Keyboard Rich

How Anyone Can Earn Six
Figures from Home with a

Simple Bookkeeping Business
BILL VON FUMETTI

KEYBOARD RICH
How Anyone Can Earn Six Figures from Home with a Simple
Bookkeeping Business
Copyright © 2023 Bill Von Fumetti. All rights reserved. No part

of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording,
or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior
written permission of the copyright holder, except in the case of
brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other
noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
For permission requests, speaking inquiries, podcast interviews,

and bulk order purchase options, email
[email protected].
BoomingBookkeeper.com
Book Design by Transcendent Publishing |

transcendentpublishing.com
Editing by Lori Lynn Enterprises
ISBN: 979-8-9878728-2-6
Disclaimer: The author makes no guarantees concerning the level

of success you may experience by following any information or
methods contained in this book. The testimonials and examples
provided in this book show exceptional results, which may not
apply to the average reader. Thus the publisher nor the author
assumes any liability for any losses that may be sustained by the use
of information or methods described in this book, and any such
liability is expressly disclaimed. The use of this book implies your
acceptance of this disclaimer.
Printed in the United States of America.

“You can, you should, and if you’re
brave enough to start, you will.”
—Stephen King
CONTENTS
FOREWORD ............................................................................. ix
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1
What Does It Mean to Be Keyboard Rich? ............................... 3
How to Use This Book ........................................................... 11
Who Is Bill Von Fumetti? (And Why Should You Listen to
….Him?) .................................................................................... 23
Who This Book Is For ............................................................ 25
Surprise!.................................................................................. 27
GETTING STARTED .............................................................. 29
Schemes vs. Skills .................................................................... 31
Turning $0 into $100k ........................................................... 39
The Experience Myth ............................................................. 47
Designing Your Dream Life by the Numbers .......................... 53
GETTING CLIENTS ................................................................ 61
There’s a Client Under My Bed! ............................................. 63
The Only Thing Clients Care About ...................................... 67
If You Hate Selling, Do This Instead ...................................... 73
The Lazy Person’s Guide to Getting Clients ........................... 79
HOW TO MAKE BOOKKEEPING EASY .............................. 87
The Simple Bookkeeping Method (for People Who Hate
….Complexity)........................................................................... 89
The Secret to Never Screwing Up Someone’s Books—Ever .... 99
What If I’m Not Good at Math? .......................................... 105
How Do I Do This If I Have a Job? ..................................... 111
WHERE TO GO FROM HERE ............................................. 117
Your Free Ticket ................................................................... 119
How to Access Your Bonuses ................................................ 121
Speak To Us ......................................................................... 125
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS....................................................... 127
ABOUT THE AUTHOR ........................................................ 129
REFERENCES ........................................................................ 131
CONNECT WITH BILL ........................................................ 135
To my wife, Elizabeth.
You gave me purpose and our perfect family.
Thank you for being my inspiration and my

life and business partner.
I love you more!

Foreword
Not long before I met Bill Von Fumetti, I had just reached the
end of my maternity leave, and I was transitioning back into
working full-time, managing a $5-million restaurant. That was
the longest I had ever been away from work in over eight years.
Having a baby at home for the first time was new to me. When
I first started working in the hospitality industry, I didn't have
any kids, so I was basically married to my job.
As I imagined jumping right back into working 50-plus hour

weeks, I felt a knot in my stomach.
That was when I thought …
Oh God, I don't want to work five days a week until 10 or 11

o'clock at night. I'm not going back full-time. I can't do this. I
don't want to do this anymore.
What I wanted was to put my son to sleep at night. I wanted

to have dinner with my husband. I wanted to travel. I wanted
to spend time with my extended family who are scattered all
over the country. I wanted to work during the day and have
evenings and weekends off—which is the opposite of what my
life was like in the restaurant industry.
If I returned, my job would be my life again.
ix
KEYBOARD RICH
I started looking for opportunities that would give me more

flexibility and align with the life I wanted for myself and my
family. How could I pivot my career and work from home?
A friend of mine who runs a small human resources company

told me she knew of several small business owners who needed
a bookkeeper. Around that same time is when I got introduced
to Bill.
Something inside told me that bookkeeping was the right step

to get me out of working too many hours for too little pay.
Learning a new skill that seemed to be in really high demand
just made a lot of sense to me.
So I jumped right in and set up my free QuickBooks account,

started to learn bookkeeping, and even began doing a little bit
of marketing. I followed the same exact advice that Bill covers
in this book.
Initially, I kept my job at the restaurant as I built my business

because we still needed the income. Thankfully, I had a few
weeks of family leave left, so I only had to go back part-time at
first.
But even though I was part-time, I kept getting pulled into

working more here and there. I quickly realized that I was
going to get sucked back into my old life.
It had only been a few weeks, but I was getting the hang of
bookkeeping and was already getting a few inquiries from
potential clients from what little marketing I had done so far.
x
FOREWORD
I had a heart-to-heart talk with my husband, and he believed

in me. We both felt like I could make bookkeeping work, so
we decided that I should quit the restaurant altogether.
When I put in my notice, I realized my last day would be just

before the holiday season, which meant I would get to be home
to celebrate my son's first Christmas.
That year, I was finally able to relax instead of working the

week between Christmas and New Year's, which is the most
stressful week of the year in the restaurant industry. My family
came to visit us from Florida. Together, we made memories
that I wouldn’t trade for anything.
At the beginning of the new year, I started marketing myself

more. I kept following the strategies in this book, and within
the first month of bookkeeping, I replaced my restaurant
salary. Not only that but I also gave myself a pay raise while
working fewer hours.
By the end of January, I already had four clients. By mid-April,

I had 13 clients. I’m now making over $100k per year with my
bookkeeping business and have more flexibility than I ever
imagined.
Since I made the jump to bookkeeping, I’m in control of my

business, and I'm in control of who I work with. I get to call
the shots. It feels really good to have control over how I spend
my time and how much money I make. I get more time with
my husband and with my son. I get more time for myself.
With the stability I've created for me and my family, I have

changed the course of my life. Last year, we spent two months
in Florida visiting family. I’m putting money in savings every
xi
KEYBOARD RICH
month. I'm rebuilding my credit score, and I've paid off my

car. We are now in the position financially to grow our family,
buy a home, and start making more investments.
I'm very proud of what I have accomplished in the past year,

both personally and professionally. I don't know where I’d be
or how long it would've taken me to get here if it wasn't for
meeting Bill and learning what he teaches about bookkeeping.
He makes it super easy, and he genuinely cares about helping
people.
It's okay to be nervous at first. My advice to you is this: put in

the work. Anyone can read a book and then sit back and do
nothing. But if you put in the effort, you can have all the
success you desire by following the simple roadmap Bill lays
out in the following pages.
I am very grateful to have found bookkeeping and to have

taken the chance on a new opportunity. I am so happy that my
gut told me to listen to Bill. I don't think anything else out
there compares with the information and resources that he
provides.
Obviously, if you're reading this book, then something about

bookkeeping has piqued your interest. If you're questioning
whether to give it a try, just go for it. You have everything you
need right here in your hands. All you have to do is believe in
yourself and take that first step.
What do you have to lose?
—Lauren Sullivan,
Six-Figure Bookkeeping Business Owner
xii
INTRODUCTION
1
What Does It Mean to Be
Keyboard Rich?
Surrounded by boulders and volcanic rock, my wife and I

listened to the crash of the ocean waves as we enjoyed our last
Hawaiian sunset before heading home to California the next
day.
Our waitress approached and asked my wife if she’d like

another margarita.
“I’d love one,” she said, then stole a glance at me and smiled.
Picking up my wife’s empty margarita glass, the waitress asked,

“What part of the island are you from?”
“Oh, we’re not from here,” I said. “We live in Los Angeles.”
She stopped in her tracks, raising her eyebrows in surprise.

“You guys seem to be here every few months. I was sure you
lived here and just enjoyed taking staycations.”
“Nope,” I said.
“So you retired early?”
“No, I still work and Elizabeth stays home with the kids.”
3
KEYBOARD RICH
“You have kids?”
“We do!” said Elizabeth. “They’re one and three.”
“And you just left them at home?”
Elizabeth laughed. “No, they’re here with us. They’re getting

some one-on-one time with Grandma.”
Our waitress seemed dumbfounded. We could see the wheels

turning in her head.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what do you do for work that
allows you to travel so much? Do you day trade stocks or
something?”
“No,” I said. “I run a bookkeeping business.”
The eyebrows again.
“What exactly is bookkeeping? My aunt was a bookkeeper, but

I don’t really know what bookkeepers do.”
“We keep track of all the financial transactions for a business.

It’s mostly organizing and putting things in the right places.
It’s pretty simple. And the software does most of the heavy
lifting.”
Now she was more than a little surprised.
“Wait.” She hesitated. “You make enough money to live in Los

Angeles, have two kids, and travel to Hawaii all the time … as
a bookkeeper?”
4
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE KEYBOARD RICH?
“You got it!”
“My aunt was a bookkeeper for years, but she sure as heck
didn’t make that kind of money.”
Now I was curious, but I was pretty sure I already knew the
answer to my next question. “Did she own her own book-
keeping business or was she working for someone else?”
“She was working for someone else.”
“That’s why. As a business owner, you always make more than

if you have a boss. Actually, the average bookkeeping business
owner makes well over $100,000 per year.”
“What? That’s insane! I’ve been waitressing for 20 years to

support my kids, and I’d love to be able to do that. I guess I
should’ve gone to school for accounting.”
“Honestly,” I said, “I didn’t know anything about bookkeeping

five years ago. I taught myself in just a few weeks.”
She stared at me in disbelief.
“So, do you think someone like me could learn bookkeeping?”
“Sure! Anybody can.”
I gave her the name of a website where she could get some more
information.
We didn’t see her again after that, and I hope it’s because she
ran with the info I gave her and took control of her career path.
5
KEYBOARD RICH
Because if she did, she’d be …
Making a lot more money …
Working for herself …
Working from anywhere she wanted …
Free to spend more time with her kids …
Choosing her clients rather than putting up with rude

customers and hoping for good tips …
That’s what it means to be Keyboard Rich.
That’s the kind of freedom and flexibility starting a book-

keeping business can give you.
You can go from generating income to truly building wealth

on your own terms.
Throughout this book, I’ll show you exactly how to do that,

step by step. But first, let's talk about why bookkeeping is the
new twist on the laptop lifestyle.
Unlike all those Insta-preneur pictures you see on social media,

I prefer to keep the business and the beach separate (less sand
in the keyboard that way). But I can tell you from personal
experience that you can grow your business from anywhere in
the world, any time of day or night, from coffee shops, hotels,
or your back porch.
Everything you need is on your laptop. Really.
6
Even better, it’s fulfilling work. Bookkeepers play a big role in

helping small businesses grow. It’s something you can wake up
excited about.
But this is no desperate side hustle where you need to cross

your fingers and hope you make a few bucks. Quite the con-
trary. According to Inc.com, bookkeeping is the #1 most pro-
fitable small business to start. 1
Why?
Because bookkeeping is a simple skill that anyone can learn.

And every small business needs a bookkeeper. The market is
enormous, and the profit margins are nearly 100% since there
are very few costs required to run a bookkeeping business.
Business owners often don’t know how to do their books

themselves, and frankly, their time is better spent focusing on
what they do best. They’ll pay good money for someone else
to do this work—and that someone could be you.
I’m serious when I say that anyone can learn bookkeeping. I’ve
helped all kinds of people from different backgrounds start and
grow successful bookkeeping businesses.
Like Ann McPherson …
… who lost her job due to downsizing and was in a massive

panic. Her dream was to work from home, but she was
genuinely afraid of losing her home. Ann learned QuickBooks
(the bookkeeping app used by most small businesses) and is
now making over $150k per year. She’s freed herself to spend
more time with her kids and her husband. And not only did
7
KEYBOARD RICH
she get to keep her home, but she’s also now building her
dream home in Florida.
Or Stephen Katona …
… who was working 60-hour weeks and missing out on time

with his family. Once he discovered bookkeeping, he quickly
grew to over $100k in revenue while working part-time. Now
he’s devoting more time to his wife and their growing real
estate investing business.
Or Britany Bird …
… who started and grew her bookkeeping business, then

retired her husband from backbreaking warehouse work. Now
they’re able to spend more quality time together, not only
building the business but also traveling more often as they
approach retirement.
Or Jimmie Needles …
… who started with zero bookkeeping knowledge and replaced

his $110k salary from his soul-sucking insurance job—in less
than nine months. Not only that but he’s built a business that
he can pass on to his kids. A legacy that can give financial
security to his family for years to come.
This is what it means to be Keyboard Rich—not only fin-

ancially, but in all aspects of life. And while I’ve helped thous-
ands of people start their own bookkeeping businesses, which
has freed them up to share more quality time with the ones
they love, these are a few of my favorite examples.
8
Ann, Stephen, Britany, and Jimmie’s stories show that starting

is possible no matter who you are or where you’ve been.
So many people never even take that first step to get started
because they have misconceptions about what bookkeeping is
or how quickly they can be successful.
And that’s a shame.
Because they miss out on one of the easiest ways of making

money online and transforming their life. Not only is it
possible for them (and you) to build a thriving bookkeeping
business, but all that’s needed is a computer, a free QuickBooks
account, and a genuine desire to learn the simple skill of
bookkeeping.
So …
Are you ready to get Keyboard Rich?
9
How to Use This Book
“Honey, PLEASE wake up!”
I snapped back to consciousness to find myself sitting up in

bed. Elizabeth, my girlfriend (before she became my wife),
looked panic-stricken. Shaking, with tears in her eyes, she was
desperately pleading with me to wake up.
Anxiously, I asked, “What’s going on? Are you ok? Is someone

in the house?” Naturally, I thought she was the one having
trouble. After all, I had been sound asleep.
“I’m fine,” she said. “But you were screaming at the top of your
lungs like you were getting tortured, and it scared the hell out
of me. Are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said. “Are you sure I was screaming?”
“Yes, you were screaming. And I’d be willing to bet our neigh-
bors could hear you.”
If I hadn’t seen how shaken Elizabeth was, I’d have thought

she was joking. I didn’t remember a thing.
That was the first of many nights that I experienced what I later
found out were night terrors. After a couple of months of being
jolted awake by my wailing in the middle of the night, Eliza-
beth forced me to see a doctor to find out what was going on.
11
KEYBOARD RICH
It only took one visit for the doctor to pinpoint the cause of
my night terrors: stress.
On the surface, it looked like everything was going great. I was

38 years old and living in an apartment in Hermosa Beach,
California (a suburb outside Los Angeles), with a beautiful
woman who loved me.
While it took me a couple decades to find the perfect woman,

