Transcription
Hey everybody, this is my favorite topic. I usually have notes in front of me, but today I don't even have any notes because I love this topic so much. I know so much about it. I have so much experience with it. I talk about it all the time. I don't even need notes in front of me. I'm just going to talk about what I know. Talk about my own experience. That's the key here. Everything I talk about is all based on my own experience. It's all based on what I've actually done to grow my business. And my five-step marketing strategy is something that I'm pretty proud of. If I can be honest, if I can say that, I'm pretty proud of it. I truly believe the majority of my success can be attributed to this very simple five-step marketing strategy. And before we get too far into it, it's all about social media. It's all about social media. That is the majority of my marketing strategy. I've never paid for ads. I have a website. I have a Google My Business profile. I did not go to in-person networking events when I was getting started. I didn't send out flyers or postcards. I didn't have a TV commercial. I didn't have a billboard. I didn't have an advertisement in the newspaper or a magazine. Honestly, I didn't pay for ads. I think I already mentioned that. Seriously, the m the majority of the success that I had in my bookkeeping business was all because of my social media marketing strategy.
So, if you're watching live, feel free to ask as many questions as you can. I'm going to be going live for the next 30 minutes, so ask questions in the chat. And once I get done going through my five-step marketing strategy, I will try to answer everybody's questions to the best of my ability. If you're listening to the podcast on Apple or Spotify, if you prefer to watch the video format, I've got the exact same name, bookkeeping expert Zack Pascarelloo on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. So [snorts] check me out on YouTube, check me out on the podcast, wherever you want to watch or listen. I appreciate you tuning in. I'm going live every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday at 10:00 a.m. So, thank you all so much for showing up and thank you for asking questions. Truthfully, my goal is to help you start and grow your bookkeeping business. So, the more questions you ask, the more questions I can answer and the more I can help you. So, that's kind of the whole point. So, ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask questions.
Okay, let's get to my five-step marketing strategy. Create content, find prospective clients, connect with them, engage with your community, and then send them a DM. That's it. Super simple. Really, really simple. But ask anybody in the chat. Ask anybody who's tried to start a business before. Super simple. Not easy. Really, really hard. I compare this a lot to trying to get in shape. So, imagine if you wanted to improve your fitness and your goal was to just to walk a mile every day. Super simple. Really simple. Just walk a mile every day. I guarantee you. I I guarantee. Or I'll give you your money back even though you're not paying me anything. Guarantee if you walk a mile every single day for 90 days straight. I guarantee that you will improve your fitness. Guaranteed. Every single day, 90 days straight, walk one mile, you will improve your fitness. But the the the problem is it's really really hard to be consistent for a long period of time. Super simple. Very simple. Walk a mile. Very simple. Go to the gym every day. Work out for 30 minutes. Very simple. But very hard to do in practice because you got to be consistent every day. So that's what social media marketing is all about. And it doesn't matter what business you have. You could have a bookkeeping business, you could have a landscaping business, you could have a gym, you could have a restaurant. This video could actually apply to pretty much anybody. Pretty much any service-based business, probably even most productbased businesses. So sales and marketing hardest part about getting started because you have no experience. Nobody knows who you are. You don't have any references. You don't have any referrals. You don't have much confidence. You're feeling imposter syndrome. So sales and marketing getting started is the hardest part. But I'm here to help. So customer service absolutely the most important part. Don't get it wrong. Don't get it twisted. Delivering high quality customer service, doing a good job is the most important part because what I'm about to say, sales and marketing super hard. I don't want you to spend a ton of time and money and energy and effort on sales and marketing to get your client just to do a bad job and lose your client. So, you absolutely need to be a good bookkeeper first and foremost. That's the most important part. But sales and marketing is the hardest part, getting started.
So, how do you do it? Number one, create content. Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, X, Tik Tok, doesn't matter. It doesn't matter where you create content. It can even be a billboard. It can even be, you know, those little piece, those little signs that people put for politicians and landscaping companies, those signs people put in the grass. It doesn't matter what you do. You could be a cold caller. You could have email marketing. You could have a blog. You could optimize your website for SEO. You could have a billboard. You could have a TV commercial. It doesn't matter what you do. I talk a lot about social media marketing only because that's what I did. I'm not here to say that's the best way to market your business. That's just what I did. So, that's just one of the many ways that you can market your business. It doesn't matter what you do. It just matters that you do something consistently for a long period of time. So, create content. For me, that was that looked like creating social media marketing content. And if you haven't already, definitely recommend follow me on my social media channels. They're all linked down below. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. I have another YouTube channel. So follow me down below and see what I post. I post a lot about Zip Capital right now. So one one to one it wouldn't translate perfectly but you can still see the the general themes, the general timing, the general style of content that I create. And let me just say I'm not a sales expert, not a marketing guru, but I have been doing this for 5 years. So I have a little bit of experience, but I don't pretend to be I'm a bookkeeping expert. I don't pretend to be a marketing expert. So keep that in mind when you see my content. It's not perfect, but it's a good start. So, create content. That could be a short video. That could be just a paragraph or a letter or a couple sentences or a short tweet or it could be a picture with a caption or it could be an infographic or it could be a flyer. You can use Canva to edit your images or create flyers. I use Canva to make all of my YouTube thumbnails. You can use chat GPT to help brainstorm some content ideas, but do not use chat GPT as a 100% solution. Don't use chat GPT to copy and paste marketing content. It's super obvious. Everybody can tell. Nobody wants to read it. Nobody wants to look at it. Be authentic. Be genuine. If you're trying to think about what to post, just remember there's only one of you. There's only one of you. and your story, your journey, your experiences are unique and authentic. So, just be open, transparent, honest, genuine, authentic. Be yourself on social media, and I promise that will resonate with other people. I'm I'm I'm a living testimony. I am myself. I do not pretend to be anybody I'm not. I'm myself. I sit in my home office. I've got pictures handdrawn from my kids on the back wall. I wear a black sweatshirt, a black t-shirt every day. I'm me through and through and I am a living testimony that you can just be authentic and be genuine and you it will resonate with people. You might not become a social media influencer. You're not going to get famous. You might not get rich, but the whole point is to build your brand, build awareness, build trust. Bookkeeping services are all about trust. And the way you build trust with total strangers on the internet is by showing up consistently and building relationships. So that starts by you creating content. And creating content can look like different ways. It could be, like I said, it could be a video or a picture or a tweet or a paragraph or a letter or a long story. The key here, you want to accomplish two things. You want to establish trust with your audience. You also want to establish yourself as a bookkeeping expert. So you got to do two things. Take me for example. I talk about Zip Capital. I talk about real estate. I talk about private money lending. I talk about property insurance, title insurance, my real estate attorney, underwriting, risk mitigation. I'm trying to establish myself as a real estate expert, as an investment fund expert, as an underwriting expert. I'm trying to encourage my audience that, hey, I know what I'm doing. I know what I'm talking about. So, you got to talk about it. You got to talk about bookkeeping. You got to talk about debits and credits and QuickBooks and 1099s and sales receipts and income expenses, accounts payable, accounts receivable. You got to talk about that stuff. But here's the problem. That stuff isn't super interesting. So, you have to mix up your content. It can't just be a hardcore business bookkeeping post every day. You got to mix it up. So we we establish trust by proving to our audience that we are bookkeeping experts by creating content relevant to bookkeeping and QuickBooks and business and finances and accounting. But then we also have to mix it up. We have to build relationships and establish trust by proving to people that we are human. We are a regular person. We're not a robot. We're not some automated system. So I would encourage you as as comfortable as you feel, try to put yourself out there. If you're if you go to a restaurant with some friends, snap a pick. If you go to a football game, if you go tailgating at a football game, snap a pic, upload it. If you go bowling with your Tuesday night bowling league, snap a pick, upload it. If you go to church on Sunday, snap a pick, upload it. Just sharing these little small personal experiences really go a long way in building trust and establishing relationships with total strangers on the internet. Of course, with all that being said, only only do so much that you feel comfortable with, but if you can try to show your face, try to share some of your personal life on the internet, on social media. If you feel comfortable with it, I promise you it will really go a long way.
