Business Profile: ABAC Chartered Accountants
Name: Julian McKeown
Company: ABAC Chartered Accountants
Email: julian@abacni.co.uk
Tel: 028 8224 7222
Can you describe your business?
We help companies and business owners deal with all financial and business aspects of their lives. As accountants about 50 per-cent of our work is that which traditional accountants do but the other 50 per-cent is a huge variety depending on what problems clients need solved.
Why did you start your own business?
It was something I always wanted to do, I generally learn by ‘doing’ so I wanted to do things myself so I could explain them better to others. We advise business so I wanted to make sure the advice I was giving others actually worked, walk the walk as such and feel the pain clients talked about experiencing.
What are the best things about running your own business?
Seeing a customer or staff member develop into what you knew they were capable of when perhaps they were not that sure they could do it themselves. That gives me a real buzz as does the constant learning… you never stop learning new things.
What are the main challenges facing the business?
Our clients’ challenges are our challenges and there are a huge amount out there, dealing with uncertainty being one of them. We are all dealing with the world changing at an alarming rate, huge changes in every industry so there are always new problems to solve. At the end of the day the problems boil down to the same thing: Getting the right product and customers, the right team in the right places to service the customers and making sure cashflow and profits are at the right level. There is always a limiting resource be it time, money or capacity and it’s figuring out how to use that limited resource to its full potential.
What advice would you give to someone starting a business?
Firstly I think you should have three plans!1 – what the best result would be; 2 – what will probably happen and 3 – what is the worst that could happen. Once you are comfortable that you can deal with any of those three happenings ‘go for it,’ but aim for plan one. Secondly you should talk to someone who has done it before that is not a competitor and get their advice, ideally keep them on board as a mentor. Thirdly be prepared… to work hard, for things to go wrong and to learn loads.
Can you describe your experience of running a business in three words or less?
Challenging, rewarding, fast.
