“Once you get the first client, generally it’s just that first client that starts that snowball effect.”
Niamh Campbell runs First Class Accounts Wanneroo, a fully remote bookkeeping franchise based in Wanneroo, in Perth’s northern suburbs, and was named Franchisee of the Year at the 2026 First Class Accounts National Conference in Cairns.
Ten years ago, she had no bookkeeping background at all.
From hospitality management to bookkeeping
Before First Class Accounts, Niamh worked in hospitality.
“I worked for McDonald’s as a first assistant manager for a long time, and then I moved on to Muzzbuzz, and I was managing 2 or 3 stores when we decided to step into here.”
The “we” was Niamh and her dad, a CPA who had worked as an accountant for oil and gas companies. The two had talked about owning a business together for years.
Her dad’s finance experience, plus the Cert IV training that comes with the franchise, made the move feel possible.
“Knowing what his background was and knowing that I’d obviously get the Cert IV training through First Class Accounts, as well as have him to support me and back me up, it was definitely an easier decision knowing that he was there behind me.”
Why a franchise, and why so quickly
Her dad had looked at other businesses and franchises first. Then he searched online and First Class Accounts kept coming up.
As Niamh puts it, “First Class Accounts must have been doing some good SEO.”
They spoke with a couple of existing franchisees, Neil Hodgson among them, and the decision followed soon after.
“I think Dad looked at First Class Accounts in March or April of 2016, and we were at our first training in July of 2016. So it didn’t take long for us to sort of go through the process and make that decision.”
The early days: no salary and plenty of imposter syndrome
Her dad was still working full time, so Niamh ran the day to day: networking, finding clients and then delivering the work.
“Giving up a full-time job and not having money is probably one of the biggest ones.”
“As someone who was so green to the industry, there was definitely a lot of imposter syndrome and not believing that I knew what I was doing.”
The phone call nobody answered
The turning point was client number one.
“I remember signing them up and I got in the car and I was trying to call Dad to let him know and he didn’t answer the phone. So I tried to call my mum, she didn’t answer the phone. So I tried to call my husband and he didn’t answer the phone.”
So she called Norma, a fellow franchisee at the time who she had been doing some work with.
“She was so excited for me. So for me, I was like, yay, I can be excited now because someone else is excited.”
“Up until then you’re like, oh, I’m trying and nothing’s working. But you just need that one.”
More milestones followed. Paying themselves for the first time. Hiring their first staff member, which Niamh calls “a really big scary step for both of us”. Winning Emerging Franchisee of the Year in their first year. And two years ago, buying her dad out of the business, although “he still works for the business and he’s still very much involved”.
Growing through the network, and losing the biggest client
The biggest jump came from inside the network. Niamh bought half a book of clients from another First Class Accounts franchisee, then the rest of that book 18 months later.
“That pretty much, I think, that tripled our revenue in that purchase. So without that opportunity, we wouldn’t be where we are.”
It was not all smooth. After the second purchase, the largest client on the books left.
“The client was the biggest client we had on our books at the time, and it was a significant amount of money, and they pulled the pin and they left us.”
Niamh never lets one client make up too big a share of revenue, so a couple of smaller clients filled the gap and “it didn’t have much of an impact”. The lesson she took from it was to keep the pipeline moving.
“I’m constantly out there networking even when I’m up to my eyeballs like we are at the moment. So you’ve always got to have that pipeline going.”
Flexible packages, and a little help from AI
The challenge she sees most right now is cost of living pressure, so she builds packages around each client.
“What do you need in the package? What don’t you need? What do you want to do yourself? How can we make this work for you?”
When a client situation exposes a gap, she updates her engagement letter or onboarding form straight away.
“I think AI is just making all of that a little bit easier now. So if something happens, I just go into Claude and go, hey Claude, fix this up for me.”
“We haven’t had to invent anything”
Niamh has friends who run bookkeeping businesses on their own, and she sees the difference.
“They don’t keep up with all the changes that are going on with the TPB or the ATO. We get everything. We get work papers, we get documents. We haven’t had to invent anything.”
The other franchisees matter just as much.
“I know that I could go out and take on a client tomorrow who uses a software I’ve never even heard of, and I would have someone that I could go to and go, hey, I’ve just taken on this client, what do I do?”
“It sounds cheesy, and whenever we say it, we all say it sounds cheesy, but we really are like a family.”
What’s next, and her advice for anyone starting out
The business is fully remote, which suits Niamh. “We’ve just come back from 4 weeks on the road driving across Australia.”
Right now the focus is consolidating recent growth and training three staff members who have just finished their Cert IV. The target for this financial year is clear: “It’ll hit the 7 figures hopefully for revenue.”
Her advice for someone just starting out:
“Try and find other people who have been there, done that, and don’t invent the wheel.”
And the lessons she wishes she had known on day one:
“Definitely start with a workflow system from day dot and don’t wait until you’re too busy that you have to try and implement it while you’re too busy. Employ a staff member before you need the staff member. And don’t keep everything that you do in your head.”
Why franchisees choose First Class Accounts
- Cert IV training to get you started, even without a bookkeeping background
- Up-to-date work papers, documents, and TPB and ATO updates, so you never have to build from scratch
- A network of franchisees to call on for software questions, advice and support, plus conferences and workshops
- Room to grow inside the network, the way Niamh did when she bought another franchisee’s client book
Thinking about starting your own bookkeeping business? Find out what franchising with First Class Accounts could look like for you: https://www.firstclassaccounts.com/franchise-opportunities
