Greetings from EPIC!A Non-Profit Org providing small business bookkeeping support

[Terence@Epic]

Hi Everyone,

Terence from EPIC Employment Service here. Good to finally find an active online forum dedicated to micro/small businesses!

EPIC is a Non-Profit Organization dedicated to assisting people with disabilities and disadvantages find suitable employment. In particular, I coordinate marketing activities for the EPIC Telecentre (TC), a program designed to link work-from-home, disabled bookkeepers with small businesses looking for low cost bookkeeping support.

Disability employment services is something I'm passionate about and believe in immensely. At the same time, having previously run a small business myself, I understand the needs and constraints faced by this community. Finally, my previous job was that of a tax accountant so I know (and preach) the importance of getting your books in order.

Now I want this to be a brief hello to everyone and not an in-depth ad of the services we provide. That i'll save for the other threads! We are a charity and at the end of the day, we rely extensively on the community for support. Good to see everyone and I look forward to networking and exchanging ideas.

Terence Woo
B Bus Mgt, M Com
Marketing Officer
EPIC Employment Service Inc.

(07) 3857 5085
0407 327 988
www.epic.org.au

[Burgo]

Welcome Terence,

Your organisation sounds very interesting. I can envisage some of our resident bookkeepers when they get overloaded with work outsourcing to such an organisation. Stick around an as you never know when the next lead may come from on a forum like this.

[Terence@Epic]

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for the warm welcome mate! I've been scouring the net for similar forums but all I really got were dead links. So this is a refreshing change!

We're not a big flashy program and the service is geared towards getting our guys their first couple accounts, building up their confidence and send them off as independent micro business owners. As such, we're looking to offer our services to genuine small businesses with tight margins and to do so, I was looking for the best way to get our name out there, albeit in a non-confrontational, word of mouth sort of way.

Terence

[SOUTH EAST ACCESS]

Hi Terence

We just joined this forum today and I must say there is more interest than I thought possible.

Re bookkeepers, the South Coast of NSW is a desert for finding bookkeepers who know their stuff. Do you have a sister organisation down this way? If so I could put a link in on our website (www.southeastaccess.com.au) so our clients can get in touch. If not, maybe we can help you set it up.

Regards

David Stephens

[Terence@Epic]

Hi David,

Good to hear from you! I was pleasantly surprised as well.. who knew a gem like this existed!

At the moment we are primarily based in QLD and NZ. The closest office we have in NSW is based in Lismore, but they focus on general staffing. The bookkeeping program is based in Brisbane and alot of our work is done remotely. To get a better idea of how we operate:

- Clients courier documents to us
- Our bookkeepers process this information from home
- Our qualified accountants perform review and quality assurance work
- Original documents and financial statements/computer files is couriered back to the client

Thank you for your offer of assisting with setting up a chapter in NSW. We are a government funded organization and as such have very rigid procedures with regards to implementing something but I must say it is an intriguing proposal. Do you have an email to get back to? In the meantime what I can do is to put together a media pack to send out to you.

Terence

[SOUTH EAST ACCESS]

Terence

Thanks for the response.

My email address is

dstephens@southeastaccess.com.au

Our website (brand new this morning!!) is

www.southeastaccess.com.au

Regards

David Stephens

[Terence@Epic]

Hi David,

Brand spanking new website! Very nice! Was meaning to send you the pack via snail mail and you've got three addresses up on the website. Which one should I send it to?

Terence

[SOUTH EAST ACCESS]

Terrence

The best mail address is

PO Box 117

Ulladulla NSW 2539

I look forward to seeing what you have achieved.

David

[Terence@Epic]

Package coming your way David!