What do you think of my new business idea - all feedback welcome

Savvy_Sue

dharm999 wrote: »

Thanks again to all of you who have responded. It looks as if we will go for it. Next question is how to market our service? We are looking at joining the local chamber of commerce, as well as sending a mailshot to local smallish accountancy firms, who may have clients that need our service. Any other ideas?

Another area where people may lack the expertise you can offer are small charities and voluntary groups, so contacting your local Voluntary Services Council might be worthwhile.

these things can just grow, like Topsy, and the Excel spreadsheet which did so well for the first year is no longer fit for purpose ... but the person entering the numbers into it has absolutely no idea where to go next!

GiveItBack

The way I see it, you have a range of services to offer. You need to work out what the alternatives to these services is, why you're better than them (or if you aren't, and be critical here, then maybe don't offewr that particular service), then you need to decide who your potential clients are. ONce you have that, you can find where they are.

Not all Chambers of Commerce are equal. My local one may not suit you, others would. The same applies for other organisations.

Once you've figured out who your customers are, think about who their other suppliers are, that way you may be able to work together, to pass on business and so on.

Would love to know where in the world you are....

flossy_splodge

dharm999 wrote: »

Thank you to all that have replied. We are surprised by the positive response, and encouraged to give it a go.

Flossy_splodge - in my experience, book keepers are good at the day to day accounting, but not so good at the translation of that data into meaningful management information. Some are good at that but the majority aren't. In terms of a usp, I guess it comes down to offering a value for money service that, we believe, isnt widely available at the moment. We would be more expensive than a book keeper but we would, hopefully, be able to provide more value for that extra cost.
Fair enough!
Chickmug - as you say being small will allow us to offer a much more personal service than the larger companies are able to. The idea would be to help them grow, and as they grow, the service they need from us would also grow. Of course there will come a point where they are big enough to have someone full time, and at that point in time the service we would offer would become far less hands on. I see us still helping but in an advisory capacity, e.g. looking over proposals if they want a second opinion, maybe even sitting in on their management/board meetings to challenge the business - I guess acting as a non executive director, of sorts.

GoToGal - you could be our first client! If you are Ok with it, may I PM you, to understand exactly what kind of services it is you need?

Thanks again to all of you who have responded. It looks as if we will go for it. Next question is how to market our service? We are looking at joining the local chamber of commerce, as well as sending a mailshot to local smallish accountancy firms, who may have clients that need our service. Any other ideas?

Definitely, definitely the Small Business association which seems to flourish everywhere.
My brother joined this, went oin to chair it for a while and his business is extremely sound and successful.
The contacts he made there were first class.
i think it is correctly titled 'The federation of Small businesses' and here's the link:
http://www.fsb.org.uk/default.aspx?loc=general&id=0
Enjoy.:T

Mike_by_the_Sea

dharm999 wrote: »

We, myself and OH, are both qualified accountants, with nearly 40 yrs experience between us. We are looking at setting up a day to day accounting and management accounting service for companies of a certain size- those too small to be able to afford to employ someone full time, but too large so they need to produce accounts regulalrly (to manage the business, for the bank, etc..). We were thinking that in the current economic climate companies may be looking to cut back on thier costs, but also in need of quality financial information to enable them to manage their business better. We would do the day to day accounting, and produce management accounts each month, or less frequently but as required. These would include the key financial reports; profit & loss, cash flow, balance sheet, and also any other reports the client needs, e.g. product profitability.

Any thoughts on this idea are welcome.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Hi dharm999

It sounds like a very exciting opportunity (from a fellow accountant)- some people just don't understand how exciting accounting can be.

my 2p's would be:

Do a lot of networking with local businesses and find out what they need and tailor your usp to meet them

Offer something of real value up front - free overview of the business finances etc.

Possibly offer free software if appropriate

As per SavvySue - contact your local voluntary services

Contact businesslink for support and advice (and contacts)

In my experience, word of mouth and recommendation are the most powerful assets you can have

Be flexible ( 9 to 5 is so last millenium).

Enjoy yourselves.

Good luck

Mike

dharm999

Firstly a big thank you to all that have replied, your support and encouragement, as well as ideas, are extremely welcome.

Ballymackeonan - which one did you find more useful, chamber of commerce, or business link? Did you get involved with Prince's Trust, if so how do you get involved? What services did you offer to start with and how have hey developed over time?

