How BooXkeeping Uses Coaching & Mentorship to Build Franchisee Success

Max and Elena Emma founded BooXkeeping in their extra bedroom out of necessity because their construction company was desperately in need of quality bookkeeping services. Their journey as independent bookkeepers led to crossing paths with several franchise business owners, which ultimately sparked an innovative idea: What if someone could become a bookkeeper through a franchise system? That would deliver a lot of value to other businesses in the community while providing that solopreneur with a support system that set them up for success.

That spark grew into BooXkeeping’s one-of-a-kind franchise system, which invites experienced accounting professionals and career-changers alike to build a needed business that they can scale to their goals, ambitions, and schedules. We sat down with Max and Elena to uncover what’s so special about BooXkeeping’s approach and learn more about their deep training and professional coaching offerings, which they say are at the very core of what makes their franchise system such a great opportunity.

Franchisee coaching model

Max Emma: As long as someone is numbers-friendly, we can probably help them to become successful. If you’re an English major and have never seen a financial statement before and you’re afraid of numbers, you might not be a good candidate for our franchise. But if somebody was an executive or manager in a company and has worked with financial statements, we can teach them.

The unique thing about bookkeeping is that you don’t have to be an accountant to do it or own a business doing it. We can hypothetically provide you with a fully trained team to do the actual bookkeeping. So, the most important thing is for the franchisee to be coachable. They have to able to follow the system.

We have a franchisee who used to be an executive at American Express, and they’re a very successful franchisee of ours.

Elena Emma: We believe in people and their individualities and identities; that’s a big part of our culture. Whether someone is coming to us from a corporate career or another background, we can look at where they can take what they’ve learned and apply it here in the best possible capacity to run their bookkeeping franchise.

For example, we have a franchisee who came from the manufacturing and supply chain space. There’s a lot of specific knowledge in that space that the average bookkeeper just doesn’t have. We’ve spent a lot of time from a coaching perspective helping that person develop that perspective so that they’re not just a good bookkeeper, but a good bookkeeper with a level of skill and knowledge that helps them stand out and provide additional value to target businesses.

Training and support programs

ME: The numbers represent different milestones. First, we start with three months of accounting school. It’s self-paced, and some people finish much faster, but the idea is that, within three months, the franchisee will be a QuickBooks Pro Advisor. It’s achievable even for people who’ve never used QuickBooks before.

The six represents six months of no royalties. That means people have time to get the business set up and invest in their training. If they’re not making any money yet, we’re not going to come take anything.

The nine stands for nine months of sales training, which is all done online. Everybody gets a crash course on how to network, how to do cold calling, how do to email outreach, and so on. For many of the people with strong accounting backgrounds, sales is the part of the job that they’re intimidated by. The goal of the training is to help everybody appreciate and feel comfortable with the art of sales.

The twelve represents twelve months of executive coaching, for which Elena is the point person.

We’ve found that it’s better for franchisees to start this process when they’re already running the business. That ensures they have actual questions and there are authentic situations going on where they can apply or test their learnings. You don’t need to go through 3/6/9/12 before you open your BooXkeeping business; you should do it after you’ve completed your initial training and are actually working.

EE: We look at a new franchisee’s experience as a pie with three parts. There’s the skill and trade knowledge you need to know to do the job, there’s the sales and marketing aspect of running the business, and then there’s the decision-maker slice of the pie – the entrepreneur part, where you’re the boss. We assess any prospective franchisee through these three lenses and immediately try to understand where they’re strongest and where they need the most support.

My background is in crisis coaching, and I’ve worked with many large multinational organizations. I tell every franchisee that, whether you know it or not, you are entering the crisis. Things will come up, and many of them, you won’t know what they’re going to look like until it’s happening right in front of you.

Customized coaching approach

So, during my twelve-month coaching window with franchisees, I schedule calls with them every two weeks and actively try to push them to grow and think about crisis management and how they’ll overcome those obstacles. It’s a very customized approach. I spend a lot of time getting to know them as individuals so I can understand what holds them back at each individual step of the process.

Maybe if they’re a corporate refugee, they need to work on that final decision piece. On the other hand, if someone’s a more experienced entrepreneur, the conversation becomes more about alignment between the business portfolio and your life goals. Some people need help selling what they do and who they are to build trust.

We look at where each franchisee’s biggest gifts are and how they can use those strengths to build effective relationships. After that, I will continue to work with them on an as-needed or as-wanted basis.

The beauty of our product is that once someone is inside the system and has trust with the bookkeeping professional they’re working with, the customer is unlikely to step back outside the system because they feel like they have a long-term relationship in place.

ME: We’re launching a new program called ScaleX. That’s a new offering where new franchisees can buy an existing franchise that already has a client base, which means they can be cashflow positive on day one. We’re rolling that program out slowly and continually making it better, but that’s something we’re working on right now.

EE: We recently rebranded, which I’m very excited about. There will be a lot more coming out on social media in the coming weeks and months that will speak to our authentic identity as a company. I’m very excited about it. It will feature our leading franchisees a lot more, so people will be seeing those identities out there in the world.

BooXkeeping is a brand that’s moving, changing, and learning. It’s a self-learning model. We are becoming better and better over time. We are committed to our franchisees for the rest of this journey. For those in our community who want to grow with us, we want to grow with them.