aipb.org., here is a story about a successful freelancer.
Armelta Briggs, Consulting and Design, West Palm Beach, FL, has figured out a way to do only the work she likes, grow her practice-and have as much time as she likes to travel with her husband on his business trips.
Five years ago, she quit her full-time bookkeeping job to freelance and travel with her husband. Through a friend, she landed an assignment at a church showing employees how to use new software. Her work so impressed the church’s CPA, he started referring clients and her freelance practice was underway.
Despite Briggs’ decision not to advertise, market or attend business meetings, but to rely only on referrals, she doubled her last salary within 5 years.
“I get two kinds of referrals,” she explains, “big companies whose books are a mess and small businesses getting big enough to need bookkeeping.” For cleaning up the books, she charges $50-$70/hour, 2½ times the going rate for bookkeepers in her area; for routine work, her rate of $30/hour.
“Cleaning up problem books is my niche, and it’s what I enjoy most” she says. “I can do it without being given any direction, learn the software if needed and train the next bookkeeper on it. Software comes easily to me.”
Once the books are on track, Briggs spends 5-8 hours a week making sure they stay that way, then drops to once a month to check them. She says it averages $300/month per client, but can run over $1,000 if it includes daily data entry.
Briggs hates, and has avoided doing, data entry. Yet that is what small, growing businesses-and most of her referrals-need. So she hired a part-timer whom she pays $20/hour for data entry and charges the client $30. Once a month, Briggs reviews the books, does the bank rec, and checks the monthly financial statements.
Now that her business is growing without her having to do work she hates, she is starting to advertise, market and attend meetings where she can meet prospects-and she travels with her husband throughout the year.
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