My name is Carole and I am in the process of setting up my own bookkeeping business, The Little Bookkeeper.
I must say, after having a lot of things going round my head and having skulked around a few business forums what a find this forum is!
Anyway, here is a little bit about me:
I have over 13 years accounting practice experience mainly working in small business departments where I qualified as ACCA but I left 5 years ago to bring up my children now 6 and 4. My youngest starts school next August and the thought of no job or prospect of, at that stage absolutely terrifies me! I live in Dunfermline but I am originally from Northumberland so my Mum and Dad still stay there and my mother in law is in Dundee and we have a bit of a shortage of good childminders here, soooo, I had the bright idea of setting up my own business to work around the kids. I thought, how difficult can it be right? Little did I know
I did level I and II ICB and got my practising certificate and insurance and now I am ready to go I am feeling a little bit overwhelmed to be honest! How best to advertise, websites, networking, money laundering etc etc....
So it is great to have a free forum just for people like me! Hopefully in return, to earn my keep I will be able to help answer a few accounting queries!
Look forward to hearing from you all, and nice to meet you!
We all seem to be a nice bunch here, being able to offer a helping hand where needs be...don't be afraid to ask, although you do seem to be nicely qualified ACCA etc, can I ask why you chose to join ICB seeing as you are ACCA?
Good question, why ICB when I was ACCA? Well there is nothing sinister about it, I didn't get struck off or anything...
Basically when I left work to have my family I let my membership for the ACCA slip as I couldn't afford to pay the hundreds of pounds subscription fee when I wasn't working and to be honest at the time I was a bit disheartened with it all. In my last years working in practice I had drifted into the 'audit' route and found myself working all hours and having to travel about a bit, not exactly ideal for having a young family. Not only that a few of my colleagues who had small families had come back part time and ended up in the office on their days off, baby in tow trying to catch up on things because they had been out on audit. So I made the decision not to go back and at the time was thinking of a total career change.
However after a few years out I have had time to think about what I did enjoy about accountancy and I can honestly say that having started out as a trainee accountant at 17 doing books from carrier bags and then preparing accounts and tax returns for small businesses in a small local branch of Accountants down in Northumberland was where I was most happy in my job.
I then thought about the ICB because I could do the exams, get qualified and practicing all quite cheaply and hopefully that will be all I need to get myself started on the qualifications front. I am hoping bookkeeping is something I can do to work round my kids so I can be there for them.
Hi Carole, Welcome, I am sure that like me you will find this forum very friendly and helpfull and a good source of information.Nice to see you are originally from Northumberland as that is where i am
I also chose the ICB route as its fairly cheap and quick to get a qualification. I dont envy you on the audit trail, oh my how boring that must have become! Being at the coal face so to speak is much more exciting and real.
Welcome to the forum Carole, like you, I am busy too. At the moment I'm trying to win new clients since setting up my business in April, I have a couple of clients that I work for, I am studying for my level 3 bookkeeping with the ICB and am a fulltime mum to a three year old an and a 14 month old. I must say though, so far, I have found it a great job to do from home and work around the boys. Good luck with everything snd I hope to see you around here.
I have been looking through the forums on training and now thinking I may do the level III diploma as a few of you have managed to do it just by getting a book and mock exams so I am already finding your posts most helpful.
I am studying for the level 3 at the moment via Ideal Schools. To be honest, I think that I could have just done it using books and past papers but as I don't have a great deal of bookkeeping experience, doing it via a distance learner is giving me a bit more confidence in knowing that I am doing things correct.