I was thankful I did, and we had a great relationship. But that
was pretty much the only thing that wasn’t stressing me out.
I was working as the general manager of a gym in Santa

Monica. And believe me when I tell you … That place was a
total nightmare.
Employees rarely showed up on time, leaving me scrambling

to cover their shifts. They’d often be late to open the gym at
5:00 a.m., and I’d get calls from angry members trying to get
their workouts in before they had to be at work.
But the most stressful part of the job was the crushing pressure
from the owners to sell memberships. Selling memberships is
how gyms make their money, and the owners really wanted to
make money.
No matter how well we’d do one month, the goal for the next
month would be even higher. Nothing was ever good enough,
it seemed.
The kicker? I was commuting an hour each way and only

making $20 per hour.
12
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
While $20 an hour isn’t peanuts, it certainly doesn’t go very

far for a 38-year-old living in Los Angeles who wants to marry
his girlfriend, buy a house, and start a family.
I wanted to start living the life I’d always imagined for myself,
but I was barely able to pay the bills, there was no room for
advancement at the gym, and I had zero savings.
I desperately wanted to stop the miserable cycle of living

paycheck to paycheck.
I wanted to make the kind of money that would let me give my

family the lives they deserved.
I wanted to be proud of what I did for a living, but I didn’t

want to feel like I’d have to do it forever and not be able to
retire.
Most importantly, I didn’t want to live my life constantly

stressed out, potentially shortening my life in the process.
Unfortunately, I had no real marketable skills that would allow

me to make the money I wanted to make.
I realized I wasn’t the only one who wanted the things I wanted
when, one day, Elizabeth broached the topic of going engage-
ment ring shopping.
To say I broke out in a cold sweat would be an understatement.
Of course, I wanted to get married. But my bank balance hap-

pened to be $0.
13
KEYBOARD RICH
As we were ring shopping, my mind started racing as I realized

that buying a ring was only the beginning.
There’d be a wedding to pay for. Kids, a bigger place to live,

college, retirement …
In order to get married and start a family, I had to massively

increase my income. And I needed to do it quickly.
A few days later, I found myself at work, feeling stressed out as

usual. I looked at my watch and my spirits lifted a bit as I
realized it was 2:00 p.m. Time for the little slice of sunshine I
had scheduled every day at 2:00—my guilty pleasure—a crisp,
cold Diet Coke. (Hey, sometimes it’s the little things that get
you through the day, right?)
I headed to the break room, dropped my quarters in the vend-

ing machine, and pressed B-1. A can of Diet Coke dropped
down, and I cracked it open to take a drink. The first sip always
felt like pushing a pressure release valve in my head.
“Hey, Bill!”
I turned around to see Karen, the gym’s bookkeeper, walk into

the break room. She’d drop by the gym from time to time to
work out as she had a free membership.
We talked for a bit about how things were going at the gym.
During the course of the conversation, she casually mentioned
that she charged the gym $3,000 per month to do their book-
keeping.
14
When I heard that, my jaw hit the floor. I was shocked. I had
no idea that you could charge $3,000 a month for book-
keeping.
And she was working from home.
And the gym was merely one of her many clients.
Some quick math made it clear that she was making well over
$100k, maybe even close to $200k.
Now, that’s the type of money that I needed to be making. I

got excited. Maybe bookkeeping is something I could do, I
thought.
For once, the rest of the work day flew by, and before I knew
it, I was in my car for my hour-long commute home.
But the more I thought about bookkeeping, the more I started

doubting it was for me. One by one, the doubts crept in …
What if it’s hard to learn? It could be expensive. How would I

do it while still working full-time? I’ve never started a business
before. Do I need an accounting degree?
By the time I arrived home, I’d lost the excitement I had about
the bookkeeping opportunity (a long commute will do that to
you). Maybe I needed to find another job and hope it paid
more than what I was making. Maybe I’d always be the type of
person who scrapes by.
15
KEYBOARD RICH
I grabbed the mail on my way inside and noticed a letter from

our landlord, which seemed strange as we had always texted
whenever something came up.
I cracked open the letter and felt like I got punched in the
stomach.
Our rent was being raised by $750 per month.
I knew rents in the Los Angeles area were high, but this was
ridiculous.
Was it even legal?
Unfortunately, it was.
I knew we couldn’t afford that much of a rent increase. And

the apartment was only 550 square feet. We certainly couldn’t
fit into anything smaller.
The more I thought about it, the more inadequate I felt. I was
disappointed in myself for not being further along in my career
and for struggling to make ends meet (making Elizabeth
struggle along with me).
Faced with the prospect of having to tell Elizabeth about the

rent increase without a solution, I made the decision, right then
and there, to do whatever it took to change our lives financially.
Although I wasn’t 100% certain it was the right path for me, I
decided to take a chance and try the thing that was lingering in
the back of my mind that I knew would pay me what I needed
to make. Bookkeeping.
16
My immediate goal was to make the extra $750 per month we

needed for rent before it was going to increase in 60 days.
But I also wanted to plan for getting a ring, paying for a wed-
ding, and giving us a solid financial foundation to start a
family. It was time to finally start living the life we deserved.
I figured that being able to make $5k per month within six
months was reasonable if I worked really hard. So that same
night, after Elizabeth fell asleep, I hopped on Google and was
thankful to find out I didn’t need an accounting degree to do
bookkeeping.
I just needed to learn how to do it.
Because I had a full-time job, I studied nights and weekends.

Over the next few days, I found lots of great resources to learn
bookkeeping, but my head was absolutely spinning from all the
information.
Bookkeeping seemed like a whole new language, and I had a

hard time understanding what I was learning. I started to
wonder if I’d ever pick it up.
On top of that, I’d also started researching how to get clients.

Even though I was still learning how to do bookkeeping, I
knew I wasn’t going to start making money unless I got some
clients fast.
Unfortunately, a lot of what I was finding told me to go to

networking events to meet business owners. I had a full-time
job, though, so I didn’t have time for that.
17
KEYBOARD RICH
Even if I did go, what would I say to people? I was afraid of

speaking to anyone because I was so new. And nobody would
want a new bookkeeper … would they?
I started to get discouraged and felt stuck. But then I’d look at
Elizabeth and remember that I had to figure this out.
I realized that I needed help.
The only bookkeeper I knew was Karen from the gym, and I
wasn’t sure how she’d react if I asked her for help. If she
discovered that I was learning bookkeeping, she might tell the
gym owners, and I could lose my job.
As dangerous as it sounded, I felt like I had no choice. So I

called her up. I was relieved when she said she was happy for
me that I was learning bookkeeping. Even better, she was kind
enough to help me through some of the issues I was having.
She told me that everyone feels like bookkeeping is a foreign

language when they first start out. But she assured me that if I
kept with it, things would start to “click” and become second
nature in no time. She was also generous enough to say I was
welcome to reach out to her whenever I needed help.
When I asked her about networking to get clients, she laughed.

She said, “That’s the old way of getting clients. Nowadays,
there are websites that you can post on to get all the clients
you’re looking for.” She even shared some of those websites
with me (and I’m going to share these same websites with you
later in this book). What a relief!
18
After the call with Karen, I was feeling energized and much
more confident that I could do this. I dove back into learning
bookkeeping, and sure enough, things did start to click.
Within three weeks, I was able to get my free certification in

QuickBooks (the most popular bookkeeping software) and
post my profiles on those websites.
One week later, I got my first client! He paid me $500 per

month, which was a great start toward my goal.
My monthly revenue continued to grow as calls from pro-

spective clients kept coming in from my profiles. But I didn’t
reach my goal of $5k per month in six months …
I reached it in three!
I was shocked. Here I was, someone with no direction as far as

my career was concerned. I had learned a new skill and was
now experiencing a taste of the success I had always dreamed
of.
With Karen’s mentorship and guidance, I built a bookkeeping

business that allowed me to turn in my two weeks’ notice at
the gym within three months of starting it.
I kept growing my bookkeeping business and eventually, I grew

to multiple six figures in annual revenue. I like to call it my
“bookkeeping empire.”
Over the next few years, Elizabeth and I got married and had
two beautiful children, Capri and Ace. Bookkeeping has liter-
ally changed our lives.
19
KEYBOARD RICH
We’ve been able to save for retirement, move into a larger

home, save for college, and travel the world (sometimes even
on the spur of the moment).
The money I’m making is great, and I’m thankful. What really
makes me proud, though, is that I’m doing important work to
help my small business clients succeed too.
Starting a bookkeeping business can bring life-changing

results. I truly believe that anyone with a genuine desire to
improve their circumstances can do so as a bookkeeper.
That’s why I wrote this book. To show you how you, too, can
achieve your financial goals without working yourself into the
ground.
Because you don’t have to do it the hard way.
When I started my bookkeeping business, I hit every roadblock

imaginable. The secret to my success was that I had Karen, a
mentor I could lean on.
She helped me skip the struggle of trial and error and speed up
the learning curve.
And that’s exactly what I want this book to do for you.
This book contains the roadmap that’ll take you from wherever
you are now to financial freedom.
I recommend reading this entire book right now, cover to

cover, without setting it down. I intentionally kept it short and
20
to the point because I remember what it was like to work full-

time and try to learn something new.
You should be able to get through it in under two hours. After

your first pass, go back and read it a second time, and start
implementing the strategies provided as you go.
In the time it takes to watch a movie (or commute to work in

L.A.), you could put yourself on a brand new trajectory.
My whole life, I always felt that I was meant for more than
“just scraping by.” By taking a chance and starting a book-
keeping business, I realized I could do anything I put my mind
to.
I learned that I didn’t have to settle. I could have it all. If you’re

willing to learn the simple skill of bookkeeping and apply the
principles in this book, you can have it all, too.
21
Who Is Bill Von Fumetti?
(And Why Should You
Listen to Him?)
Now, let’s fast forward to today. My name is Bill Von Fumetti,

and I founded Von Fumetti, PC, a multiple-six-figure book-
keeping business.
I’ve been lucky enough to be featured in Forbes, Business

Insider, Yahoo! Finance, and more. I’ve also been invited to
speak at QuickBooks Connect, the premier accounting confer-
ence in the world.
How was I able to do all this in a few short years?
By committing myself to learn a valuable new skill and being

willing to believe in myself.
As a result of my success, some friends and family members

started asking me how they could do the same thing I did.
I went from helping a few people get their businesses started to

creating my own mentorship program called Booming Book-
keeping Business. Through the program, I teach people from
all walks of life how to start and grow the bookkeeping business
of their dreams.
23
KEYBOARD RICH
To date, I’ve helped over 7,000 people gain financial freedom

with many of them earning over $100k in annual revenue.
In this book, I will break down some of the biggest secrets I’ve
learned while building my bookkeeping business and helping
thousands of others build theirs.
What you’ll read in this book is universal. Not only has it

worked for me but also for the thousands of people that in-
vested in themselves and went through my Booming Book-
keeping Business program. To see an up-to-date list of student
success stories, you can visit KeyboardRich.com/success.
What has bookkeeping given me?
My bookkeeping business has taken me from struggling to pay

my bills to living a financially free life in beautiful Manhattan
Beach, California. It has taken me from being so stressed that
I was having night terrors to being able to start a family and
spend time with them. Every penny that made this life possible
came from my bookkeeping business.
I’m living proof that you don’t have to be someone special to

go from almost nothing to a whole lot of something in a
relatively short period of time. Even though I’ve made incred-
ible money with my bookkeeping business, in the beginning, I
was an average person struggling to get started.
My students and I are just everyday people who simply know

how to work hard and have fun. We’re not especially gifted or
talented. No super geniuses here. We just want to make a better
life for ourselves and the ones we love. If that sounds like you,
then you’re in the right place.
24
Who This Book Is For
The secrets shared inside this book are applicable regardless of

your background or current situation. As long as you’re willing
to put in the work and follow the roadmap I lay out in this
book, you can have all the success you’re looking for.
That’s right. Anyone, no matter their circumstance, can create

a life-changing bookkeeping business, including …
• Anyone wanting to ditch their 9–5 job (or supplement

their income)
• Stay-at-home moms and dads who want to spend

precious time with their families
• Bookkeepers or accountants who want to start lining

their own pockets instead of their boss’s
• Retirees who aren’t ready to ride off into the sunset

quite yet
• Anyone who simply wants more out of life
No matter where you’ve been or where you are, you deserve to

be living your dream life now.
And this book will help you do that.
25
Surprise!
Throughout this book, I’m going to cover everything you need

to start a profitable bookkeeping business. Nothing would
make me happier than to have you finish this book and proudly
declare, “I’m starting my bookkeeping business today!”
Books are powerful tools for knowledge, but the written word
can only do so much. Sometimes you need to see something in
action. As a result, I’ve included special bonuses throughout
this book. These free training videos are exclusively for those
who have purchased this book. They will be kept up to date so
you’ll always be able to refer back to them.
Head to the websites listed under each bonus to unlock a free

training that you won’t find anywhere else.
27
GETTING
STARTED
29
Schemes vs. Skills
Since the dawn of time, people have been looking for the fastest
and easiest ways to get rich.
It’s how our brains work. We want more comfort and financial
security, and we want it as quickly as possible. While there’s
nothing wrong with that, some of the ways of making that
happen are better than others.
In the ‘90s, it was late-night infomercials with a guy on a boat

surrounded by bikini-clad women saying you could make
millions in real estate overnight with no money down.
These days it’s multi-level marketing (MLM), drop-shipping,

selling on Amazon or eBay, day trading in the stock market,
and countless others.
What do all these things have in common?
They’re get-rich-quick schemes.
These schemes take advantage of our desire to make money fast

to try to get us to buy into something, but there’s no real
substance below the hype. They simply don’t work. Anything
that implies there’s a secret “trick” to making money is bound
to fail.
31
KEYBOARD RICH
Take MLMs for instance. According to the Federal Trade

