How I Made $5k Per Month as a Bookkeeper From Home

August 2, 2022

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If the Great Resignation taught us anything, it’s that workers crave freedom and flexibility. But what if you want more autonomy over your day without sacrificing your salary? A career as a bookkeeper from home could be the exact pivot you need to make!

Tiffany Higgins is a CPA, mom of five kids, and bookkeeping business owner at the Stay-At-Home Bookkeeper Academy. She shares how anyone can use a career as a bookkeeper to create an ideal lifestyle. Whether you want to minimize the amount of time you work each week to free up more hours in your day or you’re looking to grow a six-figure income, becoming a bookkeeper from home can allow you to do that.

Let’s learn more!

Let’s Meet Tiffani Higgins 

As a trained CPA, Tiffany has an accounting background. She worked as a CPA and a young mom, always feeling like she had a lot to balance. When her third child was born, she felt like she reached a breaking point.

With two older kids in school and a new arrival, she was thrown back into the baby stage while also trying to find ways to be supportive and present to her older children. She knew she had to do something. More precisely, she realized that she wasn’t going to be able to work for anyone else.

That’s when she decided to go out on a limb and start her own business.

Tiffani understands that making that kind of leap sounds risky. But the math checked out! Before becoming a bookkeeper from home and later launching her own company, she worked a more traditional job. She worked at a CPA firm where she was in charge of bookkeeping for clients. 

The nature of her job made it fairly obvious to her what people were paying for bookkeeping. And of course, she knew how long it took her to get her work done. That’s when she realized that she only needed 2-3 clients and could work just a handful of hours per week to pull in the same amount of money. 

Thanks to that math, she was ready to head out on her own! 

Making the Leap to Become a Bookkeeper from Home

She does acknowledge that the leap was likely a bit scarier for her spouse. She says that he felt pressure at first since his was the consistent and reliable income. However, she kept her purpose in mind. 

She recalls spending nearly a decade struggling to find a balance between work and being actively involved in her kids’ lives. Despite all of that struggle and all of that work, things felt off balance. To boot, she and her husband also had barely enough money to cover their needs, never mind their wants. 

Tiffani promised that she wasn’t going to let herself fail. Failing would mean stopping or giving up. She knew that she wouldn’t do either, especially not with her family’s support. Plus, she realized that if the absolute worst case scenario came true and she couldn’t swing it as a bookkeeper from home, she could always go back to traditional office work. 

One of the most common questions Tiffani gets is how exactly she took such a big leap. She’s more than happy to share. To start, she says that she knew she wanted to prioritize her newborn. That means that she was really only looking for 2-3 clients. 

So she started the networking process, even bringing the baby along with her. She quickly realized that every person she met was a potential client. So many people either didn’t have a bookkeeper or didn’t have one they were happy with. 

Though she started targeting only 2-3 clients total, she quickly found herself gaining new clients every week. 

When she started the pivot into her bookkeeper from home career in May, she didn’t have a single client. By Christmas Eve that same year, her husband was actually able to retire from his job. The business was booming! 

After three years, they were pulling in $20,000 each month without a staff. She knew there was no way they were going back to their old life.

Pivoting in Bookkeeping from Different Paths 

Not only did Tiffani find success as a bookkeeper, she was so successful that she launched a business helping other people make the switch. That means she has some really unique insight into what exactly life is like as a bookkeeper from home.

Tiffani says there are two different kinds of people who come to her looking to switch careers. Some people keep their 9-5 job and pick up bookkeeping as a side hustle. This lets them get a feel for the work before making a big commitment. Then, as their client list and income grow, they can transition out of the 9-5 job and into bookkeeping from home. 

On the other hand, Tiffani also has some students who dive right in and do it. She says this is the approach that she took, and she also understands that it’s not for everyone!

Freedom, Flexibility, and Lifestyle Design as a Bookkeeper

The biggest benefit to being a bookkeeper from home is that it really allowed Tiffani and her husband to intentionally design their lifestyle. Previously, they always felt something was missing. They didn’t have the savings or maybe they did have the money, but they didn’t have the right amount of vacation time. Or perhaps they ran into work deadlines or kids’ school schedules. Whatever the reason, there always seemed to be something holding them back from living the life they truly wanted. 

When Tiffani retired from corporate America, she realized that she finally had the ability to do all the things they kept saying they wanted to do. 

Transitioning to her role as a bookkeeper from home allowed her to find time freedom and flexibility. Plus, she had the income to afford all the experiences they wanted to take advantage of thanks to their newfound freedom. 

