Ten decisions to make when starting up in practice

What about where you will operate from?

That's a really important factor when you start up and will to some extent determine the type of clients you can obtain and target, and how quickly you will grow your business.

... are you suited to being self employed?

Many people crave security, a regular guaranteed income, paid holidays, set hours, sick pay, company pension.

These type of people are usually utterly miserable in self emploment.

To start a practice from scratch you need to be willing to gamble, able to work day and night when needed, able to live without income in bad times, and suited to all the risks involved with going it alone.

Anyone without these attributes will never succeed no matter what other qualities they have.

Dear Mark

I have recently started my own accountancy practice and I found your article very helpful - thank you!  Any advice and guidance you can get when you are starting out is valuable.

Thanks Mark, I found it a very helpful post. Please carry on with you posts. I learn a lot from them.

...for a really useful article! It's certainly food for thought for anyone starting up in practice. I take your point about them not being 'the' (only) considerations, so I've amended the intro to make that clear. Apologies for the oversight!

Hi Mark

Good post. These are all good points, and worth keeping to the forefront of your mind in the early days of starting up a practice.

Thanks for the post.

Sandra

Great post Mark. I agreed with CD, not it a 'you missed it' way but as an add on - the first question that needs to be asked of onself is 'Have I got what it takes?'

I was speaking to a chap last week who said that he wants to start up on his own, when I asked him his reasons he replied that he sees his boss take the occassional morning/afternoon/day off whenever he feels like it and would like to do the same!

I asked him whether he also sees his boss:

 - Lie awake at night worrying about how to pay the staffs wages that month?

 - Work evenings / weekends at the expense of his family time

 - Take no income from the business during lean times

 - Stressed to the hilt

 - Suffer the guilt of telling someone that they are not up to the job and having to let them go?

 - Have the guts and faith to put the family home up as security for capital

He wasn't so keen after that!

Whilst not ALL of the above will be encountered by everyone, these are all common scenarios for entrepeneurs and it takes a very special breed of person to cope with these situations.

Regards

Jason Dormer

Seahorse (UK) Ltd - For accountants and bookkeepers

www.seahorseuk.co.uk

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When you recommend bookkeeping software for your clients to use, you may want to suggest Billing Boss. It's free, made for easy access for the accountant/bookkeeper, and saves businesses the extra set of merchant fees.

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