bookkeeping support for UK accountancy practices.

Long story short, I’ve spent the last 15 years running a couple of my own businesses. The first was a screen printing company, printing music merch for a lot of artists you’d probably know! That’s where I really learned the value of automation - and how to make sure my high standards still came through in it, because people often think automation means cutting corners. It doesn’t have to. I put hundreds of thousands into equipment over the years, taking a very low wage to do it.

Then COVID hit and I had to close the print shop for a few months. So I landscaped the garden and built a pizza oven! People started asking for more pizza, and long story short, I ended up opening a pizzeria. Within a few months we had 14 staff on payroll and were selling a lot of pizza. I was keen to bring in what I’d learned about automation from day one, so building systems and processes that work flawlessly and give the same result time and time again was really important to me. Part of that was building our own software in-house - after being quoted half a million to have it done, I decided I’d just learn how to do it myself! That turned into a real passion for building software and automated workflows. Both businesses are still running, with a great bunch of staff.

I did my own bookkeeping for years before handing it over to my accountant. More recently I started doing some of it myself again - opening a second pizza location after only two years of the first one running, with a growing payroll and more bills, meant I wanted to be on top of things every day. With very little time to get the books up to date each morning, I built my own dashboards, fully integrated with Xero, so I could work super efficiently - and to be honest I realised how much I actually enjoy that work!

The problem with running those businesses is that for years I was working seven days a week, sometimes 18 or even 20 hours a day, and managing a lot of people. Anyone who’s managed a team will know it’s not an easy job - when you have a big team, they always have to come first. I’ve got a wife and five kids, and I’ve realised I just don’t want to play that game until I retire.

I’ve also got absolutely no desire to become an accountant, give tax advice or have lots of customers to deal with. I’ve had a couple of decades of that, and whilst it’s been fun, what I really want is to focus on my family and do something I genuinely enjoy. I absolutely love efficiency, but more than anything I love accuracy and supporting others.

So that’s what led me here. I think I could make a decent living doing this, if I can find the right accountants who want the support I can bring to the table. And instead of charging by the hour, I charge for outcomes - so the incentive is always to get it right.