Now, creating content, creating videos is the best kind of content in my opinion. People see my face, you hear me talking. Look, look at this video right now. There's almost 60 people watching live on YouTube. Total strangers. I've probably never met any of you, but you show up at 10:00 a.m. because of my videos. Because I consistently show up because you see my videos. I provide value. I help you. And I've built trust. I've built relationships with all of you just simply by showing up and sharing these videos. The cool thing is you can do the exact same thing. It's just going to take some time. It's going to take some effort. You have to show up every day. Create videos if you can. If not, pictures are fine. Posts are fine. videos. Short videos, 20, 30, 40 seconds on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tik Tok, those do really well. Long form videos on YouTube do really, really well. Keep in mind, who is your ideal client? Who are you going after? You're going after business owners. You're going after small business owners, local entrepreneurs. So, that's who you need to target whenever you're creating content. Speak to your target audience. Speak to your ideal client. Talk about their pain points. Talk about their frustrations. Appeal to their emotions. If you can say, "Hey, I get it. Bookkeeping is stressful. You're probably frustrated. You're probably operating blindly. You don't know how much money you made last month. You're stressed out on the weekend trying to keep up with your receipts and your transactions. I get it. That's why I'm here. I can help you with your bookkeeping. I can manage your QuickBooks. I can alleviate your stress. I can free up your time. I can provide clear, accurate, updated financial reports. If you can appeal to people's emotions, then you can get them to hire you as their bookkeeper. Creating content.
Okay, looks like we got a ton of questions in the chat. If you're just now joining, feel free to ask questions in the chat, and I'm going to do my best to answer everybody's questions. I'm going to try to wrap up my five-step marketing strategy because it seems like there's a ton of questions. So, step number one, create content. Step number two, find prospective clients. LinkedIn makes it super simple. Facebook makes it a little bit more challenging. Excuse me. So, Facebook groups are really good. Find local business groups relevant to your geographical region. So, if you're in Tampa, Florida, join local Tampa, Florida business groups, real estate investor groups, contractor groups, restaurant owners in Tampa, Florida. Join local Facebook groups, and then connect with prospective clients. So, on LinkedIn, send connection requests. I'm doing this right now with Zip Capital. I'm sending 30 connection requests every day, Monday through Friday. 150 connection requests. I get on average anywhere from six to 10 new LinkedIn connections every day. Not from people friend requesting connecting with me, but from me connecting with my target audience, my ideal investor in Zip Capital. I'm getting six to 10 new connection requests on LinkedIn every day. Facebook, send friend requests, but be careful. Don't send too many all at once too early. Spread it out. If you're brand new, maybe send two or three in the morning, two or three before lunch, two or three after lunch, two or three in the evening, and four or five before you go to bed. So, spread out the friend request, but you got to actively go after people on the internet because right now, nobody knows who you are. Nobody nobody's begging to talk to you. Nobody's begging to be your friend because they don't know who you are. So, you have to find prospective clients and connect with them. I recommend set up a daily routine. For me, first thing in the morning, I'm sending 30 LinkedIn connection requests every single morning. So, that's what I'm doing right now.
Step number four, engage with your community. I can't stress this enough. This is so important. Engage with your community. So, show up every day. Comment on other people's posts. Reply to every comment. I don't do a great job of this. I'll be the first to admit it. I don't do a great job of replying to comments. In my defense, I've got 70 bookkeeping clients and a almost a $5 million real estate loan portfolio and 60,000 followers on social media. So, I'm falling behind. I will admit it. It's a it's a poor excuse, but I don't respond to every comment. But you just getting started, you have an advantage over me. You're brand new. You don't have as many followers and you don't have as many comments. So, that's an advantage for you. You can reply personally in depth to every comment. View every comment as an opportunity to start a conversation. View every conversation as an opportunity to establish a new relationship. View every new relationship as a potential bookkeeping client. So therefore, view every single comment as a potential bookkeeping client. Really powerful stuff. And also, not only are you interacting with that one individual person, I also think that it does really well for your algorithm on social media, it promotes your by you being active, it promotes your posts and your profile. So, it really does well for your algorithm if you comment and engage with your followers and your community. Okay, that's step number four. engage with your community and not only reply to comments on your posts, but also comment on other people's posts. Really, really good. Keep it keep it short. Keep it polite, positive, professional. If you I always use this example. If you're following a landscaper, a landscaper, he's a business owner. He owns a landscaping and he just up he just posts a picture of this new the new mulch and the new bushes he installed out front in one of his clients. Super simple. Hey, that looks awesome. Keep up the great work. Super simple, super short. The thing is that landscaper guy, you might have just became friends with him two weeks ago. He just accepted your friend request on Facebook. He has no idea who you are. And he might not see your content. Your content might not be showing up on his newsfeed, but I guarantee you, your comments on his posts are going to show up on his notifications. So, he's going to see your comment. He might overlook it the first day, but next week he sees your comment again. Who is this guy? Who is Zach Pascarella? Why is he commenting on my stuff? I don't know who this guy is. The third week, he sees your comment again. All right, I gotta check this guy out. Who is Zach? Why is he Oh, let me take a look at his profile. Oh, that's cool. He's a bookkeeper. Okay, good to know. Oh, I see he's got some pretty cool content. He puts out these videos every day. Oh, that's interesting. Boom. Just by you commenting on Mr. Landscaper post three weeks in a row, he saw your profile. Now he knows who you are. Now, he might turn into a potential client.
