael Palmer welcomes an exceptional panel of industry leaders for an engaging conversation reflecting on the trends, triumphs, and challeng...