I have been doing my business now for 4.5 years and have about 30-40 clients, I spend about 2 days a week doing now, spread over the weekend and evenings. I am still working Full Time and hope to just do my business one day. How are others finding growing their business?. I still work in my spare room and mainly use Sage, Andica, VT and Ftax.
Currently got 80 clients split roughly 50/50 between sole traders/partnerships and ltd companies. These result in about 120 personal/corporate tax returns split again roughly 2/3 personal and 1/3 corporate.
Currently generate GRF of about £65k.
The aim was always to get somewhere between 100-120 clients so think in the next couple of months will be able to turn off the advertising stream as clients will still find me naturally. Though probably dont want to become VAT registered.
Signed up 2 new clients this week and got a prospective one tomorrow and another on Thursday with another one the week after.
Currently use VT for accounts, taxcalc for tax, SAGE for bookkeeping and outsource payroll. Though trialling taxcalc accounts production at the moment as it has the look of IRIS (which used for 15 years in practice) without the price tag. Though might just keep licence for VT as thinking of moving a number of clients onto VTcashbook.
Got Xero seminar in morning in Edinburgh as looking to get certified with xero soon as my online accounts provider.
Hi, I've been doing my business since November last year. I also work full time so just do bits in the evenings and weekends. Haven't done any advertising yet and just waiting on my website to be finished off.
I have 5 clients. 2 of them are bookkeeping the other 3 were tax returns. Looking for more of the same and maybe add in some VAT returns eventually.
I have Sage but the bookkeeping has been done on their systems and they are both on Sage Instants. One is done at my house and the other at the clients home address.
So far so good. Hope it keeps coming nice and steady.
Does the number of clients actually matter? Surely its the quality of client not quantity that should be the question.
Everyone seems to be chasing the £400 p.a. client but missing the fact that you need 10 of them for one that brings in £4k per year and thats not for ten times the time invested as each small client gets their fair share of five mins here and ten mins there that we don't bother charging for but it all mounts up.
I'm not saying that we should abandon the little guys. They need good representation too. I'm just saying that the question is wrong in concentrating on quantity over quality of clients.
Maybe a better measure would be how many hours per week are you able to charge to clients... Mine varies greatly from below 20 to above 100.
On the accounting software front for me it's VT Transaction+ and VT Accounts. I've recently moved my payroll to 12pay but not moved up to the paid version yet (sorry Tom, it's on the to do list, honest).
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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.
oh God, just reread my post and I can now see the unintentional similarity!!!
I would try to convince the site that my services are nothing to do with value but I'm thinking that somehow makes things worse! lol.
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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 have recently put some of my prices up as it was about time I had a pay rise and I am fed up with doing stuff for lower money. So far no one has complained and all the new clients get hit with the high price anyway. In fact one of my clients that I took on at the beginning of the year, I charged him the higher price thinking would I be alright charging it and to be honest he was so pleased with the price I could have got away with a lot more!
I'm sure you don't mean your services are nothing to do with value, Shaun. I tend to agree with yourself and Amanda. To just talk about the number of clients is only a small part of the overall picture.
There is someone near me offering self assessments for £35, she may have loads of clients but in my opinion it's a fools errand as she's probably working for less than NMW once she takes into accounts her costs.
I had a client cull recently, and now have about 25 clients. I'm happy with this figure and the earnings it represents. I generally work about 20-25 hours a week on billable work depending on what else is happening. While I would like to have loads of cash, I became self employed to spend more time with my family, especially my two young boys. That's not to say that these clients don't earn me a crust and sitting here in my garden office on a nice night like this I realise how fortunate I am and how many people would love to have a stress free life.
very good point. I agree quality over quantity also. I was just thinking that it is good based on that once I had no clients!.
But yes you are correct, mine vary between £100 to £405, I have focused on small people at the moment as I don't feel I have enough time to do more. Hopefully one day!.
-- Edited by lor on Tuesday 21st of May 2013 01:22:04 PM
At the moment I am charging £15.00 per hour for bookkeeping and £100 for Self Assessments. Only done CIS subcontractor Self Assessments up to now as these are the only ones I feel confident doing. Done them for the past few year for nephew so have an idea what to include and what not. At the end of the day if they claim too much on expenses it's down to them as it's their Self Assessment. So far I have had a copy of the previous years and compared figures to see if there is a pattern. Figures pretty much the same.
Don't feel I could justify charging any more just yet until I get some more experience under my belt.
I don't have as many as you Lor, but I do have a couple that take up quite a bit of my time, so monthly they are invoiced at out between £600-700 for the pair, then I have smaller ones that are annually, and also quarterly bookkeeping with Vat returns, so keeping me busy, plus payroll now as well, so a steady stream of income which is good. Mind you always looking to build some more. Also I work school hours at the moment, that will gradually change over the next year, so hoping to increase my hours.