Step number five, send a DM to all of your connections. Ton of different options here. You can take a wide variety of different routes. I I have come up with three different DMs. And let me just be clear, this is not a sales pitch. This, in my opinion, this is not a sales pitch. In my opinion, this is more so direct marketing. Think about think about your social media content as one of those signs that you put in the yard along the road in the grass along the road. That's your marketing content. But the DM, think about this. The DM is the flyer you put in their mailbox. So that's the difference. It's not a sales pitch. It's direct marketing. So that's how I I view my social media DMs. I think you've got three options. Feel free to write this down. Hey, I'm a bookkeeper. Let me know if you ever need help with your QuickBooks. Super straightforward, super simple. Or, hey, I'm trying to grow my bookkeeping business. If you know anybody who you think might need help with their QuickBooks, I would love an introduction and an opportunity to help them. That way, you're not pitching directly to them, but instead, you're saying, "Hey, do you know anybody? If you know anybody, I'd love an introduction." Set number three, DM option number three. This is a new one. This is one I just fig I just started. Hey, I just got a website. Here's my website, harrisburgbookkeeping.com. zip capitalfund.com. I just got a website. Would you mind taking a look at it? I would love some advice. Is there anything you think I could do to make it better? Boom. All of a sudden, they're taking a look at your website. You're not asking them for anything other than advice. People love giving advice. People love sharing their opinion. So, they're going to look at your website. They're going to see, "Oh, that's interesting. zip capital fun.com. Okay, I see what he's doing here. This is This is interesting. Investment fund, 8 to 12% fixed returns, real estate loans. That's really interesting. Does he give me advice? Maybe. Do I care about his advice? Possibly, if he gives me good feedback, for sure. But what's my real goal? My real goal is to get him nonchalantly to look at my website, to see what I'm offering, to learn more. If if I would say, "Hey, do you want to invest in my fund? If you give me $25,000, I'll give you 8% fixed returns. Go take a look at my website, delete, block, ignore. No way. Not a chance. But instead, hey, I just got a new website. Would love your advice. Would love some feedback. You got a couple minutes to check it out. Here it is.
Okay, 70 people watching live right now. This is incredible. Thank you all so much for showing up. Let's get to the questions. Let's get to the chat. So, I'm going to try to get through everybody's questions, everybody's chat. I see a ton of questions. Real quick, before I do that, let me just say this video is sponsored by Zip Capital. I'm offering 8% up to 12% fixed returns to accredited investors. There is a link down below. Check out my website, zip capital fund.com. Learn more. You can register on my website if you're interested. When you register on my website, I'll get your phone number. I'll give you a call. We can chat five or 10 minutes and see if you might want to invest in Zip Capital. minimum $25,000. So, if you've got 25K sitting in a savings account, money market, bank CD, this could potentially be a really great opportunity for you.
