Starting as a freelance book keeper

dlynagh1

Hi everyone!

I recently gained my 'associated book keeping membership', and I am looking for advice on starting up as a freelance book keeper.

I've been a bookkeeper for a firm for about 5 years now, and I only work Monday - Thursday, so was thinking of starting of doing freelance work on Fridays & Saturdays.

Can anybody give me some advice on the best way to get started.

- How do you find your clients?
- Average rate you charge?
- What services should I offer, e.g. what should I say I can do for them?
- Best softwares to use?

All advice will be most appreciated

TreadStone

dlynagh1 said:

How do you find your clients?

Spread the word with family/friends and social media, flyers, network groups

dlynagh1 said:

- Average rate you charge?

Will depend on your ability/experience and location. Anywhere between £15-£30hr is not unusual.

dlynagh1 said:

- What services should I offer, e.g. what should I say I can do for them?

Only you know what you can offer. Would it just be bookkeeping or can you process payroll too, for example ?

dlynagh1 said:

- Best softwares to use?

Each client may be different but you'll want to go with a cloud based software. No single product is best. You may want to trial Xero, Quickbooks Online, Capium, Sage Business Cloud, Freeagent, Kashflow are the most well known

Good luck.

dlynagh1

Thanks @TreadStone !

I use sage 50 accounts in the role im in now, and i also run sage 50 payroll. But not sure how expensive it would be for me to buy sage payroll for my own practice. Will have a look at a few options!

TreadStone

Well if you're familiar with Sage 50 you may want to look at the Business Cloud (formerly Sage One) as it's the logical choice.

It also has a migration tool from Sage 50.