How To Find Your New Bookkeeping Client

One of the most common questions bookkeepers have is “How do I find clients?”  Before you decide on where to look, you first have to do a little bit of work to identify which kind of clients you want, so you know where to look for them.

It’s common for people in our industry to say “you have to have a niche.”  And it’s true, finding clients gets easier once you do.  

But no one is talking about how to identify your niche when you are just starting out and you have no clue what you want your niche to be in.

 If you have your niche, GREAT! I’ll help you figure out how to get even better clients within that niche.

Otherwise, this is the process I recommend following to start developing a niche

1. Identify your Ideal Client Avatar
2. Follow your passions & knowledge
3. Narrow down later

1. Identify Your Ideal Client Avatar

Your Ideal Client Avatar is someone you have in your mind when you think about the type of person you want to work with. Behind every business is a person, so figuring out the core values you want in the clients you work with is step 1. It’s also really helpful to make this into a list and keep it in mind when you’re evaluating whether or not to work with a client after a discovery call.

Even if you have an idea of the type of industry you want to work with, you still want to work with good clients. Identifying your ideal client avatar will help you focus your marketing efforts and networking efforts. 

The more specific you are, the easier it becomes to attract the right clients. 

If you’re into writing things down, list some core values you expect your client to have. For example:

• Ethical
• Coachable
• Charitable
• Value doing things the right way

If it’s hard for you to list those, list the characteristics you don’t want. There’s clarity in contrast. For example:

• Complains about taxes
• Doesn’t follow through on requests
• Hard to get ahold of
• Complains about your prices
• Always trying to bend the rules

Another facet to consider is what is your ideal client’s minimum revenue? This is important if you want to charge premium prices because they have to be able to afford you. If you’re wanting to charge premium prices but only want to work with solopreneurs just starting out, you have a mismatch, and it’ll make it really difficult to attract those clients.

Once you have those core values decided on, you can then look at some areas of your life or experiences that you are passionate about.

2.  Follow Your Passion

This is where we’re going to get more granular on industry. What industries might your ideal client be in? Is there an industry that you have experience in either in the accounting world or operationally? Did you work in retail at any point in your career, even as a cashier or a stocker? You may have some operational knowledge that will be really valuable to your clients, because you’ll automatically understand their business process on a certain level.

You can also look at helping industries that you’re passionate about. Do you really love crafting as a hobby and want to help crafters or etsy sellers with their books? Again, knowing the language of your client is going to be so helpful in attracting and communicating with them.

3. Narrow down

Now that we’ve added the industry layer on there, you can start putting yourself in the room with those ideal clients. Industry Facebook Groups and networking groups are great for that! You can still take on varying industry type clients but after a while, you can reevaluate the clients you do have and figure out what they all have in common, and then narrow your focus even more.

As you take on clients, you’ll start to learn the types of businesses you more enjoy working in but mostly it’s about the clients, their personalities, and values.

This is something that you will always be tweaking as you learn and grow. Don’t be afraid to shift. 

If you’d like to learn of 12 places you can find new clients and how to close those clients, get The Bookkeeping Client Closer Mini Workshops here>>