Small business owners are typically fine doing their own books when they're first starting out. They learn how basic bookkeeping works and save money. But when your business starts growing and bookkeeping tasks start taking up too much time, you should consider hiring a bookkeeper.

Yes, a bookkeeping business can be very profitable. In fact, ZipRecruiter reports that the national average income for an independent bookkeeper is $56,100, though some report income as high as $122,000. The cost of doing business is relatively low, mostly related to bookkeeping software, so profit margins are high.

You can set up basic small business accounting records in a spreadsheet, though this is more tedious, prone to manual errors, and time consuming than a comprehensive small-business accounting software. At the very least, you'll want to track expenses and income in a secure cloud-based platform.