Trying to see if this is worthwhile, will be using Xero. Mainly targeting small businesses with weekly reports because I think a monthly report isn't sufficient enough especially if you want to keep track of your cashflow.
Thoughts are appreciated!
I'm looking to start a cloud accounting company, would anybody be interested?
Lgivennchy on 08/06/2015 - 21:51
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As an accounting student, I would be keen in working or interning there if that counts.
Besides, I think cloud services are just beginning to emerge and this would potentially be a good gateway to improve efficiency for small businesses.
if you're in the sydney area, i might be able to take you up on something :)
Yes I am from Sydney! But I have no idea how to direct message people here but I would like to properly introduce myself. How would I get in contact with you? Through email perhaps? Unless someone can tell me if there's a private message system here that I overlooked…
… will be using Xero. Mainly targeting small businesses with weekly reports …
Wait a minute. Doesn't Xero come with all the reports already? I use Xero myself and I only need to see my accountant once or twice a year because it has provided me enough business reports.
I would be targeting those who would basically want to outsource their accounting function. yes xero gives you reports, but does everyone necessarily know what the reports actually mean? of course you would need a basic understanding if you wanted to run a business but not all people look at the big picture, alot of owners just focus on profit. This company would also be a support function to management i.e. analysis of what the reports actually mean and what steps can we take to ensure positive cashflow, greater margins etc.
I already have the backing of an established angel investor if this is something I would like to pursue. I also want this to be a social enterprise so I am looking at giving microloans to potential entrepreneurs in developing countries based on the profits. So the plus is that a small business would have their accounting side taken care of, plus an indepth analysis and they can help people in poverty :)
Pretty sure that's the point of Xero, that it does all the reporting and functions for you.
But there are other companies out there doing total outsourced accounting. You'd need to offer services like invoicing, collections, payroll and such.
Then you need to be careful about where you put that data (as in who's cloud and where the cloud is located).
You mean you want to essentially become a Xero Accounting Advisor?
Say hello to your competition: https://www.xero.com/au/advisors/
All 106 pages of them. And they're just the ones that partner with Xero!
Seems like a super-saturated marketplace, especially if you don't already have an established practise. What will set you apart?
in a sense yes.
Of course there are so many other accounting service out there.
To set myself apart I have a few things: not many firms have taken advantage of the cloud accounting space yet, I am currently from a Big 4 firm, I have the backing of an established angel investor so not only would our potential clients have a service, they would also have access to a wide network of connections and this company would have a social cause, I want to help those in poverty and that could be done by providing microloans to those in developing countries.
Not everybody is a capitalist, alot of people start a business because they found a solution and want to help others with their solution and one of the goals of this company would be to help those struggling. Just trying to make an essential business function have another cause! :)
not many firms have taken advantage of the cloud accounting space yet,
There might be an underlying reason why they havent done so yet (probably security), and there appears to be a decent number of products on the market that you would directly be competing with.
I'm yet to see a proper argument as to why your idea is better. You're taking on a number of large companies who already have an established market base. 'Social cause' won't get you market share, or make money.
As per the Dragons Den, I'm out.
You don't happen to be working for the likes of Deloitte Private Connect?
I'm looking at their fee structure and I'm like it will be pretty hard to compete with Big 4's now encroaching into smaller markets like SME's. Heck the stuff pumps outta the Deloitte system is impressive (the ones I've seen anyway).
Well my thoughts FWIW are your doing the right thing by trying to assess if there's a demand already for your product (the time to do it is now before you start creating the product) but your going about it the incorrect way because people here aren't looking nor are they approaching you with money in hand looking to do a transaction.
Words are about the easiest thing in the world to do, making a decision that involves handing over money is where you will get a more correct assessment and where you find out if people it when they say yeah, id do that.
There are doubtless other methods that people far more qualified than me use but one way to better assess demand is to run an Adwords campaign and spend $100 - $1000 (the more you spend the more certain you can be that this is representative of traffic that would come to your site either off ad spend OR organic search results if you are ranked highly. BTW don't spend money to rank well WITHOUT knowing if people will spend when they come to your site off whatever search query: buying the adwords position is the same as ranking without the time and considerable effort and spend to get your site to rank 1, 2 or 3.
You obviously need to target search queries that indicate the person is trying to find your product to spend money on so make this very targetted. You want LOW traffic words that indicate the user has commercial INTENTION and not HIGH traffic words that indicate the user is looking for information.
For example:
[cloud accounting service australian small business compliant quote] indicates that the use is looking for your service and wants a quote
[cloud accounting] we don't know what they want exactly, they might be looking for you but most likely they'll go to wikipedia because they want information rather than to buy a service.The key is too realise that the 100 users a month searching for the first term are way more valuable than the 10,000 a month looking for the second term because we know they are looking for us.
How you handle not having the business to supply your adclicker with the service they want is simple: have them fill in a small amount of detail such as what their industry is or whatever, doesn't matter as long as they DO SOMETHING that indicates they're willing to get a quote rather than just visit the page and leave it without taking action. But don't have them fill in lots of info obviously as this is a test.
Then direct them to a page explaining that you are currently too busy to take on new clients as you are looking after existing clients, offer them a way to leave contact details if they want (email or sms) so you can potentially use them as customers when you are ready.
If this is "successful" (you have leads and you know potentially what search phrasde to bid on or target in more adwords campaigns) then great, now you can start creating your business. If it's unsucessful that's ALSO GREAT because you've only spent 100 or 500 bucks or whatever on ads and however long it took you to create the dummy site and set up the Adwords campaign … and MOST important: you haven't spent any more time or money on a business that struggles to find customers (or even just leads actually).
Unfortunately it takes the same amount of time to set up and unsuccessful business as it does to set up a successful one - don't make the mistake of not checking that customers are there! Many people sort of fall in love with their project and ignore that aspect …
(BTW just occurred to me: getting Adwords credits to spend on exercises like this. There's many, many offers that give you Adwords discounts … just one is from what I recall you can get a 30 day free trial hosting with Shopify and recieve 100 Adwords coupon. You can buy off Fiverr - just look around because bonus free Adwords coupons are at a lot of places. You can also buy/make new Google Adwords and VCC to continue using these coupons again and again against Google's T&C - waste of time if you're an actual business but a nice way to save cash if your just testing the waters.)
Take a look at manager.io
You can do weekly, daily, etc. reports.
And there is an API, if you don't want to redo an entire accounting system just to add a few features.
Don't both reckon and myob have a cloud version?