Starting Small Accountancy Practice: Advice Welcome!
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Smithy2067
Registered Posts: 1 New contributor 🐸
Hi All,
I'm looking for advice from small practice owners and how they started out.
I passed my AAT many moons ago and went onto pass CIMA too. Professionally, I have worked in Commercial Finance for over 20 years with roles ranging from accounting to treasury (did a brief stint in practice around 1998-2000 - yikes). I've lost count the number of times that friends or family have asked if I can do their accounts, or know someone that can, so it's given me a lot of food for thought and it's something that has really peaked my interest in recent months.
My initial thought is to give myself time (launch sometime in May 2027) and I have a plan and strategy in mind on how to approach my first 12 months.
I am not looking to quit my full time job but keep this as working in the evenings, it's a venture I'd like to start out small (5-10 clients so I can keep work-life balance) but getting back to the basics of accounting and helping small business owners is something that really excites me. Then perhaps overtime it's something I could scale, or just keep on the side as a bonus to build my pension pot.
But before I start focusing my efforts on retraining my brain to think around FRS 102 and FRS 105 and Xero/FreeAgent software training, it'd be great to learn from others who have gone through the same process. What would you do if you were starting this experience all again? Any advice would gratefully be appreciated.
I'm looking for advice from small practice owners and how they started out.
I passed my AAT many moons ago and went onto pass CIMA too. Professionally, I have worked in Commercial Finance for over 20 years with roles ranging from accounting to treasury (did a brief stint in practice around 1998-2000 - yikes). I've lost count the number of times that friends or family have asked if I can do their accounts, or know someone that can, so it's given me a lot of food for thought and it's something that has really peaked my interest in recent months.
My initial thought is to give myself time (launch sometime in May 2027) and I have a plan and strategy in mind on how to approach my first 12 months.
I am not looking to quit my full time job but keep this as working in the evenings, it's a venture I'd like to start out small (5-10 clients so I can keep work-life balance) but getting back to the basics of accounting and helping small business owners is something that really excites me. Then perhaps overtime it's something I could scale, or just keep on the side as a bonus to build my pension pot.
But before I start focusing my efforts on retraining my brain to think around FRS 102 and FRS 105 and Xero/FreeAgent software training, it'd be great to learn from others who have gone through the same process. What would you do if you were starting this experience all again? Any advice would gratefully be appreciated.
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Comments
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With your commercial finance experience, I think you already have a big advantage. The part I’d probably spend the next few months getting comfortable with is everything that comes with running a practice rather than the accounting itself.
Deciding exactly which services you want to offer, getting the right software and processes in place, engagement letters, AML procedures, and making sure all the licensing requirements are sorted before taking anyone on.
I’d also stick with your idea of starting with 5–10 clients. It gives you a chance to work out how long each client actually takes without turning every evening into another full-time job.
You can always expand later if you enjoy it. Starting deliberately small seems much easier than taking on everything that comes your way and then having to reduce the client list.1
