Bookkeep Anywhere Course Review

Bookkeep Anywhere Course Review

Bookkeep Anywhere "60-Day Bookkeeper" course review and interview with course creator Jenny Buckallew.

July 2021 UPDATE:

Her Mindset Magic Bootcamp might be what you need if you have the accounting and bookkeeping software skills, but just need that extra push to have faith in yourself.  The 10-day Intensive Bootcamp starts July 6.

Invest in the 60-Day Bookkeeper course from Bookkeep Anywhere to get your bookkeeping business started.  This course can support the person with smaller (but serious) “side-hustle” aspirations or the big business dreamer who wants to have a large firm.  Watch the full interview and course review below and also dive in to my comments about what I see is particularly valuable about this specific course.  

Another very affordable way to see if you like her teaching style AND get a lot of value out of a starter course is to take her course that is all about getting clients on Upwork. You can get a lot of free tips about Upwork in this interview below. This is one of the most popular interviews I’ve ever done.

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This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. This means that if you make a purchase using our link, we’ll receive compensation at no additional cost to you. 
  • One of the most valuable things I heard from her is that her support group is included in your course purchase.  As you build your business, you are going to need some coaching.  Mark my words.  If you want an easy and free way to get it, then purchase a course that doesn’t make you choose if you are going to purchase that support each month.  
  • The course will be available for purchase on March 11.  Jenny plans to offer Bookkeeping Side Hustle FaceBook Group a discount, so come over to the group to get the discount when you are ready to purchase.
  • The course costs $997.  She also has a 6-month payment plan.    When we talked about her pricing, she said that she wants her course to be affordable because she does not want people to go into debt because they can’t afford it.  Y’all, this is music to my ears and so wise.  Please, do not go into debt to start your bookkeeping business.  It is a very bad idea.  It will make you desperate and you’ll take on clients before you are ready and also you will take on bad clients to pay your bills.  Jenny gets 5 stars from me for discouraging debt.  
  •  She teaches all sorts of marketing methods, but share a lot of Upwork secrets.  She built her own business by leaning heavily on Upwork and got that pipeline down to a science. If you know you want to use Upwork (i.e. those in-person networking options are not going to work for you), this might be just the ticket you need.  She gives her students her exact proposals, even the ones she did when she was just starting out that were not good/successful.  She completely lays it all out based on her own experience so you skip right to the successful methods.
  • She gives her students her EXACT tech stack (Asana, Toggl, etc).  There are lots of different tools out there, but sometimes it is just best to copy what someone else has done so you aren’t wasting time comparing two apps that basically do the same thing (“Gee, should I use Asana or Trello???  Let me spend an entire weekend going down this rabbit trail and researching this and STILL not feeling confident in my choice”).  She gives her students her exact Asana templates to use to manage client work.   For most people, they should NOT CARE which app they are using, but just that they are using one well.  This “do-as-I-do” tech stack training sounds EXTREMELY valuable.  
  • Jenny said that her gift is “processes”.  She is a CPA and has a successful bookkeeping business and she definitely teaches the accounting and bookkeeping basics, but if she had to pick one, she has an advantage at the process side of things than the bookkeeping side of things.   
  • When I asked her about her ideal student, she said she only wanted very ethical students and students who aren’t just looking to make a quick buck.  Wow, what a peak into the kind of person that she is.  That shows her integrity and that she has a very good grasp of the nature of this business. This business is about cultivating relationships with your clients and tailoring it to their needs.  You need a long-term outlook for success, and THEN you can build a very profitable business.
  • She said her course would not be a good fit for people whose professional goals are to get a staff bookkeeper job.  The course is geared toward people who entrepreneurial aspirations.   
  • I was encouraged by Jenny’s description of learning bookkeeping and accounting.  “You don’t have to be good at math.  You need to think of this as learning a new language.”  I think that is a pretty astute observation and one that I hope encourages people who are concerned that they haven’t loved math their whole life. 
  • She started her curriculum in QuickBooks Online, but has some frustrations with that software, so will quickly add modules based on other bookkeeping software programs.  So this would be a good course for folks wanting to learn the other programs.  

