Friday, September 13, 2013

Saving myself over £1000 bucks!

By OGN Okafor

It's been a hectic 5 to 6 weeks trying to complete a task I have never done before nor studied. If you are not good with numbers or very patient, then I suggest you hand your books over to a qualified accountant.

Royalty-free Vector Art: Business Woman Juggling Career

And before you do, shop around for the best in professionalism, efficiency, cost to you, easy to work with etc. Ask him or her to give you references (four or more people whom they've done their accounts before). Please (I cannot stress this enough), don't be lazy - contact all these references and be sure to find out if the accountant(s) are trustworthy (it's very important), can complete all (not some of) the tasks within the time they'd agreed, would not provide you with hidden charges at the end of task, easy to work with.

From my experience, I am also one of the directors in a company called GCA UK. We hired an accountant to register our company and everything else needed done based on one recommendation.
1: He overcharged us for everything
2: Kept all our documents and password, gave us the impression he alone was supposed to keep them
3: Was late in informing us about any emails from Company House

We found out we had to submit the company Annual Return late and were told we had to pay a fine.  When we tried to submit the Annual Return, we found he had closed us down with Company House out of malice (because we told him we would not be needing his services and to hand over the documents pertaining to the company in his possession).

(Remember, it doesn't matter whom you've outsourced your business or company's work to, the bucks stops with you. And you, not the the person you've outsourced your work to, will pay/suffer the consequences of any of their (the people you've outsourced work to) mistakes. Consequences can be a fine of up to £5000 e.g. for late submission of your Annual Return, to being jailed e.g. for not paying your taxes.)

Based on this experience, I 've always done everything to do with my own company (Obygrace Publishing) myself. Here are examples of some of the tasks I undertook myself
1: registered my company with Company House
2: registered my company trademarks with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) UK
3: registered with various affliates and put adverts in my blogs
4: created and designed all my blogs
5: created and designed all my company's marketing materials
6: completed my company's annual return and submitted my company accounts to Company House online
7: completed and submitted my company annual tax return plus company accounts to HMRConline
8: completed and submitted my self assessment online

Am not saying you should do all these yourself but it doesn't hurt to know as much as you can before you think of outsourcing specific tasks.  Those are examples of tasks I had undertaken myself and not outsourced.  It is very important that you understand that I am not
1: a web or creative designer
2: an accountant
3: a lawyer

So you ask, how was I able to accomplish all these.Well, by learning.  I read lots of books (e.g: see my book lists)/ leaflets (e.g: IP Explained, ) & specific company's website information (eg: IPO, Company House, HMRC), viewed lots of specificYouTube videos/tutorials, attended business events (e.g: Bstartup) and business webinars (e.g Facebook, Facebook2Warren Knight), viewed numerous HMRC recorded and live webinars (click to see examples), asked lots of question via phone calls (Mentors, specific people in different organisations), internet search engine (e.g: sitewizard) and emails to the correct people.

Advantages of taking up some of these tasks:
1: Most important, saved lots of money and gained new knowledge and skills (so later when your company is financially stable and you decide to outsource your work, you will not only have an idea of what is expected with each task, how long it should take and what the finished product should look like but also, you can will be able to know when the amount being quoted is ridiculous)
2: Hours run fast as you're doing what you love...It's so much fun you even forget what time or day it is and even to eat (you feel there aren't enough hours in the day...you wish you can add more hours), plus  you get to know more about your business and grow with your business
3: New jargons learnt are important even when you later choose to outsource your work as it makes it easier to communicate with and understand whomever you've outsourced work to (saving time and money)
4: Researches broadens your horizon, open new doors and a world of opportunities you never dreamt of (takes you out of thinking too small or within a box)
5: Your excited about what you do and the new skills you've gained (like when your child takes their first step or says their first word), you want to share it. Sharing what you're doing or learnt is a free form of advertisement, can lead to finding streams of ideas to grow and expand your business from people. Talking to people helps you shed your inhibitions to talking in front of people.

Disadvantages:
1: Takes time getting specific tasks done as you have to learn it first before you can carry it out
2: Its exhausting as it takes long hours
3: Can be frustrating especially as you are constantly encountering new jargon (words specific to a particular industry, trade or skill)
4: Too much research
5:You are constantly thinking even talking about your business


Here are examples of books that can help reduce your workload.  Remember "Knowledge is Power!"
11:This book is very good (for anyone doing their book-keeping for the first time): Practical Accounts and Bookkeeping In Easy Steps


Examples of sites I found very useful:






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