Reflections on 13 years as Director

In three days time, my tenure as Director of Co- comes to an end and I pass on the baton to Stephanie. It is a time for reflection.

How it started

The first thing that strikes me is that this is a story bookended by personal crisis.  I spent my 30s setting up and running a community arts charity in Peckham.  It was pretty successful, we raised nearly £1million and gave thousands of people access to making art across London.  However when the financial crash came in 2008 and budgets were slashed in the first wave of austerity it was brutal for organisations such as the one I had set up.  If I am honest it wasn’t only the cuts.  I was exhausted with it and what worked financially as an idealistic 30 year old no longer worked with family commitments.  It was time to join the mainstream.

I surprised a lot of people including myself by choosing accountancy.  Accountants had been the butt of a lot of jokes in my household growing up, a lazy short hand for dull and dead end people.  My father quipped to my wife that my decision was ‘grounds for divorce’.  A friend fell into a bush when my sister passed on the news.  

I considered a lot of options but I think what swung it for accountancy (apart from seeming to be a very safe profession) was that I felt I could bring something from my former life.  I had experience setting things up and I knew that all the most interesting conversations had a financial angle.  

Slices of LUCK

As we all know, success is a combination of hard work and luck.  Looking back I can see the huge slice of luck I was handed.  I knew I needed support so I started looking at accounting franchises and came across Crunchers.   It was pure good fortune that I came to that market just as Crunchers was getting going.  We became the pilot practice and therefore the beneficiary of a lot of extra support.

In addition, that connection opened my eyes to another huge slice of luck I had been handed.  Just as the practice was getting going technology had arrived that would transform accountancy.  Bob Harper at Crunchers not only got us onboard with Xero when it was very newly introduced to the UK market, but he foresaw that the role of the accountant would have to change.  Crunching data was going to be automated.  Accountants needed to manage the systems and add value to the data. We were on the crest of a wave.

Collaboration would become an important concept in the practice.  This was the first important collaboration.  Bob and I worked together to create Improving the Numbers, bringing together a body of thought that would support small business owners on their journey to create a successful business.   The ideas Bob introduced me to, and the ones I researched as part of this work, became the foundation of our success.  It felt like doing an MBA designed for small business owners.

HARD WORK

I certainly worked hard.  With a young family, failure was not an option, it had to succeed.  On day one we didn’t have a single client.  I networked, I cold called, I put ourselves out there.  Somehow the practice grew.  By the third year it had become too much for one person, I needed support.  Enter Joanna.

TEAM

I consider Joanna to be another of those incredible slices of luck.  As many of us know, good people make an extraordinary difference and bad hires can nearly kill you.  At this point the business was still operating from my flat in Camberwell.  Joanna’s interview was held at the kitchen table.  It was no-one’s idea of a glamorous opportunity.  Looking back it is a miracle she accepted the job.  

Since then we have made some shocking appointments so it seems such a stroke of fortune that Joanna was our first hire.  From day one, she cared about the work and the clients.  The thing I can see now is that Joanna established our culture.  After Joanna there was no space for anyone to be cynical.  In a profession like accountancy that is a gift worth more than gold.

Bit by bit, with many missteps along the way, Joanna helped me grow the team, spotting the candidates that would work, giving me the confidence to weed out the ones where it had failed.  One of the things I am most proud of is that Joanna is still with us, still contributing, a sort of guardian to the spirit of the practice.

If I think about all the accomplishments of my tenure, the team we have established is high on the list.  Angie, Aleks, Beth, Joanna, Sam, Steph, every single person has brought something unique and important to the party.  I feel extraordinarily lucky to work with them all.

SYSTEMS

Over time I have come to realise I love a system.  It is the strength I have brought to my Directorship.  It shows up in software but also in processes, habits and a way of viewing the business.  When I look around the practice I am struck by how much we have put together - interview processes, pay policy, staff reviews, meeting agendas, checklists, training videos, workflows, team events, marketing schedules, filing protocols.  

There is plenty I am not good at, but my love of laying down repeatable systems has borne fruit.  Accounting is a monster of administration.  Data and promises fly in all sorts of directions.  Pinning them down into consistent delivery takes something and whilst we are still working at it and definitely not perfect, we have a core of reliability.

CO- NCEPT

No story of the practice would be complete without mention of the rebrand.  As I have said Crunchers was an incredible stroke of good fortune, but at a certain time we needed to own our brand.  I wrote about that experience in more detail at the time here.  

What strikes me now is how much value that project brought to the practice.  The clarity of thought it required permeates every aspect of what we are now doing.  The best description of the effect I can make is with an analogy.  My father made bowls and plates from stone and in my university holidays I would help.  At the end of the sawing, grinding and polishing process the bowls were quite thin and when you knocked them with your knuckle they had a very pleasing ring.  But occasionally the stone had a fault running through it that only appeared in the manufacturing process. Then at the end you would knock the plate or bowl and there would only be a dull thud.  

To me the rebrand brought that ring to the practice.  The concepts we developed - community, collaboration, connection were always in the practice, but now you can hear them, clear as a bell.

FULFILMENT

I was not thinking I would hand over my Directorship now.  If I was not dealing with the next crisis in my personal life, I would not be doing it.  But as this story proves, necessity is the mother of invention and my main feeling about what is happening is huge pride.  

The Co- brand is about the strength of the collective.  The logical conclusion of that concept is that the team is self generating, not reliant on one person.  The arts charity I set up did not survive my career change.  There is no doubt in my mind, this transition has strengthened the practice.  Everyone has stepped up and taken responsibility for it to thrive in the new era.  

So to me this process represents the fulfilment of a vision I had.  I could not be prouder to be passing on the Directorship to Steph.  That we attracted someone of her experience and calibre is a massive accomplishment in itself.  The way the Co- network of clients, collaborators and colleagues has reacted tells me there is consensus that we are in safe hands.  And alongside Steph, Sam has stepped up to Deputy Practice Manager bringing her amazing talents in nurturing relationships and alongside Sam, the entire team are contributing.

One of the first things that Bob told me to do when I set up the practice was to read the E-Myth by Michael Gerber.  The book tells you that your job as business owner is to build the machine of the business so that no function relies on you.  It appears I have done it.   I have proved I am replaceable.