EP452: 2024 Year-In-Review Show!

·1 hr 5 min·5 clips

Bookkeepers are walking away from their businesses due to overwhelming stress and mental health issues.

The episode is a panel-style year-in-review featuring host Michael Palmer and four guests from the bookkeeping community: Lisa Campbell, Katrina Erisman, Jessica Fox, and Teresa Slack. It opens with a discussion of the mental health challenges and overwhelm many bookkeepers face, leading them to consider leaving their businesses. The panel then shares their biggest surprises of 2024, including Intuit QuickBooks' aggressive marketing tactics that position it as a competitor to independent bookkeepers and accountants, and the persistence of supply chain issues for e-commerce clients. Setbacks are addressed, with Katrina revealing personal family health crises—her partner's stroke and son's cancer diagnosis—and how having systematized her business allowed her to step away. The group talks about the common struggle of bookkeepers not dedicating time to work on their own businesses. Heartwarming client success stories follow, such as Teresa fixing a $300,000 tax error that freed up capital for a client's growth, and Jessica helping a nonprofit increase its net assets from $20,000 to $1.1 million. Results-generating strategies are shared, like Jessica's annual price increases and Teresa's quarterly scope-creep review process. Failures or learning experiences are discussed, including Teresa's challenging transition to splitting roles in her firm and Jessica's unnecessary local networking efforts. Trends for 2024 and 2025 are explored, such as bookkeepers becoming more selective about workflow software, Australian regulations mandating quality management systems, the normalization of AI as a tool, and a generational shift toward hiring experts. The episode concludes with each guest sharing their focus for 2025, which includes greater reach, continued systematization support, and deepening client relationships.

As heard by us

A candid bookkeeping-business year in review where growth plans meet family strain and the need for support.

The Successful Bookkeeper's 2024 year-in-review episode frames the business year as something messier than wins, misses, and goals. Michael Palmer guides a rotating group of guests through setbacks, heartbreak, results, and plans for the Successful Bookkeeper Community in 2025.

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Why you'd press play

You want a clear-eyed year-in-review before deciding what your bookkeeping business can carry into 2025.

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