What will I be doing?

There are nearly 30,000 full-time bookkeeping services in the U.S. Why are there so many? Because records must be kept as money changes hands. A retail store keeps books or records on sales by product, expenses by supplier and wages by employee. These records are used to calculate profit for the owners and taxes for the governments.

If you have skills and training in bookkeeping you can put them to work keeping records for other businesses, thus building a business of your own. You can operate exclusively or partially out of your home depending on your needs and those of your customers.

What will I need to start?

To start a bookkeeping service you will need knowledge and experience in single- and double-entry bookkeeping. It will also be helpful if you know or have access to computer accounting systems. One successful operator furnished each client with a licensed copy of Quicken, a popular checking computer software program. Once a week she picked up the customer's files on diskette or by modem and developed reports for them.

Setting up a manual bookkeeping system requires only a few supplies such as journals and ledgers purchased at stationery stores. A computerized bookkeeping system will cost a few thousand dollars to establish.

Who will my customers be?

Your initial customers for a bookkeeping service will be other small businesses. You can work with those in a geographic area (shopping mall, suburb, business complex), a trade (gas stations, clothing stores, dentists) or a function (billing, disbursements). As you define your service you will be defining your customers and how to reach them. Promotional mailings or telephone calls to potential customers in an area or trade can help you build your customer base.