Commission, less than 1% of MLM participants make a
profit.2
Day trading … also less than 1%. 3
Selling stuff online … there’s a 90% chance of failure in the

first year compared to an average of just 20% for other
businesses. 4
Would you bet your future with only a 1% chance of success

while having to push products on your friends and family all
day? Or would you rather bet on yourself with an 80% chance
of success? (And in some businesses, like bookkeeping, it’s
actually hard to fail because it costs almost nothing to operate.)
Schemes are pushed by people who know they don’t work, but
they don’t care. What they want is your money. They know
that by the time you realize you’re not getting rich, it’ll be too
late. The truth is, they’re the only ones getting rich.
MLMs like Herbalife and LuLaRoe have both been plagued by

lawsuits in recent years. Both promised a quick way to make a
lot of money. All you had to do was order their product and
sell it to your friends and family. Unfortunately, thousands of
people spent money upfront for inventory and got stuck with
it.
The company knew they wouldn’t be able to sell it because they

were minting new sales reps left and right. You couldn’t take
two steps without running into someone else who was selling
the same products to the same circle of friends. But the com-
pany didn’t care, because they’d already sold everything … to
the reps.
32
SCHEMES VS. SKILLS
If you’ve ever been scammed, you’re not alone. Mark Twain,

widely considered one of the greatest American writers of all
time, fell for many get-rich-quick schemes. 5
Like many people, he dreamed of a life of riches, and he tried

to find it in a lot of different places. Twain’s list of “business
ideas” included:
• Briefly attempting to profit from the purchase and re-

sale of Brazilian coca plants,
• Squatting in a Nevada forest with a friend, intending

to claim timber rights—until he ignited a fire, destroy-
ing all they'd pretended to own,
• Speculative gold and silver trading,
• An unsuccessful typesetting machine in which he put

in the equivalent of $7 million in today's money,
• And a powdered dietary supplement from Germany.
Maybe today he’d have been in on that Herbalife lawsuit!
Twain lost a lot of money over his lifetime and at one point
ended up living in a shack in a place called Jackass Hill
(seriously) in California.
Despite his failed business ideas, he honed his skills as a writer

and humorist in order to "advertise himself." He then went on
to compose masterpieces such as The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
33
KEYBOARD RICH
That skill helped him create a fortune that was worth $15
million (in today’s dollars) when he died in 1910.
What Twain came to realize, and what his story illustrates so

well, is that skills are always more valuable than schemes.
While it is theoretically possible to get rich quickly, schemes

are a really good way for you to make someone else rich, so the
value for you is very, very low.
As Warren Buffett, the business magnate and investor who is

currently the fifth wealthiest person in the world, said:
“The best thing you can do is to be exceptionally good at

something. Whatever abilities you have can't be taken away
from you. They can't actually be inflated away from you. The
best investment by far is anything that develops yourself, and
it's not taxed at all.”6
Which brings us back to the beauty of bookkeeping.
Bookkeeping is a skill. It’s an ability you can learn and hone

which creates huge value for businesses. There are several
reasons that bookkeeping is one of the best skills you can learn
to start your own business.
First, as I said, it’s a real skill that no one can take away from
you. It’s not a speculative “opportunity.” It’s something that
you’ll have forever. And even though the software may change,
the concepts of bookkeeping have been the same for centuries.
While bookkeeping is very valuable, it’s also simple to learn.

You can learn everything you need to know from free resources
that I’ll tell you about later in the book.
34
SCHEMES VS. SKILLS
Every small business needs bookkeeping. Yet most small busi-

ness owners don’t have time to focus on the books when they’d
rather be running the day-to-day operations. That’s where you
come in.
Building a bookkeeping business is a formula for success that

looks very different from a get-rich-quick scheme. Check it
out:
In a typical scheme like an MLM, you buy expensive inventory

and then try to pressure sell to people who don’t need (or want)
what you’re selling. It’s a recipe for financial losses. 7
By starting your own bookkeeping business, you’re investing

in yourself and building a skill set you’ll carry with you forever.
A skill set that business owners need—and they’re willing to
pay you well for your expertise. It’s a winning formula that sells
itself time and time again without much effort.
To show you how schemes and skills compare, let me tell you
a quick story about one of my students, Jan.
Jan was a stay-at-home mom trying to find a way to make extra

income while still being there for her kids. She thought she’d
found a good opportunity with an MLM selling makeup. She
ended up investing $10,000 in inventory and straining
relationships with friends and family as she bugged them to
join her “downline” or buy her products.
She hustled to get people to join but felt awful trying to con-
vince them they’d make money because she knew she wasn’t
making any.
35
KEYBOARD RICH
In the end, she lost her $10,000 and was left with boxes full of
makeup she’ll never use and can’t sell.
When she first ran across the idea of starting a bookkeeping

business, she was a little gun-shy because she’d recently been
burned by the MLM’s so-called “business opportunity.” But
she realized that learning a skill made a lot more sense than
trying to push people into a scheme.
She didn’t know the first thing about bookkeeping, but she
jumped in and took the first step. She signed up for her free
QuickBooks account.
Then she started learning how to categorize transactions, create

invoices and bills, and check her work to make sure everything
was accurate. Even though QuickBooks made it easy, she still
needed to learn which buttons to click. And with every click,
she built her confidence.
In less than a month, Jan got her first client and realized, I can
do this!
Today, Jan is a member of our $100k Club for people who are
making over six figures annually in their business. She works
part-time and never misses a special moment with her kids.
She didn’t let prior setbacks stop her from believing in herself.
More importantly, she believed in the power of learning a skill.
The problem is that people want to believe there’s a trick to

making money. That there’s some magic bullet or secret sauce.
But in the back of their minds, they know it isn’t true.
36
SCHEMES VS. SKILLS
The reality is this: learning a skill that people need is the best
way to virtually guarantee your success.
As Benjamin Franklin once said, “An investment in knowledge

pays the best interest.”
37
Turning $0 into $100k
I think it’s fair to say that most people would like to make more
money.
If you could earn more in the same amount of time or earn the
same amount by working a lot less, wouldn’t you do it? (As-
suming it was all above board, of course.)
The thing that stops so many people from starting their own
business and making the kind of money they really want to
make is likely the same thing that’s stopped you in the past.
Money.
Yes, we all wish we could earn more money, but we’ve also
heard the phrase: “You need to spend money to make money.”
The cost and risk associated with starting a business is the #1
thing holding people back, according to a recent Harris Poll. 8
And while we hear that old axiom all the time about how you
have to spend money to make money, is it really true?
Quick sidebar: This saying didn’t come from a

titan of industry. It’s actually attributed to a Ro-
man comic playwright named Titus Maccius Plau-
tus from about a hundred years BC who was a
failure in business. 9
39
KEYBOARD RICH
So what’s really true here?
The answer is, it depends on the type of business you’re

starting.
If you’re starting a retail store, you need inventory to sell. You’ll

also need to buy or lease a physical building if you’re going the
brick-and-mortar route. That takes cash to get started.
If you’re starting in real estate, you’ll need even more capital to

buy properties.
Some service-based businesses may require you to have

substantial equipment. To start a lawn care business, for ex-
ample, you’ll need mowers and trucks.
But what about an online service-based business that leverages

your skills and knowledge? One where you’re paid for what you
know and how that knowledge benefits your customers?
Mailchimp, the largest email marketing company in the world,

started with a whopping $0.
Back in 2001, founders Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius were

working as freelance web developers. Their customers started
reaching out asking for email marketing services, so they wrote
some code in their free time. Before they knew it, their new
service took off. 10
No money.
They simply leveraged a skill that was in demand.
They “spent” time and energy to make money.
40
TURNING $0 INTO $100K
How much money?
In 2021, Mailchimp was bought for $12 billion (by none other
than Intuit, maker of QuickBooks). 11
By using skills to solve a problem lots of businesses were

having, they were able to turn $0 into $12 billion. That’s an
incredible return.
And you don’t have to look to billion-dollar companies to see

that you can start a business with nothing. Look at the kid
down the street making extra money mowing lawns or baby-
sitting during the summer. Startup cost: $0.
So what’s the common thread between Mailchimp, a billion-

dollar company, and the kid down the street who makes a
hundred bucks a month during the summer?
When you have a skill and you can provide a service to others,
you don’t need money to start a business.
The same principle applies to starting a bookkeeping business.

You’ve got a valuable skill that you can provide to businesses,
and it’s not necessary to have a bunch of money upfront. Once
you’ve got the skill (and we’ll talk about how to easily learn it
in Section 3), you can get started without a single dollar in
most cases.
So, aside from money, what do you need to get started and
what don’t you need?
Let’s clear this up so you can hit the ground running.
41
KEYBOARD RICH
Since you’ll be doing the books using software, you’ll need a

computer (see, we’re already saving money on paper, an abacus,
and an old-timey green visor). In most cases, you won’t need
to spend a penny because you probably already have one.
And you don’t need anything fancy or expensive to do the

books. Whether you’ve got a Mac, a PC, or even a
Chromebook, you can get started. As long as you have access
to the internet, you’re good to go.
I started my bookkeeping business with an old clunker laptop

that was given to me by a family friend. I’ve even talked with
bookkeepers who started at the public library.
Since the bookkeeping software you’ll be using is cloud-based,

you don’t need any specific amount of memory or speed and
you don’t need to have software loaded onto the computer
you’re using.
Which brings us to the software …
You’ll need QuickBooks. You’ve heard me talk about Quick-

Books several times already. It’s the app you’ll use to do the
bookkeeping for your clients.
There are several versions of QuickBooks, including some

advanced, expensive desktop versions for huge companies. But
all you need to work with your small business clients is Quick-
Books Online, which can be accessed from anywhere with an
internet connection.
The best part?
42
There’s a version of QuickBooks Online that’s absolutely free

for bookkeepers and accountants. It’s called QuickBooks On-
line Accountant (QBOA), and I’ll show you how to get your
free account later in this book.
When you sign up for that QBOA account, you get free access
to the software you can use to build your bookkeeping
business. You also get tons of free training on how to use the
software, from beginner to advanced, as well as access to free
certification exams you can use to show your knowledge to
potential clients.
The next thing you’ll need is an email address.
You’ll be communicating with your clients mostly through

email but, assuming you’re not living under a rock, you already
have an email address. If you have been living under a rock, or
would like to create a separate business email address, head on
over to gmail.com and get a free one. Five minutes, zero dollars.
A minute ago, I said you can get started for free in most cases.
That’s because, in some cities, you might need a business lic-
ense.
In essence, a business license is approval from your city (or in

some cases, your county) that they’re aware of your business
and it’s ok to operate it. It’s typically a simple form you fill out
with automatic approval. Whether or not you need one
depends on where you live. There are lots of places in the US
where you don’t need one, and others where you do.
43
KEYBOARD RICH
To find out if you need a business license, simply

Google your city name and “business license.” Or
reach out to your city or county clerk to find out.
If you do need one, they are very inexpensive …
typically around $50.
That’s it. That’s all you’ll need to get started and make money.
I happen to live in a city where I needed a business license, so

my total cost to get started was $70.
And I’ve turned that into multiple six figures.
Now let’s talk about what you don’t need.
I see far too many people fail to get started because they think
something is standing in their way, but really, it’s just a mirage.
They’re held back from starting their dream business because
of something that’s really not even an issue.
I once heard a story that really struck me because it illustrates

this so well …
When trainers work with elephants, they start when the

elephant is very young. They tie the baby elephant to a stump
or a post when they don’t want them wandering around.
Because they’re too small to break the rope, they become

conditioned to see that rope as a limitation that can't be over-
come. When they grow up, even though they weigh several
tons, they can still be tied with a small rope because they don’t
think there’s anything they can do to break it.
44
The same is true for horses. Once they’ve grown used to being
tied to a hitching post, you can keep them in place by simply
laying the reins over the post without even tying it. Talk about
self-limiting beliefs!
We often do the same thing to ourselves, when we’ve been led

to believe we’re not capable of breaking free. So let’s take a
minute to break some ropes here.
You don’t need a degree …
a license …
or prior experience to become a bookkeeper.
You can get started, do good work, and make good money
helping clients without a degree or previous experience. (We
will talk about experience in the next chapter, though.)
You don’t need to be a CPA …
CPAs do taxes. Lots of CPAs know nothing about bookkeep-

ing. A huge percentage of CPAs hire bookkeepers. It’s a totally
different skill set.
You don’t need an office or equipment …
You can work remotely from home or anywhere in the world.

And technology has all but eliminated the need for paper as
well, so you won’t be needing a printer, scanner, or fax ma-
chine. Your clients may scan physical receipts and bills, but
what you’ll be working with on your end is strictly digital.
You don’t need a marketing budget. The best ways of getting

clients are free, and I’m going to show you what those are later
45
KEYBOARD RICH
in the book. Most of my successful students in the $100k Club

haven’t spent a dime on advertising to build their businesses.
You don’t need insurance, at least not to get started. Profes-

sional liability insurance (also known as errors and omissions—
E&O—insurance) makes sense once you have some clients.
Essentially, E&O insurance covers you if you make a mistake

(which is extremely rare and preventable as we’ll cover in
Section 3). It’s relatively inexpensive at around $200 per year,
and you’ll already be making money before you need it.
So, if you’ve been holding back because you’re worried that

you don’t have the resources or aren’t “qualified” to start your
own business, I hope you can see that you have everything you
need to get started. There’s really nothing standing between
you and your bookkeeping business.
Nada. Zilch. Zero.
In the words of Coco Chanel, “The best things in life are free.”
46
The Experience Myth
In one of my favorite movies, The Pursuit of Happyness, Will

Smith plays a homeless father trying to succeed. 12 The movie
is based on the true story of Chris Gardner.
The movie opens with Chris having spent his last dime on
portable bone-density scanners that he is trying to sell to
doctors' offices (which has a distinctly scheme-y feel to it).
Meanwhile, Chris’s wife is growing more and more frustrated
as she works multiple jobs to pay the bills.
One day, Chris sees a man driving a red Ferrari and asks him
what he does. The man says he’s a stockbroker. Looking up at
the building the man walks into, Chris sees how happy and
carefree everyone seems to be. It’s the exact opposite of how his
life feels right now. “They all looked so damn happy to me,”
he says. “Why couldn’t I look like that?”
Against all odds, Chris lands an internship at a brokerage, only

to discover it’s basically a competition for their next new hire.
At the end of the three-month unpaid internship, only one
person will get a paying job, and everyone else will be out of
luck.
Chris’s wife leaves him, and he and his son become homeless.
Chris has to leave early each day to pick up his son from school,
so he has to do in six hours—with no formal education and no
prior experience—what the advantaged others do in nine.
47
KEYBOARD RICH
He even goes to extreme measures like not hanging up the

phone between cold calls and not drinking water at work to
save time on bathroom breaks.
While this may seem too good to be true, the real-life story
ends with Chris passing the notoriously difficult Series 7 exam
to be licensed to sell stocks and beating all the other interns to
get the job. Later in life, he even starts his own investment firm
and eventually sells a minority stake for several million dollars.
Chris Gardner went from homeless to millionaire. From sleep-

ing in a public restroom to being able to take care of his son.
He was successful not because of his background or experience,

but because he cared deeply about creating something better
for his family, and he worked harder than everyone else to gain
that skill and make it a reality.
And Chris learned by doing. Notice that he gained all the skills
and experience he needed while actually doing the job.
If you think about it, that’s how you learn most things. By
doing.
Riding a bike.
Driving.
Flying a plane.
Hang on, you might be thinking. Don’t you need a lot of

practice hours to learn to fly a plane?
Let me tell you a story.
48
THE EXPERIENCE MYTH
On May 10, 2022, Darren Harrison and a friend were flying

back from a fishing trip in the Bahamas, when the pilot of the
small Cessna airplane told them, “Guys, I gotta tell you, I don’t
feel good.”13
Unfortunately, it wasn’t simple indigestion from some bad

shellfish he’d eaten between flights. The pilot had a cardiac
event and completely lost consciousness.
And although he’d never flown before or so much as taken a

flying lesson, Darren jumped into the pilot’s seat and put on
the headset.
He started talking to the air traffic controller, and though the

controller had never flown that specific type of plane before, he
talked Darren through flying and successfully landing the
plane.
Not only did Darren’s actions save his own life and that of his
friend, but they even made it to safety in time for the pilot to
get the medical attention he needed.
It’s safe to say that Darren wasn’t “qualified” to fly that plane,
and I’m sure he’d agree with you. But what if he’d said,
“There’s nothing I can do here since I don’t have experience.
Guess I’ll just enjoy the ride down.”
Luckily, experience is not a prerequisite for success.
Oftentimes, the only qualification you need is to show up and

be willing to learn.
With the right training and mentorship, you can be successful

and build the life you’ve always wanted.
49
KEYBOARD RICH
I share these stories with you to illustrate how powerful it is

when you commit to doing what it takes and learning along
the way. And while these stories are inspiring and, yes, a little
harrowing, I’ve got good news for you …
Learning bookkeeping is a whole lot easier than passing the

Series 7 exam or landing a Cessna.
Maybe you’ve never flown a plane or taken a big licensing

exam, but if you’re a parent, you already know how important
it is to learn “on the job.” When you’re expecting your first
child, you do everything you can to learn in advance. You read
all the parenting books, take classes, and potentially do a lot of
panicking. I know my wife and I sure did a lot of research when
we were expecting our daughter.
Then you actually have the baby and realize how much you
simply learn by doing. Every day is a new lesson and you pick
it up faster than you thought possible. And, hopefully, you also
learn from mentors in your life like your own parents or friends
and family who are ahead of you on the parenting journey.
Bookkeeping works the same way. You can learn a certain

amount from books and classes ahead of time, but you don’t
need to be completely “ready” to get started.
You can learn on the job—while making real money—working

with clients.
Like my student, Maura …
Her brother owned an auto repair shop and asked for her help
taking care of his books. She didn’t know a thing about book-
50
THE EXPERIENCE MYTH
keeping, but she learned as she went and was a huge help to her
brother.
Maura realized she could offer her services to others, so she

launched her own bookkeeping business.
She started with simple clients, which allowed her to grow at

her own pace and learn the basics before taking on anything
more complex. And that’s the great thing about running your
own business. You get to decide exactly who you take on as a
client. You don’t need to know it all on day one. You can build
your skills and confidence as you go.
Maura built her bookkeeping business on the side, while still

working her full-time job. It wasn’t long, though, before her
bookkeeping income completely replaced and outpaced her
salary.
Exactly one year later, to the day, she quit her job and focused
on her bookkeeping business. She didn’t need her safety net
any longer, as she was now a full-fledged member of our $100k
Club.
Today, Maura’s bookkeeping business is thriving. She’s a pro

and she works with all kinds of clients. And while she can
handle any bookkeeping challenge that comes her way, she still
gets to pick and choose exactly which types of businesses she
wants to serve.
She’s making more money …
In less time …
Taking time off …
51
KEYBOARD RICH
And hanging out with her kids.
Maura is living proof that anyone can do this, with or without

prior experience. And that you can grow your business your
way. There’s really no need to be nervous.
Now you know that you don’t have to wait to start your
business until you’ve learned everything. No one knows
everything when they take on something new. You can gain
experience while you build your business and take on new
clients as you feel comfortable.
Now let’s take a look at how to turn that brand-new business

into the dream life you’ve been looking for. Like everything
else in bookkeeping, it’s a numbers game. When everything
adds up, it doesn’t have to be complicated at all.
52
Designing Your Dream Life
by the Numbers
You may have read, or at least heard of, the book Rich Dad,
Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki.
If not, then you’re one of the few, because the book has sold
over 44 million copies and spent six years on the New York
Times bestseller list. According to Publishers Weekly, it’s the
best-selling personal finance book of all time.14
Robert is an investor, mostly in real estate, and in the book, he

shares the financial secrets that the wealthy pass down to their
children to help them build wealth. He shares what he learned
from his own lower-middle-class dad and what he was taught
by his “rich dad,” who was actually the father of a friend.
According to an October 2021 article from Capitalism.com,

Robert’s net worth is estimated to be more than $100
million. 15 Between his books and his own success in building
wealth, Kiyosaki obviously knows how to make money.
He’s also been quoted as saying the most important person in

his company is his bookkeeper.
Why?
Because his bookkeeper is responsible for pulling together all

his financial information in a way that’s clear and concise. He
53
KEYBOARD RICH
uses that information to make smart decisions for his business,

which allows him to make even more money.
And that’s the true value of bookkeeping. It’s not how many
hours we spend putting numbers in boxes. It’s how we help our
clients make better decisions and run their businesses in ways
that are more efficient and, ultimately, yield higher profits.
Every business owner wants to be more profitable. Smart

business owners, like the ones you’ll be working with, are more
than willing to pay for the value you create by doing their
books and doing them well.
Let me give you an example.
When an NBA team acquires a player, they’re making an

investment in the team. The better that player does, the more
he contributes to the team’s bottom line because fans pay large
amounts of money to watch the amazing things these players
do on the court.
Ticket sales are a major source of revenue for teams (along with
merchandise sales, broadcast rights, etc.), and the best players
sell tickets week after week. A player like Steph Curry of the
Golden State Warriors commands a serious salary (over $48
million per year) 16 because of the crowd he draws and the
revenue he helps bring in. He’s widely considered one of the
best basketball players of all time. 17
Let’s rewind to the 2016 NBA playoffs for a minute. The clock
was ticking down to halftime and Curry was guarding Houston
Rockets player Trevor Ariza. Then something happened that
left Golden State Warriors fans cringing.
54
DESIGNING YOUR DREAM LIFE BY THE NUMBERS
Steph slipped on a puddle of sweat on the court and hurt his

knee. Fans were worried, with good reason, and Curry ended
up missing two crucial games because of the injury. 18
An injury like that could cost the team the title as well as impact
attendance and revenue. The Warriors did end up losing the
championship to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and who’s to say
how much Curry’s injury played a role? It’s big business.
As you can see, keeping the players safe and healthy is of the
utmost importance.
Which is why the folks who mop up the sweat left on the floor
when a player falls down can earn up to $100k per year. 19
If you’ve watched any basketball, I’m sure you’ve seen them.

They run out on the court to dry the floor between plays or
while the action is at the other end of the court.
Considering they only work 41 games per year and the games
only last about two and a half hours, most people wouldn’t
expect their pay to be so high.
So why do they get paid up to $100k?
These mopping masters aren’t being paid for their time, they’re
being paid for the value they contribute to the team. If they
can wipe up the sweat in time to prevent a slip, then a player’s
misstep is far less disastrous.
Preventing a single fall can create an impact of millions for the

team.
55
KEYBOARD RICH
As a bookkeeper, your work helps your clients make more

money. And it can also keep your clients from making
expensive mistakes. Add it all up, and your clients are making
and saving many times what you charge to do the books.
Smart business owners are happy to pay for that value.
So just how valuable is bookkeeping?
Every year, Intuit does a study on the current state of the

industry, asking lots of questions to nearly one thousand
bookkeepers. One of those questions is how much they make
per hour.
The following graphic from the latest version of the Intuit Rate
Survey shows the average hourly rate for a bookkeeper is $76
per hour.20
That works out to $158k per year if they work full-time, or

$100k if they work part-time for 26 hours per week.
Let's put that in context. Remember earlier what I told our

waitress in Hawaii whose aunt was a bookkeeper? You always
56
make more money working for yourself than you do working

for someone else. That’s common sense when you think about
it because your boss is always going to make a profit from your
work.
Some of the bookkeepers who responded to Intuit’s survey are

working for someone else’s firm and making less than average.
That means that many bookkeepers out there are running their
own businesses and making much more than the average.
If that sounds like a good gig to you, don’t worry, we’ll break
down how to get there in a second. But keep in mind that it’s
a great deal for business owners too. When a bookkeeper does
his or her job well, the additional money the business makes as
a result of that work is enough to pay us many times over. It’s
a win-win for everyone.
So, how do you get the income you need to live the life you
want to live? Let’s take a closer look.
The average bookkeeping client takes about 10 hours of work

per month. Of course, there are businesses that are bigger and
smaller, simpler and more complex, and you can choose the
ones you want to work with and price accordingly. For our
purposes, let’s look at that average 10-hour-per-month client.
How many of those clients would you need in order to live

your ideal life?
If you don’t already have a super clear picture of what that

looks like, I want you to take some time right now and picture
it.
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KEYBOARD RICH
Imagine your ideal life. The way you’d really love to be living.
This is no time to be shy. After all, this is your chance to truly
design your own life and you need to know the target if you
want to build a business that can help you hit a bullseye.
Got a picture of what that life looks like? Great. How much
does your ideal life cost? How much rent or mortgage would
you be paying? How much would you be spending on dining
out? How much would you be spending on vacations? How
much would you like to be saving?
When you add it all up, how much does it cost each month to
live your ideal life?
Let’s say to live this amazing life that you want to live, you’re
going to need $8,000 per month. That’s about $100k per year.
If an average client takes 10 hours per month, and we can

charge $76 per hour, each client pays us $760 per month.
Keep in mind that you won’t be billing by the hour.

Instead, you’ll be charging a flat rate per month
based on the average number of hours worked.
You want your client to see your monthly rate as
an investment in the value you create with your
work.
So let’s divide our $8,000 monthly income needs by $760 per

month. You can see that you need about 11 clients. We’ll even
tack on an additional client to cover your business expenses so
it’s all profit. That’s 12 clients.
58
Your dream life is only 12 yesses away.
Oh, and you’re only working about 30 hours per week.
When you focus on the things that truly matter to you and
work backward from there, designing your dream life is much
simpler than you might expect.
All that’s standing between you and the financial freedom to

create your dream life is 12 yesses—12 people—and you will
have the life that you have always wanted. From there, maybe
you could have a life that you didn't think was possible.
BONUS: I’ve put together a calculator that

makes it easy to figure out how much you can
make, how many clients you’ll need, and how
many hours you’ll be working to achieve your
dream life.
Just head over to:
KeyboardRich.com/calculator
My student Jeremy went through this exact exercise. He de-

termined that the number he wanted to hit was $10k per
month—a tad more than he was making at his full-time job.
That would allow him to quit his job and spend more time
with his two young children. He and his wife also wanted to
travel more and start saving for their kids’ college and their own
retirement.
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KEYBOARD RICH
Jeremy did the math, as you did a second ago, and found that
he needed 14 clients to hit his goal. He started to implement
his new marketing strategies and he got that first yes within
three weeks. That was a huge confidence boost, and a nice little
bit of extra income while he was still working his full-time job.
While he loved his job, what he wanted more was the freedom
and flexibility of being his own boss. With a goal to hit 14
clients in a year, he ended up getting a total of 16 yesses
within 11 months and turned in his two weeks’ notice.
So how do we get those yesses? It’s easier than you think. And
we’ll talk about exactly how to get them in the next section.
60
GETTING
CLIENTS
61
There’s a Client
Under My Bed!
Getting clients and making sales is the lifeblood of every com-

pany. It’s no secret that you’ve got to have customers to have a
successful business.
This is true whether you’re a bookkeeper or a coffee shop

owner.
So imagine being the owner of a small coffee shop. Business is

good and you’re living the dream of serving great coffee to great
people. Maybe you even feel like this is your answer to, “What
would you do even if you didn’t get paid?”
Then one day, as you pull up to your cafe, you see a new sign
on the recently constructed building across the street:
“STARBUCKS”
The biggest coffee chain in the world is opening right next

door. Millions of dollars in their marketing budget. Worldwide
recognition. The siren will be calling people right out of your
cafe and into the arms of corporate America.
All you’ve ever done for marketing is sponsor the local Little
League team.
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KEYBOARD RICH
Your heart drops into your stomach as you envision Starbucks

taking all your customers and putting you out of business.
Everything you’ve worked so hard for—poof!—right down the
drain.
That’s exactly what happened to Herb Hyman who owned a

few coffee shops in the Los Angeles area in the early 1990s. 21
He thought he was done for and he’d get put out of business.
But a funny thing happened when Starbucks finally opened.

