Graeme Tennick
Graeme Tennick is the Chief Impact Officer at Tennick Accountants which recently won a brace of awards at the Accounting Excellence Awards
"Having first picked up the award for Small Firm of the Year for the North of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, we went on to win the national ‘Grand Prix’ Small Firm of the Year Award for UK and Ireland. Following a rigorous judging process, the Awards recognise and celebrate members of the accounting profession that embody excellence in everything they do for their clients and teams.
I’m absolutely blown away to have come away with not one award, but two! So super proud of the team that work alongside me, together with the support we have from our families that give us the motivation to be better and do better. We also wouldn’t be where we are without our clients who have embraced our unique approach to finance by looking to improve time, money and freedom for each of them.
Time, money and freedom; so many of us do not have enough. Having grown up in a household where my Dad built a successful forklift truck business I can relate to these struggles. I often reflect on the time I missed with the kids when setting up the firm eleven years ago - the financial sacrifices and lack of freedom that come with starting and scaling a business. Thankfully, I can now also relate to coming out the other side - I can take the kids to school and see the family benefits of a level of freedom I always dreamt of. Our 360-degree transformational rather than transactional formula of integrating the financial, operational and retirement aspects of a business, allows us to help fellow business owners to replicate the positive lessons we’ve learnt first-hand, but without the war wounds.
Our mantra is to transform lives by giving business owners time, money and freedom by helping them find the answers to questions they never thought to ask – the team aims to influence the numbers rather than just report them.
Our aim is to be recognised as a national accountancy, coaching and data analytics firm for SME businesses, eroding ‘entrepreneurial poverty’ in terms of money and time, by aligning business and strategic plans and at the same time strengthening the resilience of their owners. As part of this journey, when celebrating the business’ tenth anniversary about a year ago, we shared this vision with our clients. We also made the bold commitment that in three years we’d win at the North East Accountancy Awards, Xero Awards and Accounting Excellence Awards. Well ahead of our target, we were shortlisted for all three, and then went on to win the national Xero and two Accounting Excellence Awards! With that track record, I’m excited to see what else we can achieve for the business, as well as our clients.
Why can't a firm in a small place win three National Awards within one year? Many years ago we might have thought twice about entering - let alone winning - but challenge expectations and realise your true potential and we look forward to reading of the success of other ACCA practices in the months and years ahead."