So, are you going to use Bookkeep Anywhere’s 60-Day Bookkeeping Course to get your business started?  Comment or ask questions below.  

Start your bookkeeping business by investing in the 60-day Bookkeeper Course from Bookkeep Anywhere.

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Interview Transcript

Introduction

Hi, everyone! I’m Kate Johnson, and today I’m excited to interview Jenny Buckallew about her course. But first a few points of housekeeping before we get started. The purpose of this interview is to let the Bookkeeping Side Hustle Group know about options out there for training, learning, and growing your business, so this is only one of several interviews that I’ve done. Jenny has given me an affiliate link. If you do purchase her course, it would be great if you chose to do that through this link. But the purpose really is to give you an overview of all the options that are available for you to get your bookkeeping business started. I haven’t taken her course, so this is mostly just going to be me asking her about it. I’m not going to opine one way or the other because I haven’t been inside the course. But I think we’ll get a lot of valuable info.

With that said, let’s dive right in. Jenny, why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself and your course!

Interview

Jenny: Sure. Hi, I’m Jenny Buckallew. If you’ve seen me around the web you may have noticed I sometimes go by Robin Buckallew, so I just want to clear that up to start. My legal name is Robin, but that’s also my mother’s name, so I’ve always gone by Jenny. However, one of the interesting things about working virtually is clients will do a lot of Googling to check your background and certifications. So, since establishing a trusting relationship with clients is so important, I decided to buy the URL and do everything under the legal name. But Facebook has become such a big part of what I’m doing that people started to make the connection. So, I just wanted to clear that up, that’s why I have two names. My mom named me after herself and it’s caused a lot of confusion growing up.

I am a Certified Public Accountant, (CPA), here in Boise, Idaho. I got certified in 2014. I worked in industry for a few years. Then I transitioned into being an operations manager for a company that did QuickBooks bookkeeping only. That’s where I got a ton of experience handling the processes in the backend and establishing procedures for how to run a bookkeeping business.

Two years ago, in March of 2018, I was able to replace my full-time income and start my own business before I even left that job. A lot of that was based on Upwork, of course. I used that to really explode my initial business. Since then I’ve used all of the available options of referrals, networking, and teaching workshops. All those are options I go through in depth in my course, because the success of your sales funnel depends on getting in front of people in the way you are most comfortable, and then moving them through the funnel with confidence. So that’s a brief overview of me and my course.

My course is called 60-Day Bookkeeper, and it’s under the umbrella of Bookkeep Anywhere. The reason I named it 60-Day Bookkeeper is because I wanted to create a course that people finish. I didn’t want people to be like me and have this backlog of courses that I’m addicted to buying but not finishing. So I put a sense of urgency and timeline on it with a 60-day roadmap. It shows exactly how you can go from knowing absolutely nothing about bookkeeping to feeling confident working with easy clients and doing basic bookkeeping. Then from there you’re able to learn more, grow, and scale your business. But, don’t worry, you do have access to the course for more than 60 days. My initial thought was to put a timeline on it so you can achieve the goal and finish.

Kate: Awesome! We’ll get into more details of the course for sure. I think that’s an interesting approach. The course that I took had what they called a 90-day plan. But when I took the course there wasn’t a sense of completion and you never really knew when you were done. So I can really see some people resonating with that 60-day timeline. Especially task-oriented, highly motivated, and goal-centered people.

Since this interview is originally taking place live on Facebook, I want to give people a chance to chime in throughout our discussion. If you have any questions, please feel free to post them in the comments below and we’ll answer them. Jenny is an industry professional and she will be able to answer anything on the fly. So ask away!

Jenny, what motivated you to create your course?

