Institute of Financial Accountants

tripod333

Dean , ok, I take your point, any AAT member can call themselves a Financial Accountant on a letter/email.


I am initially operating from home which I imagine may seem questionable for some potential new clients as I have no shop front of office. And I gather from books and forums that when starting out as a self-employed accountant, the first few clients are the most difficult to obtain which I assume partly because clients need reassurance that you are of a certain level of competence.


Let's say, for example, a mechanic was operating from his house and not from a garage . On his advert he has credentials that described him not as a mechanic, but maybe as a member of the association of car technicans (which would prompt me to ask what is a car technician and are they of a proven level of competence to work on my car which I drive myself and my family in around at 70mph?)

However, if his credentials actually said Mechanic in the title-as that was what I was originally seeking, then I might have more confidence in him as he is a member of a professional institute that calls themselves mechanics which is what I was looking for.

I guess that is my point, if someone is looking for an accountant but instead finds through my advertising, someone with accounting technician credentials, then they may keep looking for an accountant as they have only found an accounting technician and are uncertain what a technician does.

So to give those potential clients the confirmation that I have a qualification that is recognised by a professional institute that calls themselves accountants, it is a good investment in marketing to me to give clients that assurance they are looking for. Especially while I am seeking those first few clients!

[Deleted User]

tripod333 wrote: »

Dean , ok, I take your point, any AAT member can call themselves a Financial Accountant on a letter/email.


I am initially operating from home which I imagine may seem questionable for some potential new clients as I have no shop front of office. And I gather from books and forums that when starting out as a self-employed accountant, the first few clients are the most difficult to obtain which I assume partly because clients need reassurance that you are of a certain level of competence.


Let's say, for example, a mechanic was operating from his house and not from a garage . On his advert he has credentials that described him not as a mechanic, but maybe as a member of the association of car technicans (which would prompt me to ask what is a car technician and are they of a proven level of competence to work on my car which I drive myself and my family in around at 70mph?)

However, if his credentials actually said Mechanic in the title-as that was what I was originally seeking, then I might have more confidence in him as he is a member of a professional institute that calls themselves mechanics which is what I was looking for.

I guess that is my point, if someone is looking for an accountant but instead finds through my advertising, someone with accounting technician credentials, then they may keep looking for an accountant as they have only found an accounting technician and are uncertain what a technician does.

So to give those potential clients the confirmation that I have a qualification that is recognised by a professional institute that calls themselves accountants, it is a good investment in marketing to me to give clients that assurance they are looking for. Especially while I am seeking those first few clients!

Excellent point.

deanshepherd

It is a good point and probably one that I used to think was an issue too.

In 5 years I can can probably count on one hand the number of potential clients who asked what MAAT stood for or what an accounting technician is but then again I market myself as an accountant and not as a technician.

In the end I just didn't feel the need to join another organisation to justify my entitlement to call myself an accountant.

[Deleted User]

I think we all can agree that we want the letters after our names that make it clear to clients that we are accountants so we don't have to explain what technician means. I am sure that there are some potential clients that over look MAAT when looking for accountants when they Google what MAAT means. I just feel as if it would look better for us if they Google AFA and recognise us as accountants.

hinezee

A couple of years ago I was looking to set up a small book-keeping business and thought potential clients would not recognize the term "technician" so I wanted the term "accountant". Even though I am proud of my AAT qualification I was always nervous about how people reacted to it. I jumped in and joined the IFA as an associate.

I didn't go ahead with the business idea, but remained in industry. I used both MAAT and AFA on business letters and only MAAT got recognized occasionally. No body had ever heard of the IFA. I was a member for about 3 years and for me it was a complete waste of time and money. My advise is to stick fast to your AAT qualification and be proud of it - it is a fantastic stepping stone to what you want to achieve.

Alan