Be clear about exactly what market you are targetting, and what makes you different.  Why would people use you?

Working out what prices to charge is always a diffcult issue for a new service-based business.  Do some research into your competitors.

As a new self-employed bookkeeper, you will of course need to sort out your money laundering supervision before you can start doing any work.

Hi folks, just new to forum.

I spotted a number of you folks new to bookkeeping and accounting. Best advice I ever received was treat everything you do as a business situation. It will make you cost out your time and value yourself according. Don't do this and really it's an expensive hobby.

Everyone wants something from you. In return you want to be paid or given 'something' (advice or a resource) you couldn't obtain otherwise.

There's no such thing as a 'free' lunch.I bet a sound very cinical but we all learn from mistakes - why not learn from other peoples mistakes.

I love the forum as you can learn from peers but also you can share back in exchange for that help.

Just flipping through the site today I learned something so I thought I share the above. I will share some tips on Marketing & PR. Having paid large sums to companies to do this I discovered we can all do this relating cheaply but extremely professionally.

First and fore most you must distinquish between PR & Marketing.

Sales & Marketing go hand and hand.                     PR & brand awareness go hand in hand.

Taken simply we're looking for 'sales' (ie new clients). To achieve this we (bring our goods to) market (the place our customers are). Our customers (not clients yet I'll differentiate later) are businesses looking to have their accounts & returns taken are of.

So take your 'services' to where they are. That's marketing.....

Now the method to reach customers differs according to the segment which we wish to serve.

Using the internet; online directories etc are excellent forms of exposure to customers surfing as webmaster rightly points out. Without a doubt the most inexpensive way to receive introductions. However this is not where most businesses start or end their search for quality business introductions. It also takes time to develop but in todays world you must incorporate this as part of your overall marketing strategy.

The most successful is of course personal referrals. This is takes time to develop so the simplest way (I didn't say easy) is to pigback another service provider. We all have to 'sell' ourselves our businesses... you cannot survive without these skills...no matter how good an accountant you are... Sales comes first...thats what sbeing in business means.

TIP

Find an affinity group, introduce yourself, your business; explain your need for new clients and how you are unique.

I'll give you one example. If you can't get referrals from this you need 'Business Advice'.

Visit the nearest Business or Enterprise centre (use Yellow pages or Yell), show them your services. Offer to give free 'bookkeeping' talks at their nightclasses/ daygroups of potentially new Business Startups.

Where I live 4 out 5 of these individuals start into business within 6 months........

Sorry about grammar etc...