Member Article

Behind the business with Caprica Online Accountants

Tim Whitehouse, founder of Caprica Online Accountants, take Bdaily behind the business.

What key challenges has your company recently faced?

We deliver our service in a very different way to a traditional firm of Chartered Accountants. Our biggest challenge has been to persuade potential clients that a relationship with an online accountant is not a distant and remote relationship with a computer but actually very human and instant. Once clients have joined us, they always find they are in more regular contact with us via email and Skype than with their previous accountant who was down the road to them but they still only met up with once a year. The struggle for us is in communicating that this is actually a much better and counter-intuitvely a closer way of working.

What is your biggest achievement over the past 12 months?

We actually started in business 12 months ago, so we’re really excited about how we have been able to get established and recognised as one of the few online focused Chartered Accounting firms in the country so quickly.

What is your biggest focus for the coming year?

Our focus on the next year is very much on building up the profile of the Caprica Online Accountants brand, we need to advertise more and really think about how we can reach more small businesses and contractors.

If you had to choose one top piece of advice for someone just starting out in business, or is currently operating within your industry sector, what would it be?

If you can get on top of the technological developments in your industry and stay on top of them you will always be able to operate more efficiently and cheaper than your competition.

For example, there’s a revolution happening in the way that most software is now being stored and accessed online. I think every industry can benefit from this to build scalable and flexible systems to work much smarter. Small businesses are taking advantage of this much more than larger enterprises.

Can you share with us your view of the current landscape of business, in your region or generally and where your organisation sits within it?

The last couple of months (September/October 2012) have felt much more positive to us. We’ve had far more enquiries from startups and individuals seeking to become contractors which can only be a good thing for the UK. Our systems also allow us to view how our clients are performing in real time and it’s been great to see that many, across sectors, have experienced a recent uptick in sales and cash on hand. It still seems fragile but we’re optimistic it could be the start of a more prolonged economic improvement.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .