I wonder if anyone could give me some advice. Can a newcomer to the bookkeeping industry earn a reasonable second income on a self-employed basis (eg £10-£15,000 pa) and how long is it likely to take before you could expect to do this?
I know this might seem a blunt question but - with a family to support - I can't afford to jump into doing a training course unless I know that it would help our future. And I need to know what I can REALISTICALLY expect to achieve rather than what the training course "sales pitch" tells me.
Many thanks to anyone who takes the troble to reply.
When you say as a second income do you mean doing bookkeeping part time alongside a full time job, would then say your £10 - £15,000 pa is very unrealistic, if you mean as a second income alongside a partner ie doing self employed bookkeeping full time then before the recession would say these are realistic amounts, unless you are in a town not as heavily affected by the recession then maybe still feasible.
I started my bookkeeping business in August 2006 and by March 2009 I was having 70 hours a week bookkeeping, since then because of losing clients has decreased some months to as little as 25 hours a month. Some bookkeepers have been lucky and managed to gain new clients recently but there have been so many bookkeepers set up in the recession there is so much more bookkeepers trying to gain the new clients so very strong competition at the moment.
I have started training with a long term wish to find a small amount of bookkeeping work. I will need to gain experience before being confident to do any self employed work. My income requirements will be modest.
Having watched this forum for some time now it seems very unlikely that anyone would be able to set up and quickly have £10,000 to £15,000 pa coming in. With the economic climate as it is there seems to be an over supply of bookkeepers and an under supply of clients.
I see comments from people who have been set up for the best part of a year and have so far found one or perhaps two clients.
I suppose that whenever a large company fails or makes big redundancies then if it has been large enough to have an accounts department then some of those staff will probably decide to set up as self employed bookkeepers. More experienced bookkeepers chasing the work.
I wouldn't feel qualified to give advice but my reading of this forum, which after all is the chat from people in the know, is that setting up as a bookkeeper right now is unlikely to produce any significant income though I guess if the odd client could be found, is a good time to gain experience. Hopefully things will improve and then - who knows......
Many thanks for your replies. I was actually hoping to work full time (or part time if I can find another part time job) at book-keeping with my partner bringing in a separate income.
Could I ask another question: how much can new book-keepers realistically charge per hour? I appreciate that experienced book-keepers will obviously be able to charge more.
It really depends on which area of the country you are in. I researched it for up North where I am and would say experience bookkeepers normally charge somewhere between £12 and £15 an hour with inexperienced bookkeepers normally charging somewhere between £8 and £12 an hour (but with the £12 an hour they are competing with the more experienced bookkeepers).
Would say most places inexperienced would be in the £8 - £12 an hour bracket but the experienced can differ quite a lot in different areas being anywhere between £12 and £25 an hour (£25 an hour in London).
I am in Sheffield and looking around at local bookkeepers, there were three or four charging £7 who were trainee accountants. I charge £8 and hour and this month will be earning around £300 which has been my best monthly income since setting up in April. As a newly qualified bookkeeper with no previous experience, I am finding it very hard to find work.
I think all bookkeepers newly qualified or experienced bookkeepers are finding it hard to find work because of the recession.
Terri - I never realised you only charged £8 an hour, if you are struggling to find work and only charging £8 an hour maybe small businesses are not hiring bookkeepers, I thought that maybe the reason I am not getting any enquiries/new clients was because my rate of £12.50 + VAT is too high and was considering whether to change this but have now come to the decision that it does not matter what hourly rate is because in the North small businesses are just not hiring self employed bookkeepers.
I have been advertising for the last two or three months and sent out a 200 letters to local businesses but not advertised my hourly rate. They have no idea what I charge, I am just getting no queries. I keep seeing adverts on tv claiming that the demand has never been higher for bookkeepers and it makes me laugh. I don't regret starting up with the bookkeeping as it is a great job to fit around my boys, but I am a little disappointed after spending two years studying and being told that bookkeepers were in a huge demand and I would never be short of work. Things will pick up though I'm sure and by that time, I will have a bit more experience and confidence.
I think the adverts must be based on a location that is not suffering as much in the recession.
I don't think the North of England is the best place for being a self employed bookkeeper as other locations even when not in recession, I started up in August 2006 and got several clients in a short space of time and adding a client each month for a short time, until August 2007 it was full time business as all clients had a backlog, then everyone caught up with so ended up taking a part time job 3 days a week to continue having full time work, did not gain any new clients, then in July 2008 got hectic again getting new clients so gave up part time job to concentrate on self employed bit and was hectic until March 2009 when lost 3 clients of which 1 major client, even though I took on 1 new client that did not make up for the lost 3 as only 3 - 4 hours work a fortnight for this new client.
Would say that it is harder in the North then other locations. Having forum discussions with other bookkeepers before the recession they were saying that they easily gained new clients and kept them. What I have found is it is unfortunately true what they say about Yorkshire people being careful with their money - I have lost clients because they have reliased they can take on staff at minimum wage even if that person does not have any experience/knowledge/college experience in the bookkeeping because they are on a fixed fee with their accountant who will sort out any of the bookkeeping messes at their year ends.
Would say the thing holding me back is the lack of driving licence still learning to drive and someone once told me that their is a demand for bookkeepers in rural areas in the North of England who want their work doing on their own premises.
