The Fizz! Blog

Clients in and clients out, 2014

In the calendar year 2014 we took on 110 new clients.  In the same period, 22 "left".  However, a breakdown of those 22 is:

• Seven people who closed down their limited company because they got a permanent job.
• One person who moved miles away from our patch (who would have used us remotely, but we recommended would be better off with someone locally who could do face-to-face meetings)
• Three businesses that failed, sadly.
• Six clients that we decided weren't a good match for us, so we asked them to find another home.
• Two sole traders who decided to do their own tax returns.
• One person who bought a new business and decided to consolidate all their work with the accountant of that new business.  To be honest, in that situation the default would usually be to move the new business to their current accountant i.e. us - but we'd never felt we had a tremendous rapport with that particular business owner (although we did like them) and evidently they felt the same too!
• One business that moved to another accountant, who we suspect had sold them on a rather aggressive tax reduction scheme.  Fair enough - what one accountant can think is appropriate and acceptable can vary very much from what another thinks.  And maybe they didn't move for that reason anyway.
• One person who moved to another accountant, and we never found out why (which was quite unsettling, since seven days earlier they'd asked to set up a meeting about a new project!).

So overall it's only the last three that decided to go and have similar work done by another accountant.  Which seems a pretty good result overall!  Maybe in an ideal world, nobody would leave, ever, but I'm not convinced - people change over time, and want different things, so zero churn is unrealistic.  We'll take 110 in and three out any time.  Hopefully 2015 will be just as good.

www.fizzhq.com

Thame Lunch Club

We've a new website for Thame Lunch Club, a long-established group.

Thame Lunch Club (TLC) is a networking group for people working in professional services in and around Thame, in Oxfordshire.  Attendees are generally from areas like accountancy, law, banking, surveying, estate agency and the like.  Sometimes we let people with proper, useful jobs come as well!  There’s no limit on the number of people from a single profession who can attend a lunch.  There’s no formal timetable for the meeting, and no requirement (or opportunity) to stand up and talk about your business.  It’s simply an opportunity to eat, chat and have fun.  TLC is a very informal group, with an emphasis on regular attendance, socialising and enjoyment.

We meet once a month, usually in the Rising Sun or House of Spice in Thame.   Usually attendance is between 12 and 15 people at each lunch during the year, with maybe 25 people at our Christmas do.  However, numbers by themselves are not the aim, and we prune our circulation list on a regular basis so that we don’t trouble non-attenders with emails for an event they’re not really interested in.  The group is aimed at people who are keen to put some time and commitment into building strong, long-term and hopefully profitable business relationships.

The lunches are organised by Greg Lovett of Fizz Accounting and Chris Stocker of Stocker & Co, Solicitors.

Have a look here at some of the businesses that regularly attend.

If you’d like to be added to the email list for the group – or if you’ve any questions about it – please drop Greg a line at [email protected]

Changes at Fizz - say hello to Jane!

As of January, I've been joined by a new co-director here at Fizz, Jane Park.  I've known Jane for many years - in fact, we originally trained as Chartered Accountants together.  Although she shares my background in working with small and medium businesses, Jane has spent the last five years working for a company engaged in international property investment.  That means that, as well as a thorough knowledge of UK accounts and tax, she has lots of experience of bank financing, overseas transactions, foreign currencies, and VAT and tax in other EU countries.  We're really excited about working together over the coming months and years. 

Greg

www.fizzhq.com