Hello All - The Book-keepers Forum (UK)

kjmcculloch83 · Expert

Hello All

Ray2000 · Veteran Member

Hi Kris, Welcome back to the forum.

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Welcome home Kris.

Hope lifes in excile hasn't been treating you too badly.

We just need Rob back now.

All the best,

Shaun.

P.S. quick edit. two replies in four reads of your post. Not too shoddy statistics at all there.

-- Edited by Shamus on Thursday 4th of August 2011 08:08:14 PM

kjmcculloch83 · Expert

Thanks Shaun,

No life was fine. I think I've learned not to be quite so hot headed of late, and not to believe everything I'm told ;)

Unfortunately I start agian with zero posts though.

I see you've had a promotion since I left (ok, I have been keeping one eye on the forum too)

Kris

-- Edited by kjmcculloch83 on Thursday 4th of August 2011 08:11:04 PM

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Mmm, I got a promotion and you got taken out the back and shot... Something wrong there considering some of my posts (I'm thinking of the one where I refered to someone as a dancing monkey).

Sheila sent me an email to tell me that you'd been given your marching orders but I missed completely the post / thread that caused it as was off being busy with my bankers hat on.

kjmcculloch83 · Expert

ach, it's all a distant memory. James even let me on the ICB forum. Without going into it (which I don;t want to do) somebody dropped something in my inbox which annoyed me, and with a bee in my bonnet and a big angry head on I posted some things which led to others getting annoyed.

Anyway, seems to be all over now ad my IP is no longer banned.

A clean slate.

Kris

Amanda · Expert

Hi Kris,
Welcome back, thats spooky as I was only thinking about you today and you now appear by magic!!!

Hope the business is going well, mine has really taken off, it was all that marketing back end of last year, I even considered subbing some out last month!

I still use that form you kindly adapted for me for when I initially meet a new client.

Looking forward to your input

Cheers

kjmcculloch83 · Expert

Thanks Amanda,

Business isn't too bad. Feels like for every new client I get right now I lose an old one to this economic black hole. Had a few clients go to the wall, and others winding down.

That said, I'm about to launch a major offensive on driving instructors in the next week.

Glad you're doing well.

Kris

betty121 · Senior Member

Hi Kris,

Nice to have you back. I'm still mostly a lurker but post occasionally. I've changed from AAT to ICB since you were last here. I'm based in Glasgow so very interested in how all the Scottish bookkeepers are getting on.

Just had a look at your website. I really like the instant quote and chat features. Did you have any practical experience before you set up? I am sitting Level 2 manual in a couple of weeks and once reached member stage will be setting up on my own.

Once again nice to see you back.

Elizabeth

kjmcculloch83 · Expert

Hi Elizabeth,

Before I started bookkeeping I was a community worker, part of the role was carrying out audits for community groups on behalf of funders, then I was the manager at a credit union. But neither of these really prepared me for bookkeeping. After using the Bookcert course and ICB level 1 and 2 I felt confident enough to start offering my services. Truth be told there were times when I thought "what am I doing" but the more I did, the more I realised I actually knew the stuff, I just had to build my confidence. THats what working for myself helped me do.

Now I'm doing my HNC Accounting at nights with a view to doing my degree when my boys reach school age.

I'm glad you like the site. I struggled a lot with whether to ask for contact details on the quote, or cut out all the barriers and make it nice and easy and hope that the price appealed to potential clients. I also wasn't sure about the chat facility, it's only been live for a couple of days but in the background it lets me know who's on my site, what page they're on, where they came from. And of course I can chat to them, so it helps with the people who will never pick up the phone to you.

Kris

semsley · Guru

Good to see you back Kris, glad things are going Ok.

Sheila

kjmcculloch83 · Expert

Thanks Sheila,

They certainly are now. If I'm still here tomorrow you can assume I am actually forgiven and it's not a technical mistake that allowed me back.

Kris

K3 Accounting · Veteran Member

Welcome back Kris,

We seem to have very similar businesses and target markets, perhaps because we are in the northern part of the UK......

Your posts were always valuable, particularly to those starting out like I was.

As to new clients my saviour was/is networking ..... pressing the flesh at a weekly breakfast meeting (network north) and linkedin. Both have been beyond expectation in finding new business.

