I have completed Level I, II and III of the ICB Manual Qualifications. I also have indemnity insurance and hold an ICB practising certificate. I am keen to get started on my own and although I have several years accounting and finance experience I don't seem to be able to force myself to take the plunge. I think my main concern is that I don't know exactly what clients will be expect to be presented with each month.
I wondered if anyone could provide me with information on the Bookcert package. I am particularly interested in the sample report to provide clients with each month. Is it worth the investment?
We were all in the same boat once so we know how you feel.
You say you have experience in accounting and finance which is a great start, if you have been doing bookkeeping within a company then bookkeeping for a client is essentially the same but with a few tweaks.
You may have to provide more management information which you may/may not be familiar with.
I personally did not use bookcert but i hear it is very useful.
Going by my own experience, if you have an accounting background you will be able to deal with most things that come your way, one thing i did was develop a relationship with a local accountant who i use to pass on clients who may need tax advice etc.... and also for asking the odd question. Also my first client was my wife - i used her as a guinea pig - so to speak!!!!! you will find family members or close friends are a bit more forgiving and good to practice on.
Easier said than done i know but have confidence in yourself, you have passed the bookkeeping exams so you know the basics of bookkeeping and you have accounting experience so go for it.
I am still undecided as to whether or not to purchase the bookcert kit but am hopefully going to get my act together over the next couple of weeks and make some serious progress.
If yes and you are unsure whether to take the plunge, maybe you could keep your current job and get a client to start with that you can do evenings or weekends, and if you find you are getting too many clients give your notice in on your job. I would have done this myself, but I got made redundant in August 2006 (less then 4 weeks before my wedding) and in those few weeks before the wedding, my fiance now hubby gave me the push I needed to start business (I had looked into starting bookkeeping business in 2002) and he built me a website, got me a contact who got me some bookkeeping clients.
John - The reason I am thinking of purchasing the bookcert kit is because of the example bound report included with it which is advertised as a report that you will learn to produce for your clients each period. I have quite a lot of bookkeeping and accounting experience and have successfully completed the ICB exams but for some reason I feel as though I don't know the format of information a client will be expecting, I think I am probably looking into it too much and panicking myself!
Alison - I am on maternity leave and after considering my bookkeeping options for a number of years am keen to get soemthing of the ground to hopefully enable me not to have to return to my current employment full time. Well done on getting your business started, it must have been very stressful starting a new business at the same time as your wedding.
