BooXkeeping was founded after co-founder Max Emma experienced his own business failure from a lack of good bookkeeping.
Max Emma, co-founder of BooXkeeping, is the first to tell you that keeping track of finances is a lifeline. Using his firsthand experience to help business owners like himself has been his goal for over a decade.
“On top being one of the accounting suppliers in the industry and getting more and more brands,” Emma said, “we are selling our own bookkeeping franchises.”
Based in Las Vegas, BooXkeeping (pronounced “books keeping”) is a franchise that handles a business’s finances. Among its customers are Sport Clips, Fastsigns and Signarama. At six locations, it’s become the preferred vendor for over 85 brands.
Emma has quite the history, emigrating to the United States from the former Soviet Union when he was 18. He started his career in corporate accounting and finance and, in 2002, he pursued his American dream with his first business, a landscaping company.
Max Emma launched BooXkeeping in 2011 and later added a franchise program.
While the company was successful at first, a lack of proper bookkeeping and the 2008 financial crisis led to a bankruptcy filing. Having outsourced his own bookkeeping, Emma took note of the problems with that model and started BooXkeeping out his garage in 2011 with the help of ex-wife and co-founder Elena Emma.
“After a while, by accident, we got involved in franchising,” Emma said. “There was a local business just happened to be a franchise.”
He started with a local franchisee on his books, who in turn told their franchisor about the experience. Soon after, BooXkeeping became that brand’s preferred bookkeepers.
After working with so many franchisors, Emma took the steps to launch his brand’s franchise initiative. It was a space BooXkeeping could fill and was something nearly every business could utilize, he said. Businesses should get a handle on their bookkeeping sooner rather than later, he stressed.
Elena Emma, co-founder of BooXkeeping.
“Some business owners think they only need to do the bookkeeping to file their taxes,” said Emma. “Which I say they’re absolutely wrong because that means for 12 months, they’re operating in the dark.”
“It’s a two-way street,” he continued. “Our output is going to be as good as their input.”
To facilitate this work, franchisees at BooXkeeping undergo rather intensive training and executive coaching. BooXkeeping provides franchisees with staff upon opening, regardless of the franchisee’s experience. Owners can start operating immediately, because BooXkeeping provides client lists to help them get started.
Emma’s goal for 2024 is to sign 40 new franchise signings. The cost to open a BooXkeeping franchise ranges from $25,842 to $52,842 and royalties are 10 percent of gross revenue.