Building your clientele is easier than you think

How did you get your initial clients when you first launched your new bookkeeping business?

Honestly? I reached out to my existing network.

When I left the corporate world to start GreenBacks last year, I didn't have a marketing budget or a polished lead funnel. What I had was a network of business owners I'd worked alongside or done business with for years.

So I went down the list and made a simple offer: better service than what they were getting, and a price that would probably save them money. I was upfront. I was still building a portfolio, so my pricing was lower than it should have been (and lower than it is today). I leaned on my qualifications to back it up.

That's how I got my first 10 clients. No tricks. Just relationships, a clear offer and a willingness to ask.

The lesson buried in that, and the thing I'd say to any new business owner, is that you should always be building your network. Every friend, every neighbor, every lunch meeting, every old coworker, every person you sit next to at church builds it. Most people don't realize how big and capable their network actually is until they need it. Don't underestimate yours.

You’ve leaned into in-person networking to grow your business. What types of events and environments have been most effective for you, and how do you approach them?

Two environments have done most of the work for me.

The first is Business Network International (BNI). A weekly referral group where everyone shows up specifically to pass business is exactly the structure a young firm needs. You get to know a small group of people deeply, you become the trusted bookkeeper in their corner of the world and they refer you with conviction because they actually know your work.

The second is more low-key. My faith community, my neighborhood and longtime friends. Bookkeeping is a trust business. People are handing you the keys to their numbers. The folks who already trust me as a person didn't need a pitch; they just needed to know I was open for business.

When I show up to either, I'm not there to sell. I'm there to be useful and to listen. The clients come from being the person someone thinks of when they're up at 2 a.m., wondering if their books are going to bite them.

A lot of people attend events but struggle to convert connections into clients. What’s your follow-up process?

Speed and specificity.

Most people leave an event, go home and let the warm conversation cool off for two weeks before they send a generic "great to meet you." By then, they're a stranger again.

If I had a real conversation with someone and there's any chance their business could use what I do, I ask for a discovery call within the week. A 15 to 30-minute call to understand their pain points and see how I can help.

The framing matters. I'm not asking for a sales meeting; I'm offering a free look at what's going on under the hood. Most owners don't have anyone in their life qualified to give them that read, and they take me up on it. From there, the work and my experience tend to sell themselves.

Alongside in-person networking, how have you used online platforms to grow your visibility and client base?

I think of online as a portfolio of channels rather than one big bet.

LinkedIn is where I post consistently. The directly attributable ROI is modest, with a few solid clients coming straight from LinkedIn. But the real payoff is awareness. When someone in my network needs a bookkeeper, I'm already top of mind because I've been showing up in their feed.

Client referrals have been my best-converting source, bringing in the most new clients this year. Happy clients are the cheapest, highest-trust marketing channel a service business has, and most owners are willing to refer if you actually ask. So I ask.

Pay-per-click has surprised me on the upside, second only to referral clients. For a business where someone is typing "bookkeeper near me" at the exact moment their problem becomes urgent, PPC is tough to beat. I’m not running any “virtual bookkeeper” ads, so this has mostly brought in local clients. 

And the category I think most service-business owners under-use: structured referral agreements with other entrepreneurs. CPAs, fractional CFOs, consultants, anyone who serves the same customer I do but doesn't compete with me. Those formal relationships consistently send work my way.

LinkedIn alone won't build your firm. Stack channels.

(Image courtesy Jake Maughan)

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