The reason I say this is because I am in the process of setting up my own business offering bookkeeping services to small businesses. I have no practical experience though although I have taken taken the IAB Level 1 and 2 Certificate exams (I am pretty sure I have passed these). I have had excellent feedback from my tutors. I am now embarking on Level 3 Diploma in Accounting and Advanced Bookkeeping.
I have had mixed reactions to this from "of course you can do it, go for it" to "you should not be thinking of offering this service until you have had a years experience with an accountant or similar". Because of this I am really not sure whether to go ahead.
My question is, if I have taken and passed these exams, feel confident in understanding what I have learnt so far then is it totally mad to think that I can run a business. Surely if you are confident dealing with all the pieces of paperwork you will encounter eg. ledgers, journals, cash books, balance sheets and trial balance then what else is there to know? What will I come across that I will not be able to find the answer to on this forum? Is it just seasoned bookkeepers that feel they need to discourage would be bookkeepers which are new to the industry?
-- Edited by brooklh on Saturday 15th of August 2009 09:39:11 PM
I would say that experience is very important if you are to be running a bookkeeping business. Qualifications are important as well but you would probably struggle to find clients happy to take on a bookkeeper with no experience at all. Real life bookkeeping is very different to exam based bookkeeping.
Would say best to get a years experience at least in a large accounts department or an accountants and gain experience.
I don't feel that it is seasoned bookkeepers saying that to discourage you.
I had 14 years experience before I started my business then year after starting it took the qualifications. Would say that it was the 14 years experience that gained me majority of the clients, the qualifications helped gain a few more who was worried about both experience and qualifications.
Would say now is not an easy time for bookkeepers, many businesses closing down or reducing their costs and doing their own bookkeeping. Some bookkeepers say that there business is great and they have more work than they can handle, may be that they live in one of the better parts of the country who are not as affected by the recession, or that they have drastically cut down their hourly rate to clients so working for much lower amount then before or in some cases they don't want to admit to themselves that their business is not as strong with same number of clients as before the recession.
I thought I would add my personal views. I am 26, my background is in community development where I did a small amount of bookkeeping in terms of supporting treasurers of community groups and I was the manager of a credit union for a few years.
I have no real world experience as a bookkeeper, but that doesn't put me off going it alone. I don't take this step lightly, nor do I wish to underestimate the value of having experience.
I have done some training with ICB, and bought the bookcert package. I have looked around a few forums like this one, ukbusinessforums and shell-livewire.
My feeling is that you can have all the training and experience in the world and it can still go wrong. As long as you don't take on work that you're not able to complete and continue to learn as you go I don't really see an issue.
The hardest thing is taking that first step, which is what I am doing now.
When I look around these forums and see everyone else doing the same I am filled with confidence knowing that there is an informal support here should I ever need it.
If you're confident too, why shouldn't you give it a go?
The views expressed in this post are my own personal (HRA protected) views, and are not representative of any organisation I have any involvement with.
Thank you for your reply Kris, it is very encouraging. I also purchased the Bookcert kit and I found it invaluable in terms of the direction it gives you for marketing the business.
I was feeling pretty despondent about starting the business yesterday but after coming on the forum I feel a great deal more encouraged and a whole lot happier.
My greatest problem is that I kept getting told "get some experience first" but I have a little boy to look after and do not want to put him in childcare for 5 days per week but there are no 2/3 day part time jobs going in my area hence the need to go it alone straight away.
I wish you the very best of luck in your new venture and I really hope it is a great success.
I know many people who have started various businesses and had people tell them similar, or "it'll never work", "just get a real job" etc.
If we all listened to these people there would be very few 'real' jobs because no one would start a business to employ them.
I think you need to weigh up who is making these comments, and without being unkind, do their views matter? I don't mean you should ignore constructive advise but you need to make the decision yourself.
The views expressed in this post are my own personal (HRA protected) views, and are not representative of any organisation I have any involvement with.
I would suggest testing the waters and see if you can get a client - I spent ages thinking and debating about whether to set up on my own to the point were I became exhausted just thinking about it. I had so many doubts and conflicting advise from friends and family that in the end I bit the bullet and started up.
Like Kris has mentioned you will get some people saying `it will never work` ` get a proper job`, you just have to go on your gut instinct. Only you know what you are capable of - If you have taken exams and passed, what does that say !! All you are missing is the practical experience, you will never know how good you are until you take a deep breath and try.
I have just started a self employed bookkeeping service and I have been advertising since April this year. So far I have one client so I nowhere near enough to make a fulltime wage out of it and I had no previous experience before qualifying.
If I didn't have two small boys at home then I would definately have followed the advise given by Alison and worked fulltime as at the moment I feel that there would be more money in it from the start and I could gain valuble experience and additional on the job training.
However, I do have two small boys at home to care for and the whole point of me studying bookkeeping was so that I could work from home and not leave my boys in daycare, plus with what I would pay in childcare fees for two children, it probably wouldnt be financially worth me working.
Luckily for me at the moment, money isn't an issue, my husband earns enough (just :D) to pay the bills so I am starting off slowly but hope that in the next five years, I will be earning a decent weekly wage.
If you are unsure as to whether you want to start a business but have a child to care for and so cant work for an employer, then you have nothing to lose by starting up your own business and seeing how it goes.
That is just my point of view. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
