Recruitment mistake # 3 when growing your bookkeeping business

The past two weeks my blogs were about the top two mistakes I think you can make when recruiting. If you didn’t see them you can find Mistake #1 here and Mistake #2 here. The third biggest mistake, in your haste to relieve the pressure you’re under, is to put a new bookkeeper with a new client.

When you’re doing a fabulous job of delivering five star service, new clients keep coming. You haven’t had a chance to discuss with your existing clients that you will be replacing yourself with another bookkeeper (or perhaps you’ve avoided the conversation because you’re worried about how they might react). And besides, you’ve built a strong relationship with them and it seems easier to give them new clients. That’s a mistake for a few reasons:

• You don’t know how long the work will take
•  You don’t know how good the bookkeeper is
• Not everyone can (or wants) to do rescue jobs

It’s pretty common that new clients are in a mess when they come to you and need “rescuing”. Even if they are not in a mess, at best, you’re not familiar with the work, you haven’t implemented any systems to streamline how the bookkeeping is done and you have no idea how long each session should take. Even if you’ve tested the new bookkeeper and inducted her into your business, you don’t know how good the bookkeeper is and if they are capable of completing a rescue job efficiently.

In a matter of weeks it can all turn pear-shaped. The client questions their bills and you have no way of knowing how to justify the time spent because you haven’t been involved. It’s possible that it’s taking time because of the nature of a rescue job but there will be that niggling doubt that perhaps the bookkeeper isn’t being efficient.

Don’t give new bookkeepers new clients. Take the time to carefully hand over your existing clients and do the rescue jobs yourself. Then, when they are up to date, hand them over to your team with clear expectations about the scope of work and how long it should take.