I was a late starter in the Accountancy profession, beginning my training contract at the age of 33 once the youngest of my three children started school in 1979. So I benefitted from the tenacity of my contemporaries who fought the battles to ensure that women were accepted in what was still a very male dominated profession.
That isn’t to say that there are no battles still needing to be fought but, by and large opportunities are open to all. However, for many women the major issue remains that of balancing career and family.
I have spent all my career in General Practice and the biggest change came from the introduction of computerised bookkeeping packages. It was a gradual change but fundamental all the same. Year end accounts were not so relevant, clients wanted help with their bookkeeping packages. Increasingly I felt that we were not always giving clients good value for money and the most proactive advice.
It might be considered to be a radical solution but in 2004 together with my daughter and another colleague we set up a new practice.
We were going to be client focussed. We weren’t going to have staff or timesheets. We would spend time with clients, visiting them rather than meeting in the office. Because we didn’t have timesheets, we could spend as much time as necessary and get things right. It also meant that we had to fix fees in advance, so we talked to clients openly about our charges.
Then my daughter became pregnant and we realised that our no staff policy would have to change. Luckily we found a surprising number of Chartered Accountants who had also taken time off to have children and who didn’t want to return to work full time but wanted to do something. They were happy to work with us and our immediate problem was solved!
We set out to have family friendly policies which meant giving the mums completely flexible working whilst still providing a proactive five-star service to our clients.
The babies are now doing GCSEs but we still keep to our family friendly policies and there are now eight of us, including one young mum raising the next generation.
When we started, our business plan was simple. Have fun, don’t work for anyone you don’t like and make money. It’s worked for us.
The fly in the ointment? Always the same, if I answer the telephone to a man, he always assumes I’m the secretary. Probably the same person who assumes our one male colleague is the boss. It still drives me nuts!