Inmypocketnottheirs - thanks for the link. I'm not sure thats the market we are aiming for, but its another idea to think about.

Savvy sue - that's an interesting idea about local voluntary groups and charities. Something to explore.

Giveitback - thanks for that. We hadnt thought of it in that way, but the linking up to someone else is a very good idea. We know someone, who is an IFA, and linking up with him could be very producitve. We are up in Lincolnshire, so dont know if that is of any use to you, if so, PM me.

Flossy splodge - does your brother offer a similar service? What did he find that was giood/not so good about FSB?

Mike by the sea - we'd be interested to know what service you offered to start with and how that has developed over time. Did you join any local organisations (chamber of commerce, fsb, business link, etc..), if so were any more useful than the others?

Thanks for your time.

paulwf

dharm999 - Business Link run free courses and are available in most areas. They do an introductory module where loads of people generally attend then three more in depth modules usually with fewer people. All are 3 hours long. It is worth going on them as everyone else will be looking to start up a business and you can bet most of them will be looking for an accountant Make sure you give everyone there a business card, the trainers shouldn't mind you networking at the events.

If possible get your OH to attend different dates so you can double the networking potential...not sure if they allow that but give it a try

paulwf

dharm999 - in your original post you list lots of features but not really any benefits. I know that is because you aren't trying to "sell" your services here but do bear it in mind when you are pitching for business, it will make a huge difference to how your service comes across.

For example a feature you mention is a cash flow report, but what is the actual benefit of that to a client? If it is so they can avoid bank charges by being overdrawn or so they don't get a nasty surprise when the VAT bill comes tell them this.

I'm not an expert in this area but perhaps consider getting clients to email sales figures over at the end of every day. You could then use templates (probably excel or maybe something custom) to input this info and update their key reports daily/weekly/monthly/as required.

Try and make the service an overall package and add value where you can. Can you track company turnover against how the high st is doing as a whole? Can you send a weekly email with everything the client needs to know such as the next date the rent is due, the next payroll date, VAT payment etc?

Where can you save the client money? I'm sure their year end accountancy returns will be less if you have done all the groundwork for them.

Mike_by_the_Sea

dharm999 wrote: »

Mike by the sea - we'd be interested to know what service you offered to start with and how that has developed over time. Did you join any local organisations (chamber of commerce, fsb, business link, etc..), if so were any more useful than the others?

Thanks for your time.

Hi dharm999

My initial offerings were help and support to local charities with their financial wellbeing. I would offer my time to look through their figures and really just do a brief summary of where they were and some risk analysis.

With regard to businesses, I looked for local networking opportunities such as the chamber of commerce, trading standards, local business clubs such as FSB and BNI etc. I also attended local business "fairs" and got actively involved with the ones that I felt comfortable with. I also got involved with Business Link and offered my services to them for training purposes etc.

Initially, I wasn't looking to join any specific organisations. I was more interested in understanding what was happening locally and what levels of activity and support were available. This gave me an opportunity to do a gap analysis of the local area, scope the market and, most of all, fine tune my offering.

In terms of usefulness, my local chamber covered a broad spectrum of business activity and I also found that the work being done by Trading Standards was very interesting. We have a local "approved" trader scheme which is well worth looking into.

The best source of business has always been via referral and word-of-mouth for me.

All the best

Mike

Ballymackeonan

Dharm999 - I'm in N Ireland so didn't have Business Link, we have local Enterprise Centres, but I got involved with my local one by attending Women into Business seminars. That gave me an opportunity to do training for them - finance seminars, and later IT/web marketing training. Plus I was improving my profile, I've got a number of good clients from those seminars, admittedly originally as small, start-up businesses at the beginning, but some of them have devekoped very nicely and the relationship has continued.

I'd agree about the variability of Chambers of Commerce, the Belfast one is pretty good, for instance, small town ones would not offer the same networks.

This is a pretty small area, people in business support tend to know, or know of, each other. I knew some people in my regional Princes Trust, you may well do the same. I'm also in the Institute of Business Consultants, again good for networking. It's not just to promote yourself, but to offer added value to your cllents - by knowing someone who can supply a service which you can't!

The other area I've developed is project-managing for businesses which are either computerising their accounting for the first time, or changing systems...