An interview with Amanda Gascoigne
In many respects, Amanda Gascoigne is a trailblazer. She started her own practice back in 1999 after her place of work wouldnโt offer her any maternity pay and then, in 2008, decided to take a leap of faith into paperless bookkeeping long before the majority of the industry.
But whatโs special about her story isnโt just her ability to evolve. Itโs that her motivations are identical to many of our own: not only supporting her clients, but enabling herself to live the life she wants โ at work, and at home.
โItโs simple: Culture is everythingโ.
One of the driving forces behind her ability to do this is a commitment to cultivating a working culture she truly believes in, and one her clients can buy into, too.
In her own words, โItโs simple: Culture is everything. When youโve got a great culture within your accounting practice, you become both an employer of choice and an accountant of choice. The culture becomes contagious; everyone wants to be a part of it.
โCreating and nurturing a positive culture isnโt actually that hard to do. Itโs treating everyone with respect, itโs having great boundaries and itโs about being clear as to what the vision for your company โ and your home life โ is.
โFor example, if you decide to be โfamily-friendlyโ and only want to work four days a week, or you donโt want to be contactable outside of traditional working hours, share that. Itโs nothing to be embarrassed about. If youโre loud and proud, people will be attracted to that โ and thatโs how you keep hold of staff and clients for long periods of time.
โWhen I started out, running a business out-of-home wasnโt that common. A lot of potential clients didnโt want to visit someoneโs house โ and thatโs totally fine. My feeling was, if thatโs their attitude, they arenโt going to be very receptive if Iโve got children running in and out of the office. It was when other business owners, those with small children, found out about my practice that I really started to see growth. They felt like they could relate to me, and that they trusted me to look after their affairs.
โIf youโve got that type of culture and youโre able to share it, itโs a win-win. It takes much less energy to be yourself, rather than someone else. People are happier for you if you do it that way; it becomes an extended family.โ
What advice can you offer to accountants and bookkeepers looking to develop this type of culture within their own business?
โIt comes back to being super clear on what you want. Once you know what you want, both in your practice and your life, it takes the emotion out of so many of those decisions.
โThe foundations I always look to build from, whether starting a business, growing it, scaling it, or down-sizing, are:
- Having a vision, and being able to articulate it. Once you know what it is, you can start using it not just to influence culture but as marketing materials on your website. Itโs the easiest way to ensure the real you comes out.
- Providing the services that you want to offer, rather than second-guessing what other people may be looking for.
- Implementing a culture that reflects you: who you are, the people you want to work with and the business you want to run. Turn this into a competitive advantage; after all, nobody else can be you.
- Utilising the right technology to save time, their clients time and to enable them to enjoy a life outside of their practice.
โAccountancy is an industry steeped in tradition, and some of that is great, such as our ethics, honesty, and integrity. Those are elements that we never want to lose. That being said, there are definitely areas that we could improve collectively. In my experience, I think bookkeepers have been embracing technology a lot more successfully than accountants.
Accountants, by nature, are a little more wary; they very much embody an โif itโs not broken, donโt try to fix itโ mantra. The biggest challenge is getting them to realise the benefits of embracing certain technologies, and how to do so.
โWhen I was starting out, I always wanted to try and test new technologies, and then get my clients to get on board too. Back in 1999-2000, I was buying software โ and sometimes even computers! โ for my clients to use to do their books. It was completely new, but clients trusted me to lead them on this new path.
โToday, weโre still seeing accountants remain attached to their cash books, or their excel spreadsheets. Itโs why many of them remain time-poor. They feel that handing over admin tasks to technology will make their role more redundant, when really itโs the opposite โ it gives them more time to focus on their clientsโ specific needs and goals.
So what does the future hold โ for you, and for the industry?
โIโm excited. Weโre often worried about the future and the changes it brings, but there is always something new to help your business evolve. Having a growth mindset, particularly in an industry like accounting that isnโt particularly reactive to change, really spices things up. The practices that have that mentality โ always looking to save time, to save money, to be a leader within the field โ will continue to thrive.
โOur perspectives within the industry are changing, too. The influence of millennials, both staff and clients, is huge. These are people that want more from life; they donโt want to be sitting around working 70 hour weeks. For practices that arenโt helping people achieve this, thereโs a real risk of becoming redundant.
โAs for me, Iโm always working to ensure I can do more of the things that I love. Working is only a part of our life, so we need to enjoy the other parts too. I love being with my husband and my two sons. I love sitting out on my balcony and looking at the ocean, watching the whales migrate north and then back again. I love connecting with people that are important to me; it helps me remember that many of lifeโs stresses arenโt that relevant and they donโt need to use up all my energy.โ