The Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast

244 ⎸ The Summer Slump + Podcast Update

• Serena Shoup, CPA • Episode 244

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Real talk: if your summer felt slow and you were low-key stressing about it, this episode is for you. This week's a short and sweet solo update where I walk you through what's coming up on the podcast over the next month, plus a little pep talk about the summer slump so many of us hit as bookkeepers. Slow season is normal, my friend, and it doesn't mean anything is wrong with your business. I'm sharing exactly what I do to keep moving the needle when discovery calls dry up, and how to set yourself up so next summer doesn't catch you off guard.

In this episode you’ll hear:

  • Why summer is almost always slow for bookkeepers
  • The services and projects I lean into during the slow months to bring in a cash influx
  • How to plant seeds now that come to fruition in the fall
  • A rundown of everything coming up on the show, including big interviews and a limited time audio series you don't want to miss

Resources mentioned in this episode:

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Welcome to the Ambitious Bookkeeper podcast and the Ambitious Bookkeeper YouTube channel. If you're new here, I'm Serena. I run a virtual bookkeeping business called Of Course Financial, and I also coach and mentor other bookkeepers, through my brand, The Ambitious Bookkeeper. And this little video is just kind of an update of what to expect over the next month or so and, to talk a little bit about the summer slump some of us are in. So I'm gonna start off with, upcoming shows in the month of August. I've dropped a YouTube video on how to create a budget in Xero, and, this is something that most businesses either skip budgeting or build one in January and let it collect dust for the rest of the year. So in this episode, you can click it here and, if you're on YouTube, you can click and watch the video. But I'm gonna walk you through exactly how my firm sets up a budget in Xero in a fast, clean, and easy way through, that actually gets used all year round, because in Xero, you can run budget to actual reports really easily. And so I'm gonna share that. whether you're a business owner or a bookkeeper, it'll walk you through that process, so you can do this with your clients as well. and also coming up, we are airing an episode where I interview the CEO of bookkeepers.com. many of you may know them as Bookkeeper Launch. Um, Jaime will be coming on the podcast, and if that podcast is live, you can click below where you're watching this video or click on this YouTube video to watch it, or at the end of this video. it'll be up there. and I will… If you're in the Bookkeeper Launch community, I will be doing a little workshop inside of that community on September 1st, so look out for that. we'll also have below this video a link to join Bookkeeper Launch. It is an affiliate link. they are running a special promotion for just our, their referral partners like myself, , in August, so grab that link below where you're listening or watching this video. I will also be bringing on an interview episode with Nick from the podcast Between Two Firms. I'm super excited for that podcast episode. And, last but not least, I recently released a private secret limited time audio series called The Advisor Activation Audio Series, and, that's going to be taken down for listening in the next week. Depending on when you're watching this, if it's past August 9th, you're too late. It's not available anymore. so make sure you grab the link for that and start listening as soon as possible And last but not least, this episode, I wanna talk a bit about, summer being a slow season for bookkeepers and, what you could be doing to move the needle and plant seeds maybe next summer if you didn't figure it out this summer. If you noticed that your summer was really slow and you were a little bit stressed out about it this year, keep that in mind because that's what happens every single year during the summer. Business owners don't tend to wanna be focusing on finding a bookkeeper. they're wrapped up in their own summer plans and trying to take off from their own businesses, so the last thing they're doing is adding anything to their plate where they have to, you know, research and find a bookkeeper, interview a bookkeeper, all that kind of stuff. I will say, though, there are sometimes business owners that use the summer quiet time where, when their business is slow as well, to catch up on the back ends of their business. And so it might be a good time for you to actually engage in cleanup or catch-up services. I know I had a few of those this summer, and it was great because it provided a little bit of a cash influx. I got to work through a project, I love project work, and, , and help a business owner catch up for the midyear. So, that's kind of what I recommend doing for the summer, and also focusing on your own business, like, on your own systems. If you don't have new clients coming in, work on fixing your own systems. Work on creating a marketing plan for the fall, things like that. You can also promote fall planning sessions with your own clients or potential clients, and let them know, like, have them lock it in in the summer, but that you're not gonna start until fall. Also, if you're listening to this when it goes live, it's still August. It's not too late to, to promote something like that, especially for any of you who are interested in offering advisory services. Maybe this fall is the