Today we’d like to introduce you to Bill Waddington.
Hi Bill, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I spent a long time, over 26 years, in the corporate world managing projects. The work was exciting and challenging and catered to my intrinsic need for detail and structure. I like it when everything is organized, and everything adds up as it should.
As a side hobby, I created a small business with my brother making custom apparel. It was nothing big, just selling a shirt or two a month. But it was rewarding in a different way, as we took creative designs, put them on shirts, and enjoyed the pleasure it brought to our customers when we put in their hands.
Although our apparel business was merely a fun little distraction, it really drove home how hard small businesses work every day to be successful. When I did the math in my head of how many shirts I would need to sell to match my corporate job income the numbers were far higher than realistically possible. Yet there are business owners making a living doing only that work. And not only are they doing the work, they’re also dealing with the challenges and regulations of owning a business in a competitive market.
When I discovered bookkeeping, I felt like it was the perfect marriage between my corporate life and my hobby life. I could use my financial expertise managing budgets and my detail orientation to help business owners keep their transactions organized. I could use my experience with tracking project milestones to help business owners identify and monitor the key measurements to make their business successful. I could partner with business owners to take a lot of the necessary, and complication, financial reporting requirements off of their mind so they can be free to run their business and be successful.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not surprisingly, the path I’ve walked while becoming a bookkeeper was not entirely smooth.
The first step is education. While I bring many years of experience managing project budgets this is a bit different from managing business accounts, and the accounting process is unique in many ways. I spent many hours learning how to organize, classify, and reconcile accounts. Fortunately, an attention to detail was an advantage here, and I quickly picked up the nuances of bookkeeping and passed the tests necessary to become certified.
The second step is marketing. To be a bookkeeper, you have to have clients. To get clients, you have to market yourself. There are many ways to market your services, however, as someone who was never much into social media, or putting themselves out there, this has been a completely new skillset I’ve been trying to learn. I learn something new every day, but it is still not something I am comfortable with. It makes me glad I didn’t choose to be an influencer as a side hobby!
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Bill’s Better Bookkeeping?
I am a certified bookkeeper who works with small business clients to organize their business transactions. Like most bookkeepers, I produce reports demonstrating a business’ cash flow and financial stability, and ensure businesses are prepared for tax season. Unlike most bookkeepers, I come from a corporate background and have experience I can use to provide services most bookkeepers cannot. Beyond the standard bookkeeper tasks, I like to work with business owners to identify Key Performance Indicators – what metrics can be measured to provide information specific and necessary to that business for its success. Putting this information in a business owner’s hands allows them to know exactly how their business is performing at any time, how it compares with similar businesses in the industry, and prepares them to act quickly to grow their business and remain successful long-term.
How do you define success?
Success, to me, is when my clients have all of the information they need to make educated decisions towards the growth and success of their business. And when they can take their finances off their mind entirely and focus on their business, knowing that I am on the job.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://billsbetterbookkeeping.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578361493495
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billsbetterbookkeeping/
