Considering starting a book-keeping business

[Subbuteo]

Hello Folks

Long time lurker of the forums here, only just signed up to post so please be kind!

I'm considering starting a very small home business to augment my full time earnings. I'm a qualified chartered accountant, have spent the last 8 years working as a financial/management accountant and I would say I am good at my job - hopefully my boss would agree

I'm really keen to start using my qualification to earn some additional income, and have been for some while (only casually until recently) pondering the idea of setting up a small bookkeeping enterprise as a sole trader just to top up my full time work earnings.

To that end I'd be really keen to hear from anyone working in a similar market. What I don't have any knowledge of at the moment is the market for the type of product/service in my area. Are book-kepeers even required these days in the world of 'all in one' software packages that are marketed as being so simple that even the most un-savvy person could pick them up and run with it? Short of my friend asking me to help him with his self assessment once a year, I've never done any kind of accountancy/bookkeeping work away from my actual day job.

I'm assuming (hoping) there is still a market for this kind of service, especially perhaps amongst sole traders who put every hour they have into their business and perhaps aren't so hot on the financial/admin side of things.

I'm very hard working and would be very proactive and conscientious in terms of putting the legwork in to try and get word 'out there' in terms of attracting business. I've always been taught that you get out of something what you put in, and I have no delusions of grandeur in terms of scale. Once I'm up to full speed with it, I'd be delighted to pocket £5k a year on top of my salary.

Overheads should be small for this kind of work, and I have the qualification and knowledge I need to offer the service, so I can't see why this shouldn't be a goer with a bit of hard work, but would be really pleased to hear from anyone in a similar position about your story

Thanks

[Subbuteo]

s2kjock said:

If you are a half decent qualified CA you'll make more money sticking with that than moving into book-keeping.

There is a lot of work for decent bookkeepers but it is never likely to pay as well.

The only CAs I know who now do just bookkeeping are either those who were not cut out to be accountants or those for whom a more flexible lifestyle is preferable such as having child or other care commitments.

Thanks for that - but to make it clear I'm not looking to change what I do for a full time living, I'm talking about something I can take on in my own time, from home, to supplement it - using the skills I already have from my full time profession. I have no desire to make this into a full time job at any point.

It's not that I'm badly paid for what I do or anything, and I enjoy my full time role, I just like the idea of doing a little something off my own back.

Also for clarity I was using the term bookkeeping as a very broad/lazy catch-all for basic financial admin - i.e. perhaps helping sole traders/those with slightly more complex (to non financial people) affairs (i.e. rental income/investment income/self employment) with self assessment for a small fee. The only real cost is my time and I'm willing to put plenty of that in to make something viable.

Whilst that sort of thing is no doubt not a challenge for many savvy business owners, I imagine there's still a market for it? There must be a lot of people who struggle to face doing their self assessments judging by how much money HMRC pull in with penalties?

[Subbuteo]

Thanks guys, seems like I need to do a bit more homework and find out if it's something that's ever really going to be do-able given my full time commitments. Points noted re level of service etc.