Is this viable?

Drea

PasturesNew wrote: »

If you start off charging £6/hour, you'll be knocking yourself out 50 hours/week for ungrateful clients, to turnover £15,000/year. At least if you charge £12/hour you'll have only about 1/4 of the clients but better quality clients and still have the spare time to build your business.

Seriously, thanks for that. I would have gone about that the wrong way. It's a minefield setting up on my own!

Savvy_Sue

Drea wrote: »

I'll definitely look into doing some courses on both, to be honest once I've been shown how once I'm usually able to just do things so I think a short course would do the trick... I hadn't even thought about shops, thanks for that.

You think? I'm sorry, but I don't think a short course on bookkeeping would get you THAT far unless you were working under the supervision and instruction of someone who did know what they were doing.

Also while Payroll is very straightforward on the whole, I'd expect someone I was paying for a service to be keeping a weather eye on legislation etc, and advising me when I was about to do something I shouldn't, like withhold someone's holiday pay because they walked out without notice, or get the calculations right for a redundancy / SMP, SPP, SSP etc.

Possibly my expectations are too high, but if I was running my own business and I could get what I needed on payroll and bookkeeping from a short course, I'd want anyone I was paying to do the job to know a fair bit more than me, if that makes sense.

Not saying there's not a market for you, btw. However the other thing to be aware of is that sometimes a business wants someone for something very mundane, which they just don't have time for themselves. Stuffing envelopes for a mass mailing, for example ... I'd find it easier to pass over a job like that rather than let you loose on my telephones!

Drea

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

You think? I'm sorry, but I don't think a short course on bookkeeping would get you THAT far unless you were working under the supervision and instruction of someone who did know what they were doing.

Also while Payroll is very straightforward on the whole, I'd expect someone I was paying for a service to be keeping a weather eye on legislation etc, and advising me when I was about to do something I shouldn't, like withhold someone's holiday pay because they walked out without notice, or get the calculations right for a redundancy / SMP, SPP, SSP etc.

Possibly my expectations are too high, but if I was running my own business and I could get what I needed on payroll and bookkeeping from a short course, I'd want anyone I was paying to do the job to know a fair bit more than me, if that makes sense.

Not saying there's not a market for you, btw. However the other thing to be aware of is that sometimes a business wants someone for something very mundane, which they just don't have time for themselves. Stuffing envelopes for a mass mailing, for example ... I'd find it easier to pass over a job like that rather than let you loose on my telephones!

Perhaps you're right, I've just always been the type of person who is self taught to a degree so I guess I'm using that frame of mind. Like I say, it's something I'd need to look into as at the moment it isn't something I've done.

Oh I'm more than happy to stuff envelopes, do filing, etc. I'm not proud

paddyrg

You could try working *under* a local accountant if you do bargain bookkeeping, they get the business, charge £x an hour for you, pay you £y/hr, the difference being their markup for providing a managed, supervised service, and still cheaper than the £z/hr they would charge for a qualified accountant to bookkeep? Just thinking aloud!

Horace

I know a few VAs and there is definitely a market out there for them. I outsourced some work despite my having RSA III Typing and it cost me £75. One of the VAs that I know spends sometime working in her own office but also has a few clients that require her to work in their office - she seems to do quite well from it.

Have a look on People Per Hour and you will get an idea of what VAs charge - mostly around £15 an hour minimum.

Drea

Horace wrote: »

I know a few VAs and there is definitely a market out there for them. I outsourced some work despite my having RSA III Typing and it cost me £75. One of the VAs that I know spends sometime working in her own office but also has a few clients that require her to work in their office - she seems to do quite well from it.

Have a look on People Per Hour and you will get an idea of what VAs charge - mostly around £15 an hour minimum.

Thanks I'm beginning to think this might well be a possibility!

Around here people seem to charge a bit more £25 - £30 an hour! That was why I wanted to start off lower because it seems such a huge amount to me. Someone around an hour away from me just started up doing both Admin and Errands (picking up dry cleaning, waiting at home for deliveries, etc) in January and is charging £30 an hour and it has really hit off for her.

On the plus side, I own a website and domain name just need to get working on it

Horace

Drea - go for it and if the person an hour away is charging £30 an hour then you do the same or charge £25 an hour - you can always increase your price but you can't reduce it.

Drea

This is all getting a bit exciting :rotfl:

I have had my web header designed for my website so within the next couple of days I'll work on getting that sorted out.

I might be going to Birmingham for a Virtual Assistant event, hopefully learn a few things there. And Business Biscotti (networking - has anyone ever gone to one?) is starting out in Cardiff at the beginning of May.

I'll need to get some business cards sorted, and was hoping for a few postcards/leaflets to give out but they seem to be quite expensive.

ska_lover

Hi there,
I am sorry I didnt want to post and run - you say people are paying up to £30 an hour for general admin work? I am amazed! I've been in the wrong job for years.

Good luck

jexygirl

Hi drea
go for it - and check vistaprint for a cheap start of buisness cards, after that they will send spam for freebies of all kinds left right and centre
Jex