Woman working from home

Running a business with your husband: Brickfield Hollow Accounting & Bookkeeping

My name is Rachel & I am married with 4 children (1 boy & 3 girls) ranging from 5 – 17 years old. We live in my hometown of Upminster & in 2017 my husband & I set up an Accounting & bookkeeping business, working together from our home office.
Our Business name is Brickfield Hollow Accounting & Bookkeeping. We provide professional accounting, bookkeeping & tax services, supporting small businesses and helping them to reach their full potential.
I became self-employed in 2017 & my inspiration was our dream of one day running our own business. We had no funding for our start up! We literally began advertising on Facebook & ordered some free business cards to hand out locally. We spread the word, telling anyone we spoke to about our new venture. We decided to offer free consultations & within couple of months, we got our first client!
As my youngest daughter started school the same year, we planned working from home & client meetings during school times. In the first year, we were online most evenings promoting our business on Facebook, Instagram, google & a few other advertising sites.  Family members, such as our parents & teenage daughter helped with childcare if we needed to go to any meetings.
A typical day will involve checking & responding to emails & messages on our  business Facebook page, answering the phone & other admin tasks such as filing & photocopying or printing flyers (while my husband Phil does the number crunching!) We often meet new & existing clients in local coffee shops or at their own homes or workplaces. Managing my time isn’t easy but is crucial given all my responsibilities! I use a diary ( + reminders ) &  have to plan my time  very carefully to ensure everything gets done.
Our main challenge was gaining a good reputation for the business , as obviously at first nobody had even heard of Brickfield Hollow Accounting & bookkeeping! We found that many self-employed people in the local area already had accountants they knew & trusted so this wasn’t easy.  We asked any client who we provided services to whether they would mind putting a review on our specific business Facebook page & shared these positive reviews online. We made sure we posted regularly on our Facebook page & that our prices were competitive, we also made everyone aware that we weren’t your typical 9-5 accountants & that we offered a friendly, flexible service whereby we were mobile & available to speak to much more frequently & without any extra charges. Within a year, we had 7 clients, a year later we have over 50!
The best thing about being a mumtrapeneur is the great satisfaction of what we have achieved so far. It’s gives me a great sense of pride in our accomplishments. Our plans for the future include expanding our client base further, becoming a Limited company & possibly getting a premises should the business get any bigger. We are also keen to take on a member of staff at some point to enable us to do more work.
My advice to anyone setting up a business is to invest more of their time than money & use advertising as much as possible ( & choose a free website which we did) I found joining multiple Facebook business groups very worthwhile & would encourage others to do the same, networking groups are also an excellent way of spreading the word & meeting other small business owners.
Just to give you a bit more background, my husband used to work in the city at a top firm until he began suffering from a serious spinal condition a few years ago, which has meant he is now disabled & unable to commute. This business is something we can do from home & we travel together locally to meet clients. Money was an issue to start with, so I took a job in a nursery to help pay the bills. Our little business has already grown faster than we expected & I hope it will continue to expand in the years ahead.