People buy people and it's never truer than when entrusting your finances to a stranger.

I like the updates to your website, particularly the instant quote......apologies but I've been playing with it for the last half hour to see how our prices compare! Perhaps you should have put it behind an email wall

Cheers

Ken

kjmcculloch83 · Expert

Thanks Ken,

Play away with it, it's not a problem. Just to be nosey, how do our prices compare?

Kris

K3 Accounting · Veteran Member

Pretty much bang on from what I can work out.

For me it was the hardest area to get right and I'm still not there. Too cheap is first lesson in bad business and false economy, too expensive and you lose the gig which doesn't put food on the table.

I started out quoting just fixed fees but have changed to per hour (£15) which clients seem to prefer, though I dont!

Reckon prices are keener north of watford gap too. Still I'm loving every minute and had a cracking month with some great new businesses to look after. Though not placed a deposit on the Range Rover yet

All the best

Ken

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

I think that only things that can place deposits on range rovers these days ken are pigeons!

Peasie · Expert

Welcome back Kris. I saw a post of yours on the ICB forum and visited your website to have a go at your quote thing. Guess I'm just nosey. The chat thing that comes down - is that an automatic thing and you are only notified when someone writes in it or are you aware in real time of people on your website? It was because two different messages appeared.

K3 Accounting · Veteran Member

Lol !

My Passatt will do me just fine. Nice image for the business too IMHO

kjmcculloch83 · Expert

Hi Peasie,

The chat should be automatic after 15 seconds but with conditions that you:

Haven't rejected it previously
Haven't accepted previously
Haven't previously instigated a chat

It's still new, and there are teething problems. But I am also made aware when a visitor enters the site and what they are doing, where they came from and even better, what search terms they used to get to my site if they came via search engine.

Kris

kjmcculloch83 · Expert

I like your site Ken. It's very clean and clear. Can I ask, do you find only having a mobile number puts people off?

Kris

Amanda · Expert

Like the website Shaun, very professional!

kjmcculloch83 · Expert

I was thinking that too Amanda. Had a good old read of it. I'd employ you Shaun.

Kris

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Cheers Amanda, cheers Kris... Might need to take you up on that job offer one day Kris biggrin

Peasie · Expert

I bet none of the rest of you were as nosey with me after they visited Shaun's website. I was even intending going into Google street view to see if I could see his office. Unfortunately the postcode I put into google maps came up with a different street. There was a football ground nearby - I'm fascinated by aerial views of football grounds - especially at the lower levels of the game.

ADAS · Guru

Hi Kris,

Nice to see you back...

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi Peasie,

I think that it's actually my house you were looking at. The offices that I was in the process of sorting fell through due to the owners deciding to sell rather than rent and I'm now looking at alternatives.

The house is built on the old Hednesford town fottball ground as the year that they got a temporary promotion into a league that someone has actually heard of they sold up and bought themselves a swanky new stadium that they can't ever fill half a mile up the road.

The cross keys pub behind me is about 300 years old and is where Dr. Palmer the Rugeley poisoner apparently offed one of his victims although they never found the body for that one.

K3 Accounting · Veteran Member

Sorry i missed the last few posts, I must be in the minority that likes to sleep at night wink

Interesting point Kiris about my landline.

Obviously I don't know whether the lack of it puts people off (!)....actually that reminds me of an old Rowan Atkinson sketch where he is deaf and can never hear the phone ringing..............he spends ages rigging up a system so that he can tell when it's ringing.......in the style that only Rowan Atkinson can.........eventually has a red light that flashes when the phone rings..............phone rings...........red light flashes..........ah he says and picks it up...............you can guess the rest biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin

Where was I......

Yes I decided not to put my landline or home address on interweb from a security and privacy angle for my family. My mobile can be switched off, or indeed the number changed much easier than a landline should an unscrupulous person target me.

Possibly a bit paranoid but coming from a high level banking background, security is in my blood.

At some point I would like a dedicated business line, but as in early stages of setting business up (6 months in) it would just be an expense that i don't have to have.

