Nick is the reigning winner of the North East Accountancy Awards Account of the Year category.
As Robson Laidler enters its 100th anniversary this year, we are taking a look at our highlights, so here’s a quick 5 minutes with the champion…
How did it feel to win the North East Accountant of the Year Award?
2019 was a challenging year. I oversaw our new Business Innovation team, spearheading the transition towards Making Tax Digital and getting clients onto cloud-based digital platforms whilst embracing a whole host of other new technologies and onboarding processes. There were sleepless nights, there were difficult challenges with changing the way that we work and the personal and mental challenge of changing our businesses systems and processes. So, winning the award was a benchmark to say you’ve done alright!
How has winning North East Accountant of the Year impacted the firm?
It’s certainly made a difference. We were already growing quite quickly but winning the award has accelerated our pace. When a prospect says to us, “what’s your USP?” I respond, “customer service” and “level of knowledge”. Right, OK, everyone probably says that, so having the credibility to back it up validates this and service excellence and knowing our stuff is why we won and proof of our innovation.
How can clients benefit by working with the North East Accountant of the Year?
Well I didn’t put my charges up! So, any new client that comes to us is getting my level of service and knowledge at the same rate they always would. I also pride myself on just really getting underneath the clients’ skin, understanding their business better than they do to add value, support and direct and ultimately help them reach their goals. My promise is to help clients ‘make more money, pay less tax and have a great lifestyle’. We call these ‘The Three Freedoms’ – Financial Freedom, Time Freedom and Mind Freedom.
What advice would you give to anyone entering the awards? Or thinking of entering the awards?
Start long before the entry date. One of our questions was impact, so a lot of our award entry was built up on my personal and the businesses KPIS. So, I would say ensure you track and measure everything, so when it comes to things like this, you’ve got the stats there because it’s hard to blow your own trumpet. Hard facts and figures help make the application a lot easier and demonstrate tangible results.