Jenny: To answer that I want to give a little bit of background here on who I am as a person. When I was growing up, I loved school. Other kids wanted to play Barbies or whatever, and all I wanted to do was play school with my sister. So it’s always been in my blood. I love making homework, answering questions, doing homework, and solving problems. But not only that, but one of my earliest memories is finally being old enough to attend preschool and my mom comes to tuck me into bed the night before my first day of preschool. She asked me what I was wearing, and underneath my pajamas I had already dressed for school. I was ready to go! I didn’t want to be late for school my first day.

It’s funny when you look at little kids and you see your essence that follows you through for the rest of your life. That is the essence of who I am right there. I’m analytical. I love processes and procedures. So, no matter what I’m doing, it’s always about the process to me. I always ask how can we make this more efficient, timely, and accurate. So you could say I was born to do this.

As far as what actually made me finally jump through the analysis paralysis was talking with a coach. She asked me if I knew my information, and of course I did. So then she asked me what I was waiting for, and I didn’t have a good answer. So that’s how she convinced me to just put it out there and make sure people were actually interested.

One of the things that’s different about my course is that, while I was upfront and honest about it, I had an outline and content in hand, but I hadn’t recorded anything yet. I taught the first course live. I enrolled a group of students and my brain was the course. Anything they wanted to know. Any questions they had, if I didn’t already have that covered, I’d go back and create videos afterwards. We did a live session every Saturday and then I went back and created the videos to support that. I incorporated user feedback from all the beta testers who ranged in experience from absolute beginner to 20-year veterans. So all of the content in my course has been informed, on a deep level, by a wide range of experiences. This resulted in content that is more comprehensive and more detailed than anything I could have created without doing it live. It’s also enabled me to capture all of the finer nuances of the bookkeeping process that we don’t even think about anymore because during the live videos I was walking through the process hand-in-hand with bookkeepers who were just starting out and encountering the stumbling blocks I hadn’t come across in years.

While this was a really cool way to teach my course, obviously the videos will be finished for the next group of students. But I am still retaining that dynamic engagement by going back and adding to the course materials in real time if a student has a question that hasn’t already been answered.

Kate: Wow! My mind is exploding with questions. So you have a beta group, could I sign up to be your student today?

Jenny: No. Actually I have this beta group of 14 students who are still moving through the first round. After that I’m having a video editor come in to clean up all of the videos and trainings that have been created so far. I’m having all the templates built in an easy-to-use format so students can quickly customize them with their own logos and branding.

the course will open again on March 11, 2020 for everyone who wants to join.

Kate: Okay. So on March 11 it will be open to the public to purchase on any day of the year at any point in time?

Jenny: Yes.

Kate: Okay. How does it still remain the 60-Day Bookkeeper course? it’s pretty obvious how you did it with a beta group. But now, if I’m a new student on March 11 and I buy this, these are the videos that I watch each Saturday? I could pick my own day, I’m sure. Is that the idea still moving through at the pace of 60 days?

Jenny: Obviously the course is self-paced, so if 60 days doesn’t work for you that’s fine. I’ve got students like that who are working full-time and going to school. What I’m going to do is create two calendars for both types of students.

There’s one calendar for doing a little bit of the course each night. It shows exactly what the 60 days would look like and everything you’d accomplish. One of the things I didn’t see in a lot of other courses that I really wanted to include was a detailed breakdown of how long each video was, the estimated time of each homework, the order that videos should be completed and things like that. This way students can see exactly how much time they should set aside every day to complete the course in 60 days.

then I have a second calendar that’s more weekly. So if a student can only work on the course two days a week or whatever it gives them an option to see what that schedule might look like if they want to finish in 60 days.

Now of course some students are going to finish faster than 60 days. To my surprise, there are some students who sign up for the course even though they already have an accounting background. I talked with those students before they signed up to make sure I had information that would be of value to them, and they assured me that I did. One aspect is just getting the confidence to go out on their own. But the bigger piece students like this were looking for was the sales and marketing side of things, and my course absolutely goes through all of that.

There is total flexibility with the course schedule, and it is at your own pace. I’ve created guidelines to fit most students, and I really hope they stick to those guidelines, but if they need more time then that’s no problem.

