Starting out part time on small scale - The Book-keepers Forum (UK)

Phuket99 · Member

Starting out part time on small scale

Peasie · Expert

Phuket99 wrote:
Hi All
I am quite new to this forum and posted an introduction and questions about starting out in the intros section. Basically due to ill health I am considering retraining as a bookkeeper so I can work part time from home to earn a small income.
I now have a few more questions which I hope someone may be able to answer about starting up in private practice.
- If I want to start a private practice on a small scale, doing around 10 hours paid work a week, spread out over the week, is there any kind of work which would lend itself more easily to this?
- I need to start out simple and try and avoid anything which is going to be too complicated or stressful, is there any kind of work which I would be better avoiding (ltd co, self assessment?)
- How many hours might it typically take to keep the books of a sole trader (eg mobile hairdresser) on an ongoing basis?
- Apart from this forum where else can I get advice on setting up in bookkeeping, ICB told me I could only get help once registered with as a student member?

Thanks!
Phuket

You can still go on the forum and ask for advice there without being a student (I'm fairly certain).

For working weeks - until you are established things won't be regular. It is unlikely you will have work to start with every week as a lot of people will hand in their paperwork every month, every quarter. Some even want to get away with handing in a years worth in the middle of January and expect a tax return done before the end of the month.

lainy · Veteran Member

Hi Phuket

Very best of luck in your new career. Please don't take this the wrong way but I think by saying that you want a stress free and not too complicated bookkeeping career is using the wrong wording. i know what you mean but I dont think that implying that bookkeeping is stress free will help your career. Anything worth doing is stressful, its the stress that makes it worthwhile. A client wants to know that you are reliable, etc and not just after an easy life. That aside i think you need to decide exactly what you want and who to target. Do you want to do mainly online, over the internet and never meet the clients or do you want just say a couple of clients who you see often. Do you want local businesses who are VAT registered or do you want smaller clients. Are you going to do payroll and self assessment. Decide what you want and what hours you want to do. Maybe even ask some of the training providers for advice. After all they want your trade so should offer some advice. You need to qualify first anyway, but when once you have your practice licence just start small. You will be fine very best of luck. Be honest tell people you only want a few hours but don't imply you want easy. Every customer likes to think they are special so pick your target become an expert and hopefully it will be stress free.

very best wishes

Lainy xxx

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Phuket99 wrote:
Hi All
I am quite new to this forum and posted an introduction and questions about starting out in the intros section. Basically due to ill health I am considering retraining as a bookkeeper so I can work part time from home to earn a small income.
I now have a few more questions which I hope someone may be able to answer about starting up in private practice.
- If I want to start a private practice on a small scale, doing around 10 hours paid work a week, spread out over the week, is there any kind of work which would lend itself more easily to this?
There probably are but being used to clients wanting everything yesterday I'll leave that to others to fill out.
- I need to start out simple and try and avoid anything which is going to be too complicated or stressful, is there any kind of work which I would be better avoiding (ltd co, self assessment?)
No work is stressful if you enjoy it. I think that you will find that the bulk of the succesful contributors on here may complain a little but actually love what they do. I know I do.
The more study that you put in up front the more confident that you will be and confidence in what you are doing equates to enjoying it.
If its only about the money you will never enjoy the work and in turn never make any money.
- How many hours might it typically take to keep the books of a sole trader (eg mobile hairdresser) on an ongoing basis?
The more that you do it the faster you get.
Each client is different and no two of the same type will have the same number of transactions.
decide how often you want to process the client. Weekly, monthly, quarterly. As a yardstick I've got a therapist that handles several clients a day. Over a quarter she will turn over 250-300 invoices which takes me about 2 hours to process and another couple for expenses and reconcilliation.
If you want to take longer to do the same work you can but remember your prices need to reflect the work done rather than the speed tha you did it at.
What I'm saying there is that if you want to spend three hours over a task that should take an hour you can but don't expect to charge for three hours work... Or at least not for very long.
- Apart from this forum where else can I get advice on setting up in bookkeeping, ICB told me I could only get help once registered with as a student member?
What, you don't love us enough to be faithful... I'm hurt. lol.
You could try UK business forums. (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/)
Don't go to accountingweb. They would eat you alive and spit out the peices. Thats a site where you only ask questions from a position of almost knowing the answer before you ask it.
Thanks!
Phuket

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Peasie wrote:
Some even want to get away with handing in a years worth in the middle of January and expect a tax return done before the end of the month.

Had one... Also had missing paperwork, lost gateway, plus other problems.

Still managed to pull everything together and file on time biggrin (actually, I even surprised myself on that one).

Really makes it worth while getting out of bed in a morning when you bring it all together and lift a client out of despondency.

KBS · Veteran Member

I started up recently but qualified with IAB in 2009. Did a bit of bookkeeping for my employers but didn't get as involved as I do now. I will say experience is everything. I have taken on a few small clients and I am happy with that at the moment. It gives me time to get the experience necessary to start taking on more clients. I am fortunate enough to have the time and savings to use the next 3 years until my kids are both in school to build my confidence, experience and reputation.

This forum is fabulous for advice and I have learnt (is that even a word??) a great deal from reading through recent and older posts.

Phuket99 · Member

Thank you all for your replies. All this helps me to build an informed opinion of whether bookeeping is the right career for me.