chief executive
The best thing about starting your own company is that you can make your own judgments about what is important in business. For me this is "Treating all clients with equal respect, taking an imaginative approach to problem solving, building the confidence of staff to deliver a quality service and not wearing a tie". I would hate us to be just an ordinary accountancy firm and we are not!
I am really proud of my team and I want as many people as possible to benefit from what we can do.
My professional work is largely tax consultancy although increasingly clients often want to share in my experience of having built a business to help them make business decisions.
The tax advice I give covers a wide variety of areas. I enjoy working with complex problems and helping clients put together a solution which is both tax efficient and practical. It is important to take into consideration the client's perception of risk but we typically avoid the high risk, off-the-shelf avoidance schemes.
Recently I have worked on a project to structure the tax affairs of a wealthy entrepreneur. Helped a new client who was under investigation for undeclared overseas income and advised on setting up a company under EIS allowing the client to defer a very large capital gain taxed at 40% which will now only be taxed at 18%.
Usually I work with one or more of our other members in our team to deliver the solution which the client requires. This could include working with our tax specialists, our solicitor, one of our accountants or one of the financial advisors.
history
After leaving University with a degree in Philosophy the Civil Service was suggested as the only real option for a career. The Inland Revenue recruitment slogan was "Independent Command" but the department was already changing and independence soon ceased to be an option.
So after qualifying as a Fully Trained Inspector and being transferred to Cambridge on promotion I moved to a large firm of accountants to bring their own tax affairs up-to-date and to give one-off advice in Cambridge and London.
Although a large accountancy practice gave me excellent training in the role of a tax advisor I decided that I knew better than the partners how a business should be run so I decided to start my own. After a little part time work in 1990 I set up independently in early 1991.
It is now over 20 years since I started in business on my own and I have not regreted it. In 2009 I enrolled for the Business Growth Programme at Cranfield University to help give greater focus to our plans for growth. This has been a real benefit to me and to the business.
other business
As well as our main business I also act as Managing Partner for Professional Practice Automation LLP. This is a niche IT consultancy business. We provide IT consultancy services to larger firms of accountants and develop software for that same market place.
Our software development includes; Online Accountancy Software, e-Lerts; a tool to generate emails from a database and a SharePoint Portal.
outside interests
My main interest outside work is in music. I am a guitar player and a compere at the Cambridge Folk Festival. I love a wide variety of music and I am a keen Cuban salsa dancer.
I am also a Trustee of the Angela Webster Educational Trust and the City of Cambridge Educational Trust which operates Parkside and Colleridge schools.
I am learning Spanish at evening class at Parkside.
the future
I plan to continue leading the growth of our business into the future.
My key aim is to build the business in Cambridge and to develop our international links. My personal role will be to help develop our brilliant team and to recruit more good people.
When you've founded a business it often has your personal strengths and weaknesses my role now is to allow the business to retain its strengths and to use other people's skills to overcome any shortcomings.