Jake Demi

Starting my bookkeeping business in 06/2021 as a side-hustle, took it full time in 11/2022. Best career decision I have ever made.

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

Hi, I’m Jake Demi—just an ordinary, unimpressive accountant.

I graduated with a 3.2 GPA, failed my tax class in college, and barely made it in the real world during my first couple of years. By year three or four, I finally found my stride in the accounting industry. In my seventh year, I started a side hustle: my bookkeeping business.

My first year was slow—I didn’t land my first client until two months in, and I only made about $12,000 in total revenue. But every year since, my income has steadily grown. Now, just two months into 2025, I’ve already made $50,000.

I never thought I’d be capable of making this kind of money. But here’s why I’m sharing this: I know that 90% of the people reading this feel just as ordinary and unimpressive as I did.

If you’re an accountant thinking about starting a bookkeeping business, do it. It changed my life.
•I can now buy a bigger home for my family.
•I can pay down our debt.
•I’m making real progress toward retirement.

As an employee, I never made more than $80,000. But now, as a self-employed bookkeeper, I have my sights set on $300,000—maybe even $350,000 in profit.

As a bookkeeper.

Who would’ve thought?

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

3,000 subscribers on YouTube 🎉

Not going to lie, putting your face behind a camera and sharing it with the world is extremely intimidating at the beginning.

Truthfully there were only a few people that I was worried about. But once I got past the fear of looking stupid in front of those people, everything became easier.

There’s also something so powerful about sharing your message in a video format - that it makes it all worth it.

You build trust with an audience without ever talking to them.

They get to know you.

And you build your own personal brand, which in turn opens up opportunities that you didn’t even think or know existed.

Oh and it helps generate business too 😎

————————————————————————-

So if you’re thinking about taking the leap into video content, here’s what my path looked like:

1. I built something really cool - a bookkeeping business

2. Started talking about my bookkeeping business on LinkedIn in written format.

3. Refined my message through 1-on-1 paid virtual consultations and employee trainings

4. Repeated myself explaining these same messages into my iPhone camera and clicked “post” on YouTube

What will your path look like?

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

The key to working 30 hours a week in a $200k bookkeeping company is by having clear boundaries:

- I only do bookkeeping in QB (no admin work, CFO work, tax work, or payroll work)

- I dont do more than what I’m getting paid to do (they can pay for the extra detail if they want it)

- I have clear timeline expectations: I don't get your books completed within 5 days after the close of each month unless you pay a premium. And if you're okay with your financials being delivered in the 3rd and 4th weeks AFTER the close of each month, you get a discount.

By spreading the work out,
By removing bottlenecks,
By not doing more than what you're getting paid to do…

this is the way.

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

If you’re trying to start a bookkeeping company in 2026 —> watch this

https://t.co/X4f8eoqaas

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

The number one way to find bookkeeping clients:

Reach out to local solo CPA’s

There are a million of them out there. Just look on Google Maps.

And if they’re over the age of 60, this is an added bonus.

I’m not talking about the big accounting firms with their own bookkeeping departments

You want the solo CPA who is grinding it out during tax season.

They don’t have time for bookkeeping
They don’t have the energy to learn QBO
They don’t even enjoy the bookkeeping

For them, bookkeeping is a necessary evil that’s not a part of their business model - especially during tax season.

And if you’re a local, respectable bookkeeper, the “expert” in QuickBooks Online, you are an extremely valuable tool to them.

This strategy only works if you exclusively do bookkeeping. If you dabble in tax returns, then you become a CPA’s competition and this whole strategy falls apart.

Nobody’s gonna give you bookkeeping work if they think you’re going to steal the tax work too.

That’s the beauty of only doing bookkeeping, you’re not competing with CPA’s - you’re working with them.

So here’s what you do:

Reach out to the local Cpa’s in your area:

email them
call them
show up at their front door

Tell them that you’re a new bookkeeper who produces quality results.

