Would you do it all again, or train as a plumber?

Would you do it all again, or train as a plumber?

Didn't find your answer?

A client recently pointed out to me how hard he was finding it to source a builder who would take on a relatively small job.  He says they are all booked up weeks in advance and the ones who are not, don't turn up to give a quote.  He said it is the same with plumbers, plasterers, electricians - they won't get out of bed for less than £100 a day, yet accountants are the exact opposite!

We have to work extremely hard to keep hold of the clients we have and have to market hard to get new ones.  If I was in business and needed an accountant, I could choose from around 15 / 20 in my immediate area, including a mixture of small home based accountants, shop fronts offices, multiple office firms plus all the online only accountancy practices.

We have to be increasingly competetive or clients will go elsewhere.

It leads me to ask, if you had to do it all again, would you still choose accountancy, or would you do something totally different?

I would perhaps become an HGV driver, as they seem to earn £1000 per week with relative ease!

Many of my clients earn much more than me.  

Interested to hear people's views!

Greetings!

Replies (28)

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By mrme89
13th Oct 2016 20:34

I have an ACCA qualified colleague earning just shy of £24,000 per year. In comparison within the same organisation, our plumbers starting wage is just over £26,000.

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By James Green
13th Oct 2016 20:44

I would not do this again. I came into this profession because my father - who was a QBE accountant - was obsessed with me becoming a Chartered Accountant. I disliked it immediately but carried so much pre installed knowledge from working for him for years through school holidays that I was quickly promoted and passed the exams with relative ease. I've been at this 25+ years and have no idea what else I'd do which is why I stick at it.

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Barry
By barry131
13th Oct 2016 20:55

My schoolboy wish was to be a pilot for a commercial airline. BA most likely. That said, I only wished i started my accountancy business sooner

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By free-rider
13th Oct 2016 20:56

I've done many jobs in my earlier years including joinery and painting/decorating as my father was a joiner and wanted me to follow his steps.

But decided to get a degree and become an accountant - currently studying ATT and loving it. Could switch more to operations and business process audit later in my career as find these very interesting.

Qualified ACCA on £24k pa? As a start of career with no or very little experience could say that is ok. But if someone has few years experience and ACCA and is still on that money then I'd say they either are not hungry enough. IMO.

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Replying to free-rider:
By mrme89
14th Oct 2016 07:17

free-rider wrote:

I've done many jobs in my earlier years including joinery and painting/decorating as my father was a joiner and wanted me to follow his steps.

But decided to get a degree and become an accountant - currently studying ATT and loving it. Could switch more to operations and business process audit later in my career as find these very interesting.

Qualified ACCA on £24k pa? As a start of career with no or very little experience could say that is ok. But if someone has few years experience and ACCA and is still on that money then I'd say they either are not hungry enough. IMO.

Around 8 years experience in a management accounting role.

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By tom123
13th Oct 2016 21:40

Well, my brother used to work in IT project management - and has his own plumbing firm now.

I have a (provisional at the moment) bus driving licence - but that's just because I am a bit odd..

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By Manchester_man
14th Oct 2016 00:24

Interesting replies. Keep them coming!

I too wanted to be an airline pilot. I would love to fly my own plane and wouuld love to have a private flying license.

Mrme89 - doesn't surprise me in the slightest. I believe the council refuse collectors get paid more than that.

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Replying to Manchester_man:
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By Mr_awol
14th Oct 2016 11:08

No. I always thought they were on mid thirties but in fact they are on low to mid twenties. Late twenties to early thirties for the driver

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Replying to Manchester_man:
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By Mr_awol
14th Oct 2016 11:13

I would have done pilot training if BA had brought their sponsored training scheme in about ten years earlier.

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Replying to Manchester_man:
Euan's picture
By Euan MacLennan
14th Oct 2016 13:46

Manchester_man wrote:

I too wanted to be an airline pilot. I would love to fly my own plane and wouuld love to have a private flying license.

I had a PPL once. Between school and university, I applied to the Fleet Air Arm and they sent me to a civilian air club for a month. Along with a couple of other 18 year olds, I had a great time doing the required 30 hours of training to get my PPL. Went solo after 6½ hours. Then, flew with the RAFVR Air Squadron at university, but since then, when I would have had to pay for it myself, I have never flown again as a pilot. Did think about going to Hamble to train as a commercial pilot, but decided it was like glorified bus driving (no offence to Tom!).

So, I opted for an exciting career in accountancy .... (yawn!).

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Replying to Euan MacLennan:
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By tom123
14th Oct 2016 19:32

ha ha - my wife is the wannabee pilot in this house - she had a trial lesson at the local airport. I prefer to stay on the ground - unless in a big jumbo etc.

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By nogammonsinanundoubledgame
14th Oct 2016 07:50

I get the feeling that I am already a plumber, given the amount of sh*t that I am handling.