Okay, Sarah Foster, first question. Can you go over how you reconcile a loan account on a cleanup? Some statements I couldn't get or the owner couldn't get for whatever reason. How do you handle everything in a cleanup? You've got two options, Sarah. You can go month by month and reconcile every single month, recognizing the interest payment every single month. Or you can just do a one-time journal entry at the end of the year. Might be easier, potentially less accurate if we're missing some payments every single month. I prefer to go month by month, but if you don't have the statements every month, your only option might be to do end of the year. Another option, if if you're only missing one or two months, if you have March and May, you could still get away with it. You can reconcile March and then reconcile May and then you could see the missing interest payment and then you could do another journal entry for the April interest payment even if you don't have the April statement. But if you're missing two consecutive months, gets a little bit more challenging. So for a cleanup, you could just do one journal entry end of the year to reconcile the entire year for the loan account. Do you market with your personal or business Facebook account? Strictly personal. Everything I do is on my personal page, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. It's all personal. It's all Zach Pascarelloo. I want people to know who I am. I want people to know two things. My name and the name of my company. Zip Capital, Harrisburg Keeping, Zack Pascarelloo. I think personal pages do a lot better in my opinion. I think personal pages do a lot better than business pages. So, that's just my personal opinion. Also, real quick, if you're if you're in the chat, go ahead and let me know where you're from, where you're watching from. I love seeing it. I think it's so cool to see people all over the world tuning in to watch these lives. So, we've got South Africa, I think, India, I think, maybe a country in South America, maybe Mexico, I think Canada. So, let me know where you all are from. I'd love to see it.
How long from marketing strategy launch to lead production and what was the lead to close time frame? So, I got started in October 15th of 2020. I started marketing like three days later. I got my first client December 29th of 2020. So October 15, 2020. December 29th. It took me what is that? Two and a half months from like, okay, I want to do this to yes, here here's my first client. December 29th. And it happened because I sent him a message and said, hey, I'm a bookkeeper. Let me know if you ever need help with your QuickBooks. And he said, "Yes, let's do it." So, two and a half months from inception to first client. And during those two and a half months, I was doing this. I was creating content every single day on Facebook. I was engaging with my audience. I was sending friend requests. I was sending DMs. That's also how I got my biggest client in 2021. It was an 18month, $9,000 restaurant cleanup because I sent them a message. I sent the business owner a message on Facebook.
All right, M. Jackson, for your bookkeeping business, do you include multiple services like all-inclusive or do you put guard rails on the scope of work? Great question, M. Jackson. Absolutely. So, scope creep is a real thing. It's up to you to establish boundaries. You need to have a scope of work, a client agreement whenever you get started. So, with that client agreement, clearly outline what you're going to do. Also consider maybe outline what you're not going to do. Maybe not in your client agreement, but definitely in an email, let them know what you're not going to do. I think that's an overlooked method in the beginning whenever you're onboarding a client. Definitely let them know what you're going to do, but consider letting them know what you're not going to do. So, I only do bookkeeping. I only three things. Categorize transactions, reconcile accounts, generate financial reports, P&L, balance sheet. That's all I do. Good morning, Zack. Elizabeth Parker, uh, bookkeeping, Conro, Zack, wishing you and all the viewers of this video so a great Tuesday and rest of the week. Let's get it. Yes, absolutely. Jessica, thank you for these. Um, yes, good morning. Good morning. Good morning, Sarah Foster. I have a good reconciliation video on my channel. Thanks, Bookkeeping Conro. Isaac, I remember you talked about sending recurring emails to clients and yourself. How to create recurring emails on Gmail. Writeinbox. Writeinbox.com. You can It's an extension. I think it's like 60 bucks a year. I use it a lot. Write Inbox. I have 70 recurring emails that go out every single month to myself and all my clients. Definitely look into it. If you're using Google Suite, check out Write Inbox. Hi from Pittsburgh. When a client wants to do a monthly bookkeeping, but his prior books are an absolute mess. How do you proceed? Great question. When you're onboarding a client, I always ask the client, "When do you want me to get started?" I never tell a client when I'm going to get started because I want to avoid me telling the client, "Hey, looks good. I'll start January 1st, 2026." And if I say that and 2025 is all messed up, then all of a sudden now I'm responsible somehow. So I say, "Hey, let me know when you want me to get started. If you want me to start August 1st, October 1st, 2025, no problem. I can do that. But keep in mind that means I'm not going to touch transactions from before October 1st, 2025." So I can do that, no problem. But I'm not going to do anything with September and previous. Next question. All our agreements include a general service agreement and a scope of work. There's a contracts. Yep. Absolutely. Um, are you in Cape Town? No, I'm not. I know this is a picture of Cape Town. So, I'm in a very small office here with just a window and bare walls. So, I got this off of Amazon to try to mitigate the acoustic whatever vibrations to try to soundproof and improve the acoustics of my office because there was a lot of echo. So, I try to get I I just got this little Cape Town, Cape Horn or whatever it's called picture on my background. But