Typical day ?

John

As a MIP could you tell me what a typical days work involves in the earlier days ? Do smaller companies and self employed actually want to see TB's, or is most of the work doing their accounts at the yr end, self assessments and VAT returns ? .... also do you enjoy it ?

T.C.

In my experience, self-employed persons do not want to see TBs. They have their own jobs and rely on us to do ours without complicating things for them. And yes, I enjoy my job.

Monsoon

99% of clients don't know what a TB is.
Most of them just want to know what their tax bill is.
Too few of them want to know what their profit was.
Even less want management accounts, and never really know how their business is doing day-to-day.

Typical day - dealing with HMRC paperwork, some accounts prep and tax work, lots of drinking tea. I could spend all day administrating the business now its really growing, and have to remind myself to actually do some fee-earning work!

I love my job. Or rather, I love running my own business. There is a difference.

John

Very useful and thanks for the reply - how long did it take to get enough business to make a reasonable full time living ?

Monsoon

Difficult to say.
Realistically I still don't make a lot of money :laugh:
Also I merged my practice with someone very similar not too long ago and he is excellent at bringing new business in. so our turnover is growing very quickly now compared to when I was on my own.
I started off being a bookkeeper and phased into being an accountant as my experience grew.

Hmm... *thinks*
My first full time self employed tax year was 04/05.
My first painful tax bill (read: half decent income) was for 06/07.
So 2 years really to get really going.

T.C.

Different for me because I only do this part-time. I have another self-employed job too. It took me about 4 or 5 years to get the right balance of clients I suppose.