With Self Assessment season safely behind them, AccountingWEB.co.uk caught up with some of our Class of 2009 members to see how their firms are progressing.
Anthony Sudbury has been running Better Bookkeeping since 2005 but it wasn’t until February 2009 that the company was incorporated and Anthony focused his attention on building up the practice full time. When we last spoke to him in October, he was concentrating on building up his client base. Four months on, we caught up with him again to find out how it was going.
AccountingWEB: What progress have you made since October in terms of consolidating your business?
Anthony: In October I branched out and decided to look at using the internet to gain new skills I could use to start marketing my business. I had found that the traditional routes, local magazines and newspapers were costing a fortune with no results – except people calling me and trying to sell me things! I have spent the past four months diligently increasing my knowledge about internet marketing and what tools are available to use and actually in the process created another service I can offer my clients. As a result I have added a few things to my website, which I plan on developing further in 2010.
AccountingWEB: Have there been any major challenges over the last few months that you’ve had to overcome?
Anthony: The biggest challenge is juggling time. There are a lot of different roles when you run a business and when you are working by yourself you have to do them all. I also look after my children (aged three and four) in the afternoons in order to keep childcare costs down as we build the business, so most evenings and at least one day at the weekend is spent working on the business – be it client work, admin or even my own accounts.
AccountingWEB: Have you attracted any new clients since we last spoke? If so, how did they come to you?
Anthony: Yes things really started to pick up from October onwards (after a drought for the first six months). I also finished a six month maternity contract I was covering for my old employer in November 2009 so I have been able to concentrate on my own business permanently now. I now have 25 clients on file which is a nice mixture of tax returns, monthly bookkeeping and payroll, and quite a few limited companies. They have come from a variety of sources which has included direct advertising (not cost effective), Facebook (yes, my new skills are working already!), search engine results from Google and word of mouth.
AccountingWEB: Have you experimented with any new marketing techniques over the last few months? How effective have they been?
Anthony: Yes I have experimented with internet marketing. I have been blogging, using Twitter and Facebook mainly (very effective!) and I am going to be looking at using video marketing more in the next 12 months to provide information and even software tutorials to my clients. The most important message I learnt last year was ‘The Law of Attraction‘ and personal branding. As a result I created my own website and have actually created a nice sideline business on the internet which runs 24/7 (to a global target audience) which will complement the accountancy side, especially as the UK heads out of recession.
AccountingWEB: Which of your processes are paperless at present?
Anthony: At the moment I am using traditional files for working papers and important correspondence, and using the computer to save electronic emails, spreadsheets, etc to each individual client file. I don’t have the technology or hardware to run a paperless office.
AccountingWEB: Do you see any obstacles for small accounting firms like yourself to going paperless?
Anthony: Yes, the cost! Until you are established with a consistent amount of fees coming in every month, you can’t afford to buy all the equipment, servers, software and then usually a monthly fee to run it.
AccountingWEB: Have there been any successes you’ve had over the past couple of months, or new things you’ve tried that you’re keen to share with other small practitioners?
Anthony: I actually signed up with KeyTime Accountancy for my software – accounts, personal tax and corporation tax – based on reviewing what was on offer and the price. It has been fantastic and on the occasions I have needed support they have been superb. I would thoroughly recommend them. On a more important note, my first year end was on 28 February 2010 and I am thrilled at what I have achieved in the past 12 months. When I first decided to set it up full time, my main reason at the time was to be up and running as the UK heads out of recession. So far it’s looking fantastic!
http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/topic/branching-out-anthony-sudbury
