Thats a very wide question, can you narrow it down a bit? Are you a bookkeeper yourself, are you looking to become a bookkeeper or do you provide a support service for bookkeepers?
Deliberately so, as I did not think it was right in the research to propose any areas that I would perhaps suggest.
I am a bookkeeper myself and support other members of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers. This is some wider research we are trying to obtain into the type of support that a bookkeeper would desire on a day to day basis.
You'll appreciate the number of people who ask questions like this on their very first post only to have a friend come back and answer it trying to sell the solution to the question posed. Perhaps it would be helpful to introduce yourself on the introductions part of the forum to allow others to know what you are about.
I would suggest the main support most bookkeepers need is for marketing, however I'm not convinced ICB have got this right yet so are not really in a place to help members.
I'm sightly confused Mike (easily done). Are you actually with the ICB trying to get feedback on where you could do better or a bookkeeper looking to offer support to members of the ICB in which case please feel free to post free technical assistance on this site as this site I would say is the main basis of support for bookkeepers old and new.
This site supports all comers be they ICB, IAB, ACCA, AAT, ATT, CIMA, experienced, inexperienced and just thinking about it, etc. etc. without any differentiation. The site has the word bookkeeper in the name but I feel that there are as many accountants and accountancy students visit the site as bookkeepers So I suppose the answer to the second part of your initial question is that this is where people come for support.
Most queries relate to which professional body, which training provider,startup advice (First client, initial marketing, etc.), tax and software queries (Generally Sage, QB or VT). Quite often there are alternate replies to questions covering different perspectives of an answer.
Bodies such as the ICB that have vested interests can never truly offer compeletely impartial advice the way that this site does.
So, are you looking to join the site offering free advice or are you looking to offer a service to members?
If the latter, the thing to ask yourself is what can you offer that people on this site that they would be willing to pay for that they do not already receive free of charge?
I look forwards to some constructive discussion,
Kind regards,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I wouldn't say that it's that common but it does happen. I think that the last few have been pretty obvious ones. You know, post only tentatively related to the site from a first time poster asking what the best SEO company is... two days later, poster B appears with the answer.
I don't think that such is this posters territory but would be interested to know the link between the poster and the ICB.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.