With kind regards

Clint Westwood

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By SteveHa
14th Oct 2016 08:38

I trained as a computer programmer. Wish that was where I ended up. Seems geek is the new chic.

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By User deleted
14th Oct 2016 09:04

I quite enjoyed the law parts of ACCA and CTA.

I'd probably get in to that area if I could do it all again, and go to uni.

Or be a detective.

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Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
14th Oct 2016 10:16

@Manchester_man - many of your clients are earning more than you?

You must be doing something wrong then. (Blunt is always best).

If you're a half decent accountant, can communicate well and get your pricing right, then running a small practice is a licence to print money.

There is no way I would choose to go back into employment.

While on reflection I wish I had chosen a more 'bohemian' lifestyle after University I have to say this is a pretty cushy number compared to what I see some people doing and earning.

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Replying to Kent accountant:
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By SJRUK
14th Oct 2016 10:44

Kent accountant wrote:

There is no way I would choose to go back into employment.

While on reflection I wish I had chosen a more 'bohemian' lifestyle after University I have to say this is a pretty cushy number compared to what I see some people doing and earning.

As this really. I have quite an easy lifestyle, make decent money and don't work overly hard. Yes it can be stressful but so can any career. I don't have many plumbers, electricians, decorators on my books that really make decent money without having to have a lot of staff and the headaches that go with that.
I also bizarrely like paperwork unless I don't know what to do with it, so its the right job for me.

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By Hugh Simpson
14th Oct 2016 10:43

I want to be a lion tamer.

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Replying to Hugh Simpson:
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By PORT
14th Oct 2016 13:57

According to the news there was a requirement for a gorilla trainer at London zoo yesterday.

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blue sheep
By NH
14th Oct 2016 11:25

My dad was a plumber and I have such fond memories of being coerced into helping him as a small boy, crawling in lofts full of fiberglass, replacing filthy old toilets, unblocking drains filled with...well you get the picture.
I have also done a fair share of DIY in my time and I can honestly say the worst of all is plumbing.
I type this sitting at home in the warm drinking yet another coffee while I compile some accounts for one of my many wonderful clients, I earn enough money for my purposes, and get annual fees from clients as I have for the last 15 years so I am confident about the future.
Plumber? nah, not for me mate.
btw did you know that the french for "builders [***]" is "plumbers smile"

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Replying to NH:
Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
14th Oct 2016 11:36

NH wrote:

My dad was a plumber and I have such fond memories of being coerced into helping him as a small boy, crawling in lofts full of fiberglass, replacing filthy old toilets, unblocking drains filled with...well you get the picture.
I have also done a fair share of DIY in my time and I can honestly say the worst of all is plumbing.
I type this sitting at home in the warm drinking yet another coffee while I compile some accounts for one of my many wonderful clients, I earn enough money for my purposes, and get annual fees from clients as I have for the last 15 years so I am confident about the future.
Plumber? nah, not for me mate.
btw did you know that the french for "builders [***]" is "plumbers smile"

My Dad was a builder and i have similar 'fond' memories - arriving on a freezing cold building site in the dark in the October/Christmas/February school holidays.

No thanks.

Plumbers smile? Whatever you call it you can still park a bike in it ;o)

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paddle steamer
By DJKL
14th Oct 2016 11:42

"Can it be that it was all so simple then
Or has time rewritten every line
If we had the chance to do it all again, tell me, would we, could we"

Well I would not touch it with a barge pole nor want my children to be afflicted ; imho, and in hindsight, there has to be more to life than money.

I started of aspiring to be an engineer (electrical and mechanical engineering) but did not finish my first degree (circuit theory and endless simultaneous equations took their toll) and somehow ended up with an MA in humanities and few job prospects in the early 1980s graduate wasteland. Accordingly, in search of employment I borrowed money and "retrained" in accountancy; "hard to be unemployed" in accountancy did turn out to be correct

Now I should not moan, I think the first 20 years or so were okay, but I am pretty sure my heart has not been really in it for a while now.

Little clues like checking the progress of my SIPP nearly every day possibly imparts the message that accountancy and myself are at the earliest possible point probably going to divorce. Other tell tale signs are the many pleasant evenings spent looking for business entities for sale online, be it a smallholding/market garden with extensive greenhouses north of Perth, a small hill farm in the Borders, A hotel/backpackers hostel in the Highlands or current favourite, a eleven bedroom hotel in the very remote Highlands with good (nay great) trout fishing on its doorstep.

Lucky for me my other half will lend a sympathetic ear to my current favourite escape route and then ensure, on Monday ,I head back to the office.

One day........

