Introducing Habacus

[Rachel Habacus]

Good afternoon,

Please let me introduce myself, My name is Rachel, I am 26 years old and I have been a Bookkeeper and Accounts Administrator for ten years.

I recently set up Habacus, I am in my third week of trading and am very interested in making new contacts.

Kind regards,

Rachel Watkins

rachel@habacus.com
020 8401 6725
www.habacus.com

[kyber]

Welcome to the forum Rachel and best of luck with your business. I note you say you recently set up Habacus but your site says you were previously BooksMonkey (interesting name). Why the change?

Speaking of your web site, why is the text mostly images? As well as slowing the site down, leaving out anyone with limited or no sight (without good reasons and therefore potentially not legal), looking ugly you also dramatically reduce the interest from search engines such as Google which primarily focus on text and therefore reduce your customer cachement. It would take less than an hour to correct this (using decent text formating). Not sure the entry page is useful either.

Always good demand for accounting/book-keeping so you should have a decent Christmas.

Stuart

[Alpha]

Hi Rachael and welcome to the forums.

Having looked at your website I must admit that the site could do with a complete overall both technically as Stuart sugests and and also in the presentation which does not give a particularly good impression.

There is always a need for good book keepers as bad ones generally cost the client more in the long run with accountants having to correct the records.

Should you require any help or information I would be glad to help

[Rachel Habacus]

Hi,

I have just got back to this forum by accident. It's great that you replied with comments of assistance!!

I knew that my site required further development and sat down with dreamweaver and created several different edits until I settled on my current one in December. It's now a few months down the lines, I have just had my logo specially designed for me http://www.habacus.com/newlogo.html , so I am going to have to sit down to write another one.

Booksmonkey was my trading name as a freelancer. I didn't really ever look to take on new clients prior to creating Habacus in Octover '04 and Booksmonkey was just a fun name to put on invoices whilst I was working for friends or friends of friends. So the name change was to represent going 'straight' getting together a business plan and a loan and to officially start trading. It's been great fun so far and have managed to get on board with several very interesting and lovely clients.

It's true - Bookkeeping is a very sketchy product. Fortunately not only have I been working as a sole charge bookkeeper since I was 17 but have been also sole charge of business administration structures since I was 19. I always work with several accountants. Further I have common sense and I don't mind asking when I don't know the the correct way to do something. Through out my experience I have found that I am respected for the work I do.

I also thoroughly enjoy my work - especially when the companies I currently work with are full of life and exciting.


Thanks again for posting,

Rachel

[mdarwish01]

Hi

I am interested, how could you become an accountant at the age of 16. Surely you need some qualifications more than GCSE level.

If not please forgive my ignorance.

[Rachel Habacus]

Not really - I got lucky and have always worked with small companies who depend on my work to be accurate. It started for me knowing that I was in a very small office with only the guy who was running/barely owning the company and the occasional sub-contractor. I was there to answer the phones and knew I could do more as it was only me and him.

I picked everything up so quickly that I took up payroll for myself, CIS for the contractors, invoicing (and even the debt collecting), pay runs and the accounts to year end. Sometimes I wish I was good at something else...like music but no, I'm good at administration!!

So, between 1997 and 2001, I changed my job quite often to learn more and soon I was working for a record label that was downsizing to only the bookkeeper/administrator and did I want to be it? Sure, and before I could say piano practice, I was working for three other music companies - as their bookkeeper as well. And that really was the start of it.

Have you got any current accounting experience???

So the answer is no. I have never found it difficult to find an accounting job especially in the music industry without anything more than GCSE's, although I did pass my Maths - that's quite important.

Companies are crying out for young dedicated bookkeepers/accounts staff and will even train if you are the right person. Good luck if you are thinking about doing it!!

Rachel

[mdarwish01]

Thanks very much, its good to keep my options open

[Alpha]

Just a point to note.....


Rachael did not say she was an ACCOUNTANT, she provides accounts office services which on their own are very important to companies as good accurate book keeping keeps accountants costs down and helps to run the business.

People with this kind of experience are who companies should use to maintain their records not people who just start up with very little knowledge.

I have in the past had to undo damage by these type of people who claim vat on everything because they are vat registered etc .

If you should consider ever going into this field get experience first!

[mdarwish01]

ok thanks for that