Hi all
I am about to contemplate launching into the (virtually) unknown world of bookkeeping - pse feel free to offer words of encouragement or to advise me to run fast for the hills as II'm obviously quite insane!
My background is perhaps not the best grounding for this career change enterprise as I have taken redundancy from the good-old Civil Service. I will consequently be starting from scratch; at least my wife does payroll & employs a bk in her role as a GP surgery PM so she can advise with some stuff
I am looking to beome self-employed working (as ar as practicable) from home with a client-base, eventually, of SMEs (prob more S than M!).
Obviously I need quals & am looking at ICB Complete distance-learning course (Levels 2/3/4 ) to take me to MICB - with Open Study College. Any feedback on this course combo or study center a propos good/bad idea warmly appreciated - before I shell out 800 quid.
Many thanks - good to be here & I look forward to learning lots & lots from researching around the site.
Garry
Welcome Garry. I wish you the best of luck and there are many posts to read on this subject. I personally think getting the qualifications is the easy bit, getting the clients for many is the tricky part of this business.
I did the Exmoor Beast a couple of years ago (and a couple of stone ago!), I was thinking about getting into training for it for this year but had a pizza and came to my senses!
In case you don't know, there are also the International Association of Bookkeepers (IAB) and the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT).
I am going to promote the AAT to you. I believe it is the largest of the three bookkeeping/technician level professional bodies, it is sponsored by all but one of the chartered accounting bodies, it is more widely recognised in the employment market (which gives you additional career options). It has bookkeeping qualifications and has the option to work towards its full accounting qualification.
Should you wish to do so, you can use it as a stepping stone to studying a chartered level qualification.
They also offer a stand alone tax qualification if you choose to start offering tax return services.
You can find the bookkeeping qualification at this link: https://www.aat.org.uk/qualifications/bookkeeping-and-computerised-accounting
In this instance where you are not looking at any recognition by anyone in order to keep the possibility of employment open as an option I would however not write off the bookkeeping qualifications (ICB and IAB).
Before spending a lot of money going down this path though make sure that it is something for you.
Read this book cover to cover and ensure that you enjoy the subject matter. If you do, reading the book will give you good foundations before starting your course (whichever one that may be) if you don't then it will be the best and most cost effective £18 you ever spend.
Right, assuming that this subject matter is for you the next thing to look at is your business model... Yes, even before learning the subject think long and hard about how you are going to make money from it.
A lot of people enter this arena, often based on misconceptions about what the work actually is. Some fall by the wayside because they did'nt realise that bookkeeping is actually pretty complex and far from simply adding up lines of figures. Many more fall after qualifying because they simply cannot make any money from it.
You will have probably read that there are millions of companies looking for your services and anyone can be making £30k in this business inside a year of qualifying.
Basically thats a load of bollocks. There will be one or two cases that make it quickly but I would consider them the exception rather than the rule and you will also find that those ones are also those that come to this with prior relevant experience and higher accountancy qualifications.
Its a cut throat business with too few viable clients for the all of the available bookkeepers.
You will have an advantage assuming that your wife decides to use your services in that you have your first client. Thats not new money coming into the family but rather less money going outside it.
The main benefit though is that you will have the opportunity to gain real practical experience before starting to market your business.
Start thinking about networking and channels of work such as other GP practices (quite a specialist area which should allow you to charge slightly higher rates for that work).
Do you believe that you will be able to find sufficient clients to make this a full time occupation.
Your first year costs to set up a business is likely to be less than £2000 but lets call that a start point for the business covering PII, MLR, Software, marketing spend, Networking costs, etc. (but not your studies).
Now lets put you on minimum wage, 35 hours a week, 48 weeks a year. (10,600.80).
Lets call your break even point £13k.
At £12 per hour that means you need to be finding 1084 chargable hours work per year. At £15 that drops to 867 hours. At £18 thats 722 hours... But, you will be up against competition charging maybe less than minimum wage for the hours that they do simply to find work.
Before parting with your money for training put together a viable business plan. Try to find what local competition is charging, look how much local competition there is.
Do not build a business plan based on being the cheapest as others are always willing to undercut you on price.
Do not assume that other GP practices will flock to you but that could be your strongest selling point if you develop expertise in that field.
I know that the above sounds a little negative in places but I do genuinely wish you the very best in your new venture. I just hope that the above helps you go in with your eye's open.
The main message is that to build a business start with a plan rather than the approach of many who try to enter this field on the assumption of if they build a business then the clients will come.
kindest regards,
Shaun.
p.s. your initial client base is likely to be Micro SME's expecting a full service arrangement from data entry through to self assessment including tax advice as they do not expect to have a bookkeeper and an accountant.
The issue with the bookkeeping qualifications is that they concentrate on bookkeeping without the proper emphasis given to tax, accounts, ethics and theory. It keeps the qualifications short and simple but does not prepare people for the real world and what clients actually want.
__________________
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.