He didn’t lose customers. Oddly enough, his sales grew higher
than they ever had been.
How was that possible?
When the lines at Starbucks grew too long, people started

noticing his coffeehouse right next door. Starbucks was doing
Herb’s marketing for him.
Herb Hyman underestimated the sheer number of customers

who are out there.
And if you’re worried that it’ll be hard to find customers for

your bookkeeping business, you too might be underestimating
how many potential customers exist in the marketplace.
According to the Small Business Administration, there are 32.5

million small businesses in the US 22 with 5.4 million new busi-
nesses starting every year. 23
Since it’s a legal requirement for businesses to keep their books,

every single one of them needs a bookkeeper.
64
THERE’S A CLIENT UNDER MY BED!
As you can see, your potential client pool is huge. And it’s
getting larger every year. Right now, the demand for book-
keepers is currently at an all-time high.
So it’s easy to find clients as long as you know where to look.
We’ll be walking through two of the top ways of getting clients

in a later chapter, but have you looked under your bed?
That’s where I found a client who pays me $2,200 per month.
Okay, I may have to explain that one.
My wife and I were living in an apartment complex a few years

ago, and one day I was taking out the trash.
I ran into a fellow resident and we got to talking. Turns out he

owned a yogurt shop in town.
He found out I was a bookkeeper, and he happened to need

one, so we scheduled a call.
He ended up becoming a client, and I later found out he

actually lived in the apartment right under ours. So I really did
find a client under my bed!
Of course, most of your clients won’t come from happy

accidents, but the point is that there are business owners
everywhere who need a bookkeeper. Maybe they’ve recently
opened. Maybe they’re sick of struggling through the books on
their own when they should be running their business. Maybe
they had a bookkeeper who moved on.
There are dozens of reasons a business owner needs a book-

keeper. And they’re out there, waiting for you.
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KEYBOARD RICH
And the really cool thing is that you’ll be running your book-
keeping business completely virtually. That means you can
work with clients across the country. I’ve worked with clients
in Florida, New York, Las Vegas, and Illinois, to name a few.
Location isn’t an issue at all for bookkeepers.
Being able to work virtually means two really great things …
First, if you choose to specialize in an industry, you’re not

limited to where you live. If you want to focus on working with
dentists, for instance, you aren’t stuck with just the few dentists
in your area. This makes specializing much more feasible,
which is great because it’s a solid way to grow your business.
And second, it means the total number of potential clients you

can work with is tens of millions.
Now, getting those 12 yesses sounds even easier, doesn't it?
It’s just a matter of putting the right message in front of those

prospective clients.
And that’s exactly what I’m going to teach you to do in the

next three chapters.
66
The Only Thing
Clients Care About
We talked earlier about how anyone can learn bookkeeping

and do good work even if they don’t have experience or a de-
gree.
But what about clients? Aren’t they going to care how much
experience you have? Are they going to choose to work with
someone who is absolutely new?
The good news is, the smart ones will.
Let me show you an example.
Back in 2002, Ann Hiatt applied for an assistant position at

Amazon. It was a bold move, as she had no prior experience.
But Ann made that move and made it through several rounds
of interviews before she was called in for one final interview
with the founder, Jeff Bezos.
I’m sure Ann was nervous, but she didn’t have to be.
She landed the job and ended up as an assistant to one of the

most powerful business owners in the world.
So how did she get the job with no experience?
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KEYBOARD RICH
Because Jeff Bezos is a smart businessman. He hires people so

ambitious and determined that they make up for any expertise
they lack.
As Ann says, Jeff believes that “Grit, ambition, and energy are
more valuable than a specific skill set.” 24
The smart business owners you’ll be working with are the same.
They aren’t looking for the person with the most experience.
Sure, they want someone who knows bookkeeping. But that
can be learned.
What they’re really looking for is someone who truly cares

about their business. Someone who’s going to work hard.
Someone they can trust. Someone who can be a true partner to
help them grow their business. And you can be that person,
even if you don’t have prior experience.
The truth is, business owners are selfish. Not in a bad way.
They’re just far more concerned about their business success
than anything else—including your level of experience.
In fact, the business owners who reach out to us aren’t even

looking for a bookkeeper.
Think about it. When you go to Home Depot to buy a drill

bit, you don’t really want the drill bit. You want the hole the
drill bit is going to create so that you can hang that giant
flatscreen TV.
So what do business owners want? They want the good things

that happen to their business as a result of the work bookkeep-
ers do.
68
THE ONLY THING CLIENTS CARE ABOUT
They want to make more money.
They want to grow their business and expand locations.
They want to spend more time with their family and maybe
even buy a boat!
The bookkeeping work we do saves business owners time from

having to do it themselves. This allows them to focus on the
things that grow their business.
Our work also produces reports that help them make better
decisions in their business. By making decisions based on
sound financials instead of gut instinct, their business can grow
at incredible speed.
When their business is succeeding, that bleeds over to their

personal life, making that better too. Who wouldn’t want to
have less financial stress, more free time, less second-guessing
about the numbers, and more money to spend on vacations
and saving for their kids’ college? These are the things business
owners are really looking for when they hire a bookkeeper.
So in order to stand out to these people, your marketing mes-

saging must focus on benefits. What’s in it for them? What
great things will happen as a result of working with you?
What do I mean when I say marketing messaging? Earlier, I

told you about how you can post your profile on different sites
to get all the clients you want. Your marketing messaging is
what you’ll post in the description or “About Me” section on
those profiles. It is simply the text that prospective clients will
read on your profiles that will prompt them to reach out to
you.
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KEYBOARD RICH
Effective marketing messaging frames the benefits of working

with you in a compelling way.
The keys to good messaging never change, because they’re

based on human nature and what’s most likely to appeal to
your prospects, no matter where they see the message.
Here are a couple of examples of benefits-based messaging to

help you see this in action:
I help small businesses increase their profit by opti-

mizing their bookkeeping and providing actionable
data they can use to grow their business.
I save small business owners an average of 120 hours

per year by taking bookkeeping completely off their
plate, freeing them up to focus on what they’re passion-
ate about.
Increasing profit. Growing their business. Reducing stress.

Saving them time. These are valuable benefits, and reading
benefit statements in your marketing will hit home with
potential clients in a big way.
Including these benefits on your profiles (which we’ll talk

about soon) allows you to stand out from every other book-
keeper, even those with a lot more experience.
Why?
Because most of those bookkeepers are making the same mis-

take. It’s the most common mistake I see in bookkeepers’
marketing by far.
70
THE ONLY THING CLIENTS CARE ABOUT
They’re marketing by talking about themselves, their creden-

tials, and how long they’ve been in business. Their marketing
looks more like a resume.
Unfortunately, clients don’t care about that. They care about

the great things that are going to happen in their business.
Your experience isn’t what keeps them up at night. How their

business is doing does.
Derek, one of my students, saw firsthand how powerful the

right marketing messaging can be.
His bookkeeping business was barely a month old. His online

profile was surrounded by bookkeepers with more experience.
But because his profile was optimized with benefits-based
messaging, one of the most famous luxury real estate agents in
his area reached out to him.
Instead of talking about why he loved bookkeeping or the types

of services he offered, Derek spoke directly to the wants and
needs of potential clients. How he could help them reduce
expenses, how he could help them increase revenue, and how
he could help them save time.
He signed the client for $1,150 per month and has since raised
his fees to $1,550 because his client's business has grown so
much.
He was able to stand out because his messaging spoke directly

to the prospect’s wants and needs.
As you can see, standing out is easy when you focus on the
client instead of yourself.
71
KEYBOARD RICH
Now let’s talk about how you can use a simple alternative to
selling so you can close more (and bigger) clients, just like
Derek.
72
If You Hate Selling,
Do This Instead
“Judge a man by his questions

rather than his answers.”
—Voltaire
Right now, you may be excited about starting a bookkeeping

business and relieved to find out how simple it can be, but still
worried because you hate the idea of selling. If that’s you, this
could be the most impactful chapter you read.
The important thing to remember is that there are two types

of products and services in the world: those that need to be sold
and those that sell themselves. And a service or product that
needs to be sold in one situation may totally sell itself in
another. It all depends on your customer’s frame of mind.
Let me show you what I mean.
If you're selling cold lemonade in the dead of winter in

Chicago, that’s going to be a tough sell. You're really going to
have to persuade the person walking by as to why they should
drink your freezing-cold lemonade.
However, if you set up a lemonade stand on a busy sidewalk in

Florida in the middle of August, you don't have to sell any-
73
KEYBOARD RICH
thing. People will line up to get your lemonade simply because

you’re there, it’s hot, and they’re thirsty. Your lemonade is
meeting a need that they’re painfully aware of, so it’s effortless.
The same is true for doctors. We all need doctors, so they really
don’t need to sell anything. They’re able to set up shop and
more or less wait for people to line up.
How many times have you been at the doctor's office and had
to wait forever to get in? The staff may have even been a bit
short with you. Yet, when you get to the counter, you hand
them your money and you come back again the next time.
In contrast, what would you do if you walked into a car dealer-

ship and they made you wait for hours or were rude to you?
You'd walk out.
Now, I'm not telling you to be rude to your bookkeeping pros-

pects. What I'm telling you is that there are certain products
that need to be sold and ones that don't.
And the ones that don't are almost an automatic sale … if you
simply place them in front of the right person at the right time.
My goal in this chapter and the next is to show you not how to
sell, but how to place this service in front of the right person at
the right time—so that you don't have to sell.
If you get on the phone with someone who needs bookkeeping,

it takes very little effort or selling to get them to hire you. I’ve
seen it happen thousands of times.
Business owners don’t want high-pressure sales tactics from

professional partners anyway.
74
IF YOU HATE SELLING, DO THIS INSTEAD
They want to know that you care about their business and the
challenges they’re facing and that you’re willing and able to
help them reach their goals.
All you have to do to communicate that to them is ask a few

simple questions.
Yes, questions. No pushing, no selling, no convincing.
So if you were worried that you’d be on the phone with pro-

spective clients and wouldn’t know what to say, or wouldn’t
have the right answers to questions you might be asked, there’s
no need to worry. Questions are going to be your secret weapon
in connecting with prospects and getting them to hire you.
I realized how easy this was by accident, actually. And it was

on my very first phone consultation.
I was really nervous, so I rehearsed everything I was going to

say on the call. Things that I thought would really impress the
prospect I was going to speak with. I was feeling confident.
When the time came, I picked up the phone, dialed the num-
ber, and when the prospect answered … I went blank.
I couldn’t remember anything I was going to say. I was lucky

to force out, “Hi, I’m Bill the bookkeeper.”
Fortunately for me, after a bit of silence, he started telling me

about his business. He spoke for about a minute and then it
was obviously time for me to talk. But I couldn’t remember
what to say.
75
KEYBOARD RICH
In a desperate attempt to say something, all I could think to do

was ask him a question about what he’d just said.
It worked! He talked some more, answering my question. And

the conversation kept going like that. I kept asking about his
business and he kept giving me more and more information.
Eventually, he said, “You know, you’re the third bookkeeper

I’ve spoken with and none of the others asked me this many
questions.”
Whoops! I thought I was doomed.
Then he said, “It’s refreshing to talk to someone who’s willing

to take the time to get to know what I’m really looking for.”
I was stunned. Here I was doing my best not to sound stupid,

and I was doing the opposite simply by asking questions.
We had a great talk, and I ended up signing him on as a client.
By asking questions, I was able to subtly communicate that I

cared about the client and their business. I realized landing
clients had nothing to do with sales or selling. It was simply
about asking the right questions and showing the client that I
cared about their needs.
In the next chapter, I’m going to cover exactly how to get

people on the phone. Once they are on the phone, here are
three questions you can ask that will essentially make them
drink that lemonade like it's 105 degrees out in the dead of
August.
76
IF YOU HATE SELLING, DO THIS INSTEAD
Question #1: “Tell me about your business

and what you’re looking for help with.”
While this isn’t technically a question, it is the perfect opening
line to get them to tell you why they need your services. Once
you understand the reason they’re reaching out to you, and
what problems they’re having in their business, you can pos-
ition yourself as the solution. You can say something as simple
as, “Sure, I can help you with that.”
See, one of the biggest challenges in selling is figuring out the

wants, needs, and pain points so you can align yourself with
the client. By asking them to fill in the blanks, you’ll know
exactly what they need, in their own words, so that you can
focus on the things that are the most important to them.
Question #2: “How did you find me and

what encouraged you to reach out to me?”
Here’s what this does: It gets the prospect to sell themselves.
There was a reason they reached out to you specifically (prob-
ably because your profile was filled with benefits-based mes-
saging). By answering this question, they are justifying their
decision to reach out to you by telling you why they think you
are right for the job.
If you try to convince a prospect that it’s a good idea to hire

you, they have a natural resistance to that. People don’t like to
be sold to or pushed into something. By letting them make the
argument for you, they actually reinforce its power, because we
all enjoy feeling like we’re making smart decisions.
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KEYBOARD RICH
Question #3: “I can definitely help you with

XYZ and will put together a proposal which
I’ll send over later today. What does your
schedule look like tomorrow afternoon for a
call to review?”
Here’s what this does … It gives you time to decide how much
you’re going to charge, and the follow-up call solidifies a time
on the calendar when you can seal the deal.
This is an important step because if you’re thinking about a

price throughout the call, you won’t really be listening. And by
setting a follow-up call, you respect both their time and yours,
and you won’t fall victim to them getting busy and forgetting
to get back to you.
The key here is not to have a consultation, it's to have a con-

versation. The same way you do in everyday life with the peop-
le you know. Asking questions. Being curious. Caring enough
to get to know someone’s wants and needs.
Asking the right questions is the simple secret to effortlessly

demonstrating your value and differentiating yourself from
every other bookkeeper. And doing so leads to a smooth tran-
sition to closing the deal. No selling involved.
In the next chapter, I'm going to show you how to take what
you’ve learned and put it into action by actually getting people
on the phone. And believe it or not, it is easier and lazier than
you think.
78
The Lazy Person’s Guide to
Getting Clients
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and the sixth richest person in

the world, once famously said, “I choose a lazy person to do a
hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” 25
I don’t consider myself a lazy person, but there’s a lot of truth

to what he said.
When I got started and was learning how to get clients, I heard
a lot of advice about “pounding the pavement,” cold calling,
and networking. Stuff that was time-consuming, difficult, and
that I just plain didn’t want to do. Who wants to have a forced
conversation with a bunch of people at a networking event?
I wanted to build a business where I was doing the work I

enjoyed doing. If running the business had mostly been about
things I dreaded, like cold calls and going to networking events,
I probably wouldn’t have been able to stay consistent enough
for the business to succeed.
Luckily, I had my mentor, Karen. She told me that book-

keepers using those outdated and ineffective ways to get new
clients either weren’t having success or were taking a long time
to get results.
79
KEYBOARD RICH
In turn, their business never gets off the ground, or if it does,

it never really makes much money.
Luckily, she didn’t end the conversation there, or it would’ve

been a pretty bad pep talk.
Instead, she told me that smart bookkeepers were using an

easier method to find and sign all the clients they want without
ever leaving home.
Now that’s more like it. She told me the secret that I’m now
going to share with you. Can you guess what it is?
Online marketing.
Online marketing is so much easier and more effective than

those old-school methods for several reasons.
First, everybody's online, including business owners. I'm on-

line, you're online, business owners are online. That's where
we'll go to find them.
Going to a networking event allows you to reach 30 people.

The internet allows you to reach millions.
The cool thing with online marketing is that technology also

allows us to automate the process of finding clients, and that
results in a constant flow of prospective clients.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve turned on my phone (after
having it off because I was relaxing on the beach with my wife
or playing with the kids) and seen brand-new leads come in on
autopilot. It’s an amazing feeling.
80
THE LAZY PERSON’S GUIDE TO GETTING CLIENTS
And when you have a steady stream of prospects coming to

you, you get to pick and choose who you want to work with.
That allows you to work with the clients that pay you the most
in relation to how long it takes you to do their books, or clients
in the industries that interest you the most.
So you can really make your business as profitable and as ex-

citing as you want.
Now, let's talk about two of the top methods for getting clients.
These are the only two methods that most smart bookkeepers
ever need.
The first one is the QuickBooks ProAdvisor profile.
When you pass the free QuickBooks certification exam, you

earn ProAdvisor status, and you get all kinds of perks. One of
those perks is being able to post your profile on their “Find a
ProAdvisor” directory.
This online listing allows small business owners to search for

bookkeepers in their area. The really cool thing is that almost
one million small business owners hit this website looking for
a bookkeeper every year. So it is really important that you
create a profile there.
It's a great, free way to get lots of clients. I know a lot of

bookkeepers that use this as their only way of getting clients,
and they're doing great. Even for a well-established business
(and a bookkeeper who teaches this stuff), this is still my num-
ber one source of new clients. I get multiple prospects reaching
out to me every week.
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KEYBOARD RICH
The best thing about the ProAdvisor profile is that once you
get it set up, clients automatically come to you. There’s no
ongoing maintenance or effort involved. Once it’s done, it’s
done.
All you do is set up a profile with your picture, business inform-

ation, and description (benefits-based, of course). Business
owners will search their area, and as long as you stand out, they
reach out. Then you use the questions in the previous chapter
on the consultation call.
How easy is that?
At the end of this chapter, you’ll find a link to a bonus video

that shows you exactly how to set up your ProAdvisor profile.
But first let’s look at the other top way of getting clients.
Letting clients come to you is really convenient, but what if

you want to take a more active role and get clients more quickly
to grow your business to the moon? This next strategy allows
you to do exactly that.
A LinkedIn profile allows you to connect with business owners

who are already using the platform to network. I like to
describe LinkedIn as Facebook for professionals. You create a
profile page (like ProAdvisor) that you can optimize with the
right messaging to stand out. And unlike in-person network-
ing, thousands of business owners can find your profile each
week from anywhere in the country.
The difference, however, is that you can also do outreach. In

other words, you're not going to create a profile, and then sit
around and wait for people to find it. You can take an active
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role in reaching out to your ideal prospect, which is really cool.