it's just a beautiful beautiful beach. Right now, it's winter. It's cold in Pennsylvania. So, it's nice to see the beach in the background. Did you take any financial exams to do what you're doing with your investment company? No. So, I am a real estate private money lender. Doesn't require any certifications. I'm not. You need to be a licensed mortgage originator to lend on owner occupied houses, I think. Don't quote me on that maybe. But I don't lend on owner occupied houses. I only lend on non-ownero occupied houses, business loans to companies. So, very different when it comes to real estate lending. But nope, anybody can be a real estate private money lender from what I know. Maybe, you know, consult with your attorney. Of course, every state is different, but I know that I did not need to take any exams or certifications to be a real estate private money lender to companies for non-owner occupied properties. That's the big important distinction. What are your views on being a money lender while also getting personal on Facebook? Um, not really sure what you mean. What are your views on being a money lender? Yeah, I'm that's what I'm doing, so I think it's fine. Um, not really sure exactly what you mean. Uh, let's see. Thanks for being consistent, Zach. Makes it easier for me to show up and watch, Dan. Absolutely. That's what it's all about. Um, do the results do the results I've helped my full-time employers achieve, be seen as credible experience, even if it's not client work? M. Jackson, absolutely. So, you could quite literally turn any experience into relevant, relatable experience. It all depends on how you frame it, how you deliver the message. Absolutely. So, just figure out a way that you could tell the story and look into the STAR method if you haven't already. The STAR method could be really helpful for during a client interview whenever you're trying to explain past results. So, the STAR method, the situation, the task, the actions that you took, and the results. So if you use the STAR method, it's a really great way to clearly and concisely share your past experience that can prove that you are capable of handling more work. So the STAR method, situation, task, action, result. So look into the STAR method for your sales consultations when you are sharing your prior experience. But absolutely, absolutely that's definitely credible experience. Hey, I got started with no credible experience. So, if I got started with no credible experience, you can absolutely get started with this with this somewhat credible experience. Absolutely.
Okay, let's see a couple more questions here. Does the platform like Fiverr and Upwork help? Also like Zero Partner Program. Okay, so I do not like Fiverr. I do not like Upwork. I've never got a client from either of those places. I think those two places are a race to the bottom. Fiverr and Upwork. I think it's a race to the bottom. I think there's a lot of international people who are offering very cheap services on Fiverr and Upwork. So, I don't I don't go there. I don't try to find clients there. People who go there are just trying to find cheap labor. So, I So, here's the thing. Whenever I get my clients Whenever I get my clients, they reach out to me and they say, "Hey, Zach, I've been following you on social media for six months. I know who you are. I know what you do. I know how you operate. I see your values. I see that you've got integrity. I see that you're Christian. You're a family man. You're involved in your community. I want to work with you. Period. I want to work with you. And so, in that situation, that's amazing. That's the ideal potential client. They want to hire me. They're not just looking for any old bookkeeper. They want to hire me. And that's the whole point. social media marketing, trust, relationships, be yourself, authentic, transparent, genuine, honest. Be yourself on social media. It takes time, but I promise you, I promise you it's worth it. I built I got up to 88 clients than $40,000 of monthly recurring revenue, all from social media marketing. So, Fiverr and Upwork to me are a shortcut. They're a shortcut. And honestly, I just think you're much better off. Invest in your time long term. Build your brand on social media. Avoid the shortcuts like like referral partners with CPAs, Fiverr, Upwork. Those all could potentially be okay. But long-term, I don't think that's the right solution. Long term, I think you want to have you want to control you want to control your lead generation. I don't want to rely on the CPA down the road to get me my clients. I don't want to rely on Thumbtac or Upwork or Fiverr or any of that stuff. I want to rely on my own organic social media, my own website, my own Google My Business profile, my own personal brand. I want to control it. I want to control my lead generation. What is your conversion rate right now? I'm not taking on new clients. So, I don't have my conversion rate right now is zero. So, I am not growing Harrisburg Bookkeeping. I have a partner. I have a CPA partner who is growing. He's he's growing his accounting firm. He and I have been together for the past five years from the very beginning. He's linked on my website, Harrisburgkeeping.com. Right now, I am sending all of my bookkeeping leads directly to him. I'm not I'm not trying to grow Harrisburg Bookkeeping. So, my conversion rate right now is unfortunately zero. I am 100% focused on growing Zip Capital. This year I started QBO in September, earned the Pro Advisor, got my first client in November. I will do more marketing to get more clients next year. Let's go. Hickeyi BK, not sure if I'm pronouncing that right. Hi, KI. Congratulations. You are truly an inspiration. You are doing exactly what I did 5 years ago. So, if you keep this up, keep working hard, keep getting better, you'll be where I am, or maybe hopefully better in five years. I'm being not in the USA. How should I target people and what should be my strategy? So, unfortunately, everything that I teach is all based on my own experience. So, I have always been in my I have always been in my own country. So, unfortunately, I don't have any experience with that.
