I am about to start my own bookkeeping business, I have no qualifications but lots of experience.
My accountant friend (mentor if you like) has put a spanner in the works and advised me to set my sights higher than a bookkeeper and market myself as a financial controller. He has worked with me on a professional basis and I believe has more faith in me than I deserve.
He can see me going into companies to troubleshoot, if you like, get their accounts in order ready for the accountants, he states that the company may already have a bookkeeper and I would be in between a bookkeeper and an accountant.
But I thought this is what a bookkeeper did!!!
I'm really scared about starting out as a bookkeeper but that is more within my comfort zone than starting as a financial controller.
Is there a difference and if so, how on earth do I market myself as a financial controller?????
I'm also worried that he may be disappointed with me if I don't follow his route.
I wouldn't get to hung up on titles. You'll find that whilst one book-keeper will offer both book-keeping and tax services another will just offer payroll services. Some book-keepers are more akin to an accountant whilst other book-keepers working in accounts departments are more like data in-putters. I don't think you'll come across many self-employed financial controllers. You tend to find these are highly qualified management accountants (normally members of ACCA or CIMA) working in medium and larger sized companies.
I also don't think the general public would know what you meant by financial controller if you advertised your services as such. They may think it sounds too expensive or not even what they need. However most people have a vague idea of what a book-keeper does and this is why most book-keepers advertise or call themselves book-keepers.
The accountant thinks 'data entry' when talking about bookkeepers but I can see form the content of subjects on the forum that bookkeepers do so much more and this is where I would like to aim myself.
I also agree that nobody would know what a financial controller is and this could limit my opportunity.
You have made me feel better about the route I wish to take. Thank you for that.
I agree with Sarah, don't worry about titles. A good example is that I was employed as a financial controller about 10 years ago. My actual job title was 'Chief Financial Controller'. Despite the title I mainly spent my time looking after the purchase ledger and disgruntled creditors. I rarely got involved with the actual accounts, as the firms auditors would come in once a month to compile management accounts from the systems records. I left after two months!
I think my title was completely misleading and should have been something like 'Purchase ledger manager/General dogsbody'.
Thank you for your advice, I think I have been caught up on the title and now realise its the job description thats important.
Without this forum and the advice you have given I would have gone round in circles, worrying about unneccesary matters instead of dealing with getting my business started.
