Spotlight on Roger Eddowes

Roger Eddowes of Essendon Accounts & Tax – a leading accountancy practice in Bucks and the surrounding area – shares his journey, what makes his practice different to the competition and also what impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on his business – both staff and clients.

So how did you get into your business? When did you start it and how did you end up in this industry? I actually started my working life as a quantity surveyor (QS) and you can imagine I like numbers! I enjoyed my time as a quantity surveyor – it only lasted about two years, as in my early twenties I became ill. As I was coming out of that illness, it was right in the recession of the early nineties. The construction industry was dead and QS jobs were disappearing and there was no chance of me ever getting back into a suitable role.

So I went back to college and started the accountancy exams and looked around for some work as well, because the course was part time. I ended up working for small family businesses in a Market Harborough who understood my position given my illness and were very kind supporting me with getting qualified.

I’m quite a loyal person, so I stayed with them for a few years after getting qualified; to pay them back for the investment they put in me. Because it was a family firm, I was never going to get to the top position. It was just by chance one day I was reading the accountancy rag and noticed that there was an opportunity going in Towcester in South Northants. There was a retiring accountant who had been let down by his successor.I went for a chat and before I knew it, I was in the building taking over his client portfolio and finding myself self-employed running a business! So it all happened quite quickly; that was back in 2004 and time’s flown by.

Like all these people who become self-employed, you don’t look back –

I love what I do. I love helping my clients seeing those clients thrive and getting through the bad times as well as good

I’m probably unemployable now. I love what I do. I love helping my clients.

So what’s your “why”? What gets you out of bed in the morning and motivates you to do what you do? Well - I look back to my childhood and I always aspired to have my own business. I could see my friends’ parents, who were business owners, they had the luxury trappings - expensive cars and boats and things like that. So that ticked all the boxes! I’ve always wanted to run my own business and earn a fortune; still aspiring to some of that of course! Seriously, one thing that taught me, particularly around my illness, was the amount of support I got from everyone: family, friends and the people who gave me my first job in accountancy. That business had several clients who they treated almost as part of their family - it wasn’t just about doing the numbers. I’ve always wanted to give something back and they taught me how to look after family businesses; notice the foibles and things like that that people have.

I really wanted to create an accountancy practice where we weren’t just doing the numbers but we were there on the end of a phone guiding and helping them; through all the good times as well as the bad. At the moment we’ve been going through the COVID-19 pandemic and a lot of clients have not been able to do what they’ve been doing for the last few years and have had to reinvent themselves. They needed someone there to say to: “Are we being stupid? Is this a sensible thing for us to now be doing?”

I get the satisfaction from being there and giving that advice. I’m not a trained mentor and I don’t profess to be a business coach, and sometimes these clients need proper business coaches who can go in there and give them full time support with all their processes and systems; but I can effectively be a non-executive director.

It’s giving back that’s what I enjoy doing - seeing those clients thrive and getting through the bad times as well as good.

You’re known as the Business Godparent – how did that name come about? Well, back at a networking meeting, I was called the “hugging accountant” after I told a story of going out to client who had had a stressful fortnight and the first thing she said when I walked into the building is “I’m going to give you a big hug!”

She had been introduced to me by another client. They were friends and they were out for dinner and they were talking about me – all good I trust! – and one of them said: “Oh – he’s a bit like our godparent – he keeps us out of trouble!” They told me about it and I had a lightbulb moment, thinking that is another term we could use for business adviser but wanted to bring in this “caring and looking” after aspects and “godparent” seemed to sum it up.

We now do a regular newspaper called The Business Godparent and an website: thebusinessgodparent.co.uk. The idea is that brings in all our

collaborators that we work with as well – so if you’ve got a small family business, you’ve not just got me, but access to marketing, HR, a bank manager – anyone a small business needs.

Do you think that accountants need to reinvent themselves in the new world? Absolutely. And it was an interesting article I read the other day, it was in our Institute magazine. Someone was referring to the change that’s happened in the last five months, saying it was equivalent to five years! Businesses don’t just want a number cruncher, we’ve got software and we’ve got all sorts of tools that can provide us with the data - what the client wants is someone to interpret that data and help them make those financial decisions. Accountants need to embrace all this technology, but they need to learn how to communicate it to their clients.

Here’s an example - I’ve got a chef I look after, there’s no point in me turning up with a 16 page accountancy document telling me what his profit is or what he spent his money on, because he’s not going to sit in the room for more than a five minutes. I’ve got to get my message over to him in a clear, concise way. Accountants need to be able to have that skill – yes they need to add up

The day of turning up with your carrier bag full of receipts and 18 months later getting a tax bill is long gone

obviously! What I think businesses want, particularly at the moment and it’s been highlighted with COVID-19 pandemic, that lots of businesses have been comfortably trundling along and it’s not been a problem; they would be making profits. But all of a sudden, if they haven’t got up to date information and advice now, they can’t make a decision for the rest of the year and that might be crucial for them. The day of turning up with your carrier bag full of receipts and 18 months later getting a tax bill is long gone.

What has it been like coping with a pandemic from the client’s side and also your employees? From our side, we were prepared for it; for lockdown. At the beginning of the year I had a detailed conversation with our IT supplier exploring how we could continue to support our clients. In March, we literally just picked up our computers and our telephones, went home and worked from there and we’ve been able to work ever since. Recently we have opened the office having done all the various COVID-19 assessments and putting screens up between people’s desks, as well as having policies about when

clients can visit, etc. I took the decision to open up the office and I know a lot of companies haven’t opened, but I noticed that, particularly younger members of my team, they were suffering in lockdown from home.

It might be okay for me. I’ve got a nice house, nice garden - I can escape out to garden. But two of my team are living in apartments confined within four walls. They can’t detach or find it difficult to detach work from leisure. It was all becoming blurred and that was affecting productivity and just their whole demeanour. We opened the office as quickly as we could, but obviously as safely as we could. We are fully open throughout the week but don’t have everyone in at the same time, so we’re there to respond to our clients. Actually we got client pressure to open as the clients wanted to get out and about as well! Zoom and the like are ok – we’ve all heard of Zoom fatigue – and it is not the same as face-to-face meetings.

Other than COVID-19 - what’s been the biggest challenge that you’ve faced in your business? Time to be honest. It’s trying to plan your time to cope with running the business and the numerous clients that you have to look after. It’s very easy to get carried away looking after your own clients and you forget about your own business. I now have Friday mornings as a “Roger sorting out type day”! This time is ring-fenced for me to focus on the business needs. I think a lot businesses get wrapped up looking after everyone else but not looking after themselves. I’ve even done my own tax return!

Given your many years of experience working with small business owners – if you were to give one “top tip”, what would it be? Take a step back and plan. It doesn’t matter what your business is, whatever you do, you need to plan your finances around it. If you need to make investments, then look at your cashflow and work out how you can support it. Likewise with any bills that are coming up, don’t let them catch you by surprise – manage the finances in your business. Don’t bumble along hoping for the best!