Accounting Business Idea

[Dream&Achieve]

My mom and I have been talking all day about a new business idea. Currently she works as an Accounting Manager at a local company, and is very good at her job. I'm the thinker of us two, ever since I started getting into the business world she's started to become more interested in it. In a few years, all of my siblings including me will be out of the house and she doesn't know what to do with her free time. She already works 8-5 job everyday including weekends sometimes. Anyway, that's a little bit about her background, now I don't know much about the accounting world, but I do like the thought of starting a business out of it with my mom. The idea is mobile accounting services. You guys know about IT guys? The ones that show up to school for a couple hours and fix on computers for awhile and then leave? I don't know if they go to one school or one company and then go home. I've always thought that after they go to one company they leave and go to another and so on. Perhaps we could hire a few people, and send them out to clients throughout the day. It's the same idea as a DirecTV van going around and helping people, but instead it's for accounting. Of course this would be directed towards small businesses, ones that maybe can't afford full or part-time accountants. One of my older cousins has a small business, and once he was talking about how he wished he could afford an accountant, this idea could help him out along with many others. What are your guys' thoughts on this?

 

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[AgainstAllOdds]

What are your guys' thoughts on this?

I wouldn't do it. How much can an accountant actually contribute in let's say 8 hours?

Can your mom learn my business in under a day?

Can she provide any value that will outweigh the premium that I pay her to drop by?

What kind of services will you be offering?

 

[Dream&Achieve]

I wouldn't do it. How much can an accountant actually contribute in let's say 8 hours?

Can your mom learn my business in under a day?

Can she provide any value that will outweigh the premium that I pay her to drop by?

What kind of services will you be offering?

I wouldn't do it. How much can an accountant actually contribute in let's say 8 hours?

Can your mom learn my business in under a day?

Can she provide any value that will outweigh the premium that I pay her to drop by?

What kind of services will you be offering?

She has a strong accounting background but also uses data to quickly help a business solve operations problems and improve processes. She takes processes that take several hours and uses data and software applications to reduce the time to minutes. The data then provides feedback that operations need to improve profitability. She's used to fast paced environments that require her to learn and react quickly.

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

She has a strong accounting background but also uses data to quickly help a business solve operations problems and improve processes. She takes processes that take several hours and uses data and software applications to reduce the time to minutes. The data then provides feedback that operations need to improve profitability. She's used to fast paced environments that require her to learn and react quickly.

If a business person is smart enough to have all this "data" ready for your mom, then do they really need her to make decisions for them? The biggest problem I see is gathering this data.

 

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[Jon L]

You should look at 1800Accountant.com. They have the right idea, however their business processes are horrible. The reviews on Yelp, and all over the internet are typically 1-star. As a small-business person, that is a service I would pay for, if it worked.

You'd probably need to start out in a certain industry so that you're not overwhelmed by the variety of businesses out there.

 

[Dream&Achieve]

If a business person is smart enough to have all this "data" ready for your mom, then do they really need her to make decisions for them? The biggest problem I see is gathering this data.

That is exactly the point. Most businesses see that gathering the data is the big problem or don't realize they can use the data to solve their problem, but that is the easy part for her.

 

[Dream&Achieve]

You should look at 1800Accountant.com. They have the right idea, however their business processes are horrible. The reviews on Yelp, and all over the internet are typically 1-star. As a small-business person, that is a service I would pay for, if it worked.

You'd probably need to start out in a certain industry so that you're not overwhelmed by the variety of businesses out there.

I looked at 1800Accountant, and I have a question. Did you use their services? If so, what was the thing they did wrong. What's so bad about them? I will read the reviews here in a second after replying to the comments.

 

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[Jon L]

I looked at 1800Accountant, and I have a question. Did you use their services? If so, what was the thing they did wrong. What's so bad about them? I will read the reviews here in a second after replying to the comments.

I was about to, and then I read the reviews. The reviews were HORRIBLE. People said things like, 'I submitted paperwork to them and never heard back at all - even after repeated attempts at contacting them.' And the like. I don't think I found a single positive review.

 

[Dream&Achieve]

I was about to, and then I read the reviews. The reviews were HORRIBLE. People said things like, 'I submitted paperwork to them and never heard back at all - even after repeated attempts at contacting them.' And the like. I don't think I found a single positive review.

Oh my! I'm 15 and can already see how horrible it is. I'm reading the reviews out loud so that my mom can hear them too. She's sitting next to me with her mouth just hanging open, it's terrible! The one thing that really caught me was the price, I'm not sure about you but their prices just were way over the top. You do not need to charge that much to do those tasks for people. My mom even said it's simple to do things such as payroll, filing tax returns, etc. Why pay $1400+ plus month fees and what not? Maybe I'm not seeing what these people were really paying for, but it seems like a bit too much for me.