Of course, Tiffani admits that being a bookkeeper from home isn’t totally free from its own issues. While she says that many bookkeepers like herself worked really limited hours and still made an excellent income, there’s not much down time when you are also taking care of kids and running your household all day. When she first started, she felt like she couldn’t turn anything off ever. Since that’s a recipe for disaster, Tiffani said it’s critical that if you want to be a bookkeeper from home, you have to learn the new skill of intentionally structuring your day. 

The Benefits of Bookkeeping

Being a bookkeeper from home is an amazing job. Forbes consistently ranks bookkeeping as one of the most profitable businesses, and yet the field is open to so many people. Tiffani says that anyone can learn to be a bookkeeper from home if you’re willing to acquire the skills. 

As your skills grow, so will your business. You can work regular business hours if that’s what is best for you. However, much of this work can be done any time that fits in your family’s schedules. Tiffani recalls at one point clocking in some really productive hours at 3 am when her baby refused to sleep. The fact that this job is both lucrative and flexible makes it really appealing, especially to parents who are looking to work from home.

The Number One Worry of Becoming a Bookkeeper From Home

So why doesn’t everyone jump in? Tiffani says that a lot of people are nervous about marketing themselves and aren’t sure how to find clients. Her academy can help with that! Tiffani also emphasizes that bookkeeping isn’t sales. You don’t have to move a certain amount of product or convince people to use something. Instead, you are providing a service that people either already use or desperately need. 

Tiffani’s best advice is to look for people you mesh with and then offer your services. By doing a good job for one client, you’re bound to get referrals for more work. 

A Surprising (Sort of) Secret About Getting Started

Another hesitation people have is that they worry they don’t have the right background for bookkeeping. Though Tiffani trained as a CPA and has a background in finance, the vast majority of her bookkeeping students don’t have any formal finance background. 

Instead, they use the skills that they learned with her training and on the job. Tiffani says that while she appreciates her background, she also did a lot of on-the-job learning since what you’re taught in school doesn’t always mirror what happens in the real world. If you have an interest in becoming a bookkeeper from home, you can do it no matter what you background is. 

Final Thoughts on Being a Bookkeeper From Home

Are the wheels turning? Do you find yourself daydreaming about the life you would design for yourself and your family if your job offered this kind of flexibility?

Tiffani wants to help you get started with her book. If you want less of a DIY approach to possibly fast track your earnings, you can explore Tiffani’s Bookkeeper Academy. You’ll get individual and group support for an entire year as you launch your business.

No matter how you get started, becoming a bookkeeper from home could be the role that pushes you forward on your financial journey. If you crave more freedom and flexibility in your life and still want to earn good money, this job might just be a dream come true.


Have you ever thought about being a bookkeeper from home? What other jobs or side hustles are you interested in?

Please let us know in the comments below.


Andy Hill

Andy Hill, AFC® is the award-winning family finance coach behind Marriage Kids and Money - a platform dedicated to helping families build wealth and happiness. With millions of podcast downloads and video views, Andy’s message of family financial empowerment has resonated with listeners, readers and viewers across the world. When he's not "talking money", Andy enjoys being a Soccer Dad, singing karaoke with his wife and relaxing on his hammock.

8 Comments

  • Sorry – I was confused in my earlier comment. The public facebook page of hers is filled with bots, but it looks like the private group is not. THanks!

    Reply
    • Thank you for clarifying Lauren. I hope your experience becomes more positive over time.

      Reply
  • I was compelled by Tiffany’s story, but when I pursued her course and joined her Facebook group, it was filled with negative reviews and people claiming her courses were a complete scam. It was also filled with comments from bots and was overall just very concerning. I understand that she doesn’t own the business anymore, but I thought she was in the business of teaching others and unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case. I had higher hopes from this blog to vet their contributors thoroughly.

    Reply
    • I do my best to research the content creators that I feature on my platform. I too have seen negative comments but I’ve also seen very positive ones as well.

      On Tuesday, I’ll be sharing a further review of the course – both the pros and the cons given the interest thus far.

      One major issue I’ve seen is the unfavorable return/refund policy. I’d love to see Tiffani and team update that.

      I’m curious. What was your personal experience with the course or ebook?

      Was it helpful in your bookkeeping pursuits?

      Or did you feel it was a scam too?

      Reply
  • Great post, It’s nice to hear tiffany’s story, and the fact that she has 5 kids, and works as a Bookkeeper is remarkable, kudos to Tiffany!

    Reply
    • I agree! Tiffany and her successful business ventures are very inspiring!

      Reply
  • Thank you for sharing! So many people are looking for ways to work from home. Great read!

    Reply

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