Kate: Will there still be a regular class component like you had with the Saturday group? Or is that going away after March 11? What if I can’t do Saturdays? Do I need to not buy your course, or can I do it after March 11?

Jenny: All of those Saturday trainings are recorded. They’re in the group and I’m not taking them out. Everything I’ve done is staying in the Facebook group. Then all of the course content, videos, everything will be in Teachable already so there’s no worries about being able to attend a Live.

However, I will continue having some kind of live portion whether it’s a Q&A, or just going over questions I’ve received from students. What I’ve done in the past, and plan to continue doing if possible, is ask my students what days and times work best for their schedule to hold these Lives. I try to get the most students in on that day. But for the students who can’t be there, they can catch the replay. If they send their questions I will still go in the group and answer them. And if we need to go into more detail, I’ll just cover them in the next Live we have.

Kate: Got it. Awesome! What would you say makes your course unique in the marketplace?

Jenny: I have to give the same disclaimer because I’m an extremely literal person. I have stalked all those other courses, but I haven’t purchased any of them. I can’t see the videos. I can’t see how they teach. But regardless of what’s in their courses, the number one thing I know to be unique about my course, is the ‘how’.

A lot of us are teaching the same ‘what’ right? We’re teaching maybe QuickBooks Online or some other accounting software. We’re teaching bookkeeping 101 and accounting. We’re teaching sales and marketing. What’s really different is how we do that.

We are all going to teach differently and connect with students differently. For me I ask for a lot of feedback, I ask for a lot of questions, and I follow up with my students. The way that I teach is radically transparent and honest.

If a student asks a question, I don’t hide anything. Whether I have failed miserably, at whatever the topic is, in the past or whether I’ve rocked it I show them.

Upwork is a great example. I had a lot of success on Upwork and I don’t hide that. I went through and pulled all of my proposals that won, and the job description that matched those, and I put those in the group. Would I say that every single proposal was perfect or that I was proud of them all? No, but the point is I’m laying everything out for them and demonstrating you don’t have to be perfect for this to work. I show things that have worked for me. They may not be the most polished presentation, but they still work. As long as sharing that encourages people to take a leap and get started then I’m happy.

But I think the how is a little bit different. I’m not your typical CPA. I don’t own any professional attire. I have a work-from-home lifestyle that I was dressing for before I ever had it.

Kate: It’s pretty intimate to be able to really peek behind someone’s business like you are doing. I don’t know that the other people I’ve interviewed are doing that. I haven’t heard an example of them showing a proposal that was actually submitted even though it was totally lame, but it shows how they learned and got better. It’s easier to say, “Look how I grew my business in two years” or whatever. So what you’re doing is very, very interesting.

And you’ve mentioned Upwork several times. No other course creator that I’ve talked to has put that much emphasis on it. So that would be something that stands out to me.

Jenny: Well here are a couple of other things that I don’t think anybody else is doing.

For example, I give away the exact tech stack I’m using. I use Asana, I use Toggle, I use Gmail. But not only do I tell them I use Asana; I take my task templates – including all the subtasks with all my processes – and I give them the import. So they can literally recreate my Asana in a second. They set up Asana, they import all of the tasks. Whenever they have a new client they don’t have to sit there and manually create all the tasks and make all the same mistakes I made already. It’s all there. I give them my service listing and my price listing. I encourage them to customize it for themselves, but it’s a template for them to get started.

I do this because the things that held me back from getting started on my business weren’t the bookkeeping things. It was the little annoying things I felt weren’t pretty enough to go forward. And so, those are the things that I give them now and they have nothing to stop them.

Kate: An Asana board would be fantastic. No one has ever given one of those to me. That’s a real gem.

Jenny: I’ll send you it if you’d like.

Kate: Perhaps. I need to learn Asana. I’m bad at the workflow management part. I’ve deliberately grown very slowly as my children have entered school. Now for the first time they’re all in school at the same time, at the same building, at the same spot. So it’s only been the last six months I’ve finally felt like I’m really trying to build a bookkeeping business. I’m getting after it, pounding pavement, and setting bigger goals. Whereas last year I wanted three new clients. I achieved it by the end of the year. But I was not trying that hard either. I had the luxury of not needing the systems to function as well as the people who are wanting to do this on a much larger scale. So that’s cool that you help them with that.