And if you have experience in tax, this makes you the perfect fit for this strategy. You know exactly what the Cpa is looking for.

You know that they care about:

✅Checking and credit cards reconciling
✅ Retained earnings tying out to the prior year tax return
✅ Loan balances agreeing to the December statement
✅ Sales tying to the 1099K
✅ Payroll agrees to the W3

When you understand these things, you become unbelievably valuable to a CPA and this is where you can get a steady stream of Bookkeeping Client’s.

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

@kevinasrx Good thoughts! I started my YoutTube channel and got some attention on LinkedIn too - authenticity is my modo.

https://t.co/XNbmSpF4BT

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

@LoganGrafTax I tried that - been using my browser ever since lol

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

I have a situation where the client is creating invoices in QuickBooks, but then processing her customers credit cards in a separate platform... yikes.

This resulted in open invoices and duplicated sales in QuickBooks.

The previous bookkeeper said they couldn't match the deposits to the invoices and told the client to stop creating invoices in QuickBooks, but the client really wanted to continue doing it this way.

After the old bookkeeper failed her, she came to me.

I knew there was a way.

So I got access to the credit card processing company, called the headquarters, got the information I needed, and then got to work.

Currently, I'm working on taking each net deposit, and applying it to the correct invoice in QuickBooks. It's tedious, and time-consuming, but the client is paying for it and the result will be so rewarding.

THIS is the hardest part of my job - but it's worth it, because now the client will have a P&L that she can actually rely on and A/R that is dependable.

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

My thoughts on AI and bookkeeping

https://t.co/Gu9ZOGtZjX

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

If you use QuickBooks for invoicing, you should follow this flow or your books will get sloppy.

Step 1: Send the invoice
Sales ↑ | A/R ↑

Step 2: Receive the payment
A/R ↓ | Undeposited Funds ↑

– Check or cash: Click “Receive Payment” and enter the check number in the Ref # box

– Credit card via the invoice link: Done automatically

Step 3: Match the deposit in the bank feed
Bank ↑ | Undeposited Funds ↓

It took me years to fully see why this actually matters.

Yes, you can skip “Receive Payment” and still match the deposit to the invoice…

But it’s not clean, and it opens the door for errors later - especially if you receive a lot of checks each month.

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

Owning a bookkeeping business is better than owning a tax firm.

Yep. I said it.

In 2025 I worked 30-35 hours a week. I made about $275k in revenue this year ($225k in profit). Spent a ton of time with my wife and 4 kids. And I can go on a week long vacation in the middle of February.

I don't know many tax professionals that can say all of that.

I know owning a tax firm looks prestigious on paper, and I know you studied your butt off to get your CPA, but sometimes the best money is made in the least glamorous ways - AKA bookkeeping.

Here are the simple reason why I say all of this:

• Recurring monthly revenue
• No tax seasons
• Lower risk
• No IRS or state agencies
• You only work with business owners
• Easy to delegate
• Incredibly scalable
• No expensive software stack
• Snowball-style growth

Taxes is a sprint a couple of times a year, bookkeeping is like a machine that compounds month over month.

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

Entrepreneurs are delusional.

We all do the same thing: take our best month, multiply it by 12, and start planning the beach house.

In February I pulled in $32k from my bookkeeping business. My brain immediately went:
“$32k x 12 = $384k. Let’s go.”
I started picturing the Florida vacation, maybe even a second home.

Reality check: most of this year has been closer to $20–$25k/month. Which is still incredible, just not second-home incredible.

And on the flip side, I’ve had months where I panicked, convinced the whole thing was collapsing.

That’s the trap. Judging your business by the extremes.

The truth is always somewhere in the middle.

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

Let me be blunt: staying at a tax firm as an employee for your whole career is career suicide.

You’re not learning anything new. You’re just recycling the same tax seasons over and over again, hoping that somehow this year will feel different. It won’t.

If you’ve been there 5+ years, you’ve plateaued. You’ve already learned what you need to know. The rest is rinse and repeat.