first time you're gonna be doing that. maybe you're interested in joining Elevate and you're going to, do, like, a beta client situation. That's something that I talk about in Elevate, is having a practice client where you learn How to offer this service on a client. And so you could preemptively start promoting something like that, if you know you're going to want to start implementing those services and work out your packages and offerings. and then you can join us in Elevate this fall when it opens back up. if you're interested in knowing when that's gonna happen, go get yourself on the wait list by going to ambitiousbookkeeper.com/elevate, and you will be the first to know when we have decided a date that it will be releasing and opening. I am still in the throes of revamping the entire program. and it's gonna be so good. I'm super excited for it. And in the meantime, you have that audio series to help you get ready mentally and energetically for the work that will be required of you and, the frequency that's going to be required of you to offer that kind of service. one of the other things that you could always, focus on during the summer or, you know, late summer as we are right now, I probably should have published this episode the beginning of the summer so that you would, like, know how to handle the slow season if this is, like, your first time experiencing this. but you could be planting seeds that will come to fruition in the fall, like I said, with the plant, fall planting session, something like that. You can, , pitch and book podcast guests, as a podcast guest on other people's podcasts or in their communities. Um, work on, laying the groundwork for that kind of stuff. Continue to do the networking, and, you know, outreach that you have been doing, and, just keep going with all of that and just know that summer is going to be slow. like I said before, you can focus on your own systems and your own personal growth so that when fall busy time comes back around, you are ready. And last but not least, it's always a really good time to just follow up , if things are slow and you had people in the pipeline in January that never signed a proposal or they just kind of fizzled out or the conversation died out, follow up with people. That is the best thing that you can do because those are people who you've already had contact with, and you can offer them even now. You can still follow up and let them know, like, "Hey, we talked in January or February or whatever. I wanna check in with you to see did you end up getting your books in order, or are you still looking and need…" And maybe you filed a tax extension because extension deadlines are coming up, September for S corps and partnerships and October for individuals. So that's always, you know, good to get ahead of too, and that's usually another timeframe where bookkeepers see a little bit of an influx in business. So if you started your business this year and things didn't, take off as quickly as you expected them to, that's okay. You have another opportunity of the influx time, and what your marketing angle should be is, it's fall, the tax deadline is coming up. If you filed an extension, it's time to get on our client roster, to book a call, all those things, and just start promoting that And if you did have a slow summer, and you're really, like, kind of struggling with that, and, like I said, maybe weren't expecting that, just remember that it's going to happen again next year probably. So do some planning ahead of figuring out you know, I'm gonna push a little harder in January, February, March to get those clients onboarded, so that come summer we are, you know, in just regular monthly service. Or plan some sort of a summer promotion. Stock up on your cash. Make sure you have the money that you want to be able to take the time off, and just take the time off in, in the summer. Obviously, if we're, if you're doing monthly recurring bookkeeping, you're still gonna have that work. but li- likely our clients aren't gonna be booking as many calls. You're not gonna be getting as many discovery calls for potential clients during the summer. So take advantage of that time, and set up your own systems. t- take your own time off, and, be grateful for having the business model that does slow down in the summertime, and see it as an opportunity to get, you know, get that time to be closer with your family, or to pick up a new hobby, or anything like that. So thank you so much for listening to the podcast this week. This was a short and sweet one, and next week we will be back on with interviews and future live Q&A replays. If you are on YouTube, you can watch the live Q&A replays as soon as they happen, and if you're not on YouTube, we still end up putting the audios up on the podcast, a week or two later. So keep an eye out for that. We just had our July live Q&A. We took a break for the summer, and, I do our live Q&As on the last Thursday of each month. And so July, 30th, I had another live Q&A, and we are picking those back up for the fall. So mark your calendars. Make sure you're subscribed to our email list by going to ambitiousbookkeeper.com/subscribe, and you'll know when we're gonna have a live Q&A. I hold them in Zoom. I also stream them to YouTube, so if you are not on YouTube, you can join the Zoom room. All right. Thank you so much for taking the time for listening to this podcast this week, and if, uh, you wanna share it with a fellow bookkeeper or an accountant, I would love that, and I'll talk to you next week.

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