This book will help you start earning money in your OWN business with the wealth of information it provides. It includes steps to start your own business (and estimated start up costs); how to define your services and set billing rates (includes average billing rates); how to improve your knowledge and experience; obtain new clients and effective marketing ideas; details about websites, client engagements, market opportunities, growing the business, and MUCH more. The book includes results of a national survey of QuickBooks ProAdvisors about their annual income, use of engagement letters, over 300 comments and advice on things they wish they had known sooner or done differently, their KEYS to SUCCESS and more! Bookkeepers, accountants, tax preparers, and consultants will all find beneficial information in the book. With your own business, you can decide what hours you want to work, services to provide, and work from home if you choose! This book will help you SUCCEED!
Michelle L. Long, CPA, MBA is the owner of M. Long Consulting, LLC, which provides QuickBooks consulting and training, business planning and financial consulting to growing businesses and entrepreneurs. She is an
Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, a member of the
Certified Trainer Network for Intuit, and a member of the
Intuit Accountants Speakers Bureau. She facilitates seminars nationally for Intuit's Accountant Training Network and has presented a webinar for Intuit. Michelle also conducts a variety of seminars for entrepreneurs and small business owners for both the Missouri and Kansas Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) as well as serves as guest speaker for many non-profit organizations. For the past eight years, she has taught hands-on QuickBooks seminars for local SBDCs including Introduction to QuickBooks, QuickBooks for Contractors, Intermediate QuickBooks, QuickBooks Point of Sale, and QuickBooks Payroll.
Michelle was named a Small Business Administration's Financial Services Champion of the Year for 2007 in recognition of her dedication to helping entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Michelle is a Certified FastTrac Facilitator and has facilitated the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's FastTrac NewVenture program and Listening to Your Business workshop. She is an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at Johnson County Community College and at UMKC in Strategic Management and previously Accounting Systems & Controls.
Before starting her own consulting practice, Michelle worked for Price Waterhouse, an international public accounting firm; Baird, Kurtz & Dobson, a regional public accounting firm; and Hallmark Cards, Inc. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy degree from University of Missouri-Columbia, and an MBA in Entrepreneurship from UMKC. She passed the CPA on her first attempt.
She is the author of Successful QuickBooks Consulting: The Comprehensive Guide to Starting and Growing a QuickBooks Consulting Business, co-author of Strategic Management: An Applied Approach, and has written numerous articles for the Kansas City Small Business Monthly.
