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What Can Pick and Mix Teach Us?

Only a few years ago, the thought of buying pick and mix sweets was a real mix of emotions for most of us. We’d take the paper bag in one hand and the scoop in the other. Filling the bag was a joy. Fired eggs, smarties and fudge filled the bags. All the favourites were available to choose from.

Then came the time when the feeling changed. Joy and pleasure quickly departed and was replaced with fear and pain as, for the very first time, you got some idea what this bag of goodies was likely to cost…

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Rethink Your Pricing Strategy

[MM_Member_Decision isMember='false'] Change is difficult for most of us.  We get settled in our comfort zone and don’t want to leave it.  That’s just human nature.  Sometimes this creates a fear in increasing prices.  In order to create a more profitable services we’ll look at some important strategies you can employ other than simply increasing the headline prices. This resource is only available to members. To read more, login or join now as a free member [/MM_Member_Decision]

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It's Nothing To Do With You!

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I see this all the time for bookkeepers. They want to charge 'the market rate', or what others in their area are charging.  Let's just get this out there right away.

What others charge is nothing to do with you! This resource is only available to members. To read more, login or join now as a free member [/MM_Member_Decision]

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I see this all the time for bookkeepers. They want to charge 'the market rate', or what others …

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What else can pick and mix teach us?

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A while back I wrote an article on what pick and mix could teach us about pricing. It focused on the recent move towards fixed price cups and drew a comparison to our bookkeeping services. You can read the article here.

While on a family break at the weekend I discovered another lesson from pick and mix. When I was younger it wasn’t called pick and mix. It was simply loose sweets in large jars. The shopkeeper would weigh them out and put them into a paper bag.…

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How OCR tech can drive value for bookkeepers

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology is used to convert scanned or photographed images of paper documents and PDF files, into machine-encoded data. It may not garner headlines in the same way as some of the more fashionable tech trends, yet it’s helped to drive considerable social change and innovation in business over the years. So how has it developed and what significance does it hold for organisations today?

OCR through the ages  

OCR isn’t ‘new’ technology, having being leveraged …

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The Broken Model

Bookkeepers and accountants are two of only a small number of professions still stick with the broken model of charging by the hour. Before you take offence at my comment, let me explain why I think the model is broken, and how we can learn from other sectors.

If we go back 10 years, almost every bookkeeper and accountant was charging by the hour. It was always done that way and it was easy. Pretty much everyone also used Sage. Things have changed in our profession though, and problems have st…

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7 Tips to Increase Concentration and Achieve Your Goals

For many people, it can be a challenge to focus their attention on specific tasks, particularly in today’s world of push notifications and infinite distractions. This can pose a huge problem for many people since the ability to concentrate is one of the most important skills you need to be productive.

The good news is, attention and focus are like muscles you can strengthen with enough practice. To start, here are some easy tips to increase your concentration and achieve your goals.

Set a goal for…

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Have a coffee with us

The Bookkeepers Alliance is committed to promoting a strong sense of community with bookkeepers from across the UK.  When we work together amazing things can happen and that's one of the primary reasons we exist.

One way we do this is through our regular Coffee Clubs across the UK.

What are Coffee Clubs? Sometimes, being a bookkeeper is lonely. The Bookkeepers Alliance has an active facebook group, but there's just no substitute for having a face to face chat with others who are in a similar posit…

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7 Top Tips To Save You Time Every Day

It can be hard to keep on top of everything when running a bookkeeping business. You are constantly juggling client work, marketing, invoicing, networking, responding to emails, client meetings…. the list is endless.

Running a business is even harder if you are juggling other responsibilities. You may be caring for children or elderly relatives, dealing with health issues or holding down a job until you can leave to focus solely on your business. As a business owner, your time really is precious …

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Three Successful Bookkeepers - Conference 2017

Another chance to see one of our most popular sessions from last years conference.  If you still dont have a ticket for this year, we have just a few remaining.  You can grab one at www.bkconf.co.uk

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