Starting a Bookkeeping Business as a Mom
When I started Oak and Ledger, I wasn't trying to build a massive bookkeeping firm or replace a six-figure corporate salary. Honestly, I needed some extra cash.
I had recently gone from working full-time to part-time in my family's business because I had two very young kids at home. My oldest was two and a half at the time, and my youngest was around eight months old. I didn't have a lot of extra time, and I definitely didn't have a bunch of expendable income to put toward daycare or babysitting just so I could work more hours.
What I needed was a way to make additional income without giving up the reason I had gone part-time in the first place. I wanted to be home with my kids, have flexibility when they needed me, and still have something professionally that was mine. Starting a bookkeeping business made sense because I wasn't starting from zero. I was taking a skill I already had and figuring out how to make money from it on my own terms.
I Started With a Skill I Already Had
One thing I am a huge advocate for is not automatically turning every passion you have into a business. A business adds an entirely new layer of complexity to something, and sometimes I think it makes much more sense to look at the skills you already have and ask yourself which of those could realistically create another source of income.
At the end of the day, I look at it pretty simply: how much time am I putting into something, and how much money am I getting out of it? In the season of life I was in, spending months or years learning an entirely new skill before I could make a dollar didn't make sense. I needed something I could realistically build with the limited time I had available.
I already knew bookkeeping because I had been doing it for my family's business. Instead of reinventing myself, I decided to take that experience and figure out how to offer the same type of service to other businesses.
How I actually set up my bookkeeping business before taking clients →
That doesn't mean you need my exact background to start a bookkeeping business. I think bookkeeping is a skill that many people can learn. It isn't some mysterious profession that only a select group of people are capable of understanding. But I also think there is an important distinction between being capable of learning bookkeeping and actually wanting to be a bookkeeper. You have to enjoy this type of work, be willing to continuously learn, and be comfortable with the responsibility that comes with handling someone else's financial records.
Knowing Bookkeeping and Running a Bookkeeping Business Are Very Different Things
Even though I had bookkeeping experience, I was incredibly nervous to take on my first client. Looking back, it's almost funny because the family business whose books I was already handling was probably five to seven times the size of my largest client today.
What I did during those first few months to find bookkeeping clients →
But doing the work for someone else's business felt completely different. These weren't family members who already knew me and trusted me. They were strangers who were going to give me access to their financial information and trust that I knew what I was doing.
I knew how to do the bookkeeping. What I didn't have yet was the confidence that comes from doing it under my own business name.
That is one of the reasons I spent so much time getting the business set up before I started taking clients. I formed the business, became a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, created a professional email address through Google Workspace (get 10% off for 12 months through my link), and started putting systems around something that previously had just been work I knew how to do.
In hindsight, some of that preparation was extremely valuable. Some of it was procrastination disguised as preparation.
What I actually did before taking my first bookkeeping client →
I Spent Way Too Much Time Making Everything Look Pretty
I vividly remember sitting in my living room staring at my computer, trying to figure out what my business name should be, what my logo should look like, which colors I wanted to use, and what my website should say. I love branding and still think having a professional presence matters, especially when you're asking people to trust you with their finances, but I spent way too much time trying to make everything feel finished before I told people what I was doing.
I built my website through Squarespace, created my branding, secured my domain, set up my professional email, and tried to make Oak and Ledger look like a legitimate business before I felt comfortable putting myself out there. Those things ultimately became useful pieces of the business, but I didn't need every detail perfected before I started marketing.
If I could go back, I would have started telling people I offered bookkeeping services almost immediately after deciding I was going to do this. I could have been building the website and figuring out the branding at the same time I was building awareness.
How I actually got my first bookkeeping clients →
The reality is that when you first announce you're starting a bookkeeping business, people probably aren't going to start beating down your door. They need time to see what you're doing. They need to hear about it more than once. They need to remember your name six months later when their friend mentions that their bookkeeping is a disaster.
Marketing was working long before I had any proof that it was working.
What I did during those first few months to find bookkeeping clients →
I Didn't Niche Down When I Started
Once the internet realizes you're interested in starting a bookkeeping business, you're going to hear the same advice repeatedly: niche down. Pick an industry, become the expert, and market exclusively to those businesses.
I understand the strategy, and I think niching can make a lot of sense once your firm is established. If you have a solid client base and you're trying to intentionally grow in a particular direction, becoming known for a certain industry or type of client can be incredibly valuable.
I don't think I would recommend forcing yourself into a niche before you've worked with enough businesses to know what you actually enjoy.
If I had started Oak and Ledger by deciding I would only work with coffee shops using Square, for example, I would have dramatically limited the opportunities available to me. Working with different businesses exposed me to different industries, software, point-of-sale systems, revenue streams, workflows, and problems. That experience has helped me understand which clients I enjoy working with and which types of bookkeeping I would rather avoid.
Sometimes you need clients before you can figure out who your ideal client actually is.
Your First Bookkeeping Clients Might Be Small
During my first year, I took on quite a few small clients. Again, I had experience handling the books of a company significantly larger than any of them, but that didn't automatically mean a larger business was going to trust a brand-new bookkeeping firm.
Looking back, that makes complete sense. A larger company may want to see established processes, reviews, resources, and proof that your business is going to be around. A small business owner may be much more comfortable hiring a bookkeeper who is growing alongside them.