Now, if you hate people and want to hide in a cubicle, maybe the employee life works for you.

But if you’ve got a little bit of ambition - if you want more money, more time with your family, freedom from tax season - you’ve got to start making moves.

That could mean launching a tax business. Or, like me, it could mean bookkeeping. (Obviously I’m biased toward bookkeeping, but the point is the same.)

The specific path doesn’t matter. What matters is you stop building someone else’s dream and start building your own.

Because the only thing worse than doing taxes… is doing them forever for someone else.

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

I’m not “just” a bookkeeper.

I’m an accountant who chose to do bookkeeping.

That choice is one of the biggest reasons for my success. There are many bookkeepers who don’t come from an accounting background. They’re great at data entry, but they don’t see the bigger picture.

I do.

I understand how every entry impacts the financials, how reports tie into tax strategy, and how owners actually use the numbers to make decisions.

That’s the difference. And it’s why my clients trust me.

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

@kevinasrx @sivers Thanks man!

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

Start a bookkeeping business

EVEN if you don’t have any experience (GO GET EXPERIENCE)

There is no better time in history to start it:

1. It’s a dying profession (more accountants retiring then entering)

2. Demand is higher than ever (business owners are finally realizing how easy it is to outsource)

3. AI has become less and less impressive (convincing me that this is going to be a needed service for a long time.)

And you just can’t beat the business model:

Monthly Recurring Revenue!!
Fully Remote
Almost free to start
Weak competition
High demand
Necessary b2b service
Highly profitable
Easy to delegate

This is too good of a business to not pursue.

And for those of you who are going to criticize me for promoting a bookkeeping business to those with no experience - all I have to say is:

Just let them try

Maybe they can do it, maybe they can’t, but ultimately the market will decide who will sink and who will swim.

I truly believe anyone can do it if they put their mind to it and work hard.

If you’re interested in starting one - consider booking a call with me here. I’ll give you customized advice and motivation to get started!

https://t.co/0QDnOyUrw4

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

Uploading receipts into QuickBooks is one of the fastest ways DIY business owners wreck their own books.

Sounds harsh, but I see it all the time. QuickBooks creates an expense when you upload the receipt. Then the bank feed pulls in the same transaction. And because most people don’t know how to match them correctly, the books get littered with duplicates.

It looks organized on the surface, but underneath? It’s a disaster.

If you’re dead set on using the Receipts feature, fine. But you’d better be reconciling your bank and credit card accounts every single month. Otherwise, your financials are lying to you.

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

If you’re not thinking in debits and credits when you post something in QuickBooks… do you really understand what’s happening?

Here’s what I mean:

• When you create an invoice, it’s not just “making an invoice.” It’s a debit to Accounts Receivable and a credit to Income.

• When you “receive a payment”, it’s not just checking a box. It’s a debit to Undeposited Funds and a credit to Accounts Receivable.

• And when you match that payment in the bank feed, it’s a credit to Undeposited Funds and a debit to Cash.

That’s the real engine under the hood.

QuickBooks makes it easy to click buttons and move on. But if you don’t understand what’s happening behind the clicks, you’re not really in control of your numbers - you’re just hoping the software is right.

[Jake Demi @jakedemi]

I absolutely love my job.

To be able to build something from scratch - to take an idea, shape it into your own, and then watch it turn into a real business - it’s one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. Running a bookkeeping company has completely changed my life. It gave me freedom, ownership, and a sense of purpose I never had before.

I used to think I wasn’t capable of running a business. I used to think making more than my dad or building something that would actually last was out of reach. Turns out, I just needed to take the leap.

It’s not a giant empire, and that’s okay. It’s mine. I love what I do. I love helping clients clean up their books, giving them clarity, and seeing their relief when things finally make sense. I love providing for my family, doing work I’m proud of, and knowing I built this from the ground up.

Every day I walk into my office and think - I get to do this.