Bookkeeping franchise or your own business

A good percentage of the students who complete our MYOB training courses want to start their own business. Getting into any new venture can be daunting if you have never been in business before and if that’s you a bookkeeping franchise might be the way to go. There are many aspects to Small Business Management and they include:

  • how that business works,
  • how to get and maintain customers,
  • how to provide great customer service
  • how great customer service will bring new customers
  • ensure you do a consistently great job, and
  • manage your finances well

The key aspects to consider when looking at a bookkeeping franchise are the costs. When we ran our training courses in Dee Why (Sydney) there were many business owners in surrounding shops and I recall speaking to one franchised business owner who said that he chose the wrong location and his overheads were killing him. This highlights the most important gripe that most people have about a franchise; “what am I paying for?”

Franchise regulations

Franchising is regulated now which means that bookkeeping franchise operators like all others, now need to disclose more information about existing franchisees. StartupSmart recently wrote about the harsh franchising reality check that a couple went through in South Australia and it’s an interesting read if you want to explore a bookkeeping franchise further. The article quotes Phil Blain, Co-author of The Franchisee’s Guide:

[quote]Thanks to recent legislative changes franchisees are now able to access critical details in the disclosure document like full details of existing franchisees and also people who have left the system.[/quote]

What are you paying for with a bookkeeping franchise?

If the franchise you are researching charges you a percentage of sales it’s good to know exactly how they are going to get you new customers and justify this payment. It’s also important to know that if you buy into a franchise you will have to sell your business to someone who also wants to buy into that franchise. Sometimes the franchiser can have a sale in who buys your business.

The other popular alternative is to go it alone and start your own bookkeeping business by yourself. If you are in this category you will have to spend more time at the beginning choosing your logo and other branding aspects of a small business. You also won’t have the leverage in advertising that a larger company can offer.

MYOB Training Courses

If you are looking for work as an MYOB Bookkeeper and have contemplated buying a bookkeeping franchise feel free to ask questions and share your story at our Facebook page. We have teamed up with Workface to help not only our MYOB Training Course students, but any bookkeepers find work or new customers if they operate their own bookkeeping business. If you are looking for work as an MYOB Bookkeeper feel free to register at their site.

Steve Slisar

Steve Slisar has been training people how to use computers since 1994, opened a training centre in 1999 in Dee Why and by 2005 had 3 training centres and created over 35 individual courses that include Screen videos with audio commentary, training workbooks for those who prefer to read to learn, and exercise files that are used with the tasks in the workbooks so you get practical experience in the software you are trying to learn. Now the creator of 5 of the most popular online MYOB training courses in Australia.

Recent Posts

Is Xero really promoting websites for $2,700

Xero has always used its partner network to reach it's users. I remember one claim…

1 day ago

Just follow the messy trail and you’ll learn Xero and MYOB

The purpose of a well designed course is to provide a series of steps for…

3 days ago

Has it all become too complicated?

I've tried and tested hundreds of software programs over the last 25 years and I've…

1 week ago

Remote Working Internship

Working with our graduates we've discovered that organisations are still looking for staff who can…

2 weeks ago

Should you learn MYOB, Xero or QuickBooks First?

We receive lots of bookkeeping course enquiries from students who are changing careers and want…

2 weeks ago

What’s happening PEPPOL?

Am I speaking gibberish or just crazy? No, I'm speaking the language of eInvoicing! PEPPOL…

4 weeks ago