Those smaller clients ended up giving me something incredibly valuable. They taught me how to run my own bookkeeping firm.
I wasn't learning how to categorize a transaction or reconcile a bank account. I was learning how to onboard a stranger, price my services, collect documents, manage deadlines, ask clients questions, handle logins securely, and keep multiple businesses organized at the same time.
How I run bookkeeping discovery calls and decide what to quote →
As the client list grew, the systems became much more important. I eventually started using 1Password to securely manage client logins and Double, formerly Keeper, to keep client questions, document requests, and outstanding bookkeeping items from getting buried in my inbox.
Those are the types of problems you don't necessarily understand when you have zero clients. You discover them by doing the work.
What my first month with a new bookkeeping client actually looks like →
Why Bookkeeping Worked for Me as a Mom
There are some very practical reasons bookkeeping worked for the season of motherhood I was in. I could work from home, I didn't need a storefront, startup costs were relatively low, and I could control how many clients I accepted. Most importantly, a large portion of the actual bookkeeping could be completed around my schedule rather than requiring me to be somewhere from nine to five every day.
In the beginning, however, I spent significantly more time working on the business because I was actively trying to find clients. There was social media, networking, website work, newsletters, and everything else that comes with trying to convince people that your new business exists.
Today, that looks completely different. I have a good client base, and I'm not desperately looking for the next client because I need the income immediately. If another good client comes my way, the door is absolutely open, but I'm also comfortable with the business I currently have. Outside of social media and content like The Back Office, I probably spend around an hour a week working on the business rather than doing actual client work.
That is a really nice place to be with young kids. If one of them is home sick, I can adjust my schedule. If something comes up with my family that I want to attend, I don't necessarily have to request time off from someone else. I can structure the work around my life much more than I could in a traditional job.
It took me about a year and a half to get to this point, though. The flexibility I have now didn't magically appear the day I opened Oak and Ledger. In the beginning, I was dedicating a lot more time to social media, networking, and building relationships so that I could eventually have the established client base that gives me this flexibility today.
Working From Home With Kids Isn't Always as Easy as It Sounds
I also don't want to paint the picture that starting a bookkeeping business from home means you can sit on the couch with a baby and effortlessly build a firm during nap time. When my youngest was still home with me, getting uninterrupted work done could be difficult.
Bookkeeping is still a professional service. When a client calls because they want to discuss their financials, they don't necessarily want to hear a baby crying in the background or watch you feed your toddler while you're talking about their numbers. There were absolutely times when nap schedules and client schedules did not cooperate.
If you have children home full-time, I think it's important to be realistic about needing occasional help. That doesn't necessarily mean paying for forty hours of daycare every week. Maybe a neighbor can watch your child for an hour while you take a discovery call. Maybe it's your spouse, your parents, your in-laws, a friend, another mom, or occasional childcare. You may only need a few uninterrupted hours, but those hours can matter.
This became easier as my children got older and my client base became more established because I wasn't constantly scheduling discovery calls, attending networking events, and trying to generate new business.
The Tools Matter More When Your Time Is Limited
Becoming a mom didn't suddenly make me a productivity expert. If anything, it made me much less tolerant of wasting time.
When you only have a certain number of working hours available, spending one of them searching through an email chain for a bank statement or trying to remember which client still owes you a document becomes incredibly frustrating. This is where investing in the right tools started making more sense to me.
Google Workspace became the foundation for my professional email, Google Drive storage, meetings, spreadsheets, and calendar and you get 10% off your first 12 months through my link. 1Password gave me a secure way to organize the growing number of client logins I was responsible for. Double eventually replaced the spreadsheets and email threads I had originally been using to track client questions and outstanding items.
I don't think you need to subscribe to every bookkeeping app you see recommended online when you're starting. In fact, keeping overhead low was important to me. But I do think there is a point where paying for a tool that gives you time back becomes significantly more valuable, especially when your working hours are limited by design.
Sometimes the Business Has to Take a Back Seat
Having flexibility doesn't mean every week is perfectly balanced. This past summer was a perfect example.
My kids were home, and something had to give. Social media slowed down. My newsletter slowed down. And hello, welcome back to The Back Office, because this definitely took a back seat too.
My limited working time went to my existing clients because those were the commitments I had already made. The rest of my time went to my family. Marketing, blogging, and some of the other things I normally enjoy doing for the business could wait.
Earlier in the business, that probably would have made me nervous because I was still trying to build my client base. Now I can let the business sit in maintenance mode for a season without feeling like everything is going to fall apart.
That is probably one of the biggest differences between starting the business and having an established business.
There is never a guarantee that work will be immediately available, but it gives me a way to connect with bookkeepers who may be a good fit when I need additional support.
Building a Bookkeeping Business That Fits My Life
I didn't start Oak and Ledger because I wanted another job that dictated when I could be with my kids. I started because I wanted another source of income that could exist alongside the life I already wanted to live.
That doesn't mean building it required no sacrifice. For about a year and a half, I put significantly more time into marketing, networking, learning, and creating systems than I do today. I had to build the client base before I could enjoy the stability of having one.
But I also didn't need to build a huge firm for this to be worthwhile. That was never really my goal.
I wanted to use a skill I already had to make additional income, keep a professional part of my life that was mine, and still have the flexibility to be present with my family.
For me, bookkeeping ended up being a very good way to do that.