One Year In…
TL;DR - gratuitous self-reflection blog post.
This week marks one year since I quit my life in the city and started my own accounting firm.
(I’m still not certain I can call it a firm with just one person, but moving on…)
After saying my goodbyes and leaving my swipe card on the desk in the tax corner of the office, I was about to embark on something that was equal parts terrifying and exciting.
The fear didn’t hit straight away. The first two weeks of self-employment were bliss – partly because I didn’t actually do much work.
On the Friday immediately following quitting, I went to Canterbury night races to watch my friend’s horse race (it won), absolutely nailed karaoke in Chinatown on the Saturday, and went on a week-long holiday on the Sunday with my sisters, my dad and the assortment of partners/kids.
Side note: go to Narooma if you haven’t already. Also 11 people in one house is a lot.
So after a week away, we came home. And I sat at my desk in the corner of our bedroom (because 18-month old Cyclone Callum had stolen my study/2nd bedroom).
Yike – this was now real. I had to win clients and make money.
(Oh yeah - another backstory during this whirlwind period of resignations, claw-back negotiations (I won) and holidays, was that we also found out that we were due to have our second kid in September. Lots of celebration, surprise, and fear).
Had I timed this horribly? How many slow months before the lure of a steady pay check became enticing once again?
In moments of weakness, I looked at a few job ads but pride kicked in pretty quickly – I couldn’t go back. Not straight away, anyway. I knew I could find a job again fairly easily, but no one likes losing. Especially me.
I knew I had to give it a year – I told myself that if it’s a disaster, I could tell recruiters/employers that I had a career break after 13 years working full-time.
(A further side story - I was also recovering from a confidence-sapping facial palsy, so even if things were slow, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing from a recovery perspective. I could take some time out and enjoy my kids at home, which in any other city-working scenario, would have been much less likely to occur).
Thankfully I had lined up a few bits and pieces to get me through to 30 June, but I had factored in a slow start.
Then three things happened which changed the game and made me realise that I was never going back to my old job:
While at a Friday wedding only a few weeks into AKL Tax, I received a call from a random number from a client who I had dealt with at a firm several years beforehand. They needed help on something urgently, which happened to be something I knew I could do solo just as well as the bigger firms. Even though I was at a wedding, I was now celebrating a big engagement.
The June 2021 lockdown hit. While in most cases this would be unideal for a new business – with lockdowns come government stimulus packages. With stimulus packages comes clients who need to navigate them. I had learnt from JobKeeper that many accountants simply couldn’t add this extra task on top of their already busy workloads, so several clients came across during this period and have stuck around.
A friend of a friend was looking for a new accountant for his family group. I outlined what I could offer, and they took a chance on a new business. From a confidence perspective, I won my first client I didn’t personally know (and still haven’t met!). I knew I could win work now. The high from winning work is a hard one to emulate.
I have learnt a ridiculous amount in the last year, which is probably worth eventually articulating in another post. But in short, taking a gamble and trying out the “working for yourself” vibe is likely the best decision I will ever make from a professional perspective.
I miss many things about working in the city (Friday night drinks just don’t cut it when you work in a one person team), however the flexibility and ability to work with great clients, meet great people, go on great lunches and perform great work has ensured that AKL Tax is here to stay.
So what next?
Keeping my current clients happy. They ensured I made it to Year 2 and I will be eternally grateful. If I haven’t caught you for a beer yet, I will.
Focussing on the key clients I’m keen for the business to work with long-term. And find more of them. One major area is start-ups – I have seen some weird and wonderful ESOP documentation in the last year, and I know it can be done better. Structuring for new families (especially ones who also have their own business) is also a key one – young parents are priced out of good advice on all fronts, and this needs to change.
Keep aligning with great business partners. The lawyers, financial planners, mortgage brokers and even other accounting firms I’ve dealt with in the past year, have gone a long way to ensuring I didn’t get bored with my own thoughts for eight hours a day. The best professionals know what they don’t know – myself included – so it’s been great to interact with you all. Thank you and let’s keep it happening.
Speaking of aligning with other accounting firms – I have recently agreed to be the Head of Tax with SBO Financial. This role will complement the work we are doing at AKL Tax (with a LOT of convenient overlap) and is a really exciting opportunity to work with some truly great clients, who need the things I know how to do well (ESOPs, SBCGT, all that fun stuff). They also don’t do suits and ties, which made me like them instantly. They can write about this much better than I ever could:
AKL Tax needs a team of more than one person. And soon. I haven’t exactly finalised which positions will work best for the next one to two years in the business; however, I’m thinking one or two undergrads and a part-time manager may work perfectly. I’ll get the job ads out soon, but in the meantime if you like cloud accounting and researching weird tax stuff, or know someone awesome who does, please get in touch.
I’ve said this a few times but once again, thank you for everyone who supported AKL Tax in its first year – whether it being referring a client, being a client, bouncing ideas, telling me what doesn’t work in a new accounting firm (this one was huge!). It’s been a one man show for now, but it hasn’t felt like it. And won’t be for long.
Until next year.
AKL