Blog
The Pain of Paying
This concept tells us something that many of us instinctively know. People feel pain when they spend money. This is because we tend to be loss averse.
We can manipulate how great we feel this pain by changing how and when we make payment. If we pay by credit card the pain is less than if we pay by cash. The reason for thi…
Why Go Digital? HMRC’s Reasons for Making Tax Digital
When is an expense not an expense?
The big difference between an expense and a disbursement is how it’s treated for VAT. A disbursement is a payment you make to a third party supplier on your clients behalf. It’s outwith the scope of VAT. This means you neither charge, nor reclaim VAT on it.
The simple reason behind this is that you’re not the customer. It’s your client who buys and receives the goods or services, you are only ac…
Develop an effective employment engagement strategy
Finance and accountancy professionals are now among the most in-demand across sectors, in part due to economic uncertainty following recent political events. These employees have …
7 Ways Hiring a Virtual Assistant Can Help a Busy Bookkeeper
Time is our most valuable commodity (even though we should charge using it!) and as a self employed bookkeeper, you’ll know that there never seems to be enough of it. Being self-employed means you have to wear all of the hats; you’re in charge of customer service, you’re an administrator, a marketer, and so much more. It’s very easy to feel overwhelmed.
An endless amount of administration, emails to answer, and seemingly mundane tasks can leave you feeling like you’ve got a mountain to climb, ye…
Clocks Go Back For HMRC
Experts say the problems have been caused with the new tax free allowances for Dividends and savings and how these interact with the zero rate savings band.
This has become such a big issue that HMRC has updated it's list of those who can file paper returns…
At a crossroads: Choosing technology or outsourcing for your practice
Technology is transforming the way that accounting firms do business. The emergence of cloud-based computing, the growth of mobile, and advances in intelligent data management mean that accounting firms have a new set of tools available that can automate and streamline tasks. Industry leaders expect the shift to mobile and cloud-based accounting to not only continue, but to accelerate, and for good reason. The results are in and technology has come up trumps. More than ever, it is essential that…
Increase Your Prices
Every bookkeeper knows that from time to time we must increase our prices. So why does this simple but essential task fill us with fear? When I started my bookkeeping practice so terrified was I to increase my prices that I never did it for the first few years. What if all my clients abandoned me at once? What if I wasn't worth the increased price? Looking back on it these fears were irrational but felt so real at the time. By not regularly increasing my prices I was setting myself up for h…
My area is really price sensitive
Quite often, when I talk about pricing, bookkeepers tell me “my area is quite price sensitive. I can't charge that much.”
In the last few years I've heard this about Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cornwall, Wales, Scotland, Midlands and almost every other part of the UK. I'm never really sure where this idea comes from, but it's demonstrably untrue. Clients are not price sensitive, they're value sensitive.
If we look at the reality of this comment we can see how untrue it is. Go to any part of th…
Selling is a Rollercoaster
Sometimes the best inspiration comes from somewhere totally different from our profession. By looking at what other sectors do well, we can take their ideas and adapt them to suit our business.
One of the businesses I've been noticing recently that can teach us a lot about pricing is Merlin. Their pricing strategies are amazing and employ every trick in the book.
If you've not heard of Merlin, they are the people who own the attractions like Alton Towers, Thorpe Park and the London Eye.
Want …