Business Start-ups

Working Around a Family? Why Bookkeeping Might Be Right For You!
Bookkeeper

(Photo Credit: The Win A News)

With the cost of childcare so high, more people are finding ways to have a home-based career, allowing them to provide for their families while still being home and available to them. If you have an affinity for mathematics and numbers and you’re organized and self-motivated, bookkeeping might be the perfect solution for you. It can be a career that ensures you can put food on the table while still being there to meet the needs of your family.

Why Bookkeeping is an Excellent Home Business

Starting a bookkeeping business from home is ideal, as it requires very little space and few overheads, so working from home is no challenge at all. Using your residence to run your business will ensure overhead costs remain minimal. More of your income will go into your wallet rather than being spent on business expenses.

To set up shop, all that is needed is a small amount of desk space, a computer, internet access, a telephone (either mobile or landline) and a handful of clients. Once you have the basics sorted, you’re up and running and the possibilities are limitless. Although it is a good idea, a home-based bookkeeping business does not even require space in the home for meeting clients, as that can be done away from the home at a public place or the client’s location.

Being a self-employed bookkeeper can offer ideal flexible work hours, making it easy to work around your family obligations and commitments.

Required Education and Certification

If you’re not already involved in bookkeeping as a career, it might be necessary to update or acquire the necessary qualifications. You must also decide if you will be doing BAS (Business Activity Statements) because, if so, you’ll have to complete specific qualifications for this as well. Certificate Level IV in bookkeeping is required as well as 1,400 work hours.

People looking to become a certified bookkeeper from home may want to consider getting their credentials from home. They can do this by completing a reputable online bookkeeping course. This can help to keep the costs to a minimum and you can work at your own pace. Completing the courses online will keep you home with your family, which was the original goal in the first place.

Business Activity Statements Agent

An excellent way to expand upon your business idea, increase your fees and generate more income with the same amount of work is to consider becoming a BAS agent. Any bookkeeper that wishes to handle Business Activity Statements has to meet specific requirements that include a Certificate IV in Bookkeeping or accounting and a minimum of 1,400 hours experience.

Consider all available qualifications as goals, as they will make you a knowledgeable, reliable and reputable bookkeeper.

Tips to Ensure Home Business Success

To ensure your business will be a success, and you will be able to remain at home with your loved ones, be sure to stay abreast of new software and training. It’s vital that you’re knowledgeable about the latest innovations to offer the best possible service to your customers. Your clients will expect you to have provide them with the best service and this comes through ensuring you’re employing the most sophisticated and current resources and practices. Clients are only likely to place their trust willingly in somebody who is as knowledgeable as possible about their trade, so make sure you fit this criteria for the greatest chance of success.

Before beginning, be sure to develop a strong business plan that will outline the expenses of running the business so you will be aware of how many clients you will need to earn your desired income. This should include the costs of certifications, training and software.

A good bookkeeper has a sound knowledge of tax laws as they pertain directly to the profession.

If you need help a business plan developed for an economic price, or you need help with improving your business, contact Paideia Realized, Inc. at paideiarealized@gmail.com.

Dr. Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

You Cannot Lead Anyone When You Need to Be Led

While there is a need for more non-profit organizations, everyone is not qualified to start and lead a non-profit organization.  Too many people are talking about starting a non-profit organization for the wrong reasons.  The people who are talking about forming non-profit organizations for the wrong reasons need to be led.  They don’t need to be presiding over anyone.  Some of the erroneous reasons people are talking about developing non-profit organizations are as follows: (1) simply because they are unemployed; (2) they are using discourse about starting a non-profit organization for self-aggrandizement; (3) starting a non-profit organization is the only thing they can think of to do; and (4) they need something to boost their self-esteem and this augmenting of their self-esteem has nothing to do with helping the people the organization is supposed to be founded to serve.

You have to have some qualifications, experience, skills, and accomplishments to lead people.  Traditional qualifications, experience, skills, and accomplishments are not always requisite to being able to lead people effectively, but your qualifications, experience, skills, and accomplishments must be genuine.  You cannot be an effective leader of an organization by just randomly thinking you are qualified to be a leader of an organization.  Leading, starting, and managing an effective non-profit organization is not easy.  In fact, it’s quite challenging.  If you don’t have a true love for helping people, then don’t talk about starting a non-profit organization.  Starting an effective non-profit organization is not something you can just jump up and do.  It’s also deeply offensive to the strenuous and thorough work that leaders of effective non-profit organizations do to pretend like you are serious about starting a non-profit organization when you know that you are going to do it.

For those Black men who don’t have a true commitment to launching non-profit ventures that focus on mentoring young Black males, don’t play with the serious need of mentoring young Black males simply for the vain purposes you are toying with starting a non-profit undertaking supposedly for them.  The need to ameliorate the lives of disadvantaged Black males is far too important for people to be playing around with.  For those who are attention hungry and simply see talking about starting a non-profit organization for Black males or youth in general, you need to understand that our children are too precious and important for you to attempt to use them for your own selfish gains.

We all need good people in our lives to provide us with support.  Many authentic leaders are among us.  It is vital, however, for those who are not leaders to understand that they are not leaders.  You know when you are not a leader and you know when you’re not willing to lead or don’t have what it takes to lead.  Everyone was not created to be a leader—face it!  Just as we need leaders to be great leaders, we need followers to be great followers.  The work of great leaders is significantly buttressed when they are able to benefit from great followers.

When you find yourself experiencing daily bouts with self-doubt and self-pity, the harsh reality is you are not ready and fit to lead.  There’s nothing wrong with knowing when you need to be led and when you are not ready and/or capable of leading.  It’s always critical for human beings to seek and embrace the truth, for this is the essence of what “being real” is.  Sorry to break the much needed news to you, but you don’t become a leader just by calling yourself one and pretending like you are one.

Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison