1. Employee vs. Business Owner – I’ve been a bookkeeper employee and now own my business and I can tell you there’s a big difference in the mindset. As an employee, you’re there to punch the clock and just do what you have to do to pay your bills. This isn’t to say that there aren’t good employees out there, but sometimes it seems like that’s the exception and not the rule. As a business owner, my reputation is huge. It’s important to me that my clients are happy. Yes this pays the bills, but I do it because I love it. So I care about your success, probably close to as much as you do. This is a partnership and that means I’m all in and invested.
2. Unexpected Absences – When you have an employee, any day missed is typically a problem. The work piles up, you’re stressed out, and if your company offers sick time, now you’re paying your employee for time they aren’t working. With a virtual bookkeeper, if you’re paying monthly, they can get sick. They can take a vacation and still get your books done the way they should be every month. Your virtual bookkeeper taking a week off would likely have very little, if any, impact on you.
3. Money Money Money Part 1 – If you hire an employee, there’s a possibility that you could be paying all of the following: Payroll taxes (Social Security, Medicare, Worker’s Comp, both state and federal Unemployment), health insurance, 401k, holidays/sick time/PTO. And this adds up. For me, I’m responsible for all of this. I pay my own taxes, just like you. If I decide to have health insurance and a 401k? That’s on me. You don’t have to worry about any of it.
4. Money Money Money Part 2 – Okay so now you’re saving money by not paying payroll taxes or benefits, but what about the money you will be paying? A lot of virtual bookkeepers aren’t cheap. But, those out there like me don’t charge by the hour, we charge monthly. So there’s no surprises, you know exactly what you’re paying every month. For comparison, if you hire an in-house bookkeeper for a $40k per year salary, you’re paying almost $3,500 a month. if you hire someone hourly, the amount you’re paying will probably vary based on fluctuations in the workload. But even if you were to hire someone part-time for $15 an hour, if they work 25 hours a week, you’re looking at about $1500 a month. And since you get what you pay for, do you really want $15 an hour work done on your business finances? With a virtual bookkeeper, your price is based on the workload and complexity of your business.
I know it can seem dicey to hire someone online. But, when you find the right person, it makes all the difference. With COVID, everyone has Zoom and has used it at one point or another. If you want to see the face of the person you’re trusting your books to, any professional virtual bookkeeper will be more than willing to jump on a Zoom call so you can be comfortable and start building that relationship. If your business has been doing things mostly on paper, a virtual bookkeeper should be able to help you with options to streamline the process and transition things to electronic if you’re open to it. Pretty much everything can be done online, so there are ways around doing everything in person. Ultimately you need to decide what’s best for you and your business, but hiring a virtual bookkeeper may be the best thing you do for your business.
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