Why you should join a bookkeeping community

Pete and I love travelling across the country, meeting great bookkeepers, discussing the issues they are facing, sharing my story and giving them strategies to help them avoid the mistakes I’ve made. In the past week or so we shared experiences and helped great bookkeepers articulate their business plan in the Bookkeeping Business Boardroom in Sydney and Brisbane already this week, and Perth today.

One of the benefits of participating in programs that are run by bookkeepers for bookkeepers is so that you can benefit from our experience so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. I’ve recently joined Bookkeepers Support Group Australia on Facebook, which was initiated by a bookkeeper for bookkeepers. Kelly Berger, who works from home around her kids, started the group because she had no one to bounce ideas off, have a place to go to for help and encouragement or to have a whinge about a client or the ATO without feeling judged. What I think is amazing is that in just four months the Bookkeepers Support Group has grown from 1 to over 400 and growing strong.

Kelly’s building a healthy tribe. In Seth Godin’s book Tribes he says that “a tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate”. To nurture her tribe, Kelly has established a few rules, primarily around confidentiality and respect, with the aim to have everyone who visits the site and contributes feel valued, respected and heard. She has demonstrated her leadership qualities by creating an environment where bookkeepers, with a shared interest, have a way to communicate.

Are you part of a tribe? Love to hear your thoughts. You can leave them below.