This allows you to grow as fast or as slowly as you like.
You already know that all business owners need a bookkeeper.

You can reach out and connect with them while sending a
simple message that sparks a conversation.
What do you say?
As mentioned before, you're going to want to focus on the

benefits of working with you and the value you’re able to bring
to the table.
Remember that business owners are thinking about themselves

and their problems and goals, not about you or your business.
That’s basic human nature.
So we're not going to send messages saying, "Hey, do you want

to jump on a phone call?” or “Do you need a bookkeeper?"
We’re going to focus on benefits and value.
For example, you could lead with something like, “Hey, Shan-
non. It looks like your practice has been growing quickly! I help
chiropractors save time on their bookkeeping so they can focus
on their patients and on growing their business. I’d love to hear
more about how your practice is doing.”
This message does a couple of different things. It focuses on

the time-saving benefits you can offer, and it shows that you
took the time to learn a bit about them.
LinkedIn is a great source of information about the businesses

you’ll reach out to. You can learn things like how long they’ve
been in operation and how many employees they have. There
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KEYBOARD RICH
are often relevant posts or videos shared by the business owner.

It’s a powerful tool that allows you to personalize your outreach
so it’s relevant to what the business owner needs and is already
thinking about.
This kind of message is designed to encourage them to respond

to us and start a conversation. Nurture that conversation and
it then moves to a phone call. You can close the deal from there
using the questions in the previous chapter.
LinkedIn is a gold mine for connecting with business owners.

Used properly, it can generate more clients than you can
handle.
As you can see, there’s no need to be a marketing whiz or use

uncomfortable sales strategies to get clients. You simply need
to know what to say and where to say it.
Take my student, Ken, for instance. Before I met him, he was

spending hours upon hours networking and visiting businesses,
trying to get clients. In six months, he had only one new client
to show for his efforts.
When I heard how much he was struggling, the very first thing
I had him do was create and optimize his ProAdvisor profile.
Within three months, he had signed five new clients. Now it’s
the only marketing method he uses, and it provides all the
clients he needs. The profile is up and basically works on
autopilot.
Remember Ann—my student from Chapter 1 who’s earning

$150k and building her dream house? She’s doing all that using
LinkedIn to find clients.
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These two bookkeepers show how powerful these strategies are.

And when you combine them, the results are phenomenal.
Choose for yourself how active or passive you want to be in

getting new clients, and you can use these methods to get all
the clients you’ll ever need.
BONUS: I’ve created a free training video that

walks you through how to set up both your
ProAdvisor and LinkedIn profiles.
Just head over to:
KeyboardRich.com/getclients
As you can see, there’s no need to get dressed up and head out
to get clients. You could even do it in your underwear!
85
HOW TO
MAKE
BOOKKEEPING
EASY
87
The Simple Bookkeeping
Method (for People Who
Hate Complexity)
Now that you know how simple it is to get clients, you may be
wondering about serving all those clients. If you’re starting out,
you might be concerned that bookkeeping is complex and
time-consuming. And while that may be true for your clients
(they’re likely doing it wrong), it doesn’t have to be the case for
you.
Let me show you why bookkeeping is as simple as organizing

your closet.
If you’re already an experienced bookkeeper, feel free to jump

ahead to the next chapter, or you’re more than welcome to keep
reading. Who knows, this method may still help you save time
and simplify your bookkeeping even more.
Let’s dive in.
You’ve probably heard the phrase “Keep It Simple Stupid”

(often abbreviated KISS), but you may not know where it came
from.
It was coined by the late Lockheed Martin engineer Kelly

Johnson and used by the U.S. Navy back in the 1960s. 26 Of
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KEYBOARD RICH
course, the Navy needs systems and methods for everything

they do, in order to keep ships, submarines, and planes in good
working condition and reduce the risk of human error. Not
only do they have sophisticated equipment to deal with, but
the consequences of failure are very literally life and death.
What they realized is that most systems work best if they’re

kept as simple as possible, rather than being made more comp-
licated. If you have never served in the Navy, you may not
know anything about ships, but you may have a great example
of the KISS principle in your pocket right now … an iPhone.
Steve Jobs fully embraced the KISS principle in his design for
the iPhone. While other mobile phones had lots of buttons and
kept pushing for more and more complicated features, the first
iPhone did far more and had only one button.
Jobs realized that simpler meant fewer moving parts and less
that could go wrong. It also meant a shorter learning curve for
users, so they’d be quicker to adopt the new technology.
We know now that he was right to keep things simple. To date,

the iPhone has sold 2.2 billion units and is the reason Apple is
one of the largest companies in the world. 27
That same simplicity can make your bookkeeping business not

only one of the most profitable businesses you can start and
run online, but also one of the easiest.
You don’t have to deal with inventory or shipping products

around the world. You can make an amazing living with a
handful of clients, so you’re not juggling dozens of customer
relationships and hundreds of phone calls. And the great thing
is, the bookkeeping itself can also be simple.
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THE SIMPLE BOOKKEEPING METHOD
I promised you it can be as simple as organizing your closet, so

let me show you what I mean.
For a moment, I want you to imagine a walk-in closet. There’s

a rack for hanging up shirts on the left, pants on the right, and
drawers below for things like socks and underwear. Everything
has a place.
Now imagine someone walking into the closet and throwing

everything on the floor.
We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they had a
bad day. But now what do you do?
It’s really pretty simple, isn’t it? You pick up the shirts and hang
them on the left. You pick up the pants and you hang them on
the right. You pick up the socks and underwear and put them
back in the appropriate drawers. Simple. Before you know it,
everything is back in its place.
And that’s really the key when it comes to bookkeeping: every-

thing has a place.
The bookkeeping work that you’ll do for your clients is no

different. When a business owner comes to you, their bank and
credit card accounts are connected and automatically send
transactions to QuickBooks.
All those transactions in QuickBooks are like that pile of cloth-

es on the closet floor. All mixed together and in need of a little
organizing TLC.
But everything has a place. Each transaction belongs some-

where, and we call that categorization.
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KEYBOARD RICH
Let’s say, for example, you find charges from Starbucks and
Denny's. You know that those places really only sell food and
drinks.
Inside QuickBooks, there’s an account called “Meals and

entertainment expense,” and you would categorize those trans-
actions to that account, like putting the pants on the pants
rack. Believe it or not, that’s really as complicated as it gets!
If you find charges from, say, Google ads or Facebook ads, well,
we know that's advertising. It gets categorized as “Advertising.”
Let's say you find a charge from a newspaper. Well, that could
be a newspaper ad or it could be a newspaper subscription. So
at this point, you're not quite sure if that should be in "Adver-
tising" or if that should be in "Subscriptions."
If you run into this situation, all you have to do is ask the client,
“Hey, what is this for?”
If they reply, “Oh, we run newspaper ads,” then you’ll know

exactly where to put it.
About as simple as it gets, right?
Let me show you two tricks that actually make it even simpler.
Let’s say you choose to categorize transactions every week for

your clients. You may not want to email them every week about
random transactions, so you can, instead, put all your questions
in one place.
You can add these items to a category called “Ask my client.”

Now, once a month, you can send an email asking the client
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to go through and tell you what these items are. Once you
know, you can easily change them to the appropriate category.
This saves a lot of back and forth for both of you.
Now for the real trick …
So far, we’re sorting out our closet and separating clothes onto
the right racks, putting shirts on the left, pants on the right,
socks and underwear in the drawers, and so on. Whenever we
see something on the floor, we know where it belongs.
And if we don’t, we know that all we have to do is ask the client

so we know where to put it.
Now, imagine you didn’t need to put the shirt on the rack at
all. Imagine that the second a shirt hit the floor, it magically
floated up to the proper rack on its own.
In QuickBooks, this is what we call “rules.” You can add a rule

to any transaction so that QuickBooks knows what to do with
that transaction in the future.
Let’s say, to continue a previous example, that you have a

charge from Facebook for advertising. You can tell Quick-
Books that all transactions from Facebook should be cate-
gorized as “Advertising.” Now, whenever your client pays for
those ads, the transaction automatically gets categorized, with-
out you even doing anything.
Rules are a massive time-saver that can make your job easier
every single month.
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You’ll spend a little extra time categorizing and setting up rules

in the first month of working with the client, but every month
after that is like magic.
Once you've finished categorizing transactions for the month,

in just a few clicks, you can run reports for your client—reports
that show them their income, expenses, and profits so they can
make better decisions and have a much clearer understanding
of what’s going on in their business.
And when your client gets their taxes done at the end of the
year, their tax preparer can clearly see all their tax-deductible
business expenses in neat categories.
While categorizing isn't the only thing you'll do for your

clients, it is a huge part of it. Let's take a look at some of the
other things you'll help your clients with—that QuickBooks
makes a breeze:
Create and Send Invoices:

Some clients will want you to create invoices and
send them to their customers for payment. After
all, generating income is a top priority for a bus-
iness. With a few clicks, you can create and email
invoices that can be paid electronically.
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Enter and Pay Bills:

Your clients will receive bills for things like rent,
contractors, and advertising. But you won't have
to enter them manually. Upload the bills and
QuickBooks will create them automatically.
When the bills are due, payment can be made el-
ectronically with the click of a button.
Run Payroll:
If your client has employees, they'll be working
with a payroll company that handles the calcula-
tions, direct deposits, and payroll taxes. Your role
will be to ensure employee information is up-to-
date and that the payroll data gets entered into
the books. Fortunately, the leading payroll com-
panies all transfer payroll data directly into
QuickBooks automatically.
Monitor Inventory:
For clients who sell things, like a beauty supply
store, for example, you'll record the items they
sell as inventory. QuickBooks will automatically
keep track of the quantity of inventory on hand
when you create bills and invoices. It even alerts
your client when it's time to reorder more in-
ventory.
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KEYBOARD RICH
Help with Sales Tax:

If your client collects sales tax from their cus-
tomers (usually because they sell physical goods),
they need to record that and pay the tax to their
state either monthly or quarterly. Once again,
our trusty friend QuickBooks is there to do all
the heavy lifting, from tracking the sales tax to
paying the state electronically.
Reconcile Accounts:
This step, which we'll dive deeper into in the
next chapter, helps ensure the work we've done
is accurate. It's like a little game that checks if
what's in the books matches the bank and credit
card statements. Your prize? A green checkmark!
Run Reports:
This is the culmination of our work, and what
our clients really pay us for. Accurate reports
show them how well they’re doing and also
inform them on making decisions about how to
excel even further in their business. These re-
ports, which QuickBooks generates for us, show
our clients’ profit, assets, liabilities, and cash
flow.
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Remember, QuickBooks makes all these things incredibly easy,

just like the categorization I showed you. There are templates,
shortcuts, and automation for every step to simplify your job
and guarantee accuracy.
I’m a huge fan of the advice, “Work smarter, not harder.”
Your clients don’t care how hard you work. They’re not paying
you to sweat; they’re paying for the results you give them.
The key to a successful bookkeeping business that allows you

to make a six-figure income as easily and quickly as possible is
finding the simplest way to create value for your clients. And
fast, accurate bookkeeping like I’m describing right now is the
best way to do that.
It’s simple for you and it’s simple for your clients. The end
result is accurate numbers they can easily read and use to make
better business decisions.
Remember, keep it simple. The simpler the better.
In fact, it’s so simple a teenager can do it.
Mikey Cox is a 14-year-old from St. George, Utah. Mikey’s

dad runs a bookkeeping business and Mikey learned how to
use QuickBooks to help his dad with the family business.
And he’s not the only teen I know of helping out in his parents'
bookkeeping business.
So, if a high schooler can create value for clients, you can be
confident that you can too.
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KEYBOARD RICH
BONUS: To show you how easy it is to cate-

gorize transactions in QuickBooks, I’ve created
a free video where you can watch me demonstrate
exactly what you’ll be doing for your clients.
Just head over to:
KeyboardRich.com/easy
See how easy it is to get started with your bookkeeping bus-

iness? Day-to-day bookkeeping can be super simple, but you
might be worried about messing up someone’s books. Next,
I’m going to share with you a way to prevent that from hap-
pening.
In the next chapter, you’ll discover some secret weapons to

make sure you’re always doing things properly, making your
work mistake-proof.
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The Secret to Never
Screwing Up Someone’s
Books—Ever
I’ll never forget that April day in 2015, and I know Tom’s wife
won’t either.
Tom is my best friend, and he’s also something of an amateur

handyman, always doing little projects around the house.
That morning, he was changing out a light fixture and asked

his wife for some help.
With the old fixture removed, he had exposed bare wires

sticking out of the wall. He asked his wife three times if she was
sure that the light switch was off. She said yes, and he grabbed
the wire to connect the new fixture.
The second he grabbed the wire, his body started to shake. He

screamed at the top of his lungs and he couldn’t seem to let go
of the wire. It was as if it was glued to his hand.
His wife nearly fainted and didn’t know what to do. She was
literally watching her husband be electrocuted right in front of
her face.
But then all of a sudden his body calmed down and a smile
crept across his face as he said, “April Fools!"
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Maybe I should’ve mentioned, it was April 1st and Tom was a

notorious trickster.
As you can imagine, Tom’s wife was livid. She was probably
considering whether it was too late to flip the light switch back
on.
My friend may have been a joker, but he was no fool. He knew

his wife didn’t want to electrocute him (at least not before the
prank!) but he also knew that mistakes happen. He wouldn’t
have risked his life on whether the light switch was in the right
position or whether his wife got it right.
Whenever Tom works on an electrical project, he uses a little

