1793
5 min 14 sec

Accountant Trades Active Clients for Passive Course Sales

An American accountant living in South Africa creates a financial wellbeing course for small business owners. The passive income she earns from the course allows her to drop many of her clients.
Course Finance Service

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What It's About

An expat living in South Africa teaches a global audience on how to master their finances.

Business Model
Product
Skills Required
Research & Marketing
Complexity
Low
Profit Potential
High

Words of Wisdom

Morgan shares some important advice about taking risks, “Magic happens outside of your comfort zone. Every time I feel nervous or scared about doing something, I get excited because I know it's going to grow and shape me into something greater.”

Fun Fact

Morgan spends some of her time helping her husband run a non-profit called Rural Reach. It aims to help the rural communities in Southern Africa with health, education, and job creation.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1793
When Morgan de Klerk graduated with degrees in Accounting and International Business, she immediately went into the corporate accounting world, thinking that was the logical next step. But the long hours behind a desk felt like a waste, and Morgan knew there had to be more to life.

After a bit of traveling with her husband, she settled down (at least for a while!) in Cape Town, South Africa. There she offered bookkeeping services to clients, which snowballed into a global accounting practice called MDK Services. Morgan had a team of fourteen contractors, and says it was a great learning experience.

One of the things she learned is that many small business owners don’t want a bookkeeper—they want to learn how to do the books themselves.

In 2020, that realization inspired Morgan to start Master Your Finances, a bookkeeping, money, and tax course that teaches contractors, freelancers, and small business owners how to manage their own money.

It cost about $3,000 to build. Most of the money went to a web developer who helped with the online course platform and building a proper e-commerce website. The benefit to that approach is that the content is all hers and she has full control over how it's presented. The challenge is that she needs her developer to make updates. Fortunately, she’s kept him on retainer.

The course now brings in profits of around $6,000 per month, and she’s hoping to hit six figures in 2022.

Morgan’s ultimate goal is to eventually stop offering accounting services all together and just focus on the course. She still has one large accounting client that she enjoys being hands on with, but the rest of her time is spent leading the course and helping students.

All things considered, Morgan loves the freedom of running her own business. She works about 20 hours or less per week and spends the rest of her time outdoors with her husband and kids (she has a one-year-old and another baby on the way). Some of that time is spent helping her husband run a non-profit called Rural Reach. It aims to help rural communities in Southern Africa with health, education, and job creation.

Going forward, Morgan plans to keep growing the bookkeeping course and bringing in more students.

 
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Quote of the Day
"Magic happens outside of your comfort zone. Every time I feel nervous or scared about doing something, I get excited because I know it's going to grow and shape me into something greater. "
—Morgan de Klerk #SideHustleSchool

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