 

[Jon L]

Oh my! I'm 15 and can already see how horrible it is. I'm reading the reviews out loud so that my mom can hear them too. She's sitting next to me with her mouth just hanging open, it's terrible! The one thing that really caught me was the price, I'm not sure about you but their prices just were way over the top. You do not need to charge that much to do those tasks for people. My mom even said it's simple to do things such as payroll, filing tax returns, etc. Why pay $1400+ plus month fees and what not? Maybe I'm not seeing what these people were really paying for, but it seems like a bit too much for me.

That price is actually a really good deal, and if you're thinking about offering "unlimited" accounting for a business like 800 Accountant is, $1400 is cheap. You NEVER want to underprice yourself. Accounting is very valuable to a business - especially one small enough that they can't afford a full-time accountant.

Keep in mind that things that are simple for your mom are NOT simple for the average business owner. That is the value you bring to them. They are focused on running their company, and doing what they are good at. If they wanted to get good at accounting, they could, but it takes years of full-time practice, and business owners simply don't have the time for that.

DO NOT UNDER PRICE YOURSELF.

 

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[Dream&Achieve]

I had no idea about pricing of these services. That's quite incredible. Thank you very much!


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[CommonCents]

what's nice about accounting, esp for businesses, is you get to look under the hood with great detail seeing what businesses are successful and why, and what ones aren't doing well, and why. Great prep for a future entrepreneur.

 

[Dream&Achieve]

what's nice about accounting, esp for businesses, is you get to look under the hood with great detail seeing what businesses are successful and why, and what ones aren't doing well, and why. Great prep for a future entrepreneur.

Well said!


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[Clinton Larson]

That sounds like a great way to get in. Payrolling that way might be a great way to "get your first introduction"

 

[Blue1214]

Our thoughts on this are less important.

Validate this idea and find out for yourself.

See if you can get just a few people (not in your family) to use such a service and pay for it.

After that, you know you have a valid idea.

 

[Omni]

Agreed with @Blue1214, validate your idea by getting paying customers. Use the yelp reviews and improve upon the negatives.
One additional idea is maybe she can do the accounting work remotely, who knows? Test it!

 

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[Dream&Achieve]

Our thoughts on this are less important.

Validate this idea and find out for yourself.

See if you can get just a few people (not in your family) to use such a service and pay for it.

After that, you know you have a valid idea.

Great idea, get customers first to see if it will really work. Thanks for the tip!


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[Dream&Achieve]

Agreed with @Blue1214, validate your idea by getting paying customers. Use the yelp reviews and improve upon the negatives.
One additional idea is maybe she can do the accounting work remotely, who knows? Test it!

Yes we've talked about that, she said most of it could probably be done online and she wouldn't have to leave unless it was something more complex of course.


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[Omni]

Just be aware that as long as your mom is doing the accounting, you've created a second job for her (whether higher paying or lower paying). But systematizing a service into a business is a discussion further down the line, after validation

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[Dream&Achieve]

Just be aware that as long as your mom is doing the accounting, you've created a second job for her (whether higher paying or lower paying). But systematizing a service into a business is a discussion further down the line, after validation

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We have also talked about that too. How it's probably going to be a second job for awhile, as in the book. People think they have a business, but it's really a job. Of course everything starts out as a job, but I would like to expand it into a business of where we have to hire others. Since we don't have a building, we could even rent a hotel room and have seminars of such to teach the employees.


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[Cookies]

Nicole, a couple things you could do to see if you and Mom are onto something:
- Who has the pain you're seeking to solve for? Be specific.
- Who are you not solving for?
- What is the biggest pain point you're going to focus on? What led you to this?
- What makes you believe you can solve this pain? Why is your solution better than existing solutions?
- what makes you believe this is an important problem to solve?
- an interesting exercise - what's your vision, assuming your product was in existence and used by customers? Think something along the lines of the original iPod vision "1000 songs in your pocket" was Apple's vision that drove that product.
- go back to MJ's book - does your product meet the various "commandments"

To get focus on that pain point, I've used this to get focused on root causes that a solution could be found for:

Fill in the blank:
I am ________________________ (describe a person, shoot for 3 or more attributes)

I am trying to ________________________________ (fill in some outcome)

But _________________________________________ (problem/barrier)

Because _______________________________________ (cause...root cause)

Which makes me feel __________________________________ (emotion tied to inability to solve...good problems to solve will have a powerful emotions attached)

So, for example:

I am an overweight employee with a full time job and a toddler at home.
I am trying to get exercise,
but I can't find the time
because I spend all of my free time playing with my toddler
which makes me feel powerless to control my weight.

Use this with your customers - Does it accurately reflect the problem and root cause? How painful is the problem? How passionately do they feel the emotion?
If you've found a really painful problem, you may be onto something. How can you solve it well...or better than others...or in a different way than has been done before?