Jenny: Yes. That’s 100% my focus. I will tell anyone my gift is not bookkeeping. My gift is processes. And it’s the fact that I’m not always great at bookkeeping that has made my processes so strong. I have to have processes in place to review my own work and catch everything that could go wrong before it goes out to a client, because I am not naturally an excellent bookkeeper.

Kate: I’m learning that too. There are some people who that is their jam. They love it. They think about it and they get excited about it. But I don’t think you have to be that way to be successful in a bookkeeping business. We all bring different strengths.

Let me ask you a couple more details about your course. Are you teaching just one software? Are you teaching QBO?

Jenny: Right now I’m going really in depth on QBO. I would say that I am also going to add some of the other platforms. Mainly out of spite because I’m really mad about some of the stuff that QBO is doing. They keep raising prices, and that’s not necessarily sustainable because I like to target small businesses. I’ve had some issues where a client can’t invite me, but they’re getting advertisements for QuickBooks Live. So lately I’ve been thinking I should diversify and help others do the same.

I have a simulation that I’m working on which will be software agnostic. I’ve created several practice invoices, bank deposits, and receipts. A list of various transactions to simulate the documents you’d get from a client that you can enter and practice with. I’m going to turn it into a workbook, or an email simulation so that you really get the feel for what it’s like to be a bookkeeper. But I want it to be applicable to whatever accounting software you want to use.

I am biased because right now I am 100% QuickBooks Online. I just wish that they would stop raising prices so that my small business clients could handle it a little better.

But my goal is not only to add the different software systems, but also some of the niche bookkeeping segments. My niches are real estate, construction, and eCommerce. Those are not what I teach initially because they are not easy clients.

Kate: Those are hard. Those are the hardest ones.

Jenny: Yes, but they’re such an easy sell. Once you’ve learned the bookkeeping, they’re easy. And they’re easy to get higher prices for because their books are already a mess. If they aren’t working with an expert who has been trained, they already know they need you. That’s the easiest person to sell to is the one who already knows they need you. Those are things I’m working on.

I try to include a specific chart of accounts, and specific tips. I teach how to design a chart of accounts so I can avoid upgrading my clients to Plus. I find ways around needing Plus, if I can, because I don’t want my clients paying extra for something I can create a crafty solution to.

Kate: That’s equivalent to a few hundred dollars of value that you’re bringing to a client if you can just do the bookkeeping without having to upgrade to Plus. I can see your wheels turning as a bookkeeper and as an instructor. That’s really neat to see.

okay. So you do QBO. Now let me ask, what sort of student is most successful in your course?

Jenny: I do want to give full disclaimer; we are still in the beta portion of the course. So I don’t have students who have graduated and who can say, “Oh, I’ve done this or that,” but I have had students who have already passed the Pro Advisor certification and they have landed their first clients, especially from Upwork. If I can show someone how to make Upwork work, it’s just the easiest sell once you get it. So I’ve got a student who has been killing it on Upwork. Some of the other ones are still working through the material.

From what I can tell, there’s value in it for a completely brand-new, I-know-nothing, just-want-to-start-a-new-business kind of student. I even have a student who has taken your favorite course before and she has given me feedback about stuff she didn’t learn in that course.

It seems like, so far, there’s something for everybody. They’re definitely getting the same value as if they had hired a coach to work with them privately to build their bookkeeping business because I’m opening up everything. The nice thing is future students will get the kind of information that a beginner and an expert received because it will all be included. That’s my goal. I don’t want people to have to purchase multiple courses. I want to help you all the way through.

