Adam's LinkedIn profile

My dad had his own accountancy practice alongside his accountancy lecturing job. I have a copy of the poster of a Smirnoff ad with the slogan “Accountancy was my life until I discovered Smirnoff” that he used to have by his office door. I’ve always had a familiarity with accountancy and I did bits of bookkeeping work for him as a teenager, then worked for him full time when I was 20. Over the years and whilst qualifying, I moved around both in terms of firms and the country ending up in Kent. I’ve learnt something from every practice and boss that I’ve worked for, and I’ve brought the best from my broad experience into Swift Accountancy with automation baked in from the start to ensure streamlined processes.

For the first two years of my practice, whilst I was building up my client base, the majority of my work was sub-contracting to other accountancy firms that were short-staffed as a result of the pandemic. As my client base grew, I reduced my sub-contracting work. It was similar to my dad having the college lecturing job alongside his practice as he built it up. It can help to have another source of income to subsidise your practice when you’re building it up because it’s a big leap from day one to earning enough to live on.

I always wanted to be the provincial firm that is known locally so I’m a general practice and I’ve always enjoyed the variety that brings. My practice has grown through local networking such as the BNI which builds the local network and community.

A short-term issue facing small businesses is the lack of confidence resulting from the changes to national insurance and employment allowance that has shaken the confidence of SMEs. I don’t think that the impact it will have on SMEs and their plans for growth has been thought through. Added to that is the pervasive feeling that people are paying more and not necessarily getting the same value that they were before, for example the cost of food going up in supermarkets whilst the quality has gone down. People feel the same way about the taxes they are paying – life has become more expensive whilst higher marginal rates of tax mean they get a lesser quality of life than they had before.

The bigger and longer-term impact on the profession is the lack of protection for the title of accountant. Scandals in the press about unregulated accountants have undermined confidence in the profession and also the ability of qualified professionals to charge the fees that they should for the value that they are delivering, because it’s easy to be undercut by someone who doesn’t follow the regulations. 

The Government does not seem to be on our side in terms of the level of support that agents are getting – it is increasingly difficult for agents to work with HMRC. MTD is being prioritised over a basic level of customer service that agents need, seemingly for political reasons. It undermines confidence even further.

I have a young family that takes up most of my spare time but I’m also a runner and a member of a running club – of which I am the treasurer and do the accounts!