Setting up bookkeeping business - any advise welcome

[Slac000]

Hi all,

I'm in a bookkeeping for at about 10 years, last three years I'm working mainly with accounting practices.
I love my job, I'm good with that, but having own practice is much more than only bookkeeping. It will require a lot of new skills from me - marketing (which I'm very bad at), admin, strategy and planning, communication, IT and etc. Market is highly competitive and economy is moving towards recession - feels like not the best time for startups....
Any tips, advises, recommendations, short mentoring from those who already been trough that would be highly appreciated.

Thanks
Saul

 

[Scalloway]

Some practical steps you need to take

• Get a licence to practice from your professional body
• If your body does not offer it get registered with HMRC for money laundering (AML)
• Get Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII)

Are you going to do the work in your own office with your own software or will you be going to client premises?

 

[Mark T Jones]

In a nutshell, you need to find a niche - ideally one that is recession resilient- and if possible, one with its own complexities

Way back when I went to breakfast networking events there was always a bookkeeper there - most were scratching around for clients without really defining themselves.

Meanwhile, a friend from a farming background set up as a specialist in farm bookkeeping and was overrun with work

 

[fisicx]

@Slac000 - if marketing isn’t your forte have you factored in the cost of getting help? This could easily set you back £1000/month until you have sufficient clients.

You then need to look at the costs of the accounting software. Depending on which you use it could add another large wodge to your budget.

 

[Slac000]

• Get a licence to practice from your professional body
• If your body does not offer it get registered with HMRC for money laundering (AML)
• Get Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII)

Yes, these are essentials, thank you.

Are you going to do the work in your own office with your own software or will you be going to client premises?

My aim is to be purely online based but I would consider renting out office if see benefits of that.

Thank you.

 

[Slac000]

if marketing isn’t your forte have you factored in the cost of getting help? This could easily set you back £1000/month until you have sufficient clients.

This is where I'll focus the most. £1000/month is a lot, I would even say it is a great indicator of fishing in a wrong place or with wrong tools, but I don't expect it will happen for free.

You then need to look at the costs of the accounting software. Depending on which you use it could add another large wodge to your budget.

That one is easy. I've spent enough time to explore UK software marked and to, my suprise, discovered quite a few free tools to produce accounts, do some basic reporting. Of course, this is not what would I rely on when things get massive, but even with that UK software market is quite generous (£5-15 for VAT return, CT600 from £100 etc.).

 

[fisicx]

£1000/month is at the low end for a new business in a competitive market. Especially as you are asking many to switch from their existing accountant to a complete unknown.

Consider that PPC could cost you £5+ per click. Insurance for example can pay £50+ per click.

And an agency will want their cut to manage your account.

If you want to be totally online you will need software that lets people login to their accounts. Quick books if free for you but your clients need to pay. A cost you may have to absorb (but they can get big discounts).

 

[Fagin2021]

Hi all,

I'm in a bookkeeping for at about 10 years, last three years I'm working mainly with accounting practices.
I love my job, I'm good with that, but having own practice is much more than only bookkeeping. It will require a lot of new skills from me - marketing (which I'm very bad at), admin, strategy and planning, communication, IT and etc. Market is highly competitive and economy is moving towards recession - feels like not the best time for startups....
Any tips, advises, recommendations, short mentoring from those who already been trough that would be highly appreciated.

Thanks
Saul

'Economy moving towards recession' - an excellent time to be an accountant/bookkeeper. Concentrate on saving clients money.

Assuming you go after local business you don't need to spend £1000 per month, employ or become a marketing expert. Sit down and decide what message you want to promote for your business (eg. specialisation). Get a simple website (emphasising your specialisation/geographic area). Get a business line. Get a Google Business Profile (an absolute must - spend some time on it). Get leaflets printed and distribute them to local businesses. Take out advertisements in the local trade advertising rag (the one distributed free).

None of that need cost you much. If it doesn't work then you're doing something wrong and spending more on doing more of the same wrong things won't help.

Good luck.

 

[Mark T Jones]

This is where I'll focus the most. £1000/month is a lot, I would even say it is a great indicator of fishing in a wrong place or with wrong tools, but I don't expect it will happen for free.

I'll disagree with @fisicx here. You don't need a big marketing budget. Indeed many start ups get into a mess by pouring too much money into marketing with insufficient thought and strategy.

What you do need is lot of thought and effort into

Who your ideal customer will be
Where they hang out
What you will offer
Why they will choose you over others.

