Jessica's LinkedIn profile

I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do when I was 16 but I knew I wanted to earn decent money and forge a career in something long term, so I turned to Google and  accountancy came up. Medicine and Law also came up, but I knew I didn't want to go to University, so I went with accountancy and 20 years later, I'm still here!

I hand delivered my CV to every local practice where I lived and landed a job. I worked full-time and attended evening classes at college for several years until I qualified with ACCA. It's actually where I met my husband as he'd been sent to the same college by his employer to study ACCA as well. We worked for separate practices for many years and eventually he set up RD Accounting Ltd whilst I was on maternity leave. I had our two children in quick succession and by the time I was returning to work, the practice was built up enough that he could employ me. We now run the practice together.

We have eight staff and our clients are mostly local SMEs. Because of this, we prioritise keeping our in-person office that is always staffed as many of our clients like to be able to see someone – particularly our clients of an older generation. It also helps with teamwork and training opportunities as we work together more fluidly. 

We have an audit licence which is quite unusual for a small practice and as we are charity specialists this allows us to easily support our charitable clients who float around the audit thresholds which are much lower than commercial businesses. The reason we specialise in the not-for-profit sector is because in the past I worked for a sole practitioner who acted for lots of charities so a lot of my experience and specialisms come from my time working with him and more importantly, I really enjoy working with this sector! 

I started working for the sole practitioner in 2013 and everything was still mainly done by hand. It was a shock to the system having worked for some large corporate practices but working for that small firm was probably the best thing that happened to me for my career as I really learnt my trade when I had to go back to pen and paper. I was already fully qualified, but it was a real eye-opener because I didn't realise what I didn't know until I had to do it myself without software. My husband had a similar experience which has given us the foundations to run a well-rounded practice covering all aspects of accountancy from payroll through to audit. 

We try to make our office a nice place to work with lots of little extras and we do something slightly out of the ordinary where we all work Monday to Thursday but Friday is on a rota system so the team only work one in four – there is no reduction to anyone's pay and no compressed hours, just three out of four Fridays off to relax, re-energise and enjoy their own lives! 

Because our team is motivated to have the Friday off, we find they work more efficiently during those four days and achieve just as much as they would over five days, they're happier and more energetic. The appeal of our working practices enabled us to secure our last qualified hire quite easily.

We're keen to keep this going as I think recruitment is only going to get harder, especially for small practices with the cutting of Level 7 funding for apprenticeships, something we have used in the past. It may be that only larger practices can take on the training costs in the future reducing the pool of talented candidates coming in to the market. Also, with AI developing, increasingly young people coming into the profession won't get that opportunity to learn the core skills needed to enable them to progress through the profession. None of that bodes well for future recruitment. 

Outside of work I spend time with my family and our dog. The dog comes to the office with me which is definitely one benefit from having your own practice! I also enjoy running to help keep my head clear and my two kids are really into dancing so I'm a taxi service for getting them to their various dance lessons, and I love a glass or two of wine!