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anyone own their own business?
i know MD does. anyone else out there start their own business from the ground up?
so...H and I are both accountants. about 2-3 years ago i started doing some bookkeeping/consulting for a dentist's office as a favor. basically, i took care of all the bills, kept the checkbook, etc. i picked up another client (a friend of my dad's) who had a dental lab that needed help with the same. since then i've dropped the 1st client (well..they were bought out so didnt need me) but still do the bookkeeping in an expanded role at the dental lab.
i'm thinking about making my little 2nd job into a full-time business. it could start out really part-time/along-side our regular jobs. we would basically be an a la carte accounting service for small businesses who may not necessarily have the staffing/expertise to do all of their accounting needs. we would work hourly and bill like an attorney does just for time worked. the plus to the client is it's one less employee that they have to pay benefits for so it would be cheaper. AND we are not CPAs...so we would be at LEAST half the cost that an accounting firm would charge to do the work.
does that make sense?
Maryland..since i know u are a SBO (small business owner..like that? ha!) is that something you would pay for? i know you're a one-woman shop so you might not be our ideal target client...but could you see the need for something like that?
thanks ladies 
June 2011
Re: anyone own their own business?
I think our ideal client would be small businesses with less than 20 employees in an office setting. A lot of times, someone is kind of thrown the task of doing the bills/checking account stuff when it's not really waht they were hired to do. it becomes an afterthought and isn't maintained properly. that's what i've run into with the two companies I've done this for.
example:
the dental lab i'm working for has about 50 different invoices every week, plus deposits and then reconciliations and maintaining the balance sheet (depreciating assets, making sure liabilities are properly amoritized. etc).
as we grow, we would handle payroll, budgeting/forcasting and even develop policies and procedures for companies that lack those things.
yes yes and yes. accounting makes me want to cry. maybe you should target creative professionals like me.