Forecasting blues - from an accountant!

Submitted by Ask M on Sun, 18/02/2007 - 15:18.

Hi - I'm Emily Coltman, M for short, a chartered accountant, soon to start up my own business helping other accountants and their clients pick the most suitable accounts software for the client to keep their books on, and training the client to use it.

Record keeping, VAT and all associated minefields are enough to give anyone the blue spooks. When you find out that chocolate vermicelli have VAT on them at 0% but chocolate buttons have it at 17.5%... no wonder a lot of small business owners view VAT as something only marginally less malevolent than Count Dracula.

That said so's forecasting. I did my sales, profit and loss (sorry Steve, but I am an accountant after all) and cashflow forecasts yesterday afternoon. I hated doing them. How on earth do I know how many of my customers will want to use which products, and which of the training and support packages I'm offering, until I've tried making a few months' worth of sales? The honest answer is, I don't. So it all felt like guess work. And accountants hate guess work.

Also, if loads and loads of clients are ringing me up for support after I've trained them - will I ever have enough time to switch off and just be with my husband? There's so much uncertainty in this start up lark.

But I'm going to stick at it and go live on 1st May because I reckon I'd kick myself for the rest of my life if I don't try it now. If it's not working after a year or two I can always stop and go back to good old employment. But I don't want to be saying "I wish I'd given the kite a chance to fly instead of just keeping it in a cupboard" when I meet St Peter.

Emily Coltman MA ACA
Ask M Ltd
Bespoke Screen Capture Videos
Find me at www.askm.co.uk

danic85's picture

"How on earth do I know how

Submitted by danic85 on Mon, 19/02/2007 - 12:01.

"How on earth do I know how many of my customers will want to use which products, and which of the training and support packages I'm offering, until I've tried making a few months' worth of sales?"

I have to say i'm pleased i'm not the only one who thinks like that ;)

- Dan
www.quicksilvercreations.com

Blackfish's picture

I know its a guessing game

Submitted by Blackfish on Mon, 26/03/2007 - 12:21.

I Know its a guessing game but.

This is what I would suggest.

Im assuming you have a "perfect Customer"

By that you have a description of the type and size of customer who would most likely require your services?

You then should have a list or some data as to who your going to approach regarding this?

My suggestion as much as you may not like it is to actually speak to say 100 of these companies and have the discussion ask them what they need or look for in a supplier of these services. Explain to them very simply what you supply (Product or service) and ask them what they think about this?

The best way is simply to explain who you are and what you do and whether you can arrange to come and discuss your services in more detail with them.

If they wont ask them why!!!! This will give you the best feedback.

You can then get some rough percentages of who may be interested.

If people arnt interested the reasons why not.

It will also give you some valuable data as to how many organisations you need to contact to get the desired number of clients.

As a benchmark out of every 4 potential clients you get to see 1 will become a customer if theres a need for your service.

I know theres lots of variables on this Im just trying to give you some benchmarks to work with.

The information you can gleen from these conversations will be invaluable to you.

Good luck

James Moss
Blackfish Solutions

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