Despite many saying it, I really am not your typical accountant. I’m an entrepreneur who’s passionate about giving great service and finding radical solutions to provide value and establish efficiencies.
Why I do what I do
When i set up Farnell Clarke in 2007 there was one objective, to make accountancy simple and easy for our clients. We are well on the way to doing this for our clients and now, my mission is to help other firm owners do the same for their clients.
As a business owner, I’ve always been about flexibility. Everything is cloud-based, which gives me and the team at Farnell Clarke the ability to work from different locations.
Having that flexibility gives me the opportunity to spend time with my family and every now and again get out on a boat and enjoy the beautiful Norfolk Broads.
None of that would be possible had we not adopted the best tech available, and I’m keen to share what I’ve learnt and what mistakes I’ve made to help you make your digital ‘first steps’.
The early days
I’ve always had a fascination for improving efficiencies and processes.
I started in B2C sales as a record shop owner and a band manager, which is where I began to see the need to utilise technology.
From there I worked within a Big Four firm advising predominantly public-sector bodies on efficiency and process improvement.
Farnell Clarke is born
From day one I had a desire for Farnell Clarke to be a different kind of accounting firm.
Back in 2008 I saw an opportunity to utilise technology to drive efficiency and change the way accounting services could be delivered to our clients. As a result, we were one of the first 100% cloud accounting practices globally back in 2009.
Without doing that, Farnell Clarke would not be the company it is today, and it would certainly not have grown by 30% year-on-year for the last decade.
Why does any of this matter?
I’ve been where you are. I’ve faced the challenges of building a digital practice, and having tried most things over the last 10 years, I’m keen to share the lessons learned.
People often comment on my enthusiasm and willingness to support. That’s because I have a truly unique insight into how a firm can successfully leverage technology for growth.
I have however also realised it is simply not about tech alone. We have to combine the perfect balance of people, process and technology to streamline what we do and use that time to focus on building amazing client experience.
Will has gained valuable insight into what works for a digital firm. He’s hit a few bumps along the way and found a few pitfalls, but that only adds to the experience and helps fine-tune processes to ultimately improve efficiency and customer experience.
– Steve Cox, IRIS
Let’s make sense of the digital transformation
You don’t want to just change your firm, you want to transform it and change the nature of the relationships with your clients.