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Why confuse us with two companies?
What are we about?
Business Academy operates through two companies, targetting different markets. We could have operated as one - but experience has taught us there are two different markets that we need to treat separately to provide clarity of focus and to avoid confusion.Academy Chartered Accountants Limited
So if you choose to have us as your tax agent, then you will be a client of Academy Chartered Accountants Limited. Period. There are however two issues that our experience has taught us.
First, not all tax agents are created equal. First and foremost we are chartered accountants. For some clients, there is little obvious difference between one tax agent and another. But we are professionals in every sense of the word, and we take pride in what we do. Hopefully most business people would appreciate the difference between a balanced set of accounts, and one which doesn't balance. But there are many other areas not so easily noticed - compliance with the Companies Act being a major one.
Second, sadly many chartered accountants have earned a reputation as being very good at producing sets of books - but not so good at dealing with business issues. When they do tackle business issues beyond tax and accounting, they often focus on their own pet hobby horses - and neglect other areas.
We don't pretend to be all things to all people. But if you choose to use our accounting services, you can also use our business services without having to deal with two companies.
Academy of Business Excellence Limited
Sadly, many of our colleagues are so caught up in the ongoing paper war they don't really have time to get into the businesses they look after. So we offer Academy of Business Excellence Limited. Clients of this company can keep their existing accountant, and use our business development services to help identify their SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), and to work on getting their business to grow.
There are many businesses offering to improve your business performance. And just as anyone can call themselves an accountant, so anyone can call themselves a business consultant, business coach or other similar name. So if you think you have difficulties choosing an accountant, how on earth do you choose someone who claims to improve your business?
So what makes us different? Well, in one sense, nothing. Here we are offering to improve your business performance, and most readers will have nothing to settle their minds down. Does our status as professional chartered accountant help? In our minds it should help because everything we do reflects that same professional standard.
However, there are two things we've done that might help. First we are members of RAN ONE. That probably doesn't mean a lot to you, because RAN ONE doesn't promote itself to the public. But RAN ONE is an international firm, with three major centres of activity - Australia, Europe and America. Its main focus is on helping chartered accountants (and some other consultants) work with small to medium businesses with a particular focus on building business value. I've been part of RAN ONE (and it's predecessor) for the best part of a decade.
This doesn't mean I am the same as all their members. It's more like being part of a bigger accountancy firm - while still not being caught up with all their politics. RAN ONE provide tools, training and advice for their members. They also provide a network of others engaged in this area, which small firms simply don't have.
The second thing we do is ensure that in most cases, jobs are broken down into very small pieces. This means that bills are agreed in advance for particular work. In some cases clients can even cancel work at progress points agreed in advance. So we do not ask for a large financial commitment at any point in time. We prefer smaller, clearly defined steps.