How to Create a Business Plan for Your Bookkeeping Business

The bookkeeping business requires a number of professional tasks that include management of expenses, income, tax returns, and payroll.  All of these services and more requires proper planning to run a bookkeeping business successfully. So, to create a plan, what are the important requirements to consider?

There are some detailed steps that form a business plan. Here are the steps and elements needed to create a business plan for your new bookkeeping business.

1. Executive Summary

An executive summary is needed to evaluate your business goals. It must contain the overall review of your business describing the services offered to clients in a clear tone.

The summary will include a highlight of your business strengths and weaknesses. The summary answers questions like the various services your company offers, which may include:

  • Accounts Payable/Receivable
  • Billing & Collections 
  • Filling State  
  • Federal and Local Forms  
  • Payroll Management  
  • General Ledger  
  • Tax Preparation

2. Company Summary

A company summary will include details such as the ownership of the company, the purpose or reason why the business was started, and the plans intended to help kick-start your bookkeeping business.

3. Marketing Analysis

Marketing analysis looks at the target audience of a business, which influences the approach of advertisements. Market analysis will include the target goal of the business, prices of good services, and how service fees will be charged; hourly or otherwise. 

4. Strategy Plan

You will need to devise a strategy to get new customers for your bookkeeping business. As much as word of mouth plays a pivotal role in advertising a business, the need to strategize as competition grows becomes necessary. To compete, an extensive and detailed strategy will help.

To create an effective plan, create an outline of how you intend to beat the tough competition or thrive alongside. Know that the sales strategy that will help you sell your services to both small businesses, startups, and big firms. A sales forecast is an additional aspect to put into consideration.

5. Personnel Plan

Next, the personnel planning will include the type of staff and employees needed for your company, if their contract will be part-time or full-time, and the average salary of each staff alongside other miscellaneous first-year expenses.

It can be helpful to hire a manager for personnel planning. An individual serving as manager oversees the pool of bookkeepers working for you.

6. Business Projections

Profit and Loss Projections

In this section of the business plan, the proposed income and expenditure of a business are analyzed. You should create a thorough plan to balance your projected income and expenses, and explain the plan in detail.

Cash Flow Projection

The plan must contain an explanation of the required total first-year cash flow. If it falls on the negative side, balancing back to positive flow is important and it must be attained going forward in the business.

Projected Balance Sheet

When a business succeeds as most hope, pen down the financing of the business and debts. All these are the collection of the important information a bookkeeping business plan must contain.

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