Accountancy is so much more than the numbers.
As a profession we have the opportunity and the obligation to make a positive contribution to businesses and their owners, to the economy and to the wider world.
As a profession, however, Accountancy is traditionally seen as being ‘just bean counting.’ To a lot of people it is a bit dull and a necessary evil. They view their accountant as a commodity rather than a service: necessary but, as long as they do the job and aren’t too expensive, one accountant is much like another. Others see advances in technology (cloud accounting software and initiatives such as ‘making tax digital’) and question whether they need an accountant at all.
By taking this view, however, many businesses, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are failing to benefit from the depth and breadth of expertise their accountant has to offer.
Accountants should make a difference. They need to understand the pain entrepreneurs feel and offer real, tangible and practical solutions to address it.
That is what I have set out to do with Grant Jones Accountancy.
A wealth of experience to help clients create a legacy
Grant Jones Accountancy was formed in 2006 and, like most of our clients, we are an SME. We have gone through the same struggles we see our clients experience. We know first-hand what it can feel like to be the small fish in the big pond.
Everyone in Grant Jones Accountancy has the advantage of a wide range of experience and training. Take me, for example. I am a qualified accountant, of course, but I started my career in industry. That is where I was trained, and where I had the opportunity to build a wide range of other skills. I’ve worked in Global multi-nationals and travelled all over the world. I’ve seen both operational accounting and audit. I’ve been a consultant and project manager as well as in management and financial accounting.
Now, as a chartered management accountant and chartered tax adviser, I work with a wide range of clients: from private individuals to medium-sized businesses (anything up to 1000 employees) and from start-ups to businesses of over 100 years standing.
My skill-set is by no means unusual in my team. With our combined experience we can offer a more comprehensive commercial solution to entrepreneurs, so they can overcome any challenges, achieve their goals, make their mark on the world and create an inheritance for their families. That is, after all, what most of us go into business for in the first place. To leave a legacy.
Believing in businesses so they can realise their dreams
I passionately believe in businesses. I see them as good for the economy (local, national and global), good for the communities in which they are based, good for those who run them and work in them and good for their families.
Growing my own business has told me how satisfying it can be. I know that I am creating something of meaning for my own family and giving employment and opportunities to my team.
That is why I am so determined that we do more than ‘run the numbers’ for my clients. I believe our role for clients is more than ensuring compliance with the rules and paying the right amount of tax. I want to see them thrive – to get the same joy in seeing their business grow as they realise their dreams and secure a future for their families.
Doing more for businesses by helping them grow
We are now positioning Grant-Jones as ‘not your average accountant’ by offering a range of business growth services for all types of business.
Using the collective experience of the team and by making strategic alliances with other like-minded accountants and tax advisers, we can now offer benchmarking information, performance improvement advice, decision support tools and personal and business tax planning.
It has been exhilarating to see the impact we’re having. In the last few weeks, we’ve saved our biggest client £600,ooo and one of our sole traders £5,000. In both cases, that is a significant sum for them and will make a big difference for their businesses.
Our desire to do good goes deeper too. Helping businesses isn’t enough. We want to make an impact on the world.
A business for good – changing the world one impact at a time
In industry, the idea of Corporate Social Responsibility isn’t new. For small businesses, however, it seems unaffordable. How can you make a meaningful difference to the most disadvantaged when you are building a business from the bottom up?
That is why Grant Jones Accountancy became a B1G1 Business for Good in 2017.
The idea is simple. B1G1 co-ordinate small donations from businesses all around the world and pass them to 500 carefully screened projects that contribute to the United Nations sustainable development goals. These small donations – which may provide pens and books for a child to give them an education, or seeds and tools to a farmer to feed his family – they call ‘impacts’. To date, they have made 270bn of them.
We link business services to these impacts – for every £1 we save for our clients, we give an impact - and, as a result, it differentiates what we do from ‘the rest.’ So far, we have made over 6,000 impacts – which means clean water for families, literacy for children and food for everyone.
Not your average accountant
There is an exciting future ahead for Grant-Jones Accounting. We are expanding – with all the pleasures and challenges which that brings – and now we have set a new target to help clients and also those most in need. Our aim is to put an additional £1m in my client’s bank accounts and make 1m impacts on the world - an initiative we call Get and Give a Million.
Through this and through everything we do at Grant-Jones we want to spread the message that accountants can and should do more.
If you’d like to know how we can do more for you, please arrange a meeting with us.
Arrange a meeting with Fiona