Okay, let's see. Get leads for your business. Lots of promoting bookkeeping at $197 per month on Facebook. Hey, first of all, thank you so much for the super chat. really appreciate the the $2, the $1.99. Really appreciate that. Okay, let me try to give you the best answer possible. Lots of people promoting bookkeeping. $197 per month on Facebook. What are your thoughts? So, there's always going to be a cheaper option. There's it the race to the bottom. I want nothing to do with it. So, I would not advertise my services as the cheapest, but instead advertise your services as white glove. If you if you call the number on my website, I answer. If you email the the email address, I answer. I respond to your email. And I respond to your email quickly. 24 hours. One business day. I respond to emails. If you call me, I will do my best to call back same day. Worst case scenario, I'm calling you back next day. I'm in your books once a week more. If you've got if you've got high I've got a client who pays 2500 bucks per per month. I'm in his book I'm in his books twice a week. So if your business is bigger, maybe more, but at least one day per week. I'm in your books every single week. A lot of accounting firms, a lot of bookkeepers don't do that. A lot of bookkeepers maybe once a month, maybe twice a month if you're lucky. So just stress to people that I'm not the cheapest, but I'm an expert. I'm the best. I'm fast. I'm good. You can You can have two. You can only pick two. There's three options. Fast, good, cheap. You can only pick two. So, which two do you want? You want fast and cheap? Fine. But that's not going to be good. If you want good and cheap, fine, but it's going to be slow. So, I always pride myself. I always promote myself as being fast and good. How how quickly do you want your financial reports? first five business days of the month. No problem. If you answer my questions and get me the documents I need, absolutely. I will get you your your last month's P&L in the first five business days of the month. So, don't worry about the people promoting their bookkeeping services for 200 bucks a month. They're not your competition. They're not your competition. So, build build seriously like like what I said before, people reached out to me and said, "Hey, I want to hire you because I know who you are. I resonate with your message. I see your values. I want to hire you. What's name your price? How much is it going to cost? Because I want you. I want Harrisburg bookkeeping to do my bookkeeping. I don't want I don't want some bookkeeper in Alabama. No, nothing against Alabama. Nothing against I don't want some bookkeeper in Chicago or Alabama or Florida or Maine or Oregon. I don't want some random bookkeeper who I don't know doing my books. I want you. I I know you. I've seen you. I trust you. I want you. So, just lean in on that. Lean in on that there. The race to the bottom is a dangerous race. Don't get caught up in it.
