This year Accsys Accountants turns 15. I am pleased to say that we have grown the business every year since we started and have expanded from 1 employee – me, from my spare room at my house in Detling, – to now having two offices in Maidstone and Medway and 16 employees.

During this time, I have worked with some amazing clients and some incredible employees. It has been an enormous learning curve from taking on my first two clients, Able Canopies Limited and Vivid Pixel Limited, who are still with me today, to my latest client Hudson Flooring Limited.

So much has happened over the years – I have written a book, launched a coaching business, closed a coaching business, launched a Mastermind Group, closed a Mastermind group and launched a co-working space.

I have built a fantastic team and together we have celebrated exam successes, two employees giving birth (thankfully not in the office) and two weddings; we have moved offices twice, suffered a flood and survived the Covid-19 pandemic.

I have trained over 500 people on how to use Xero (Including other local accountants) and converted over 150 companies on to it. We have saved our clients tens of thousands in tax and helped our clients grow their businesses.

And we have received over 50 five star google reviews (more than any accountant in Kent).

Looking back, I have learned some valuable lessons that I try and pass onto clients:

1. Don’t doubt the numbers – they are your businesses truth, they don’t lie – if your P&L shows a loss, then you are making a loss and action is needed.
2. If turnover shows a sustained drop, then cut your overheads otherwise your profit and your cash will suffer.
3. Take your time to hire the right people – they will be your biggest asset but choose the wrong people and they become your biggest liability.
4. Look after your employees and they will look after you.
5. Don’t be afraid to fail – or as one of my clients says, “bag a failure.” Put the cost of failing down to “college fees,” you can learn as much from failure as you can from your successes.
6. Don’t take anything or anyone for granted. They may be here now, but they have a choice – make it your business to help them choose you.
7. Always be learning – things change and adapt, and you will be left behind if you stop changing and adapting – learn new things always and don’t be left behind. Look at change as an opportunity and you won’t go wrong.
8. Know when not to do it yourself – I always try to do things myself and it was a hard lesson to learn that I can’t do it all and that getting help from others is valuable.
9. Look after your own mental and physical health. You need to be healthy to represent your business.
10. Respect your customers, your staff and the laws of the land, lose that respect and it will cost you dearly.

A Big Surprise

I have a great team and they treated me to a surprise on the day of our 15^th Anniversary. Some balloons, a cake and video messages from some of our clients – you can see the videos and photos below. It has been a great pleasure building Accsys Accountants to what it is today, and I am looking forward to the next fifteen.