Start Up

Starting your own practice can feel daunting.  Each new thing you oncover adds another million tasks to your to-do list.  

In this short article, I hope to answer some of the burning questions you'll have about starting your own practice.

What is a bookkeeper?

Before we get started, I think we should address this one.  What is a bookkeeper and what do they actually do?

Not so long ago we'd probably have said that a bookkeeper takes the prime records (invoices, receipts, bank statements) of a…

In this short post I've tried to gather together all of the main concerns that bookkeepers have voiced to me over the past 10 years, and some of the concerns I had before I started my practice and answer them for you.

Whether you start your practice or not will probably come down to fear.  An irrational fear.  The fear of failure.  There's only one guaranteed way to fail in your bookkeeping business and that's not to even start.  You'll avoid the feeling of failure because you'll tell yourself …

When you start a bookkeeping practice there are hundreds of things you could do.  There are many things you should do, but only 3 things you need to do.

Legally, you need to register with a supervisor under the Money Laundering Regulations, register with the Information Commissioners Office under the General Data Protection Regulations and tell HMRC that you're now self employed (if that's the route you've chosen)

Registering for supervision for Money Laundering Regulations is a fairly straigh…

There's a myth doing the rounds.  If you're a great bookkeeper you will have a great bookkeeping practice.

It's the rock that many a good bookkeeper can perish on.  Just because you're an amazing bookkeeper, doesn't mean you can have an amazing bookkeeping business. 

The reverse also holds true, just because you're not an amazing bookkeeper doesn't mean you wont have an amazing bookkeeping business. 

You do need to have the skills and confidence to complete any work that you undertake.  I'm n…