This is stuff you can do whilst still employed (Possibly in your employer's time)

 

[fisicx]

Whilst you can set up a GBP, have a simple website and stay local you still need to attract new business. To do that you need to fight off all the local competition, the national chains and everyone else fighting over the same piece of pie.

I do agree with lots of resaearch and a very strong marketing plan but is there really going to be that many local businesses who don't already have a bookkeeping service or accountant?

Those that don't may well be doing it themselves and will take a lot of convincing to start paying someone else to do it for them.

This is why marketing costs can go up. It's not good just getting online and hoping, you need to be far more proactive. Even to the extend of knocking on doors, holding free advice sessions, advertising and general awareness.

So maybe not £1000/month in actual cash. But many hours of work for which you won't be paid. As an example, a bookkeeper I know spends around 3 hours a day on marketing during which time she isn't earning any money.

 

[Slac000]

'Economy moving towards recession' - an excellent time to be an accountant/bookkeeper. Concentrate on saving clients money.

Assuming you go after local business you don't need to spend £1000 per month, employ or become a marketing expert. Sit down and decide what message you want to promote for your business (eg. specialisation). Get a simple website (emphasising your specialisation/geographic area). Get a business line. Get a Google Business Profile (an absolute must - spend some time on it). Get leaflets printed and distribute them to local businesses. Take out advertisements in the local trade advertising rag (the one distributed free).

None of that need cost you much. If it doesn't work then you're doing something wrong and spending more on doing more of the same wrong things won't help.

Good luck.

Thank you, that sounds to be about very correct. 90% of my customers found my by recommendations and few very well known reputable accounting practices don't even have decent looking website. They invest in trust, not image and that pays off.

 

[IanSuth]

Thank you, that sounds to be about very correct. 90% of my customers found my by recommendations and few very well known reputable accounting practices don't even have decent looking website. They invest in trust, not image and that pays off.

If you try and market yourself to all and sundry you will get nowhere - as others have said you need a niche, whether it is "i am local i can be there to go over you figures with you", "I am an expert with extracting finance figures from xyz ERP package" or "I have x years experience doing the books of canon ball foundries" whatever it is, you need to define it and let people know, otherwise you are 1 of x thousand options for them to choose between and you could end up fighting on price which is never a long term strategy

 

[numbersrule]

Hi all,

I'm in a bookkeeping for at about 10 years, last three years I'm working mainly with accounting practices.
I love my job, I'm good with that, but having own practice is much more than only bookkeeping. It will require a lot of new skills from me - marketing (which I'm very bad at), admin, strategy and planning, communication, IT and etc. Market is highly competitive and economy is moving towards recession - feels like not the best time for startups....
Any tips, advises, recommendations, short mentoring from those who already been trough that would be highly appreciated.

Thanks
Saul

Have you considered training to be a specialist in a specific online accounting software? You can get free access to their software as part of the package. The software company would help you find Clients because they benefit when your Clients sign up to their software.
But first you need a Practice Licence of course.
As you've been bookkeeping for 10 years you must already have your own insights about which particular industry sectors you feel you have existing experience in.
It's usually the case that one's biggest fears ( eg marketing ) can turn out to be one's greatest strengths. You just need to work at it.

 

[Russ Michaels]

My wife is a bookkeeper, when she first setup her own business, she contacted all the local accountancy firms offering her services if they ever needed to outsource any of their bookkeeping or needed a hand when they were overloaded or someone was on leave. Most accountants don't like doing bookkeeping and charge way too much for it.
This worked really well for her and is where she got most of her clients. She mainly just works with 1 accountant now and they share the clients. she refers clients to them for accounting, and vise versa.

thankfully she had me to take care of everything else.... website, SEO, email, cybersecurity, GDPR compliance, DMARC, and all other IT issues.

 

[Slac000]

My wife is a bookkeeper, when she first setup her own business, she contacted all the local accountancy firms offering her services if they ever needed to outsource any of their bookkeeping or needed a hand when they were overloaded or someone was on leave. Most accountants don't like doing bookkeeping and charge way too much for it.
This worked really well for her and is where she got most of her clients. She mainly just works with 1 accountant now and they share the clients. she refers clients to them for accounting, and vise versa.

thankfully she had me to take care of everything else.... website, SEO, email, cybersecurity, GDPR compliance, DMARC, and all other IT issues.

Hi Russ,

This is very good approach and actually one of my target segments. I already do some casual bookkeeping for few small accounting practices and this works well for both sides. So yes, I'm about to offer my services to local accounting firms first. And I'll keep in mind you do website's, seo etc. I have someone who may do this for me, but I'm not very confident he can deliver what I expect.

Thank you!
S