Sole trader Stephen Arnold explains how AVN helped him grow his business, and improve his work/life balance at the same time.
My background is mainly as a financial controller, helping smaller businesses grow, along with experience as an auditor and in practice. Now I run my own practice with a small team of three. I love the management accounting side — meeting clients, helping them learn and analyse their businesses month by month so they can grow. I do that by introducing annual budgets, preparing monthly management accounts, and holding quarterly or monthly meetings depending on what they need. I just enjoy being there as part of their team.
Through recommendations, the business has quadrupled in the last four years. It’s still small, but I’ve gone from two clients about five years ago to over 50 now.
Where I was stuck
A couple of years ago, I’d grown my turnover by around 25%, but my profit had actually gone down. I’d only taken about a 10% increase in salary, and I was working longer hours. Something needed to change, but I wasn’t sure where to go.
I’d only ever looked after clients and taken the recommendations as they came — nearly 99% of my clients have come from referrals — so I’d never really looked at marketing. I’d identified one or two problem clients, but I didn’t know how to move things forward. What worried me was continuing to grow the business without making any more money, and pushing my stress levels even higher. Working alone as a sole trader, I was lost on where to go.
The trigger was a change in my professional cover: the senior partner at the firm I’d relied on for years retired, and the new partner didn’t know me the way he had. I felt more exposed and more alone, and that’s when I decided I needed to move on.
The decision to join AVN
My biggest concern was the cost. For a small business with a smaller turnover, it felt like quite a lot. But within the first month of troubleshooting and getting help with clients, and certainly after three months, I know I made the right decision. I’m comfortable and genuinely looking forward to the journey ahead.
The headline results
The biggest thing has been dealing with my problem clients, which my coach Emma helped me with. I sorted out my two worst-recovering clients: one has taken on an in-house bookkeeper, which will save me £2,000–£3,000 a year in time costs preparing their accounts, and the other has agreed a fee increase of £3,000. Two big wins for the business.
My stress levels have also come down substantially. With good guidance from Emma I’ve made better decisions — saving around £4,500 by dropping an unnecessary office and a piece of software. These were exactly the kinds of decisions I’d struggle with on my own. And so far I’ve secured a 20% increase in my fees for the coming year.
I don’t like confrontation, so there was real anxiety about implementing some of this. But I had confidence in Emma’s advice, so I dealt with my hardest client first. I initially resigned the client, and she phoned me back and pleaded to stay. That gave me the confidence that things really can change. I’d already identified a lot of time spent on three clients I hadn’t been able to charge for the previous year — a good chunk of my turnover growth that never reached my personal income — and I’ve now dealt with all three.
What’s next
My main focus is improving my work-life balance. We’ve set targets so I take proper holidays and reduce my hours from 40–45 down to 35. I’m already seeing an uplift in turnover, and by increasing my charge-out rates — while keeping them fair — I can actually recover my time. The next step will be taking someone else on to help me move forward.
When you’re a sole practitioner, you have ideas but no one to run them past first, so they just stay as ideas. Having Emma to ask for guidance has been invaluable. Having someone on your side makes a massive difference — and my quality of life at home has improved too, because I can switch off better when I’m with my wife. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend AVN to other accountants.