tool called a voltage tester. Maybe you’ve seen one before. If
not, it’s pretty simple. It’s basically two wire prongs connected
to a light. You touch the prongs to the outside of the wire to
find out if it’s live before you take any risks messing with
exposed wires.
If the wire is live, the tester lights up. If it’s not, it doesn’t.
As long as you have one of these tools, you never need to guess
whether the power is on or off. And you never have to worry
that something bad will happen.
Fortunately, every bookkeeper has one of these voltage testers

too.
It's called reconciliation.
Reconciling the books at the end of every month eliminates the

guesswork and worry, so you don’t have to wonder if you
might have made a mistake somewhere.
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THE SECRET TO NEVER SCREWING UP SOMEONE’S BOOKS—EVER
So, let’s take a look at what reconciliation is, how it works, and
how easy it is to reconcile the accounts in QuickBooks.
Let’s say you get to the end of the month of July, you’ve
finished categorizing the transactions, and you’re pretty con-
fident that you’ve done everything right. (I’ll show you in a
minute why you need to reconcile even if you have done
everything right).
Of course, in the back of your mind, you may have that little
doubt that you might’ve missed something.
Did you miss a transaction?
Did you post a transaction twice?
Did you click the wrong button somewhere that might’ve

screwed something up?
We talked earlier about the importance of accurate numbers to

help your clients grow their businesses and pay the right
amount of taxes. So you want to make sure everything's in the
right spot.
But don’t worry.
Reconciling accounts is a simple process to make sure what's in

the books matches what happened in the actual bank and credit
card accounts.
All you have to do is match transactions. It’s actually kind of

fun and a little bit like a game (a nerdy game, I’ll admit, but a
game nonetheless).
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In QuickBooks, you’ll click a couple of buttons to get started,

and as long as the bank and credit card accounts are connected
to QuickBooks, many of the transactions will already be
reconciled automatically.
You’ll go through with the bank or credit card statement and

check off any remaining transactions to ensure everything in
QuickBooks matches the statement. If you’ve gone through the
categorization process that we talked about in the last chapter
properly, everything should have a match.
If there’s a mistake, it will be sitting there right in front of you,

so you can correct it before it has any negative impact on your
client.
You even get the satisfaction of a green light, just like the
voltage tester. As soon as all transactions are checked and
everything is in balance, you’ll see a green checkmark and you
know you’ve done your job correctly.
So if you’re worried that you're going to mess somebody's

books up, now you know that you have a safe way to check and
ensure everything is good to go.
I told you earlier that reconciliation helps, even if you did

everything right.
For example, you may find that your books are correct, but the
bank made an error. It’s rare, but it happens. A single bank
error could negatively impact your client by thousands or
more. You can bet your client will be happy that you found it
so they can get it fixed.
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THE SECRET TO NEVER SCREWING UP SOMEONE’S BOOKS—EVER
Reconciliation is a powerful tool to ensure that you’ve done

your job correctly and haven’t made any mistakes, and it’s not
the only one. While we won’t dig deep into all of them here,
there are other tools you can use to make your bookkeeping
bulletproof.
For example, the Audit Log in QuickBooks allows you to see

all changes made to transactions. If you do find an inadvertent
change, you can easily fix the mistake by restoring it back—
kind of like an “undo” button. This way, you never have to be
worried about errors.
As you can see, not only is it simple to categorize transactions

for your clients but it’s also easy to check that you’ve done
everything correctly and guarantee that you never mess up their
books—ever.
And remember, if you’re new to bookkeeping, you can start

with the simple clients and work your way up from there. That
way, you can comfortably build your skill set as you grow both
your business and your bank account.
103
What If I’m Not
Good at Math?
One of the most common questions I get when it comes to

becoming a bookkeeper is, “What if I'm not good at math?”
Many people assume that bookkeeping is all about numbers;

therefore, you need to be good at math to be good at
bookkeeping. But let me ask you …
Does every record executive know how to play guitar?
Does every medical device salesperson know how to perform

surgery?
Does every car dealership owner know how to fix cars?
The answer is no.
And in the same way that working with music or cars or medi-
cine doesn’t mean you need to be an expert in everything
related to those fields, working with numbers as a bookkeeper
doesn’t require you to be some Good Will Hunting math
savant.
In fact, you need to do very little math. Almost none.
The misconception that you need to be good at math to be a

bookkeeper goes back to when we were kids. Now, you may
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not have even known what a bookkeeper was when you were a
kid, but you had something drilled into your head way back
then that’s stuck to this day.
If you’re like almost everyone I know, you were challenged by

your math teachers to understand some pretty complex math
because “You won’t always have a calculator.”
Of course, we all know now that we do have calculators with

us practically every waking moment of our lives because we all
carry a smartphone in our pockets.
Now, don’t blame your teachers. They had no way of knowing

what the future would hold, and they wanted to be sure we
understood the theory behind it all. But the truth is, in day-to-
day life, we don’t have to do any math by hand. We can let the
calculator do all the work.
As a bookkeeper, you’ll do almost no math. Why? Because you

have a calculator doing all the heavy lifting for you. Quick-
Books is that calculator.
Your job is to plug the right numbers into the right accounts,
but that doesn’t require you to do the math. You’re not doing
equations. You’re not solving for x. You’re not even carrying
the 1.
All you need to do is punch in the numbers and let the software
do what it does best. In most cases, you don’t even have to
punch in the numbers because they’re being automatically pul-
led in from the connected bank and credit card accounts. You
simply categorize them and reconcile them to be sure it’s all
done correctly.
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WHAT IF I’M NOT GOOD AT MATH?
Do you expect pilots to be able to fly like Superman?
Of course not!
You expect them to know how to operate the machine that

does the flying.
As a bookkeeper, you don’t need to be good at math, you

simply need to know how to use the tool that does the number
crunching for you.
What I'd like to do right now is walk you through a theoretical

example of how this would go if you were doing the books for
a client.
As you know from an earlier chapter, most of what we do con-

sists of categorizing transactions that have come into Quick-
Books automatically from the bank and credit card accounts.
Let’s say, for example, that for the month of May, the following
transactions are waiting to be categorized (among others):
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That’s a lot of trips to Office Depot. Perhaps your client is

setting up a new office and buying office supplies.
So if you add up those amounts, you’ll find the total amount

spent on office supplies for May. But you don’t need to add
them up. QuickBooks does this for you.
You simply categorize all of these transactions to the “Office

Supplies” account. That’s it.
When you run your monthly report that shows your income
and expenses, you’ll see the “Office Supplies” expense account
total up automatically to $2,206.60.
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WHAT IF I’M NOT GOOD AT MATH?
Voila. No math required to do great work for your clients.
And this is only one example of how QuickBooks does all the
heavy lifting. It automatically calculates profit, payroll, payroll
taxes, sales tax, inventory—everything.
And the automation guarantees that you won’t enter some-

thing wrong or transpose numbers. Since they’re pulled in
from the bank account and credit cards … everything is already
entered … so they simply need to be put in the right places.
Not only is trusting the software to do its job easier, but it’s
also faster, which means you can complete your client work
quickly. That allows you to grow your business even if you have
a full-time job or other commitments, as you’ll discover in the
next chapter.
109
How Do I Do This
If I Have a Job?
“Success is a few simple disciplines,
practiced every day; while failure is
simply a few errors in judgment,
repeated every day.”
—Jim Rohn
I remember when I was 12 and my family went to the Grand

Canyon. It was incredible.
It was like seeing the inside of the Earth, with layer upon layer
of different colors etched into the stone walls of the canyon.
And the sheer size of it all was absolutely mind-blowing.
The canyon is 277 miles long, 18 miles across in places, and

about 6,000 feet deep. That’s over a mile deep. 28
It was one of the most incredible things I had seen in my life.
As a 12-year-old, I just thought it was a natural feature of the

Earth.
So it totally blew my mind when our tour guide told us the

giant canyon was formed as a result of the Colorado River run-
ning through it over millions of years.
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It was at that moment I realized how small things add up to

have an enormous impact.
As I grew up, I saw this in practice everywhere.
I recently read an incredible example from James Clear of how

we can harness the power of small habits to create big changes.
In an excerpt from his New York Times best-selling book
Atomic Habits, Clear recounts how, between 1908 and 2003,
the British cycling team had only one gold medal from the
Olympics and not a single Tour de France champion.
Since they were performing so poorly, the leading bicycle

manufacturers refused to sell them bikes because they didn't
want their brands' reputations to be tarnished by association.
Then, in 2003, everything changed when David Brailsford was

hired as the team’s new Performance Director. He brought
with him his "marginal gains" philosophy.
He thought the secret to success lay in combining gradual small

gains made in a number of different areas. Those little im-
provements would add up to something big, just as the Colo-
rado River's water slowly eroded the Grand Canyon.
Brailsford started searching for tiny 1% improvements every-

where. He started with things that most racing teams would
focus on first.
• To enhance comfort, the bike seats were redesigned.
• To increase traction, alcohol was applied to the tires.
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HOW DO I DO THIS IF I HAVE A JOB?
• To be more aerodynamic, upgraded racing suits were

purchased.
But Brailsford went on to look for some additional marginal

gains that were out of the ordinary.
• To speed up muscle recovery, the group began using

specialized massage gels.
• To improve sleep, they bought customized pillows and

mattresses.
• To detect dust that might impair the performance of

their meticulously tuned bikes, they painted the inter-
ior of the team truck white.
• To help prevent the team from catching a cold, a

surgeon was brought in to instruct the cyclists on prop-
er hand-washing techniques.
The results appeared quickly as these small improvements kept

adding up.
Five years later, British Cycling took home 60% of the cycling
gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. And four years
later, at the London Olympics, they set nine Olympic records
and seven world records.
According to Clear’s retelling, “During the ten-year span from

2007 to 2017, British cyclists won 178 world championships
and 66 Olympic or Paralympic gold medals and captured five
Tour de France victories in what is widely regarded as the most
successful run in cycling history.” 29
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Big outcomes almost never happen by accident. We have to

cause them to happen.
The most important and powerful principle to keep in mind is

that we have control over changing the direction of our lives.
I witnessed this first-hand when I started my bookkeeping

business.
We started this chapter with the question, “How do I do this

if I have a job?”
Remember, when I started my bookkeeping business, I was

working a full-time job at the gym (sometimes more than full-
time). It was all I could do to get the bills paid, and I definitely
didn’t have the luxury of quitting my job to start a business.
I didn’t have a cushion.
I didn’t have savings.
I didn’t have “free time.”
And if you’ve ever put “free time” in quotes, you know exactly
what I’m talking about.
I started learning bookkeeping for an hour a day. Sometimes I

had less than an hour, so I’d only spend 15 or 30 minutes.
But those small periods of time really added up. I got trained
and certified to use QuickBooks within three weeks.
Once I started looking for clients, I worked on my marketing

a little here and there.
114
HOW DO I DO THIS IF I HAVE A JOB?
I didn’t know everything then that I know now, but I was

starting to learn and apply a lot of the same things we talked
about earlier in this book. A short 15-20 minutes here and
there to set up profiles and engage on LinkedIn can really add
up. And that marketing keeps working for you even when
you’re working your day job.
When prospective clients reached out to me by email, I would

schedule phone calls with them before work, after work, on
weekends, or even on my lunch break at work.
If they called me directly, they’d leave a message and I’d call

them back as soon as I was free.
Once I landed a few clients, I could do the work any time of

the day or night. Heck, when our first child was born, I was
working and sending emails to clients in the middle of the
night. A few of them may have thought I was crazy, but the
flexibility is what allowed me to get my business off the ground
while still knowing I could pay the bills.
At the time I was making about $42k at my full-time job. I

grew my bookkeeping business on the side until I had six
clients, which was about $5k per month. That’s when my wife
convinced me it was time to make the switch.
I was nervous, but the marketing machine was working and the
leads were coming in. That gave me the confidence to take the
leap into going full-time with my bookkeeping business.
I never looked back. That small bookkeeping business on the

side grew into a six-figure business in no time, and multiple six
figures faster than I’d ever imagined possible.
115
KEYBOARD RICH
Before I knew it, I was teaching other people how to do the

same thing.
It’s hard to believe how quickly those little blocks of time

added up to a booming business. But it’s real. I’ve seen it hap-
pen with my own eyes and I can’t deny the power of marginal
gains any more than my 12-year-old eyes could deny how
impressive the Grand Canyon was after all those years.
So, if you’re waiting to get started because you have a full-time

job, let me reassure you that this is actually the best time to get
started. You have a built-in safety net. You have an income.
You have breathing room.
You don’t need huge blocks of time to learn a new skill and be
successful. A handful of hours each week can be the difference
between where you are now and the life you’ve dreamed of.
Almost all of my $100k Club students started their bookkeep-

ing businesses on the side of their full-time jobs and then made
the switch.
That’s right. Small, consistent efforts can produce incredible,

life-changing results.
116
WHERE TO
GO FROM
HERE
117
Your Free Ticket
One of my greatest joys in life is teaching and mentoring others

on their journey to a successful bookkeeping business. That’s
why I’ve not only included short bonus training videos pep-
pered throughout this book, but I’ve also created a special video
training that shows you exactly how I grew a multiple-six-
figure bookkeeping business.
If you enjoyed this book, you will love this training. Learning
comes in layers, so by watching this training, you’ll gain a
greater understanding of many of the strategies detailed in this
book.
Visit KeyboardRich.com/ticket to watch that training now.
Please note that I rotate and update training frequently, so I

can’t guarantee how long this training will be available. For
now, it’s there, so I suggest you access it as soon as possible.
KeyboardRich.com/ticket
119
How to Access Your
Bonuses
Throughout this book, you’ll find several free bonuses. These

are links to training videos that accompany the content in this
book.
Here is a quick reference guide for each one so you don’t have
to dig for them:
Get Your Free QuickBooks Account

QuickBooks is the most popular bookkeeping software in the
world, and as you’ve read in this book, it’s extremely powerful.
Once you have QuickBooks, you have everything you’ll need
to do the actual bookkeeping work for clients.
So I’m excited to share with you how to get your free account.
QuickBooks gives bookkeepers and accountants a free version
that does three things …
1) Allows you to access your clients’ books, so you can do

their bookkeeping. Your clients will have their own
QuickBooks subscriptions, and then they’ll give you
access to their books.
121
KEYBOARD RICH
2) Lets you do your own bookkeeping. That’s right, you

are a business owner now and you’ll need to be doing
your own bookkeeping.
3) Contains free training that introduces you to Quick-
Books and how it works.
I’ve put together a bonus video that shows you exactly how to
get your free QuickBooks account as well as how to set it up.
Access at:
KeyboardRich.com/quickbooks
Free Training: Build a Booming

