I am on Maternity Leave at the moment and due to go back to my Finance job in April, but the company has been taken over. I have been thinking about starting my own bookkeeping business. I am fully AAT qualified and have quite a lot of experience from my job, however, I am unsure how to go about starting up my business.
You need to think about the service you are going to offer. Bookkeeping, Personal Tax, possibly Company tax?
Fees are then an important issue - at what rate do you charge yourself out?
If you are going to be a sole trader yourself then it is very easy to register. I have produced a video tutorial which shows you how to do this. If you want to form a company this can be done at a minimal cost.
In terms of setup, it isn't that difficult. Key things to consider are
Computer, probably a laptop so that you can be mobile
Dedicated telephone number for business (virtual or actual)
Software to use
Travel - are you going to visit clients or get them to send stuff to you
That covers some of the basics, if you need any more info give me a shout.
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Phil Hendy, The Accountancy Mentor
Are you thinking of setting up your own practice or have you set up and need some help?
If so a mentor may be the way forward - feel free to get in touch and see how I can assist you.
You have three choices...go it alone, join a franchise and be part of a national brand and/or work with a coach/mentor like Phil.
The key questions are:
What do you want out of the business?
What can you put in?
What do you have to offer?
What marketing strategy are you going to use?
How will you generate leads?
Are you any good at sales?
What are you going to charge?
At Crunchers we have decided that just being bookkeepers is not enough. So, we are just about to add on year-end accounts and tax with a central accounting resource.
We have also decided that offering management accounts and basic consulting is going ton be a key part of the proposition.
The truth is that processing is reducing by technology and off-shoring.
