Ready to Outsource Your Bookkeeping

Are you using your own small business and try to do it all yourself? Why? Should not you spend your time with what you do best, whether it is sales and marketing, customer service and decisions about how to do is to grow your business?

A businessman who tried to juggle the ball a lot every day, but sooner or later you down. A smart business owner will realize that he can not do everything because there are only 24 hours in a day. Unless you are very well organized and enjoy working with numbers, then maybe, need to outsource this work. Too many entrepreneurs do to spend their time, what they are not as good just because they do not know how to find someone to do the job for them.

Where do you start?  Ask your accountant for referrals.  Obviously you don’t need a full-time person to do your books, so your best bet is to look for someone who wants to moonlight at a part-time job.  There are also bookkeepers with their own small business who are looking for clients.  If you don’t have any other employees, this situation will work best for you because you can pay them as a subcontractor instead of an employee on payroll. However, you will need to give them a Form 1099 at year end for tax purposes. But, since they are accounting experts, they can help you with that task too.

You should interview your prospective bookkeeper just as you would if you were hiring him/her as an employee.  Ask for a resume and references, and check them out.  Since this person will be handling your confidential records, you want someone who is trustworthy.

Depending on your location, you should expect to pay between $15 and $50 an hour for a bookkeeper. Don’t necessarily hire the one who offers the lowest rate- remember you get what you pay for.  The more experienced person will cost you more, but will provide valuable input and suggestions to streamline your business that will wind up saving you money in the long run.

Since this person will be working closely with you in your business, you should feel comfortable with him or her.  If you have any reservations about this person, go on to the next candidate.

While the selection process may take a while, it will be worth it later.  Take your time to find the perfect bookkeeper, and in a few months you’ll wonder how you ever managed to run your business before you hired one.