I've posted a few times in the training section trying to find myself a path through the various bookkeeping & accounting bodies without spending a fortune but don't think I had actually gotten round to introducing myself.
So I'm Simone, I've recently finished the ICB MICB qualifications and taken out a practise licence with ICB - I'm currently working my way through AAT level 3 and then hopefully level 4.
I'm currently on maternity leave trying to study and set up my own practise so that I don't have to go back to the long commute/hours in the city when it ends.
So far I have no actual clients so I've been researching marketing plans and building myself a website.
If this is a good place for it then I'd like to keep a little record of how my marketing efforts and my first year of practise are going - something to look back on
Welome Simone, and I look forward to your contributions. As someone who is absolutely hopeless at marketing, it will be an interesting read.
Re autumn statement. It was a (welcome) surprise that he cancelled the tax credit cuts. I was expecting him to phase them in over the remaining 4 years. However, as he said, universal credit should have replaced tax credits by then. The taper rate for that is 65%, so the man isn't stupid. Welcome news on doubling the housing budget, but felt he should also be building homes for rent at affordable prices. We pay an insane amount of money in housing allowance for people in private rents. Pleased also on the 2% council tax precept, which will assist in social care, something that is very fragile. Having said that, if he hadn't imposed draconian cuts to council budgets, we may not be in that situation.
Sorry, i'll come down of my soapbox
__________________
John
Any advice given is for general guidance and professional advice should be sought applicable to your circumstances.
welcome to the forum (like we've not chatted loads already!)
We've had a couple of people in the past use the site as a sort of diary. Liz needham used to do an annual update but she's not updated things much for the last couple of years. Then again, I think that she covered the main part of going from nothing to premises which is the sort of inspiration that others would take something from.
I look forwards to reading the regular updates you post between now and when you hit similar giddy heights.
All the 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.
yep, some interesting points in the Autumn statement (although I've not had chance to review all of it yet).
The housing stock question always gets me as people complain that they cannot afford house prices but this isn't a UK bubble.
I've travelled a bit and found house prices everywhere to be rising. The issue is that if houses in the UK were cheaper then foreign investors would snap up the housing stock which would just force the prices back up again.
The issue then isn't that the houses are too expensive but rather we don't get paid enough to afford the houses and if we were paid enough you get into the whole inflation nightmare.
I fear that Mr Osbourne really does have his work cut out for him to try and balance this as he's really playing a huge game of kerplunk. Pull just one wrong straw and....
__________________
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.
What makes you say it isn't a UK bubble Shaun? The bubble grew bigger when the 5% deposit guarantee came in. In London and the South East foreign investment has pushed up prices I admit, but I don't think that will be replicated further North, particularly in areas like South Yorkshire, Hull and parts of the North East.
Amazing contrast. A terraced house in Ripon is around 140k. Move 60 miles down the road to Doncaster and it's around 50k. (which surprised me because they were selling for 70-80k not that many years ago)
__________________
John
Any advice given is for general guidance and professional advice should be sought applicable to your circumstances.
As an example in the sticks of North Eastern Thailand (around Khon Kaen) where few Westerners have ever set foot a three bed detatched will set you back a couple of hundred thousand which isn't that dissimilar to the price of houses around me.
Houses move in price here, they move in price there as well and its not because of people moving from the West to there as (a) foreigners cannot legally buy Thai property and (b) as I say, we are talking well away from area's tourists would find.
Thats just one example but it seems that wherever I have gone in the world prices move in line with the UK.
Not such an amazing contrast in the example you give as you get those sort of variances from what are ostensibly the same houses in the same towns around here so within a mile you could have a £60k+ variance even though the poorer areas are not necessarily high crime or unemployment.
I think that wherever you go you will find area's that are lagging behind and area's that whizz ahead. We're now very much back to the North South divide that we had in the eighties although fingers crossed that may dissipate a little as more businesses relocate to Birmingham and Manchester.
I've kicked myself a few times about London as I've worked there a lot but refused to pay the price of a four bed detacthed in the very best areas around here for a shoe box studio appartment in an area where you need reinforced doors so I've always travelled down there but lived in the sunny Midlands. Funny thing there is that it takes me the same time to get from my house in Cannock to central London as it used to take me to get from Sutton in Surrey to central London via the Northern line (from Morden).
__________________
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.
Thanks Joanne. I've now finished my website, set-up a facebook page and ordered some business cards for shop windows / networking events. No clients yet but a fellow ICB member has kindly said she will pass my details onto a firm that's looking for someone so fingers and toes crossed.
Next I plan to add some directory entries for free online adverts, e.g. yell/free index/google +/ gumtree and maybe splash out a little bit on a paid for google ad and also I need to try and figure out how facebook marketing works.
