Hello all, I have been running my Bookkeeping Business from home for 6 months. I also have a part-time job in Management Accounts which I have had for 13 years. My aim by July 2018 (or before) is to be self-employed and give up my part-time job. My son is Autistic and off to High School, and I want to be there for him if he needs me, before, during, or straight after school. My plan is to work in the evenings if we have a "not to good" day.
Seeing as my goal date is quite some time away, I feel the next year will be used building up my clients and gaining valuable experience. I have gained clients through making a Facebook page, and word of mouth in the School Playground.
I have some regular clients - they add up to 17 hours a month. Ideally I need about 50 hours work a month to help pay the Mortgage etc!!
I am qualified and licenced (and insured) to offer any type of Bookkeeping duties. I think initially I found it all pretty scary, but I am now gaining in confidence. My rate per hour is pretty low, with the intention to increase when I have increased in experience and confidence.
It has now gone pretty quiet, despite me spreading the word about my new business.
One lady enquired how much I charge for Tax Prep. I told her I charge by the hour. She looked shocked as she said she was paying about £200 to an Accountant - a lump sum. The lady never came back to me, and I am now wondering......do I sound "cheap" and incompetent ???
I am thinking of offering a "Payroll Service" and wondered if anyone does this, and how do much roughly do you charge? I recently did a VAT return and I did this by the hour, and am wondering if I should do this as a fixed charge? I have also set a client up on a computerised system - again could this be a fixed sum?
Do you ever list your prices in your advertisements?
One other problem I am encountering, is that 2 of my clients are incredibly busy, and I try to collect receipts/invoices on a certain day, but it adds pressure on them. They are very methodical and tick off their receipts to their statements before handing to me, as they are extremely good, but I feel like I am then only doing a teeny portion of the job. Should I literally ask for a bag of receipts and chase them for the missing ones afterwards? My big worry is that they will think that whilst checking their bank statements, they might think it is just as easy to do the whole job, without paying me!
I would love to hear from fellow Bookkeepers who have started small and worked up, and welcome any pricing advice.
Take a look at www.bookkeepingalliance.co.uk who run courses on pricing for you business and recommend a fixed price system with different options available to clients depending on their needs and budget.
I did a day course and it was so good.
"One lady enquired how much I charge for Tax Prep. I told her I charge by the hour. She looked shocked as she said she was paying about £200 to an Accountant - a lump sum. The lady never came back to me, and I am now wondering......do I sound "cheap" and incompetent ??? "
No, you just made a simple mistake. Instead of telling her you charge by the hour, you should have said that it depends on the work involved - you'll need to see what there is and discuss it with her in more detail in order to be able to give her a price. You can *then* say, I think that will take (say) from six eight hours, and I charge £20 per hour, so the final bill will be in the region of £120 to £160.
She knows what she's being charged now, so wants to use that price as a metric (will you be charging more or less) and the accountant knows how much work is involved - but you don't, unless you're psychic.
(However, give it time and you'll discover some clients do seem to expect you to be psychic!)
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
Agree with Vince, you cannot charge fixed or bespoke or added value or whatever else you want to call it else unless you know fully what is involved. This requires a fair amount of questioning to make sure you get it right and dont end up with a pile of losses on your hands.
A couple of things to add (sorry keeping it short as Im bombed at the mo!)
- a lot of people completely under estimate the work that bookkeepers and Accountants do and see us a necessary evil and will try to drive you down on price every single time. I had one the same the other day who was pushing me for a price, even trying to gauge what her price would be on the same sector business of the person who introduced me. What she didnt appreciate is what I did already for the existing client versus what she wanted me to do. I didnt go into detail for obvious reasons, just left it with thats my rate, have a think about it and let me know but I wont be offended if you decide Im too expensive.
- some folk only expect a tax return to be prepared and maybe thats all that woman wanted to do, without realising that she should be getting a full set of accounts at the same time. She may not need them now but guaranteed she will do at some point and then will expect someone to put together a set with no information base. (who needs those kind of clients!)
Dont undersell yourself, if you have your exams then your are qualified on paper. Take every opportunity you have now whilst its quiet to upskill and learn the more real world stuff but remember if you go in with a low price its hard to justify increases to your existing client base.
More later if I get the chance.
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
If someone asks my hourly rate int he first sentence I won't take them on as it will always be about the money!
I had a meeting with a new client a while ago and only after the lengthly meeting, it lasted an hour and a half did he finally ask my rate of pay, after I told him he said fine, when can you start. I am not at the low end of the scale either, but I have learnt my lesson that if they want to know your hourly rate at the beginning, they are not worth having. I have become very picky with any new clients, luckily I am in a good position to do this.