Kate: Okay. So are we talking about true beginners? This is something I’m particularly sensitive about, but what’s your approach to teaching basic accounting fundamentals? Where it’s not for people who think that this is equivalent to just another side hustle like Instacart or Lyft. You really have to have a big brain. You cannot be someone who doesn’t like to learn. You cannot be someone who quits when it gets hard because you’re going to try to get that first eCommerce client and they’re going to want to make you cry because you don’t understand all the sales tax coming out, and fees coming out. You have to be able to step back and know accounting. How do you teach accounting separate from just clicking in a software? Give me your philosophy of what foundation your student needs before getting their first client.

Jenny: Sure. To give a little background, before doing this I was an adjunct accounting instructor at Stevens-Henegar College. Teaching college accounting isn’t flexible. We were given a curriculum, a book, a PowerPoint, and told this is exactly what we teach the students. One of the things I didn’t know until I started teaching is, I have a natural talent for taking a concept that’s really convoluted or difficult and reducing it to its simplest possible form. So I’m teaching bookkeeping concepts. I’m not teaching the textbook definition of an asset.

My goal is to make it as simple as possible for them to understand enough that they can properly categorize a transaction. Or, more importantly, they know when to ask for help. They learn when to recognize they need to turn to Google, our support group, and all of the resources they have to get the right answer to something they haven’t seen before.

In my course I advocate that my students begin with easy bookkeeping clients who are going to have a similar set of problems that we can show you how to address before you ever get going. So, yes, I teach all the same stuff. I use a lot of PowerPoint because it’s easier to demonstrate and make sure it’s click-by-click and understanding every single step. As I’m going through the material, I like to ask students how a specific transaction might affect the profit and loss, or how it might affect the balance sheet. Those are things no one asked me when I was an accounting student.

I could memorize the definition of assets, and I could memorize what a balance sheet looked like, but no one taught me what it meant. If I categorized a transaction as an expense instead of a fixed asset, how would that affect the bottom line?

Kate: It’s completely different.

Jenny: Exactly. That’s why I do think it’s extremely important for everyone to go through the accounting and bookkeeping basics modules that are in the course. I’m also beefing up the quizzes, the homework, and the repetition because learning accounting is like learning a language. I have a lot of people who think they need to be good at math. You don’t have to be good at math. It’s just like learning a language, and to learn a language, there has to be repetition. So we go over, and over, and over it again until you understand.

So I give a really good, in-depth review process that even my admin could do. I took someone who didn’t know accounting or bookkeeping and taught them how to review other people’s work. It taught them how to review financial statements for common mistakes and errors. And that’s something I teach in my course as well. You don’t even have to know accounting to be able to spot where an error is. And then I give them the exact emails that my admin would send the client. So if they find X, here’s the email you send to the client to get clarification on this issue.

But I absolutely think you do have to have that strong understanding of accounting. You’ve got to do the work, and it takes time. It’s something that I’ve been thinking about how to continually integrate in the course, because if you finished the course in 60 days you could have learned everything but it’s only 60 days. It takes time to sink in, to set, to really understand and grasp it. So that’s where I want the Facebook group to stay really, really strong. I’m not charging for it because I don’t want people to leave.

And I’m finding things like a trivia night to constantly keep it in front of people and keep them engaged. Those basic concepts are something you don’t want to get complacent with.

Kate: Okay, you mentioned your Facebook group. I think I’m in a group called Bookkeep Anywhere. Is there a private group that people who take the course will also be part of?

Jenny: Yes. There’s a private student group where we’re doing the live trainings. If I have a student who’s really not getting it, I’ll send out my calendar to schedule a one-on-one and get them through that hump. Not only does it help them advance their knowledge, but it also gives me a great source of feedback that helps me improve the course for everybody. I love it when my students book a call with me.

To answer your question, there is a private Facebook group that I have no intention on charging for or taking away. For me, I know I’ve been successful if my students finish the course and they have questions. Because if they’re working with clients more and more, they will encounter unique scenarios that just couldn’t be covered in the course, and they’ll have to ask me about it. So that Facebook group gives all my students a place to ask those questions and continue growing long after the course is done.

