New Beginnings

Well for those of you who read my last blog you will know I decided to quit my long suffering industry job, to return to my own practice just before Xmas 2012. I handed my notice in on 2nd January. I agreed 3 month notice with my boss as I wanted to leave on good terms and 3 month pay would come in handy, when I was no longer earning.

My notice period went like this:

Month 1 – Boss told me I was an idiot and would back with tail between my legs within a few weeks in the big wide world.

Month 2 – Starting to hit home that he would probably need 2 people who didn’t know the business to replace me my boss became more reasonable towards me (10 years too late).

Month 3 – Now looked at me like a son and didn’t want me to go, begging me with offers of better cars, more money etc. All too late I’m afraid was the reply. I agreed a £1200 retainer for 4 days work per month working with the guys who would replace me.

Throughout this period I wanted to get a lot of planning in place so that when I left I was not just scratching my head wondering how I was going to get some work. This was difficult as the Group’s year end was December and I always like to file all accounts before end of March. So I would be working late most days trying to fit in my planning around this.

The first thing to do was agree and name and image. I decided to stay with my existing name from  my part time practice I had ran for 10 years. Next ordered a better more professional stationery set.

The next thing to sort out was what practice software to use. I had been a life long user of SAGE and had been using their practice solution for a number of years. It did the job but I didn’t really like it, I liked the pricing structure even less. As I had not been in practice for 12 years I thought I better look at what else had come into the market in that time.

WOW what a surprise I was amazed at how much competition there was now available, after putting in a lot of research SAGE probably wasn’t in the top 5. I am not a fan of “best of breed” solutions and so opted for Digita for my practice solution. I bought it went through the training discs 1 weekend and then set all my existing clients the next.

I also would need a Website – I will deal with the process I went through in another Blog.

Right so with 4 weeks to go I have everything I need to trade as an Accountant. Hold on missing one vital ingredient some clients!!

I have had 12-15 clients whom I have acted for years, many are on mates rates or reciprocal arrangements. The first thing I needed to do was formalise this arrangement and quote them a correct fee as this was now going to be my sole income. I expected I may lose 1 or 2 by doing this but so far they all agreed to the quoted fees, and all but 1 agreed to a monthly DD to pay their fees.  The new agreed fees would equate to £15k GRF. Along with £1200 monthly retainer (although not sure how long this would last/I would want to keep it up).

I reckon I would be relatively happy and could see this as a venture worth doing if I got up to GRF of £50k. I have 10 months savings so was aiming to get to this level within 18 months. So how would I get these extra £35k in fees. I had tried buying them but could not find a fee base to buy.

I needed another plan, a marketing plan but what the hells a marketing plan?

Client recommendations I am lead to believe are the best way of getting referrals. But I only had 15 clients how many leads could this produce? And how do you get them to refer. I therefore decided to write to my write to my 15 clients stating “if you like what I do could you recommend me to others”. In return I will refund 15% of the first year fee to you as a Thank You. I included 5 cards with each letter (asking them to be passed out to people who would use my services). That’s 75 good business cards in play I thought.

The next thing I came up with, I had a lot of good relationships with the suppliers of my former employer, most were owner managed family businesses. So I started writing to them and letting them know what I was up to.

I did the same with all the professional contacts I had. This initial marketing has been very successful and doubled my client numbers. When I left employment on 31st March I had 28 clients and GRF of around £27k plus £14k potential retainer.

Whilst for many working their notice might be an easy time, this was hardest 3 months of my working life. I got all the audits and accounts filed by March and managed to get most of what I wanted set up for practice in place before I left. I feel I now have new found drive and vigour after 3-4 years of been in a rut. I hope the steps I have taken so far will carry on to pay dividends, I have another 14 points on my marketing plan to work through once the first few fizzle out.

I had planned to start my new business on 1st April, but not wishing to tempt fate and the fact I was shattered I decided to have a weeks holiday with the family and start on the 8th April instead.

Did others have this same struggle when working two jobs? Throughout my notice period I kept thinking “am I doing the right thing” this became even difficult as my Boss turned to screws to try and keep me with offers of more money etc.

In the end I managed to focus on the real reason I was doing this, and that was for a better life with my wife and daughter who have been a huge support for this 13 weeks and the years before that.