Yes I have a fairly diverse or decent cross section of clients and so far no one is feeling any pain. Most furloughed staff, grants covered overheads when closed and all just geared up ready to go again. Whilst the Directors have had to live on their wits most have handled things very well.
The higher profile collapse of some of the big restaurant chains that were in trouble prior to lockdown has actually removed the over supply and my indy clients have picked up really well so touch wood we are ok this far.
Without the furlough scheme I would have no clients left though.
I would be keen to see the part of my comment which accuses you of lying, but from your aggressive response it is clear I have hit the nail on the head.
"Government Hand out schemes" no bitterness there then.
The key to being self employed, is the "self" part you need to self preserve. Whilst your ideal business is specific tax advice, surely you could have pivoted that to more generic use or supported your accountant pals who were as you said busy.
Instead you chose to sit back and complain about others were getting. That is the mindset of an employee not a business owner, you need a glass half full perspective.
I changed my business model and won a lot of work, I also had no support but did something about it to make sure I survived.
All of my clients are small companies non of whom were really supported they accepted that, they have had a decent run and got on with it.
I will apologise when I have something to apologise for.
So you didn't do much tax work through lock down?, surely the returns will still need to be done.
I cannot see how you could not provide tax advisory services through lockdown, we have never been busier and have won significant clients throughout, our clients needed us more than ever. We changed to adapt and make the best hand of it and didn't wait on Gov handouts.
CJRS, SEISS are all tax led services cannot see how you had less work.
Your comments seem more that your upset that your neighbour got some free stuff you didn't, that is not a failing in the government.
I didn't get any support but also didn't feel I needed any, just because Dave the plumber got some.
A few things I noted were that owners of single FHL got the £10k small rate grant which is typically more than they make over a few years as most of mine breakeven from year to year.
I also have issue with the 3m who claim are unsupported. I am a director of my company so have not been supported, so will be included in the 3m but don't feel I needed support as was fortunate to work right through. Also things like the BBL and tax defferals is still support. If loans on the same terms as the BBL were made to me when I started I would have grown far more quickly.
When I asked the question "who are the 3m" apparently it includes 1.2m people who have self employed income less than 50% of their total earnings, so do not qualify for support but no data on if they needed it? What is there main income though ? employed or investment these may been maintained was that maintained. Remember the measures were to provide a rice and beans diet for as many people to stop job losses and avoid people losing their homes, it wasnt to maintain the income of everyone at 100% pre Covid levels.
Whilst I understand the Ltd Co director cause most of the comments I have seen to relate to "they didnt get what sole traders got", as oppose to having an actual need for help. There is a certain amount of risk in being self employed and some people seem to think the government should de risk it but allow all the benefits in the good times.
When the brown stuff hit the fan my initial discussions with clients were how long can we run before cash runs out. Since the support came in none of my clients have touched reserves. worse case they broke even through lock down and now trading at similar levels to before. No one has gone bust and most are upbeat they will get through it.
When you look back at previous financial crashes the level of support this time around is off the scale and whilst some people might not be happy somebody got more free stuff than them, overall for me the government have kept everyone on the dance floor to fight another day. Those that have gone down need to allow the insolvency process to play its part and then those sites will be re born as something else debt free.
Now now lads you have given Amanda a bit of a mauling here on what is a decent article. Whilst the market is full of marketers for accountants (i must get 5 contacts a day from them) having met Amanda and seen several of her presentations she is certainly in the top 2 or 3 people who does what she does.
As a keen angler myself, the fishing comment is quite a good one really in connection to her article. If the you throw bag net out and drag it through the sea you will catch some fish, but they may not be the ones you want so have to throw them back wasting time and money.
If you go fly fishing you are after 1 type of fish, maybe even a single big fish (niche) so get the results you want. So not a bad summary.
With regards creating a niche some guys have created very good niche practices, just look at the Wow Company or MAP in Manchester I would love to achieve what they have.
On the flip side I know of niche firms in the contractor game who are facing ruin.
Whilst a total niche would be great the issues we all face in the early days is the need to earn a living unless you have an investor behind you or a wealthy partner and no matter people say its almost impossible to avoid working too cheaply and for some of the wrong clients. Treat it as a learning curve.
I now have some good pockets of clients within my fee bank which are industry specific but I prefer to work for a type of person as oppose to an industry type. I have 2 client personas I work with, the main is effectively people like me, so similar values, background etc and husband and wife teams. I relate best to them as I face the same issues.
The second persona I go for is an attempt to keep my fee bank fresh and is effectively "me when I was 30" so younger and more dynamic but need a bit more hand holding.
Since highlighting on these 2 client types I have hit a rich vein of client referrals, as they all mix in similar social circles its good for cross referrals.
Not sure if this is a niche or not but its working for me now, after I have found my own line of best fit through to the right clients, its only took me 5 years to work it out.
I think you would find the number of meetings you got reduced a lot if you charged a fee if you as a supplier charged a fee for a cancelled meeting to sell me something.
For me it was the perfect result, creating a government that has the power to make change and break the status quo.
IT will hopefully force the opposition to clean house and remove the Momentum thugs from the part to build a credible opposition which a democracy needs so a win win.
Boris is clear the North have only lent him votes so he needs to not mess up.
After a few years where things have been quite stagnant I have a positive feeling that 2020 will be a good year, with infrastructure work kicking off and hopefully some money into the economy.
I have not felt like this since 1997 when Tony Blair swept to power on the back of "Things can only get better". They did and what followed was a pretty good 10 years, right up to the point it all went [***] up and history recorded him as a war criminal.
2019 was [***] year for me so lets hope 2020 "Things do actually get better".
