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Me And CIA
(These notes refer to conditions pertaining about 1985)
When I left British Steel, in 1981, to set-up as a hypnotherapist, I had to submit accounts every quarter in order to qualify for "make-up pay". This added to my profits to bring me up to 80% of my salary. This was for the first eighteen months of trading.
An accountant was recommended to me by a friend. As he was never available, or late, I saw him making up the accounts from my data. I saw that it was uncomplicated. In the end I did the accounts, and paid him £10 just for signing them. Little did I realise that this was to be the basis for my future business.
The hypnotherapy business failed after two years and I was unemployed, (unemployable!), for five and half years.
In about 1983 a friend asked if I could help his friend who was in difficulties with the tax man. He asked me because he knew that I had been a manager with British Steel and had a basic understanding of business.
My qualifications included cost and management accounting, and a little financial accounting. I had also taken a course on Financial Techniques for Non-financial Managers. However, I had little knowledge of business accounting and non of inland revenue regulations.
I used the little knowledge I had gleaned from my accountant, together with information from leaflets, and did not a bad job for my friend's friend.
A year or so later, the friend asked me to help him with personal and business financial problems. During this, I visited the tax office with him and the tax inspector was most complimentary and encouraging. As a result, I helped another of his friends and the basics of a business began to develop.
My professional experience included simplifying and de-skilling tasks. I set about examining the business requirements of the small business man. A fully qualified accountant will use only about 80% of his acquired knowledge. I guessed that I would need about 10% of accounting and tax law to be able to set up in business.
I examined the information I had, and developed the administrative and computer system for managing a client list of sole traders. This, over the course of two years took me 1500 hours. As I was doing the development, I started the accountancy business, PDQ Business Services. I chose this name because clients always remarked on the speed of the service! (Pretty Damn Quick!)
My memories were of the idiot I had had as an accountant, and I was determined to provide a speedy and effective service.
At the beginning, I did not look to giving a service to businesses that needed full accounts or were VAT registered. Later I developed the computer programs and admin system to do this.
I decided that I did not want to be an accountant, but to return to my profession as a self -employed management consultant. To do this, I developed the idea of the Cottage Industry Accounts agency. I talked it over with the bank manager and he was with it, other than that I had not had enough time to prove the system. Never-the-less the bank would agree to act as agent in administrating client's cash advancements.