Getting Clients

cs_1988

Hi Guys,

Currently in fully time management accountancy work. But have had 3 years experience in practice and want to get 2/3 clients to do monthly bookkeeping and payroll, i was more than confident a while back, but now have my AAT to put on the business cards!

For all the self employed people out there, can you let me know, in your opinion and experiences, whats the best way to get these clients? Do some methods work better than others?

Thanks for any help in advance,

Chris

AK002

I would approach some large practices..

My firm have 3 or 4 bookkeepers who we recomend some bookkeeping work too.

You may find it hard in gthe current climate tho..

Maybe someone can suggest better :P

ravee57

best way

hi
the best way to attract your clients is that you must have an website which contain all the information why the outsource of accounting is needed and what are the benifits of that. pl refer my website for more details pl .
http://oozeaccounting.blogspot.com/

best of luck
with kind regards
Raveendren(maat london)

noodles

Clients

I am AAT intermediate level but currently have 40 clients of my own and my main souce of income is working for small accountancy practices. You need to write to the one man accountants and ask them, I get asked to do a lot of work for them which i have to keep turning down as too busy. They would keep me in work on their own without my own clients. They are also finding it hard to find good people to do the work for them so I would write those letters if i was you or simply phone them and introduce yourself.

Nicky

cs_1988

Hi Nicky,

Where abouts are you based, i am in the cotswolds, there are very few accountancy practices within 25 miles of me!!

Thanks for your advice

Chris

deanshepherd

ravee57 wrote: »

hi
the best way to attract your clients is that you must have an website which contain all the information why the outsource of accounting is needed and what are the benifits of that. pl refer my website for more details pl .
http://oozeaccounting.blogspot.com/

best of luck
with kind regards
Raveendren(maat london)

I would also recommend getting a native english speaker to proof read your website to make sure it makes sense..

Hasan.Ahmet

Dean,
You're certainly entitled to be as discerning as you are where the quality of English (Please note the capital letter) sometimes used on this platform is concerned, but I am not too convinced that your blanket statement holds true in all cases.

Psyche

The very first sentence on this website is "Does This Information Enough To Decide Our Service?" I think Dean's criticism stands.

Psyche

Oh and not to mention, Accounting is misspelled!

Hasan.Ahmet

Hello Psyche,
"The very first sentence on this website is "Does This Information Enough To Decide Our Service?" I think Dean's criticism stands."
"Oh and not to mention, Accounting is misspelled!"

I have no doubt you're a very able communicator.
It must be my own shortcoming that I am failing to understand true meanings of your two sentences. Need I say more?

blobbyh

With respect Hasan, I think you get the true meaning. Ravee57 - a new poster cheekily advertising his services for free through this forum - has advised others looking for clients to set up their own accounting website in much the same vein as his. The fact that the fundamental word accounting is not spelt correctly is no small error but a great big one.

A website offering professional services to the UK has to look professional and the comments on this thread would be exactly the same if the site was owned by a native English speaker so I do hope you're not implying otherwise.

deanshepherd

Take a look at Ravee's website and all will be revealed.

It was not a blanket statement - it was a very specific one.

Hasan.Ahmet

Hi Robert,
I'm not at all defender of "Ravee57".
You may argue that this platform should not be available for cheeky free advertising, unfortunately it seems that it can be.
I agree with the contents of your second paragraph that it should be so.

It's not necessary to look at Ravee's website as all is revealed.
"I would also recommend getting a native english speaker" is a blanket statement depending on who you classify as being native English speaker.
With respect, more diplomatic would be choosing words like "Someone with good command of the language"
Though first to admit we're all fallible when it comes to choice of words.

Incidentally, has anyone heard anything about this new "tax reporting language" called XBRL (Whatever that may be!) that all practitioners are meant to be warned about by the HMRC.

Best Regards.

deanshepherd

You will note that I quoted Ravee's entire comment before stating that he should get his website proof-read. I was not therefore making a blanket statement to everyone. I'm sorry that subtlety escaped you.

I stand by my original comment. His website is awful.

I know, and work, with many people from other countries who have a 'good command of english' yet they will often request that their letters/work are reviewed by a 'native english speaker' before going out to clients. If you are offended by that phrase then I apologise, if you are somehow inferring that other people should be offended then I suggest you let them take up that issue themselves.

As for XBRL I suggest you start a new thread as this is already going way off topic.

Hasan.Ahmet

Hi Dean,
Just to conclude, you're repeating your blanket statement.
Meaning of it is that every "native" speaker speaks or writes more propa english! and in my time I certainly worked with many "native" speakers.
It certainly is not an issue with me.
I thought I had already started a new thread by diverting but some of us want to be more stuck.
To conclude once more, you're always right!.

Best Regards.

deanshepherd

At no point did I suggest every native speaker has a better command of english than every non-native. That said, I am pretty sure most native english speakers have a better command of english than that demonstrated on Ravee's website.

And, with respect, you did not start a new thread at all. You attempted to discuss an entirely unrelated topic on an existing thread.

cs_1988

hmm!

deanshepherd

Haha.. yeh, I feel a 'pot, kettle, black..' comment coming along!!

Back to topic..

Network, network, network..

Hasan.Ahmet

Little humour goes a long way!
Don't know who's the pot who's the kettle though.
Yee, network, network. Wonder who invented it!

Psyche

Hasan.Ahmet wrote: »

Hello Psyche,
"The very first sentence on this website is "Does This Information Enough To Decide Our Service?" I think Dean's criticism stands."
"Oh and not to mention, Accounting is misspelled!"

I have no doubt you're a very able communicator.
It must be my own shortcoming that I am failing to understand true meanings of your two sentences. Need I say more?

The true meaning is that Dean is correct, Ravee should have had someone proofread his/her site. No matter how knowledgeable someone may be about accounting, such terrible English ruins all credibility.

I am, in fact, a very able communicator. I have a journalism degree and worked at the Washington Post for three years in an editorial capacity before chucking it all and moving to London. Ravee, if you would like to swap proofreading services for help in checking over my work as I gain experience toward becoming an MIP, I would be quite amenable to this arrangement.

Hasan.Ahmet

1)_QUOTE][I would also recommend getting a native english speaker to proof read your website to make sure it makes sense..)

2- I would also recommend getting a good english speaker to proof read your website to make sure it makes sense

People can take their pick. Need I say more?

blobbyh

Hasan, you can continue to argue this all you like but the single indisputable fact is that Ravee's website is offering outsourcing services to European based English speaking people, most of whom would be able to spot the appalling spelling mistakes and thus likely to form an opinion from it.

While my Spanish is good, I cannot speak Spanish like a native Spanish speaker (:crying:) so if I was offering a service to Spain, I'd make sure all my spellings (and most of my grammar) were correct, having been checked by someone fluent in the language.

Psyche

Either of those phrases is acceptable to me. And neither of them applies to you, so you can take the chip off now. Ok? Your English is just fine, so there was no need for you to get offended.

[Deleted User]

Psyche wrote: »

Either of those phrases is acceptable to me. And neither of them applies to you, so you can take the chip off now. Ok? Your English is just fine, so there was no need for you to get offended.

Agreed.

iroslaniec@wp.pl

Hi All,
I'm myself thinking of ways getting new clients and I like the idea of getting them through accountancy practices. Worked for one of them before.

Can anyone suggest any price quide like for instance
bookkeeping services, how much you can charge them per hr?

I've just been granted MIP certificate and am really excited about doing my own work and starting my own small self-employment while still being employed on full time basis.

Would appreciate any insights...

thanks

pet3rc

In Poland for bookkeeping services they charge by number of invoice you have in a month.