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Keep Calm, I'm and Accountant!
By i-accounts
14th Oct 2016 11:46

I like variety, I originally trained in outdoor pursuits and in the equine industry and studied accountancy in order to keep the overheads down in my 3 businesses, I dealt with a lot of farmers and other business owners through my equine and outdoor work and fell accidentally into practice as more of them wanted to work with an accountant who understood their businesses from grass roots level (no pun intended). As the years went on and I started a family I found myself doing more office based work and the equine business diversified into a smallholding and private stud and a few years ago I trained as a hypnotherapist and I now split my week between the farm, the accountancy and the hypnosis. I find the diversity gives a brilliant USP and often win new business because of this!

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Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
14th Oct 2016 12:17

The Examples you have given are people who have cracked it in their field locally. For every plasterer that earns £1000 per week there will be dozens who earn £15 per hour on crappy building site. The biggest gripe amongst Sun readers/out voters was that Polish trades had come here and drove down the earnings in construction.

I have a plumber client who has 1200 domestic customers were he servcies there boilers every year for £60/£70 a shot + plus any repairs or other parts.
He is back home every day by 2 or 3 in the afternoon never works weekends, never does emergency call outs and does not do installation work purely clean service only work. He makes £70k to £80k per year as IMO he has cracked it locally. I know at least 10 plumbers locally who would seem to work all hours but barely crack the £30k ceiling.

Accounts is the same yes there will be a lot of ACCA qualified people who earn £25k per year but there is also Partners in Big 4 firms who earn £1m salaries with the same qualification.

I like what I do and have no desire to change yes I could make more money, I dont have the desire to a load more hours though. On days like today I am pleased I am not working in waterproofs on a wet building site.

If i was starting out now things would be different maybe, I would like to work for one of these new IT firms where you hang out in break out areas and lie in hammocks for your lunch break like Google or Facebook but I guess everyone would.

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By Manchester_man
14th Oct 2016 14:54

I'm a natural pessimist!

Ok, on reflection, whilst it can at first appear that other less skilled people are earning more, I am starting to (but still don't totally) accept that most actually don't.

I only think of the times when I'm working until 2am like Tuesday night, but I forget that that's because I have spent today doing very little and most of this week drinking coffee sat round tables with clients.

It always hurts when I do the wages for a good engineering client of mine. He took on a trained by experience project manager for £30K and pays his staff, with overtime, circa 700-800 per week. These are mostly site workers.

It sometimes annoys me are happy to take advice for free, advice that I have (and still do - CPD etc) worked hard to be in a position to give, yet they don't bat an eyelid at paying a minimum call out of £80 for someone to fix a blocked pipe.

I have a wonderful set of clients who all pay me monthly and I thoroughly enjoy the job and the flexibility it affords me.

Most of my clients are high earners. I have one who is a freight forwarder, works from home, earns £200K per year without moving from his office chair.

Yes, he earns more than me and he's one of my favourite clients.

I went to see a small garden landscaper this week, first year of trading, limited company, hasn't set up a paye scheme or properly declared any dividends. He had already had 2 quotes from local firms - one for £375 and one for £450. My minimum for a ltd company was £750 3 years ago!

I could do the job for £375 and not be out of pocket, thanks to good software and strong systems, but i find it worrying that prices seem to be being driven downwards in this profession, whilst in other trades, prices are rising.

It is things like this that annoy me, but on the whole, and on reflection, I would have to work a damn site harder in any other job to earn what I do working for myself.

Thanks for all comments

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Replying to Manchester_man:
blue sheep
By NH
14th Oct 2016 15:25

Yes I am in exactly the same situation, I am just glad that I ditched the high overhead office/staff 5 years ago

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By CMED
14th Oct 2016 15:37

In the mid 70's, at a careers advice day at school, I expressed an interest in the RAF. I was then told that there were lots of opportunities for girls. Did I fancy being a secretary or perhaps a cook? No, I wanted to be a pilot.

To this day I can still hear the laughter.

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Tornado
By Tornado
14th Oct 2016 15:48

What could be easier. Just remember that for every debit there has to be a credit, and that is it really.

A solicitor once moaned to me that I was lucky as my clients came back to me each year whereas he often never saw some of his again. I felt sorry for him having to struggle along like that.

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Replying to Tornado:
paddle steamer
By DJKL
14th Oct 2016 16:14

Yes, but solicitors have ( or used to have) vast client lists.

When my father's firm was ceasing (three partners and circa 18 staff) in 1982 I got the job ,whilst at university, of spending my holiday writing up a client list from the files; take each file out, note matter dealt with and date and last contact details and partner initials. This took me about six weeks of holidays , there were thousands. (A very large room with about 70-80 full height lateral filing units each with say minimum hundred files a unit)

Also some are recurring-trusts earned fees on creation, each year re management and also on winding up, not all were one offs -commercial clients could be multiple fees each year.

Currently we pay about 20 fees a year to our solicitors (property business-lot of legal work), right now a bank change/refinance has a budget legal fee of £18k.

It is just a different business model, if you hold enough wills and get a cold snap you get a fair few executries.

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