How to connect with sole traders?

[geek84]

Good Morning Folks

I am thinking of starting up a bookkeeping business and want to offer my services to sole traders (sometimes called one man businesses).

Could someone be kind enough to advice me how I can connect / get in touch with sole traders?

Thanks in advance

 

[AllUpHere]

The first step will be to understand what a sole trader actually is. I'll give you a clue, it's not necessarily a one man business.

 

[Socio South West]

Your area of operation is likely to be fairly close to where you live, thus an advertising campaign locally through local press and advertisers will be the best way forward for you.

Get a couple of clients under your belt, and hopefully word of mouth around the business community will take over.

 

[Toby Willows]

Why not Ltd’s, also sometimes known as one man bands. As @AllUpHere said you need to understand business terminology. There is only one type of business setup that can’t be a one man band, think about (or research) what that is and you’ll be making a start.

The last thing you need to be doing is approaching businesses offering bookkeeping services without knowing the very basics, you’ll get no work and look a right dullard as well!!

 

[Gecko001]

Good Morning Folks

I am thinking of starting up a bookkeeping business and want to offer my services to sole traders (sometimes called one man businesses).

Could someone be kind enough to advice me how I can connect / get in touch with sole traders?

Thanks in advance

Are they sometimes called one-man businesses? The "sole" of sole trader refers to there being a sole person who is personally responsible for the financial responsibilities of the business. Many sole trader businesses have several employees. I once worked for one where there were 10 employees. In fact I would hazard a guess that most sole traders actually are not one-man or one-woman businesses.

 

[GTL]

Why limit yourself to sole traders? How about cod traders, tuna traders and trout traders?

 

[Mark T Jones]

The nature of sole traders is that they are effectively invisible as a genre, so not a great target market.

 

[Gecko001]

I do not see why sole traders are invisible. They are not registered with Companies House, but walk down any town or village street and they will be there in numbers. They run small shops, are solicitors, architects, surveyors and hair dressers. They are mechanics, market stall holders, graphic designers, engineering consultants, ebay sellers, small builders, landscapers, dog groomers and farmers etc.

 

[Mark T Jones]

I do not see why sole traders are invisible. They are not registered with Companies House, but walk down any town or village street and they will be there in numbers. They run small shops, are solicitors, architects, surveyors and hair dressers. They are mechanics, market stall holders, graphic designers, engineering consultants, ebay sellers, small builders, landscapers, dog groomers and farmers etc.

So how do you know they are sole traders?

The OP might of course mean micro businesses, which will include many of those you have mentioned.

 

[Gecko001]

So how do you know they are sole traders?

The OP might of course mean micro businesses, which will include many of those you have mentioned.

You can tell that they are not Ltd companies by checking with Companies House. They could be partnerships of course, but you could rule many of those out the name of the business (Bloggs and Bloggs for example). What are left are likely to be sole trader businesses.

Actually looking for sole traders is not a bad way of finding micro-businesses as many will be run by sole traders. It is difficult to find out the size of a business by just a name or even looking at a website.

 

[Jason Potter]

You could use targeted social media campaigns