I was passing and I noticed a nice shop front available to rent on the corner of Hamilton Road and Merton High Street. It seems ideal for an accountant. I have the phone number if anybody is interested.
FirstTab said he was looking but I thought I would mention it on here because other accountants may like it. Merton High Street looks like accountants alley as there are several accountants within a few yards but I'm sure there is room for one more.
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Thanks for the information Peter.
Things have changed since my post on shop front. I am getting inquires and clients signning on from my website. This was worked well for me so far. I intend to push the website further - don't know how yet.
Plus this also made me think - look at the fees- amazing. They must have really good systems for such low fees. I think they may be using IT to its best. They don't have a shop front.
As most know, the net is increasing playing a bigger role in people's purchasing decisions. This is an area I intend to spend money on rather than rent.
The cheap end of the market
There is one important point in the ad you quote -
Our 'Tax Return Service' fee is £125 inc VAT, payable in advance.
Would you pay for anything "in advance"? I wouldnt, nor would anyone else (if they have any sense).
In advance
My clients pay in advance. They may not have much sense (I'll be sure to tell them) but then I don't have bad debts.......
Advance payment
Same here, Flash. We don't even start a job until we have 50% minimum, and many clients just pay the lot up front. We haven't had a bad debt for years (touch wood it stays that way!)
Advance payments
The large majority of our clients are on standing order, others on Direct Debit, which suits both us and them.
I've not met at least half my clients
My "internet" clients comprise at least half my client base and form about 75% of my fee income, so that means that on average the fees charged are higher than local clients. I have a few of my "top ten" clients that I've never met. In fact my biggest client for several years was a firm on the other side of the country with multi million pound turnover - I only met them about 5 years or so after I started acting for them. Another couple of my top ten clients are based on the South Coast (I'm in the Lake District a few hundred miles away) who I've never met. I also have a few dozen IT contractor clients who live and work around London who again, I've never met, yet charge more than some of the well known national firms dealing with IT contractors.
Assuming the web clients are somehow low value or low quality is exactly the opposite to my experience.
Mine are local
My clients from the website are local. A large proportion of my clients are from my website. Most of them are good fee clients. I do not think my website is picked up outside my local area. This an area perphaps I should look into.
Make a day of it
I much prefer to see clients face to face at least once a year. All I do is make sure those some distance away have year ends which mean I can see them in the summer. A 3/400 mile round trip can be very pleasant on a summers day, especially if you plan it properly, set out early, and take in the sights on the way back.
£125 is around the going rate ...
... if you read the conditions?
1 rental property, no mention of self employed accounts, that would be extra!
If they get enough bog standard employment, few shares, bit of interest and may be a buy to let tax returns then they would subsidise the odd one with a complex capital gain or whatever.
If you look further, £225 for a non vat sole traders (accounts and tax return), seems good but if you look down further - 12 months free access to our online book-keeping package, yeah right, so you have to put your records on there to get that fee, so they just spend a few minutes checkig through and print off the accounts.
If you look at the VAT registered, they will have to quote for that!
Limited companies, from £699 plus VAT (including annual return) about the going rate.
So, a few attention grabbing figures, but nothing really significantly below market rates!
TWD...
... I happen to know TWD quite well having once considered selling a block of fees to them.
It's a very good business model, but very different to most accountancy firms.
For a start they are a volume business, with little or no personal interaction, they deal predominately with very simple cases and the are very "in with" Trade Unions and large PLC's who refer (for a fee) PAYE tax returns.
TWD's job is to go about reclaiming things like washing uniforms and professional subscriptions for PAYE employees. (When I worked for a national retailer, we were offered TWD's services as a supposed "perk" of our employment, even though we would have had to pay for it ourselves!)
First Tab, yes, study this type of model, but unless you change radically, your business is nothing like this - nor do I think, would you want it to be.
Steve
Suspicious nature
I would not be comfortable acting for a client who came from outside of my immediate geographical area who had no personal or professional connection to me at all, especially in the case of larger businesses.
Given other's experiences I am likely mistaken, but I would not have thought that a company turning over £1m> would appoint an accountant on the stength of internet/telephone contact alone unless they came highly recommended by a trusted source.
May be we should all have a swap?
I'll take all your south coast and Hampshire clients if you will take mine from Warrington, Stafford and Devon!!
I meet my clients just as often as they want. Fortunately it varies from client to client and balances out quite nicely.
Reply
Steve
How did you get your clients from Warrington, Stafford and Devon?
I didn't, I had a tonne of "d" list from my home town that I wanted rid of and I touted them for sale. TWD expressed an interest and made me an offer. The deal didn't happen for a "better" offer came in the closing stages of the deal.