Ahhh outsourcing!
When we first started our business, outsourcing was something we dreamed about – and something we also had a ton of fear around.
We knew that in order to grow our business, we’d need to outsource pieces of it. We knew our time was best spent in serving our clients well – not in all of the backend work that inevitably needs to get done.
Alas, don’t we all find ourselves spending WAY too much of our day on those admin tasks?!
Why You Need to Outsource to Grow Your Business
In just the FIRST year of business – when we were nowhere near as busy as we are now – I quickly realized how much time I was wasting on admin tasks.
Not that these tasks are unimportant – they are. They’re not just important for ME to do.
As the business owner and creative, odds are, your time is going to be better spent doing what you do BEST. Working in your zone of genius is what’s going to grow your business and deliver an unforgettable client experience.
Doing your own bookkeeping? No one will ever know the difference…
(Except maybe your accountant)
Before we dive in to why and how we outsource our bookkeeping specifically, I want you to think about all of the little tasks that you have to complete every day/week/month that are taking time away from the business-driving efforts you could be doing.
That’s where you need to start looking for ways to outsource.
Maybe it’s your culling and editing. Maybe it’s your copywriting. Maybe it’s your Facebook ads. Maybe it’s your album designing. Maybe it’s your bookkeeping.
As you probably well know, there are SO many things that go into actually running a business. Thankfully, not all of them require that WE work on them personally.
And while it may seem daunting to think about outsourcing a piece of your business, I’d encourage you to start small – and start with something that you despise.
That’s what led us to outsourcing our bookkeeping (and we’ve never looked back).
Why We Outsource Our Bookkeeping
The answer here is a combination of two things I’ve already mentioned:
- Bookkeeping was NOT a good use of my time
- I absolutely HATED doing it
Let’s talk about the first point. Each month, I was spending at least 10 hours updating our books – and to be perfectly honest, I was never really confident that I was doing them correctly.
Like most businesses, we were bootstrapping when we started, and so I tried to save money on anything and everything I could.
At first, I just whipped together my own excel sheet to track our expenses. It was simple, and it was free.
Then I started fearing that I wasn’t categorizing correctly or that my excel sheet wasn’t “good” enough for what I’d need come tax season, and so we upgraded to QuickBooks.
Although it was only around $10/mo, this was still a big move for us. Each and every tool and program we invested in HAD to be worth it.
Still, I was spending at least 10 hours a month stressing over our books.
Yes – stressing. It was not fun for me, and like I said – I kind of always feared I was doing something wrong (or at least that a professional could do it a whole lot better!)
What task is that in YOUR business? It may not be bookkeeping, but I’m going to take a wild guess and say there’s something you have to do every day/week/month that, 1) takes up too much of your time and 2) you dread doing.
What helped us decide to outsource this was reframing the cost.
Instead of looking at how much we’d spend every month to outsource our books, we looked at our opportunity cost. 10 hours a week bookkeeping was 10 hours that I couldn’t work on client projects, which meant 10 hours that were unbillable.
Even at our first hourly rate of $25/hour, that was $250 a month we were losing!
Now at $250/hour, it’s a whole lot bigger of an opportunity cost to do our own books.
So essentially, I reframed the problem to realize that outsourcing our books was worth about $250.
Thankfully, we found a solution that made our lives INCREDIBLY easier – and didn’t cost us $250 a month 🙂
Why We Chose Bench for Bookkeeping
When we first started thinking about outsourcing our books, we weren’t sure where to start.
We had a meeting with a local company in our town, but as people who love to work online, Bench’s platform and system was way more appealing to us.
Also, since we travel full-time, we love keeping things digital and easy to complete remotely.
Enter: Bench – our bookkeeping savior.
1. All of the transactions are imported automatically
All of our accounts are automatically pulled into Bench each month (with the exception of Honeybook, so we just upload that monthly report – which takes all of 5 minutes!).
We have our business cards, Stripe, and Wave accounts all connected, so each month our Bench team can easily categorize our expenses and income.
If there are ever any questions about a transaction, the platform has a super easy way to communicate and leave comments back and forth. My Bench team will email me saying they have a question on how to categorize a transaction, and I can hop in there and let them know. They usually have “suggested” categories as well to help.
2. You can view your monthly, quarterly, and yearly reports super easily
Another feature that I love is being able to get a really quick and easy glance at our financials.
Their platform is incredibly easy to view and understand. With a few clicks I can see our monthly, quarterly, and yearly breakdown of our revenue, expenses, and profit – along with income statements, balance sheets, and all that jazz.
3. Bench makes tax season a breeze
Bench is able to add your accountant as a collaborator in their platform, so our accountant can easily view our books for the year, ask questions or make any comments.
Even in our first year when I spent 10+ hours a month doing our books, I still spent 40 hours alone just in preparing (and fixing) everything for our accountant in tax season. It was the worst.
Now, our accountant just logs into Bench to prepare our business taxes 🙂
4. Bench has an amazing free trial
**PRO TIP: You can get an EXTRA free month of bookkeeping (in addition to your trial) with our Bench referral link.**
What sold us on Bench was actually being able to try the platform before we bought. Their team had a call with us before taking over a month of our bookkeeping.
The proof really is in the pudding – they made my life so much easier from the start that hiring them was a no brainer after the trial!
5. Bench is an affordable way to outsource bookkeeping
With plans starting as low as $95/mo, Bench is one of the most affordable ways to outsource.
Their pricing structure is setup to work with any level of business, from our teeny tiny beginnings to large corporations.
Plus, if you choose to be billed on their annual plan, you can save a good chunk of change each month!
How to Get a Free Month of Bench Bookkeeping
We’ve been using Bench consistently now for three years, and I can honestly say that it’s worth every penny.
My Bench team has taken so much time and stress off of my plate and has allowed us to instead focus on growing our business.
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