Kate: It’s remarkable, every client is different, and every problem is different. There are some basics but it’s like the curveball. 90% of the work is supposed to be easy, then there’s one transaction that’s going to take twice as much time as the rest of the books for that month, especially for a beginner like me. I don’t know the mindset of the students taking your course, but mine is to intentionally stay small. The problem with that is I don’t get the repetition that help me identify those trouble spots. If I encounter a weird payroll issue, I’m not encountering it 10 times a month, I’m maybe seeing it twice a year. And by the time I come up against that problem I’ve completely forgotten how I solved it the first time. So, yes, you’re always going to be learning and you’re always going to need support, and that’s why Facebook groups like yours are so valuable.

You don’t charge for the private Facebook group that gives students access to you like some courses do. That’s really important if you’re shopping around for a bookkeeping course because every course out there comes with a private Facebook group. It’s an absolutely essential component to a course. You can’t do without it. You’re going to need ongoing support after the course. But you should be asking yourself, as a customer, how long you think you’ll need that over-the-shoulder help from a group like that because not all are free forever.

You don’t have to spend too long on this answer if you don’t want to, but I just want to ask if you’ve found a type of person who might not be a good fit for your course?

Jenny: I would say one type of student I wouldn’t want in my course necessarily is someone who is just looking to make a quick dollar. Ethics is such a big part of what we do. If someone isn’t looking to do it right, put in the hard work, and own their work, they’re not going to do well in my course.

As an example, let’s say there’s an error in the bookkeeping made and someone asks why it happened. If the student thinks the correct answer is, “Because that’s the way it’s always been done,” they’re not going to like me or my course, because to me, that is not an acceptable answer. If you’re going to be in my course you need to be inquisitive and want to learn, and you absolutely need to be comfortable with changing and improving your processes.

If you’re just looking for the easiest way to get people to hire you, you’re not going to fit in well. Also, if you’re just looking to be an employee, I don’t think this course would be the best use of your time or money because so much of the focus is on how to run your own business. There are courses out there that teach just bookkeeping and they might be a better fit.

Kate: Okay, cool. You are definitely beating the entrepreneurial drum in your course. That’s good to know. I would say most of the people who are considering bookkeeping as a business or side hustle are not entrepreneurs. In the book that I just put out last week I have a whole section on self-analysis to discover if you’re an entrepreneur or not. There are ways to be a virtual bookkeeper without being an entrepreneur. There are people building virtual practices all the time, and those people, like your students, are going to be hiring someone who just wants to be a bookkeeper and they don’t want to run a business.

You really have to do some self-reflection on that aspect of your identity. Don’t blame it on the course you purchase if you’re disappointed because half the materials are marketing if you’re not interested in running your own business. Running a business is so hard and you need those materials if you’re going to do it well. I think the truth is that most people are probably not entrepreneurs. Look at America, most people are employees. That’s not good or bad. It’s just different.

Jenny: It’s not necessarily about how much money you want to make. So if you just want to make a thousand dollars a month and it would be a 12x ROI your first year, right? If you’re freelancing, you still have to wear all the hats. You still have to manage the whole business perspective, and that’s included I the course.

But if you’re just looking to learn bookkeeping so someone will hire you like an employee situation, then there’s probably more content than you need in my course.

Kate: Any success stories of students yet?

Jenny: I thought about this question and I tagged all of my students and told them I was being interviewed, and I asked them to share their successes. I’ve had feedback from my students about what’s working, what they’re learning and things like that. But I wouldn’t say there are some big successes because we haven’t even finished going through all the material.

I have had students sign new clients while being in the course. But nothing I’m ready to share yet because we haven’t completely finished.

Kate: I appreciate that. Thank you for letting me still ask the question. Here’s an encouragement from Hector Basset, who I think is over in New Zealand actually, just saying, “Jenny is really good. I love this. Would love to chat with you some time. I’m all about processes, but I need to improve more.” So maybe even old pros like Hector could benefit from you. I think people are going to be encouraged in your course. And if you’re one of her students, feel free to chime in on the thread of this video. But you’re also being honest, you’re still in beta.