Interesting angle that is worthy of debate - perhaps worth you starting a thread in a different part of the forum - though i do like it when threads go way off on a tangent, seems to happen a lot on here..........Hi I'm Kris........then we've covered prices, privacy, cars, old football grounds, offices, websites.....ha ha biggrin biggrin

Cheers

Ken

-- Edited by K3 Accounting on Friday 5th of August 2011 09:38:58 AM

kjmcculloch83 · Expert

The problems come when you read something and can never find it again because the thread title has no bearing on the ultimate content.

I shall start a new one for this.

Kris

Peasie · Expert

K3 Accounting wrote:
Yes I decided not to put my landline or home address on interweb from a security and privacy angle for my family. My mobile can be switched off, or indeed the number changed much easier than a landline should an unscrupulous person target me.
Possibly a bit paranoid but coming from a high level banking background, security is in my blood.

You end up with mad people looking you up on Google. I was only looking at Shaun's address as I was hoping to find an office - I haven't seen too many bookkeeping offices. Accountants, yes, but rarely a bookkeepers.

And just to take it off of yet another different angle - getting back to Hednesford Town FC - I find it odd that both their record win (12-1) and record defeat (0-15) were in the same season (1952-53). Could be down to something simple like a lack of available players for midweek games. I'm assuming those are still the record wins and defeats as I haven't bought the "Non League Club Directory" in the last two or three years. I hate getting distracted like this.

-- Edited by Peasie on Friday 5th of August 2011 10:17:16 AM

kjmcculloch83 · Expert

I'm about to take it on another tangent. Does Shaun still pose friday questions?

Kris

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi Kris,

would that I had the time at the moment.

However, I think that it's more of a watch this space rather than a total cancelation. As I recall it all started as a result of hot sticky Friday afternoons just like this one where nobody actually wanted to work and the quiz gave a bit of light relief to the heat.

It will be resurected, just not quite yet.

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi peasie,

the offices question is a cunundrum. Does one get taken seriously either by clients or accountants if one does not have offices?

Conversely can a bookkeepers income justify offices where one is restricted only to the bookkeeping and not allowed to venture into accountants territory.

As you've noticed, the emphasis of the business model that I'm using is process automation rather than the bookkeeping side but it's the bookkeeping side that will hopefully give me the post qualification experience (signed off by qualified accountants) in order to eventually get my ACCA practice certificate.

Therefore it shouldn't really be regarded as a bookkeeping practice but rather the gestation period of an accountancy practice... Similar I suppose to the link between a catapilla and a butterfly... Or in my case Moth!

One idea that I'm toying with to pad out the office is rent a desk for local qualified bookkeepers so they run their own practice from my premises but to clients it looks as though my practice is larger than it really is.

The issue that I can see with that though is an office full of people all thinking that they are the boss and pulling in different directions with different sets of values. That aside I don't think that a collective of bookkeepers is actually that bad an idea espechially if they are willing to subvert their own practices under a common banner (mine).

On the question of identifying the offices, the offices would not be the registered office of the business but, when I do get the offices I will put the address and pici on the website. At the moment I'm back in negotiations over a turnkey agreement for 400 sq. ft of office with toilets, kitchen and meeting room. I'm thinking good for about 6 to 8 people but I'm only looking at two direct employee's which is where rent a desk comes into play.

What do you think?

Wella · Expert

Been out of the "office" for a couple of days, and come back to find an old friend has returned

Welcome back Kris, nice to see you again

Come over all warm an' fuzzy, with all the peace and love that is oozing from this post

Bill

Wella · Expert

Hi Shaun

Office space renting sounds like a great idea, would definately need to be tied to agreements. The only downer that I can think of, is that if you get a "rogue" bookkeeper, guess who's door their upset clients will knock on

A collective of bookkeepers, would that be a Ledger of Bookkeepers? smile

Bill

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi Bill,

I know what you mean. There are so many variables to consider before making "rent a desk" a reality.

If it works it could be really advantageous to both sides. If it doesn't it could end up a nightmare.

My real concern is several bookkeepers in an office all running their own business and paying for their own area of the office would all assume that they had final say over how they ran their business which could reflect adversely on yours.

Unfortunately as we all know, not everyone in this business is like the nice and technically capable people we have on this site.

Following this logic, mabe a collective of bookkeepers should be referred to as an arguement of bookkeepers!