To achieve her goals, Louise studied the following courses:
ICB Career Path
ICB Level 4 - FRS105

Studying to become a bookkeeper often stems from a desire to change the student’s work/life balance. For Louise Woodhouse, it was the only reason.

Louise was working as a secondary school science teacher before her son Adam was born with autism and ADHD. She had no way of keeping up a full time job and caring for him, and started looking into how she could start her own business.

After one false start with a social media marketing course, she found herself thinking about accountancy, which led to her looking into the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers, as the best way of achieving her aim of setting up her own practice. She found Ideal Schools, and was soon chatting to its Brian McVean. She has not looked back.

Louise said: “Social media marketing just wasn’t for me. Everyone was putting themselves up on the screen, all Instagram and so forth, and I felt my strengths laid elsewhere. I spoke to Brian via a web-chat, and told him what I wanted to achieve, and it was like everything clicked into place.

“There was no hard sell. Ideal Schools took me through what I would need to study, and how to get it, and within 14 months, I had fully qualified with my practice licence, as well as self-assessment, FRS105, and payroll management. It’s really given me a new lease of life. I’d say to anyone, ‘you don’t know what you’re capable of until you do it.’”

Louise has finished all the courses available in 14 months, and is looking forward to improving her skills as soon as a new Small Companies course is made available from Ideal Schools in September.  She aims to provide her clients with a one-stop-shop that will grow with them.

Louise said: “My business, Adds Up Bookkeeping & Accounts Services (which is also named after my son, Adam/ Adze), is off to a flying start, with 12 limited companies and 13 sole traders on my books, mostly for accounting services. I’m totally client focused and I want my clients to be able to use their accounting data to inform business decisions, not just be a once-a-year chore.

“I’ve got clients all over the country, including a few London who are very pleased with my prices. I want to provide a one-stop shop for clients. I can handle micro entity limited companies, Partnerships, LLPs and sole traders and I’ll be completing the small companies’ course (FRS102) just as soon as Ideal Schools offers it. I have found what I was born to do!”