Help! Self Employment after AAT.

MrGofOxford

Hi, I posted this on the students forum & then realised it would make far better sense if I posted here, after all, you've been where I'm hoping to be in June!

Hi I best introduce myself first because I'm new on here, I'm Michael, pleased to meet ya!

Anyway, I'm thinking very serously about having a short break from studies once I complete my technician studies in June, I'd like to become a self-employed bookkeeper. I've gone thru the various forums & found a lot of answers which don't really answer my questions.

I'd like to know how much it would cost to set up (obviously a vague estimate) & how daunting the task would actualy be when I take on my first clients. I already have 3, possible 4 clients lined up. (small building/plumbing & electrician businesses)

Where can I get EASILY DIGESTABLE help & info about where to start? Are there a lot of forms & government legislations? I've been researching all week & the best I got was a 110 page PDF booklet of which I got thru 3 painful pages.

I've got everything into place, a website & a small client base, a printing company for stationary & business cards. One last question, do I really need a Sage(or similar) accounting package or should I just start with manual pencil & paper "old-school" bookkeeping?!

Please help by answering at least one of my questions & I will be forever grateful!!!!

MrGofOxford

Thanks a lot for all of your great help(!)

No wonder nobody uses these forums anymore! 36 views & not one response! If anyone could give me any help at all then I'd be grateful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jackie

Dear Michael,

I am doing exactly the same as you! I became a full member in September and my application for MIP should be through within the next few days. I recommend that you go to the members page and look at MIP - there is lots of useful information there.

With regards to cost,I have paid all registrations ,Money Laundering fee (the cost of which are all on the members page) and PI insurance ( quote available from Trafalger Risk website).

I am looking into purchasing Sage 50 (£575 for the first year then £275 pa approx. after that). I already have a computer and office furniture etc, oh and an office at home so apart from stationary and bits and pieces I am almost set up.:thumbup:

Regards,

Jackie

PS Be patient for responses- many, like myself, only log on at certain times of the day:001_smile:

deanshepherd

MrGofOxford wrote: »

Thanks a lot for all of your great help(!)

No wonder nobody uses these forums anymore! 36 views & not one response! If anyone could give me any help at all then I'd be grateful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's some advice:

i) Don't post at 2pm one day and then throw your toys out of the pram half a day later (before 9am) when you havn't had a response.

ii) Many of the questions you are asking are things you would ordinarily pick up along the way with experience. You should perhaps ask yourself whether you have yet accumulated sufficient experience to be offering your services as a professional to the general public. Perhaps you have, I am not making a judgement here.

iii) Attend this course, or one similar. You may find it useful.

jackieshep

I would like to say that some of us use this site as distance learners and look at some of the posts for interest, knowing that we don't have the answer. So not all 36 views would be able to help anyway.

You're also more likely to get an answer from a short description, rather than asking for loads of information which would take one person a long time to go through.

It's worthing thanking people when they do answer you, I have found most people have been very helpful on all the forums, and we would be lost without it.

Jackie

Good luck with your choices, but expressing bad feeling on these forums won't help you.

Sevren

There have been similar posts like this recently and I dare say that I posted a similar one a couple of years ago when I first started venturing out of industry and into practice and these forums have been a fantastic support.

But I have to say that I am very glad that I took it one stage at a time and gradually built things up as my experience increased and my ability to understand what customers wanted from the service.

I appreciate that I was lucky to be able to do this (I used the child care card to keep reducing my hours :001_smile:) but I would not want to hit being an MIP cold with just AAT to rely on (it's a good qualification - but not enough to stand on your own two feet with)

Basically, my understanding is anyway, is that you are trading on confidence - ie people are paying you because they have confidence in what you know and what you can do - if there was any thing easily digestible about any of this then we would all be out of a job.

My early forays included incurring a customer a £1K VAT surcharge because I was following text books and not experience. Luckily I was able to successfully appeal against this but dont ignore the fact that life can get a bit tricky when you have nobody to refer to and you are relient on a flimsy MIP certificate.

My advice then, would be to hold fire with the website and the stationery and take on the 3 or 4 jobs you have in the pipeline if you are comfortable with CIS etc and try and find other employment which will give you the experience you need until you are comfortable at answering your own questions

You will find that if you are really up for it then your experince grows at a rapid rate and you can take on more and more.

It's blunt but I assure you good advice.

MrGofOxford

Thanks a lot Sevren, that's some very helpful advice, I'm interested in what others will have to say but I did expect that it would be very difficult to go directly from AAT to controlling every aspect of someone's bookkeeping. The fines for small errors was something that really concerned me.

You say "other employment" providing experience, I would also be very interested to hear from anyone who works for an accountant, I have given this a lot of thought but don't like the idea of doing all of the crap jobs & not having a say in anything! I guess it will still be the best route though to work for someone with all the know-how & learn from them for a couple of years. Like you said I can always carry on with the 4 small clients I already have.

Thanks a lot anyway, you've shed a lot of light on the subject & I'm very keen to hear from anyone else who may help me.

Diannew

MrGofOxford wrote: »

Thanks a lot Sevren, that's some very helpful advice, I'm interested in what others will have to say but I did expect that it would be very difficult to go directly from AAT to controlling every aspect of someone's bookkeeping. The fines for small errors was something that really concerned me.

You say "other employment" providing experience, I would also be very interested to hear from anyone who works for an accountant, I have given this a lot of thought but don't like the idea of doing all of the crap jobs & not having a say in anything! I guess it will still be the best route though to work for someone with all the know-how & learn from them for a couple of years. Like you said I can always carry on with the 4 small clients I already have.

Thanks a lot anyway, you've shed a lot of light on the subject & I'm very keen to hear from anyone else who may help me.

I worked for an Accountant Firm for two years on a self employed basis, mainly doing bookeeping up to TB. I did work in the office so I also learnt how do so much more with the guidence of the Qualified Chartered Accountant. Gaining a lot of experience in VAT, TAX and Limited Companies, the time spent there was a great help for my present position.:thumbup1:

My ideas etc were taken into account but the best part of this was that I had the back up of the Qualified Accountant.

It is a big step to go alone , unless you have the experience and knowledge to deal with the things that do not go to plan, remember you are dealing with large bodies eg HM Revenue & customs over quiet complex issues such as Tax, and you really need to be confident to approach these matters. I know this as I ran my own business(not accountancy related) for over 10 years and had to deal with these bodies.

Good Luck in whatever you decide to do.

:thumbup1:

MrGofOxford

Thanks Diane, I'd be interested to know what kind of wage I could expect working for a chartered accountant? Any idea of an average? Also, when I check for jobs most accountants in my area are only looking for people for 25-30 hrs per week mostly.

I think I've almost made my mind up now that I will take a dip in the shallow end before I go straight in at the deep end! Thanks again for the advice!

Diannew

MrGofOxford wrote: »

Thanks Diane, I'd be interested to know what kind of wage I could expect working for a chartered accountant? Any idea of an average? Also, when I check for jobs most accountants in my area are only looking for people for 25-30 hrs per week mostly.

I think I've almost made my mind up now that I will take a dip in the shallow end before I go straight in at the deep end! Thanks again for the advice!

Just being a bookkeeper completing work upto TB you would be looking at about £10.00 per hour, but that was self employed and two years ago and I did not have AAT. As you said you could keep your clients that you have to suppliment your income untill you gain more experience and increase your clients.

Raging Pineapples

Just a thought too - don't be too worried about any lack of autonomy whilst working under a chartered accountant. They're not perfect, and if you've got common sense, you can often still be a valuable asset.

I worked under an accountant in my last job, and every now and then I would listen to him talking about various suggestions and find myself tactfully saying "Just a thought, but might it be an option to do... (thus and so)" and on more than one occasion he would look thoughtful and say "...oh yeah! Well done that man!"

Lol. They're under a lot of stress most of the time, so never underestimate your advantage as a trained professional who's not in the direct line of fire. You get a cool-headedness that can be invaluable.

Poodle

Hi Michael

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1073858805&furlname=startingup&furlparam=startingup&ref=http%3A//www.hmrc.gov.uk/startingup/index.htm&domain=www.businesslink.gov.uk

If you are starting your own business from scratch you may find this website of use. I know that some of the content would be pretty basic to an AAT member but you may find some areas of use.

You should also register as an agent with HMRC and I think that you still contact your local tax office for that, or you may be able to do this through HMRC.gov.uk now and that website is an invaluable source of information, but don't use their search engine, it is too slow, use Google.

I allowed £10K when I set up four years ago but I did not actually spend all of that, nearly, but not quite. I was lucky as I had a partners income to fall back on and to pay the bills. I also work from home. Computer equipment and software are expensive and office furniture can be as well, also working from home I seriously under estimated storage requirements for client files:blushing:

I started with a pen, pencil and excel and you will still have to resort to these even if you go the whole hog and buy an accounts package.

I purchased Sage because I thought the end reporting results looked really good (but there are many others on the market and if you look through the forum threads you will see various comments), also submitting tax returns online is much quicker than using the HMR&C software. And when you are self employed time = money!!

How you go about your venture is really up to you, you might like to play it safe and gain experience shadowing others or like me jump in at the deep end and be prepared for a very steep learnin curve:001_smile:

All of the MIP's on this forum can tell you their own stories but at the end of the day becoming self employed is all about risk and the level at which you are prepared to pitch that risk at, is up to you.

Good luck.

Poodle