Starting and running a small business in book keeping is one of the most profitable businesses that you can start from home. Apart from being low cost, you also do not need to rent office space for you to provide these services especially when you are just starting out. However, what is required is the knowledge and understanding of bookkeeping procedures as well as possessing the personal quality of being able to pay attention to detail.

Also, it is not a necessity for you to possess an accounting qualification as you are different from an accountant who provides financial feedback to your client. Essentially, a bookkeepers job is to ensure that income and expenses are tracked and recorded, bank statements are managed, employee payroll is processed and payments and invoices are duly recorded.

Start Up Costs and Financing Sources:
All you need to start providing book keeping services is just a computer with book keeping software or just a basic spreadsheet. This will probably cost you $1000 - $2000 depending on your budget.

In order to obtain financing, you can either use your personal savings to start with or obtain a small loan from the Small Business Administration. It is quite easy to get loans approved for small amounts up to $50,000. However, in order to do this, you will probably need to draft out a business plan with an estimation of future revenue and costs as well as growth potential of your book keeping business.

Pricing Guidelines for Service:
Charges for book keeping services vary greatly according to the volume of work required. In this case, many bookkeepers charge their clients by time, ranging from a rate of $20 to $50 an hour. However, some bookkeepers may charge their clients at a fixed price of between $200 and $800 each month, depending on the nature and extent of the work required.

Advertising and Marketing:
Most of your customers would be small business owners who have no time to keep an eye on their book keeping. Thus, it would be better for them to outsource the job to a book keeper who will track everything and furnish them with a report at the end of each month.

Retail store owners or service businesses such as plumbers, lawyers and doctors require these services. That is because many of them would want to focus on utilizing their skills on their business rather than bother with meticulous administrative duties.

Therefore, advertising in yellow pages would be a good start. Apart from that, look through companies that advertise in magazines or newspapers and call them up to market your services over the phone. Literally anybody who owns a business will need your services and there is a long list of potentials that you can approach. In fact, you can also go to larger book keeping firms for referrals, as they sometimes have too many clients to handle and may want to refer the smaller businesses to other vendors.

Additionally, networking with trade organizations or business groups in your area will act as self-promotion of the book keeping services that you provide. Once you are more established, your popularity will increase largely due to referrals from existing clients.

Essential equipment:
The equipment needed for this would be a personal computer, printer and book keeping software.

Recommended training, experience, or needed skills:
Although it may not be absolutely necessary to have an accounting qualification, the perception your clients have of your capabilities will be better if you do have some formal training in this area.

One avenue you could pursue would be to learn about basic book keeping by enrolling in a course offered by community colleges or other accredited institutions. In fact, you can enquire with the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers for a list of their members providing these services.

Apart from that, you should also gain some basic skills on running and managing a business. Learn about details on legal requirements, hiring, planning, marketing as well as drafting out a business proposal. These skills will come in handy when your business starts to pick up.

Income Potential:
The income potential of this business is limited only by how much effort and time you want to put in it, as well as how large you envision your business to grow. There have been cases where book keeping businesses have grown to generate incomes of $100,000 a year, while others who may be running the business less aggressively have managed to generate a $40,000 income from this business each year.

Target Market:
The target market is huge for a book keeping business. As book keeping is part of running a business, all business owners are responsible for their own book keeping. This means that your target market can be virtually any small business with owners who are just too busy or lack the inclination to do it themselves.

Success tips:
By providing excellent services to your existing clients, you will be able to obtain good reviews and referrals to your business. This is essential as word of mouth marketing provides the most advantages for rapid growth of your business.

Apart from that, the work of a book keeper is meticulous and requires a person who has the ability to pay attention to details and who is patient with crunching numbers.

Also, a book keeper should also be honest and practice integrity on the job. This is especially true when a book keeper is trying to be coerced by their clients into manipulating figures in book keeping records. In these cases, it would be better to walk away than to risk tarnishing the name of your business through dubious practices.