Bookkeeping Business in 90 Days
This video training covers exactly how I built a multiple-six-
figure bookkeeping business. By watching this training, you’ll
gain a greater understanding of many of the strategies detailed
in this book.
Access at:
KeyboardRich.com/ticket
Dream Life Calculator

This interactive calculator shows you exactly how many clients
you’ll need, and how few hours you’ll be working, in order to
generate the amount of income to live your ideal life.
122
HOW TO ACCESS YOUR BONUSES
Access at:
KeyboardRich.com/calculator
The Easy Way to Get All the Clients You Can

Handle
In this training video, I’ll walk through two of the top ways of
getting bookkeeping clients, and they’re both free. I’ll show
you exactly how to set up your QuickBooks ProAdvisor and
LinkedIn profiles so that you can attract clients quickly.
Access at:
KeyboardRich.com/getclients
The Simple Way to Categorize Transactions

in QuickBooks
Seeing is believing, and I want to show you how easy it is to
use QuickBooks to do most of what you’ll be doing for clients:
categorizing their bank and credit card transactions. I’ll also
show you how you can run a report showing your clients’ profit
in a few clicks.
Access at:
KeyboardRich.com/easy
123
KEYBOARD RICH
$100k Bookkeeping Business Case Study

This is a video interview with Maura Davis, one of my students
who started her bookkeeping business with no prior exper-
ience. In 11 months, she was able to quit her full-time job be-
cause her bookkeeping business was making twice as much
money.
Access at:
KeyboardRich.com/maura
Student Results
Curious about what’s possible for you? Check out some of the
success stories from a few of my students—people just like you.
Look to them for inspiration as you start and grow your own
bookkeeping business.
Access at:
KeyboardRich.com/success
124
Speak to Us
If you’d like help from my team implementing the strategies in

this book so you can quickly get your bookkeeping business
started and growing, we’d like to invite you to speak to us.
Simply head over to:
KeyboardRich.com/speak
When you visit that page, you’ll see a short survey asking a few
questions which will help us prepare for our call.
After the survey, you’ll go straight to our calendar to pick the

date and time that works best for you.
Once you’ve scheduled your call, the confirmation page will

have some instructions on how to prepare for the call. Please
review them thoroughly.
Watch the videos, review the FAQ, and listen to or read the
case studies from our students. That way, when you get on the
call, you will already have quite a few of your questions an-
swered.
When we connect, my team and I will get to learn more about

you, your challenges, and your goals to see if we can help. If we
can, we’ll show you what it looks like to work with us.
125
KEYBOARD RICH
You’ll have all the information you need to decide whether my

mentorship program is right for you. There’s no pressure, and
you will gain a great deal of value and insight from the call
either way.
Visit KeyboardRich.com/speak to book your call today.
126
Acknowledgments
To my family: Mom, Dad, Amy, Brandy, Kirsten, and Sherry.

I’m thankful for the way your love, support, and encourage-
ment helped shape my life. I love you all!
With extreme gratitude, I’d like to thank the Booming

Bookkeeping Business team: Andy, Anna, Nathan, and Carrie.
Your tireless efforts have advanced our mission to help change
people’s lives through starting and growing bookkeeping
businesses. Thank you for everything that you do!
A special thanks to Josh Richards who was instrumental in

turning my vision into an actual book! You’ve helped create
something that exceeded even my lofty expectations. Thank
you for sharing your incredible talent to create this masterpiece.
I want to thank Shanda Trofe for guiding me through the

process of publishing this book. Your expertise made sharing
my message via the written word effortless and enjoyable.
I would also like to thank my editing team, Lori Lynn and

Clare Fernández, for editing this book to ensure it doesn’t
sound like a bookkeeper wrote it! Lori, your skills and enthu-
siasm are unmatched. It was a pleasure having you and Clare
on this journey with me.
Finally, thanks to the 7,000+ people who have chosen me as

their mentor on their bookkeeping journey. Your faith in me
means the world, and it’s an honor to be a part of your success!
127
About the Author
Bill Von Fumetti bounced around from job to job before

finally discovering bookkeeping at age 38. Just days later, he
founded his bookkeeping business, Von Fumetti, PC, and
quickly grew it to multiple six figures in annual revenue.
Realizing he could help others achieve the same level of success,

he started the Booming Bookkeeping Business™ mentorship
program. To date, he has helped over 7,000 people gain fin-
ancial freedom, with many of them earning over $100k in an-
nual revenue.
129
KEYBOARD RICH
Featured in Forbes, Business Insider, and Yahoo! Finance, Bill

has also spoken at QuickBooks Connect, the premier account-
ing conference in the world.
He believes that anyone who wants to take control of their

financial future and is willing to learn bookkeeping can build
their dream life.
Bill and his beautiful wife Elizabeth, as well as their two pre-
cious children, Capri and Ace, currently live in Manhattan
Beach, CA.
Find out more at:
BoomingBookkeeper.com
130
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the 15 Least Profitable),” Inc.com, November 7, 2016,
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start-a-business-and-the-15-least-profitabl.html.
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FTC.gov,” FTC.gov, 1999,
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3
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4
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Days — How to Avoid It with Your Business,” Small Business Trends,
September 27, 2022, https://smallbiztrends.com/2019/07/why-
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5
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and Again,” The New Yorker, October 25, 2017,
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to-get-rich-quick-again-and-again.
6
Nicolas Vega, “When Inflation Is High, Warren Buffett Says the Best
Thing You Can Do Is 'Be Exceptionally Good at Something',” CNBC
(CNBC, May 3, 2022), https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/02/this-is-
warren-buffetts-simple-advice-for-periods-of-high-inflation.html.
7
Jon M. Taylor, MBA, Ph.D., “The Case (for and) against Multi-level
Marketing,” Consumer Awareness Institute, (FTC.gov, 2011),
https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/public_comments/trade
-regulation-rule-disclosure-requirements-and-prohibitions-concerning-
business-opportunities-ftc.r511993-00017%C2%A0/00017-57317.pdf.
131
KEYBOARD RICH
8
Zapier Editorial Team, “Data Report: Why Americans Aren't Starting
Businesses,” Zapier (Zapier, February 18, 2021),
https://zapier.com/blog/potential-entrepreneurs-report/.
9
BlackBean Marketing, “What 'Spending Money to Make Money' Really
Means,” BlackBean Marketing (BlackBean Marketing, May 17, 2022),
https://blackbeanmarketing.com/insights/what-spending-money-to-make-
money-really-means.
10
“Monkey Business: The Story Behind Mailchimp's Wild Growth,”
Drift, August 20, 2019, https://www.drift.com/blog/how-mailchimp-
grew/.
11
Kim Watkins and Jeff Davis, “Intuit Completes Acquisition of
Mailchimp,” Intuit Inc.—Intuit Completes Acquisition of Mailchimp,
(BUSINESS WIRE, November 1, 2021),
https://investors.intuit.com/news/news-details/2021/Intuit-Completes-
Acquisition-of-Mailchimp/default.aspx.
12
The Pursuit of Happyness, directed by Gabriele Muccino (Sony
Pictures 2006),
https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thepursuitofhappyness.
13
CBS News Staff, “Passenger Who Landed Plane in Palm Beach
Recounts 'Scariest' Moments,” WINK NEWS, May 18, 2022,
https://www.winknews.com/2022/05/18/passenger-who-landed-plane-in-
palm-beach-after-pilot-collapsed-recounts-scariest-moments/.
14
Michael Seidlinger, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad: 25 Years of Financial Advice
Books,” PublishersWeekly.com, May 13, 2022,
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-
news/people/article/89314-rich-dad-poor-dad-25-years-of-financial-
advice-
books.html#:~:text=Since%20its%20release%2C%20the%20book,he%2
0was%20nine%20years%20old.
15
Capitalism.com, “Robert Kiyosaki's Net Worth—The Man Whose
Knowledge Is Worth Millions,” October 11, 2021,
https://www.capitalism.com/robert-kiyosaki-net-worth/.
132
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16
Scott Rafferty, “Who Are the Highest Paid NBA Players in 2022-23
Season? Stephen Curry, Lebron James Top List,” Sporting News,
December 7, 2022, https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/news/highest-
paid-nba-players-2022-23-season/bhwhafplgxiuuizmth8yujbu.
17
Adam Caparell, et.al., “The 30 Best NBA Players of All Time, Ranked,”
Complex (Complex, June 17, 2022),
https://www.complex.com/sports/best-nba-players-of-all-time-ranked.
18
Mitch Lawrence, “Did a Pool of Sweat Just Cost Stephen Curry and the
Warriors a Shot to Repeat as NBA Champs?,” Forbes (Forbes Magazine,
April 25, 2016),
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mitchlawrence/2016/04/24/did-a-pool-of-
sweat-just-cost-stephen-curry-and-the-warriors-a-shot-to-repeat-as-nba-
champs/?sh=584b295e2699.
19
Ciku Njuguna, “NBA Floor Cleaner's Salary: How Much Does an
NBA Floor Cleaner Make?,” SportsBrief, July 14, 2022,
https://sportsbrief.com/facts/19565-nba-floor-cleaners-salary-how-a-nba-
floor-cleaner/.
20
Heather Satterley, CPA, MSI, “The Results of the New Intuit Rate
Survey Are in! — Tax Pro Center,” Intuit, February 17, 2022, “Average
Hourly Rates” image accessed February 3, 2023,
https://proconnect.intuit.com/taxprocenter/practice-management/the-
results-of-the-new-intuit-rate-survey-are-in/ (originally published in
https://www.firmofthefuture.com/content/2021-intuit-rate-survey/).
21
Taylor Clark, “Why Starbucks Actually Helps Mom and Pop
Coffeehouses,” Slate Magazine (Slate, December 28, 2007),
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2007/12/why-starbucks-actually-
helps-mom-and-pop-coffeehouses.html.
22
“Frequently Asked Questions About Small Business, 2021,” U.S. Small
Business Administration Office of Advocacy (SBA, December 2021),
https://cdn.advocacy.sba.gov/wp-
content/uploads/2021/08/30143723/Small-Business-Economic-Profile-
US.pdf.
133
KEYBOARD RICH
23
Daniel Newman and Kenan Fikri, “New Startups Break Record in
2021: Unpacking the Numbers,” Economic Innovation Group, January
27, 2023, https://eig.org/new-start-ups-break-record-in-2021-unpacking-
the-numbers/.
24
Ann Hiatt, “Jeff Bezos Hired This Amazon Applicant 'On the Spot'—
Here Are the 2 Interview Questions He Asked,” CNBC, (CNBC,
November 2, 2021), https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/02/job-interview-
questions-jeff-bezos-asked-a-former-amazon-employee-before-hiring-her-
on-the-spot.html.
25
Aytekin Tank, “Bill Gates Says Lazy People Make the Best Employees,”
Entrepreneur, July 22, 2021,
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make-the-best-employees/376746.
26
“What Is Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS)?,” The Interaction Design
Foundation, accessed February 2, 2023, https://www.interaction-
design.org/literature/topics/keep-it-simple-stupid.
27
Damjan, “How Many iPhones Have Been Sold Worldwide? — iPhone
Sales Analyzed,” KommandoTech, May 17, 2022,
https://kommandotech.com/statistics/how-many-iphones-have-been-sold-
worldwide/.
28
“13 Things You Didn't Know about Grand Canyon National Park,”
U.S. Department of the Interior, September 29, 2021,
https://www.doi.gov/blog/13-things-you-didnt-know-about-grand-
canyon-national-park.
29
James Clear, “This Coach Improved Every Tiny Thing by 1 Percent
and Here's What Happened,” James Clear, February 4, 2020,
https://jamesclear.com/marginal-gains.
134
Connect with Bill
I don’t know about you, but I really enjoy being surrounded

by like-minded people who are starting and growing their bus-
inesses together. I also can’t help but teach what I love, which
is why I’d like to personally invite you to connect with me.
You’ll gain free access to …

• Exclusive video trainings
• Live Q&A sessions
• Marketing tips and tricks
• A supportive community of others successfully build-
ing their businesses
This is just a short list of all the cool things that go on in our
circle.
Join us at:
KeyboardRich.com/connect
135

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How Anyone Can Earn Six

Figures from Home with a

BILL VON FUMETTI

Copyright © 2023 Bill Von Fumetti. All rights reserved. No part

For permission requests, speaking inquiries, podcast interviews,

Book Design by Transcendent Publishing |

Disclaimer: The author makes no guarantees concerning the level

Printed in the United States of America.

You gave me purpose and our perfect family.

Thank you for being my inspiration and my

I love you more!

As I imagined jumping right back into working 50-plus hour

That was when I thought …

Oh God, I don't want to work five days a week until 10 or 11

What I wanted was to put my son to sleep at night. I wanted

If I returned, my job would be my life again.

I started looking for opportunities that would give me more

A friend of mine who runs a small human resources company

Something inside told me that bookkeeping was the right step

So I jumped right in and set up my free QuickBooks account,

Initially, I kept my job at the restaurant as I built my business

But even though I was part-time, I kept getting pulled into

I had a heart-to-heart talk with my husband, and he believed

When I put in my notice, I realized my last day would be just

That year, I was finally able to relax instead of working the

At the beginning of the new year, I started marketing myself

By the end of January, I already had four clients. By mid-April,

Since I made the jump to bookkeeping, I’m in control of my

With the stability I've created for me and my family, I have

month. I'm rebuilding my credit score, and I've paid off my

I'm very proud of what I have accomplished in the past year,

It's okay to be nervous at first. My advice to you is this: put in

I am very grateful to have found bookkeeping and to have

Obviously, if you're reading this book, then something about

What do you have to lose?

Surrounded by boulders and volcanic rock, my wife and I

Our waitress approached and asked my wife if she’d like

Picking up my wife’s empty margarita glass, the waitress asked,

She stopped in her tracks, raising her eyebrows in surprise.

“So you retired early?”

“You have kids?”

“We do!” said Elizabeth. “They’re one and three.”

“And you just left them at home?”

Elizabeth laughed. “No, they’re here with us. They’re getting

Our waitress seemed dumbfounded. We could see the wheels

“No,” I said. “I run a bookkeeping business.”

The eyebrows again.

“What exactly is bookkeeping? My aunt was a bookkeeper, but

“We keep track of all the financial transactions for a business.

Now she was more than a little surprised.

“Wait.” She hesitated. “You make enough money to live in Los

“You got it!”

“She was working for someone else.”

“That’s why. As a business owner, you always make more than

“What? That’s insane! I’ve been waitressing for 20 years to

“Honestly,” I said, “I didn’t know anything about bookkeeping

She stared at me in disbelief.

“So, do you think someone like me could learn bookkeeping?”

“Sure! Anybody can.”

Because if she did, she’d be …