I tend to think of things like an economist more than an accountant, too. In terms of risk versus reward, your course is riskier. But it also costs less than some that are out there, and that’s exactly where it’s supposed to be. People are going to take a higher risk, but if it works the reward is going to be way higher than if they had spent a lot more. Especially with your lifetime access and the personalized approach that they’re going to get by being on the ground floor. A few years from now you’re going to have hundreds of students, and the original crew is going to have an almost fraternal connection.

On that note, how much does your course cost?

Jenny: The course will be $997. Obviously, I looked at the other courses out there. You’ve got BBL at the top of the range. Everything with BBL is beautiful. It’s packaged beautifully and it’s so professional.

Kate: He’s got four years under his belt.

Jenny: He does. My dream is to be like that. I want my cake to taste just as good, but it might not look as pretty. My goal is to put all of the same content into my course as well, but to make it priced so that someone who is just starting out can get in. Would I have paid that for a course? No, I’m too big of a chicken. I’m risk averse and I embrace that in other people as well. I don’t want anybody buying a course that they can’t afford even though I know the return is going to be there.

I know if they buy the course and learn the material and do the work, they’re going to build a business and make their money back. But I have a hard time with people going into debt or doing things that they just can’t afford to do. So my idea is to price a course at a point where, if I create a 6-month payment plan, just about anybody should be able to buy, if they make some sound decisions. And my hope is that’s going to pay off when that person becomes an affiliate for me. They become part of my student army going out and telling other people, “Hey, this cake tastes just as good. I got everything I needed. Sure, Robin’s not super technical with the designs. Her slides may not be that pretty, but she focuses on content.”

Kate: This is great feedback. So you do have a 6-month payment plan?

Jenny: I do. There will be a 6-month payment plan option.

Kate: Is there a discount for paying full price at once?

Jenny: No, I didn’t want to penalize students for needing a payment plan.

Kate: Okay, so it’s $997 divided by six or $997 all at once?

Jenny: Yes.

Kate: Good to know. How can people find out more information about you and your course if they need more than this interview, where would they learn more about you?

Jenny: The website is www.bookkeepanywhere.com. There’s the free group that’s Bookkeep Anywhere, on Facebook, that you guys can jump into. I’ve hired some people to help me get going on a monthly challenge that will help students find more clients even before they join the course. So if you want a preview of what it’s like learning from me, jump in the group and check out the videos.

Pretty much all the students who purchased the course from me messaged me first. Some of them were surprises, but a lot of them talked to me first and asked me their questions. So definitely feel free to do that. I think you should be able to message me directly from the Live. I should be tagged in there. Ask me questions, go for it. If $1,000 is a big purchase for you and your nervous, book a call with me and we’ll talk about whether it’s a good fit for you. If it’s not I will tell you.

Kate: Okay, good. I’m glad you said that, too. I’ll check one more time to see if anyone else asked any questions. It looks like there are no other questions. We do appreciate your encouragement hector. This time of day is when I’ve been doing a lot of these interviews. I don’t know that it’s everyone else’s best time, but I don’t have any children around at this time. Anyways, if you can’t catch this live be sure to check the replay.

Jenny, are there any final thoughts you’d like to share?

Jenny: I think we covered it. Again, if anyone has any questions, I’m more than happy to chat. I’m in your group, so you can find me there as well. If you guys need anything just reach out, and I’m more than happy to talk to you.

Kate: Great. And one last time, the Facebook group is called Bookkeep Anywhere. I’ll link to that in the comments of this video.

Well, we appreciate your time very, very much. You look great over there in Idaho early in the morning. Thank you for getting up and doing this.

Jenny: Well, thanks for having me.

Kate: You’re welcome. I hope everyone has a happy Valentine’s Day and President’s Day. All the tax people won’t be doing any celebrating, but they’ll get to be doing all the taxes still. Everyone have a good weekend and I’ll be in touch soon, Jenny. Bye all!

Jenny: Thanks!

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