Becoming your own boss

samdav

I'm interested to hear from members who have become their own boss. I have been employed as an accountant by a very small business since 2020, and I have also been employed as a management accountant in a large plc for the past year.

Although my intention has always been to work in/gain experience in an accountancy practice, opportunities to do so are just never coming up, particularly because of the times I am available to work due to family commitments.

So, my intention with some careful and detailed planning, is to attempt to launch my own business around September 2023.

The first thing I really want to discuss is how people felt when they made the decision to go solo. I am quite nervous about being approached by clients and being asked things that I may not know about. I realise that as accountants we are always learning and having to keep up to date with new legislation etc, but is it professionally acceptable to take queries from clients and have to go away to do research before providing answers?

Neillaw

Nervous wasn't in it when I turned self employed, I had a small amount of clients who I was dealing with for a couple of years before hand so there was some money coming in.
I got passed onto a mentoring scheme with the JC at the local chamber of commerce who was great.
I would always recommend that you stick to the work you are good at and then broaden your work scope.
As for not knowing it's actually a good point to be able to say to a client, I'm not sure about this but I will take a look and get back to you. As long as you get back to them it's a plus.
I get questions about Inheritance tax which I don't have on my list but I work closely with a larger practice near me and pass work like this on as a referral with the hope of this being reciprocated.
Hope everything goes well.