Do you ever wonder if someone like you, your client or people that you talk to watch your stories when you are talking about them? Like, I got a new investor. Yes, Sarah. People do see that. That's why I just don't give out personal information. Like I had a a conversation with somebody yesterday at 9:00 a.m. a new investor came from LinkedIn and I and I I made a video about it on Sunday. I said, "Hey, I've got a conversation with a potential investor. He found me on LinkedIn. He is the CEO of a local company in Harrisburg that has a thousand employees. That's that's personal. That's personal enough that he would know that I'm talking about him, but that's not personal enough that anybody else would know. It's not like I'm like, "Hey, I got a conversation with Ryan, who's the CEO of a pet store company in Mechanicsburg." Like, I'm not that specific. I'm not giving out first names. I'm not giving out first name, last initial. I don't do any of that. So, I think it's totally fine to say, "Just got a new client here in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. they are, I don't know, an auto mechanic or just got a new real estate investor here in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or just any anything industry. I think it's fine to say industry and city. I think that's totally fine to say that as long as you're not giving out real personal information. The one thing I will say, the one thing I will caution against and I have gotten some feedback from some bookkeeping clients a couple years ago. I have said things like like I see what have I seen I I've said things like I've seen some of my bookkeeping clients have XYZ in their on their balance sheet or in their P&L or or I I have seen my bookkeeping clients have this number of assets or this debt to income ratio or this amount of equity in their company and I've got some push back from a couple clients like hey I see what you're talking about on Facebook. Just want you to know that the real estate investor community is kind of tight. So may just be really careful with what you're saying whenever you're talking about specific numbers. So I didn't even say a specific client had this. I just said in general I have seen my bookkeeping clients have this on their balance sheet in terms of numbers and ratios and percentages. I have gotten some push back from that. So, just be really careful whenever you're talking about really specific information, but really general, I think that's totally fine. Like, I think all of the bookkeeping stuff that you talk about could be really general. Like, hey, like just don't just don't mention your clients whenever you're talking about bookkeeping and QuickBooks stuff. Like, don't say like, hey, make sure that make sure that your balance sheet loans are reconciled. You can say that instead of saying don't say, "Hey, I've got some I've got some bookkeeping clients who their balance sheet is a total mess." So, don't say that, but instead just say, "Hey, make sure your balance sheet is cleaned up. You want to make sure all your accounts are reconciled." You can give general bookkeeping tips and advice and strategy without targeting specifically identifying specifically your bookkeeping clients. Especially when you're brand new, if you only have three or four bookkeeping clients, like for me, I've got 70 clients, so I could talk generally and they would have no idea. But for you, if you only got three or four clients, you can't really be like this. I've seen this with my clients. But talking about, okay, this is last. I'm rambling right now. I'm so sorry. Last thing I'm going to say, getting new clients, you got to talk about it. I'm doing this with Zip Capital right now. I'm hyping up everything. I'm creating this this fear of missing out, this FOMO with with other business owners, other investors. So you can turn one incident, one event into three or four days of content. Let's say, for example, my Monday meeting with a Zip Capital investor. On Friday, I'm making a video. Hey, so excited. I have a meeting scheduled for Monday at 9:00 a.m. with an interested Zip Capital investor. Monday morning, so excited, everybody. Jam-packed day. Gearing up for my meeting this morning at 9:00 a.m. Stay tuned. I will definitely let you know how it goes. Tuesday, had my meeting yesterday. Went really well. This investor used to be a real estate investor. Now he wants to invest $25,000 into Zip Capital. So excited. Can't wait to work with him. Thursday, hey, update. Investor from Monday just signed the onboarding documents and the client agreement. Now I'm just waiting for their wire. Friday, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Exciting news. That investor I was talking about from Monday, he just sent his wire. Just got the funding. Zip Capital investor number 24 just got $25,000. And then next Monday, hey, updating the the number on the board. Remember last week you got that new investor, $25,000. Now we've got $3 million 67,000 in Zip Capital. So all of a sudden you just turned one incident into five or six days worth of content and you're just hyping it up. you're hyping it up and you can do the same thing. Hey, just got a new bookkeeping client. Let me update the number. You know, I did have 23 clients. Now I've got 24 clients. Let me let me add let me let you know how the meeting went. So excited for like you can you can ramp it up. You can hype it up. You can take one single event, hype it up. And this just creates FOMO. This creates excitement around what you're growing. People want to be involved if you talk about it. If if you this this is proof of concept. If you show the world that other people are interested, then they will think, "Oh, wow. If he's got 23 investors, if he's got 23 bookkeeping clients, he must be he must know what he's talking about. He must be doing something right. This is kind of interesting. This is kind of exciting." And then last thing, finally, people love to people love to see the [clears throat] people love to see the the the business updates. People get really excited when they see those business updates. And so those posts actually do tend to get a ton of engagement. They tend to get a ton of engagement. So keep it up everybody. Thank you all so much. Tomorrow might be the last day I'm going live for the rest of the year. So stay tuned tomorrow. Join me live tomorrow. And uh last thing, if you want to invest in Zip Capital, check out the link down below, zip capital fun.com. I would love to see if we can work together. So thank you all so much. God bless you. Appreciate you all watching. Have a great day.