How to Grow your Bookkeeping Practice by Embracing Being Uncomfortable

Heads up: I use affiliate links for my fave products. If you click and purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Do you want to know a secret about the early days in my Bookkeeping practice?

It literally used to EMBARRASS me to admit that I was a bookkeeper and tax preparer! It felt so uncomfortable talking about it, especially about the fact that I was starting my own practice. I forced myself to do it anyway. And forcing myself to embrace the uncomfortable was the absolute best thing I ever did for my practice.

I LOVE to talk about workflows and systems– if you’ve followed me on social media or subscribed to my email list for any period of time you know this. But aside from the technical work, the one thing that needs to be emphasized is the importance of mindset– specifically the importance of allowing yourself to get comfortable with embracing the uncomfortable.

I am absolutely not joking when I say that it took every ounce of willpower in my entire body to start talking to friends and family about my bookkeeping practice– it was scary! It felt safe to not talk about it in case I wasn’t successful. In case no one wanted to hire me. In case people caught wind and thought I was absolutely crazy or incapable.

But the reality is, not talking about my practice wasn’t going to earn me any clients. And being a clientless bookkeeper wasn’t going to help me achieve my goals.

So that’s when I began embracing the uncomfortable.

I forced myself to talk about my practice with family and friends until it started feeling more natural, AND I started landing my first clients since people were now becoming aware of my practice!

The same thing can be said for a lot of different areas within your practice– you might hear some “experts” say that things like workflows and systems don’t really matter in our industry, and as long as you know how to use Quickbooks Online, you’re golden! *eyeroll*

Or maybe they say social media is a waste of time for bookkeepers and accountants because “no one looks for you there”. The reality is, it’s just because they haven’t pushed themselves far enough outside of their own comfort zones to see the potential in these areas and how much it can truly help to expand their practice!

That however, gives you a MAJOR advantage. By being willing to put yourself into uncomfortable situations and implement things into your practice that other bookkeepers and accountants aren’t willing to do, you’re pushing yourself ahead to achieve your big goals while those who choose to play it safe get stuck.

“If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done” - Thomas Jefferson

Too many people believe that because something feels uncomfortable, it means that it isn’t the right thing to do. What it really means is that it’s something new and unknown, and with practice and improvement you’re more than likely to find that the discomfort will slowly begin to fade away.

So let me give you the permission that you need to know the embracing discomfort is NOT a bad thing.

Be the tax preparer who has their systems automated so that on-boarding a boatload of new clients at tax time is a breeze when everyone else is stressing. Be the accountant who kills it on TikTok while all of the others “don’t have time for that”. And in case I haven’t said it enough, be the bookkeeper who powers through the discomfort by talking about your practice while others are wondering why no one knows that’s what they do!

Any of the experts who try to say that spending time setting up systems and workflows, or building a community on social media, or anything else along those lines is a “waste of time” likely just hasn’t done that for themselves– and to be honest it’s likely holding them back.

In order to grow and reach new levels, you need to do things that most other people haven’t been willing to do. It’s easy to stay where it’s comfortable. It’s not easy however, to be a beginner again. To take the time to learn and implement something new when you already know your day to day so well.

But by taking those steps, by going back to square one in a brand new area of your practice, EVERYTHING in your practice will benefit– including your bottom line. And you will quickly find that the discomfort that you once were afraid of is exactly the propelling factor that you have been looking for to reach your big goals and dreams.