Hi all I am about to contemplate launching into the (virtually) unknown world of bookkeeping - pse feel free to offer words of encouragement or to advise me to run fast for the hills as II'm obviously quite insane! My background is perhaps not the best grounding for this career change enterprise as I have taken redundancy from the good-old Civil Service. I will consequently be starting from scratch; at least my wife does payroll & employs a bk in her role as a GP surgery PM so she can advise with some stuff I am looking to beome self-employed working (as ar as practicable) from home with a client-base, eventually, of SMEs (prob more S than M!). Obviously I need quals & am looking at ICB Complete distance-learning course (Levels 2/3/4 ) to take me to MICB - with Open Study College. Any feedback on this course combo or study center a propos good/bad idea warmly appreciated - before I shell out 800 quid. Many thanks - good to be here & I look forward to learning lots & lots from researching around the site. Garry
Welcome to the forum Garry,
You have placed an emphasis on self-employment as a bookkeeper and for this reason I do believe that the ICB would be your best route as you'll be able to use your Membership with them to help you attract clients. They also offer an extensive support service to their members who embark on the self-employment route. Good luck with your change of career and I hope that everything works out for you.
Welcome to the forum where you will have access to many peoples opinions and advice which can be at times a bit of information overload especially when the forum is filled with so many strong opinions, I concur with Brian and if looking to become self-employed the ICB does have many advantages. We do have a number of ICB qualified Bookkeepers who look at AAT for CPD. Main thing is to take on board all advice you are given and then look at the options of each of the professional bodies for being a Self-Employed Bookkeeper and their rules and regulations for doing so. It is never a question of how quickly you become qualified but more understanding of the subject you are being taught. I am just an advisor but people like Shaun have studied for years and as such do have an understanding of the profession, however we can at times be bias based on our own personal experiences, what is right for one person is not always right for another. Just ensure you do your research and then do what is right for you. All the best.
Dave Campbell
Senior Advisor
Training Link www.training-link.co.uk
ICB Training Provider of the Year 2012 and 2013
Actually, if you read the top part of my post above you will note that in this instance I was saying that the poster SHOULD consider ICB/IAB. (go on, write this day in your journal and frame a copy on the wall of TL towers).
Of course, then I go and spoil it all by advising people to look at the business case for their intentions.... That one seems quite ironic really in that if you think about it accountancy courses give you the tools with which to make the judgement as to whether it is in fact cost effective to take the course that is teaching you that? Bit of an old catch 22 there.
lol, information overload... Brians accused me of that one as well some time back but the way that I figure it, if readers don't even have the attention span to get to the end of one of my diatribes what hope will they have when faced with reading accounting standards and HMRC guidance.
right, back to my Excel spreadsheet (sad I know but when playing with complex Excel issues I'm like a pig in muck.... And people pay me for it ).
Have a great day,
All t' best,
Shaun.
__________________
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.
All good here thanks for asking, just back from a weekend away with my family, which was nice but oh too short. Yes I did read your full post and noted you mentioned the ICB and IAB are a good option for the self employment route, I thought you post read well and gave a professional accountants prospective of costs involved, no one can knock your commitment to the cause.
I think most new posters will find that 99.9% of questions have already been covered in depth at some point over the years so it tends to be the same answers to the same queries but imagine the prospective of a newbie looking for advice and being told so many different options from so many different people and none of the advice given can be deemed as useless but I have learnt that too much to take on board can totally put the potential learner in so much of a quandary they just give up with the mind set that it is all to complicated. We all know stats can be deemed as lies and damned lies lol but I wonder what the stat is for newbie posters who went on to complete their qualifications and are now making money from it and how many newbies stick around to offer advice on their personal journey and what was right for them, yes I know we have the regulars but would be nice for the newbies to stick around or even make a blog of their training and what they have done once training is completed. We had that great blog last year which made fantastic reading, be good to have more of the same. Yes I champion the ICB but it is always the student I am routing for.
Hope all is well with you and young Peter? Let you get back to being a pig in muck lol take care Shaun.
Dave
-- Edited by Dave Campbell on Monday 4th of August 2014 03:19:13 PM
Thanks guys for all the invaluable advice & comments. Just what I wanted, & asked for (!): juxtaposed, prescient viewpoints. I needed as much info as poss (sorry if my post was re-inventing the wheel - I did run a search first), to help inform my study decision. Through research I had disovered the IAB/AAT options but thought ICB might be a better self-employment pathway; it also appeared a readily comprehendable standard for punters. That's the (general) maj consensus I'm getting, which helps a lot. Thanks so much Shaun esp for that really good advice: I needed that as well. It's all too easy as a newbie to over-focus on startup without properly business planning to actually check viability. You've made me do that & I'm heading down the targetted niche-marketing pathway in my planning you v helpfully alluded to - big thanks for your guidance. Copy the Excel ref BTW: one of my prime motivations is my geek/nerd fascination with s/s: so I'm now off to YouTube to refresh re VBA mods - another PIS!
Garry
Your welcome Garry, and good luck to you my friend, Shaun will be pleased you have taken the time to thank him as he does put in a hell of a lot of effort on this forum very often for no thanks at all.
(sad I know but when playing with complex Excel issues I'm like a pig in muck.... And people pay me for it 
