Bookkeeping Business

BusinessGrinds

I would like to set up a bookkeeping business part time to start off as I currently work full time. I am an Accounting Technician and also have an honours degree in accountancy as well as experience in SME and multinational environments. I would plan to offer bookkeeping, payroll and cashflow projections/management accounts to SME's and Start ups using a cloud based system.

I am finding it hard to do any market research as bookkeepers do not seem to have much of an online presence in my area its mostly accountancy firms advertising bookkeeping services.

How would I go about finding out my competitors and researching the market?

pedronomix

You may think this sounds a bit odd but you will find that Accountants and Auditors may well be your best source of clients!! If they do not offer such services themselves, they will be delighted to have some of their clients offer up proper books and records. I would talk to firms in your area, you could get a nice surprise, good bookkeeping services are thin on the ground.

BusinessGrinds

Thank you for your reply pedronomix. Yes I will definitely try that approach maybe in the context of cross referral as in they refer me for bookkeeping I refer them for end of year accounts!

I do feel there must be a need for expert bookkeeping as I have gone into businesses as an employee who would have previously had part time bookkeepers that quite obviously hadn't a clue what they were doing.

Aimeee

Have you checked Facebook for bookkeeping services. Only saying this as one or two cropped up on my fb page as pages i might like. I can't recall now what i was looking at, possibly women in business or some expo/event along these lines. I was surprised as it's something you rarely see advertised but i think a need for. My mother used to do it for a few sole traders back in the day (pen&paper of course).
Good luck with the venture.

BusinessGrinds

Hi Aimee,

Yes I tried that but only one bookkeeping service in my location (city) came up on facebook that would offer the same services as me. So I don't know if this is a good thing meaning there is a market there or a bad thing meaning its not worth it that's why no one is doing it!

dbran

Hi

If you are working full time and you do not have any clients at present you are going to find this relatively difficult.

Clients do business with people who they know, like and trust. That means that you need to be available to meet them when they are available to meet you so that you can establish that you are that sort of a person. That is going to be hard if you are working 9 to 5.

Pedronomix's point is a very valid one regarding approaching other accountancy practice. However again, they would not entrust a clients affairs to someone unless they are known and trusted.

Your best way into this would be if you did bookkeeping work for someone and their accountant noticed that the books and records were surprisingly well kept that year. So if you make a messy client into a clean one for them, you will be more likely to get more work from them.

Best of luck with it.

dbran

BusinessGrinds

hi dbran,

Thanks for your input fortunately I have a very flexible position where I can do extra hours over a four day week or I can start a lot earlier and finish a lot later or start late and finish late so I should have no issues working around it.

I understand on the trust issues also and my start off clients would hopefully be small start ups who only need a few hours a month and then I would look at expanding further depending on how that goes.

JM_2009

How did this go for you if you dont mind me asking.

BusinessGrinds

I got one regular client for few hours a week from creating a Facebook page I also moved jobs so i am actually also doing some more specialised work for my old company so between the two I have enough to keep busy so I haven't had to actively look for other work for moment I didn't advertise in the local paper before this and didn't get any leads

Bay43

Hiya,

If you have some flexibility in your work hours you could try going to some local networking meetings, I'm not sure where you're based but if you live in a village or small town these are usually and excellent source of client or referral.

Try looking for your local chamber of commerce or googling networking meetings in you local area.

also completely agree with "pedronomix" my best source of client referral has come from people who are 'in theory' my competitors.

Good luck!

JM_2009

Sounds interesting.

Do you mind if I drop you a private mail, I dont want to ask any silly questions on this thread

Bay43

JM_2009 - assuming that last post was aimed at me apologies if not - but sure go ahead happy to help where I can!