It depends what you are going to charge and how choosy you will be with your client base.
It will always be a struggle against the massive bureau's who are able to charge next to nothing. You will hopefully add value in that you will care about the client and be more probing and thoughtful with the info you are sent.
In terms of finding new clients - that is something we are struggling with ourselves at the moment!
It's not obvious that there is a massive unmet need out there. So a question you need to ask of yourself, is why should clients come to you? What do you offer that existing providers don't?
I'd counsel against the answer to that being price. The only way you might succeed is by being like Ryanair - ruthless on costs and ruthless about charging for extras. I'm not convinced that is a viable model for a recurring service such as payroll.
I run a payroll company but it is adjoined to my husband's accountancy practice. All clients bar a few come from clients wanting an accountant first + payroll. We have not obtained many who just want payroll. The odd couple but certainly not enough to provide a viable business.
All clients bar a few come from clients wanting an accountant first + payroll. We have not obtained many who just want payroll. The odd couple but certainly not enough to provide a viable business.
Confirms what I would have assumed. Having multiple different providers doesn't make much sense for small to medium sized businesses.
We have been processing payrolls for nearly 40 years. We find that we don't "sell" our payroll service people enquire because they have a need. In 2016 and 2017 we were getting about 30-40 enquiries a month and converting about 10% so growth was good. Since April last year enquiries have dropped to about 10 a month, we think this is a combination of the beginning of the end for AE staging and the implementation of GDPR (we buy leads from lead generation sites). As Payrollgal says it is a struggle at the moment and not a field I would be looking to enter currently.
I have had a one man (me) payroll company for the last 15 years, and I do find it hard to attract new clients, as most of the businesses I seem to pitch to have their accountants running their payroll as a one stop shop. I would recommend a bit of local networking - do you have any serviced office blocks in your area that you could advertise your services to? Most occupants of those will be small start-ups who might be open to outsourcing payroll.
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Clients are never easy.
They'll come to you with last minute changes to payroll or promise to send new starter forms on but leave it until the day before payday.
It depends what you are going to charge and how choosy you will be with your client base.
It will always be a struggle against the massive bureau's who are able to charge next to nothing. You will hopefully add value in that you will care about the client and be more probing and thoughtful with the info you are sent.
In terms of finding new clients - that is something we are struggling with ourselves at the moment!
Good luck :)
It's not obvious that there is a massive unmet need out there. So a question you need to ask of yourself, is why should clients come to you? What do you offer that existing providers don't?
I'd counsel against the answer to that being price. The only way you might succeed is by being like Ryanair - ruthless on costs and ruthless about charging for extras. I'm not convinced that is a viable model for a recurring service such as payroll.
I run a payroll company but it is adjoined to my husband's accountancy practice. All clients bar a few come from clients wanting an accountant first + payroll. We have not obtained many who just want payroll. The odd couple but certainly not enough to provide a viable business.
Confirms what I would have assumed. Having multiple different providers doesn't make much sense for small to medium sized businesses.
We have been processing payrolls for nearly 40 years. We find that we don't "sell" our payroll service people enquire because they have a need. In 2016 and 2017 we were getting about 30-40 enquiries a month and converting about 10% so growth was good. Since April last year enquiries have dropped to about 10 a month, we think this is a combination of the beginning of the end for AE staging and the implementation of GDPR (we buy leads from lead generation sites). As Payrollgal says it is a struggle at the moment and not a field I would be looking to enter currently.
I have had a one man (me) payroll company for the last 15 years, and I do find it hard to attract new clients, as most of the businesses I seem to pitch to have their accountants running their payroll as a one stop shop. I would recommend a bit of local networking - do you have any serviced office blocks in your area that you could advertise your services to? Most occupants of those will be small start-ups who might be open to outsourcing payroll.