My answers
Hi DJKL,
Yes I have a fairly diverse or decent cross section of clients and so far no one is feeling any pain. Most furloughed staff, grants covered overheads when closed and all just geared up ready to go again. Whilst the Directors have had to live on their wits most have handled things very well.
The higher profile collapse of some of the big restaurant chains that were in trouble prior to lockdown has actually removed the over supply and my indy clients have picked up really well so touch wood we are ok this far.
Without the furlough scheme I would have no clients left though.
10 years as nightclub FD in Newcastle, you can imagine the stories.
I would be keen to see the part of my comment which accuses you of lying, but from your aggressive response it is clear I have hit the nail on the head.
"Government Hand out schemes" no bitterness there then.
The key to being self employed, is the "self" part you need to self preserve. Whilst your ideal business is specific tax advice, surely you could have pivoted that to more generic use or supported your accountant pals who were as you said busy.
Instead you chose to sit back and complain about others were getting. That is the mindset of an employee not a business owner, you need a glass half full perspective.
I changed my business model and won a lot of work, I also had no support but did something about it to make sure I survived.
All of my clients are small companies non of whom were really supported they accepted that, they have had a decent run and got on with it.
I will apologise when I have something to apologise for.
Duplicated
So you didn't do much tax work through lock down?, surely the returns will still need to be done.
I cannot see how you could not provide tax advisory services through lockdown, we have never been busier and have won significant clients throughout, our clients needed us more than ever. We changed to adapt and make the best hand of it and didn't wait on Gov handouts.
CJRS, SEISS are all tax led services cannot see how you had less work.
Your comments seem more that your upset that your neighbour got some free stuff you didn't, that is not a failing in the government.
I didn't get any support but also didn't feel I needed any, just because Dave the plumber got some.
A few things I noted were that owners of single FHL got the £10k small rate grant which is typically more than they make over a few years as most of mine breakeven from year to year.
I also have issue with the 3m who claim are unsupported. I am a director of my company so have not been supported, so will be included in the 3m but don't feel I needed support as was fortunate to work right through. Also things like the BBL and tax defferals is still support. If loans on the same terms as the BBL were made to me when I started I would have grown far more quickly.
When I asked the question "who are the 3m" apparently it includes 1.2m people who have self employed income less than 50% of their total earnings, so do not qualify for support but no data on if they needed it? What is there main income though ? employed or investment these may been maintained was that maintained. Remember the measures were to provide a rice and beans diet for as many people to stop job losses and avoid people losing their homes, it wasnt to maintain the income of everyone at 100% pre Covid levels.
Whilst I understand the Ltd Co director cause most of the comments I have seen to relate to "they didnt get what sole traders got", as oppose to having an actual need for help. There is a certain amount of risk in being self employed and some people seem to think the government should de risk it but allow all the benefits in the good times.
When the brown stuff hit the fan my initial discussions with clients were how long can we run before cash runs out. Since the support came in none of my clients have touched reserves. worse case they broke even through lock down and now trading at similar levels to before. No one has gone bust and most are upbeat they will get through it.
When you look back at previous financial crashes the level of support this time around is off the scale and whilst some people might not be happy somebody got more free stuff than them, overall for me the government have kept everyone on the dance floor to fight another day. Those that have gone down need to allow the insolvency process to play its part and then those sites will be re born as something else debt free.
Now now lads you have given Amanda a bit of a mauling here on what is a decent article. Whilst the market is full of marketers for accountants (i must get 5 contacts a day from them) having met Amanda and seen several of her presentations she is certainly in the top 2 or 3 people who does what she does.
As a keen angler myself, the fishing comment is quite a good one really in connection to her article. If the you throw bag net out and drag it through the sea you will catch some fish, but they may not be the ones you want so have to throw them back wasting time and money.
If you go fly fishing you are after 1 type of fish, maybe even a single big fish (niche) so get the results you want. So not a bad summary.
With regards creating a niche some guys have created very good niche practices, just look at the Wow Company or MAP in Manchester I would love to achieve what they have.
On the flip side I know of niche firms in the contractor game who are facing ruin.
Whilst a total niche would be great the issues we all face in the early days is the need to earn a living unless you have an investor behind you or a wealthy partner and no matter people say its almost impossible to avoid working too cheaply and for some of the wrong clients. Treat it as a learning curve.
I now have some good pockets of clients within my fee bank which are industry specific but I prefer to work for a type of person as oppose to an industry type. I have 2 client personas I work with, the main is effectively people like me, so similar values, background etc and husband and wife teams. I relate best to them as I face the same issues.
The second persona I go for is an attempt to keep my fee bank fresh and is effectively "me when I was 30" so younger and more dynamic but need a bit more hand holding.
Since highlighting on these 2 client types I have hit a rich vein of client referrals, as they all mix in similar social circles its good for cross referrals.
Not sure if this is a niche or not but its working for me now, after I have found my own line of best fit through to the right clients, its only took me 5 years to work it out.
I just missed out on buying the pub in the picture a few year back in my FD days, the one that got away that deal.
I think you would find the number of meetings you got reduced a lot if you charged a fee if you as a supplier charged a fee for a cancelled meeting to sell me something.
For me it was the perfect result, creating a government that has the power to make change and break the status quo.
IT will hopefully force the opposition to clean house and remove the Momentum thugs from the part to build a credible opposition which a democracy needs so a win win.
Boris is clear the North have only lent him votes so he needs to not mess up.
After a few years where things have been quite stagnant I have a positive feeling that 2020 will be a good year, with infrastructure work kicking off and hopefully some money into the economy.
I have not felt like this since 1997 when Tony Blair swept to power on the back of "Things can only get better". They did and what followed was a pretty good 10 years, right up to the point it all went [***] up and history recorded him as a war criminal.
2019 was [***] year for me so lets hope 2020 "Things do actually get better".