I’m looking for an experienced accountant – with a very certain spark – to join inniAccounts and head up our client facing teams.

Let me explain why I need a spark. We’re making waves in the profession, our clients love our service, and we’ve moved beyond startup to scaleup. We’ve delivered our first million pounds of fee income, and we need someone to help us reach five million and beyond. We’ve achieved this because we’re not your typical accountancy practice: we’re customer-focussed technology pioneers, and entrepreneurialism is in our DNA.

Wanted: a customer-focussed technical expert with natural people skills

We’re looking for someone to head up our client services team. You may know this role as ‘partner designate’, and it’s the ideal career progression for an experienced senior manager, or a sideways move for a partner.

In this role, you’ll lead a team of 12 accountants and account managers to deliver an exceptional compliance and advisory service to our clients. Service quality and technical accuracy of the entire team’s output rests with you, so you’ll need to be technically proficient, and naturally look from the customer’s point of view. Your success will be measured by your team’s quality, efficiency and client satisfaction.

Via your four direct reports, you’ll take responsibility for the wellbeing, development and performance of your team. Your team will increase to 28 by 2022, so you’ll need to be a natural people manager.

It goes without saying that you’ll need to be an accountant with a professional qualification, in a position to obtain a practicing certificate.

The package is generous. A competitive salary, a share of the company’s profits, 33 days holiday and private healthcare. Extra benefits include training and membership fees, as well as regular social events. Plus, I’d fully expect to start talking about equity once you’ve settled in and are delivering your objectives.

Join a practice that’s run as a business

Given our entrepreneurial nature, we don’t manage inniAccounts as an accountancy firm. We manage inniAccounts as a Business.

This means we’re on a very different journey to most accountancy practices. The management team and I get excited about putting customers first; about the transformational power of technology; about ebbing, not flowing; about business models; about scale; about success.

This approach has propelled us to become a nationally renowned business. And we understand the commercial and consumer power of specialism, which is why we’re looking to take our winning formula and launch new brands, in new markets.

Above: a planning session, using the business model canvas to assess new markets

Our number one nemesis is lazy thinking and, in particular, the saying “that’s how it’s always been done”. And this attitude is endemic in vast swathes of the accountancy profession. But not at inniAccounts. I suspect we’re the only firm that cheered when MTD was announced, and cried when it was postponed. Besides MTD, here’s an insight into some of the conversations we’ve had as a senior management team this month:

• Closing out a project that’s enabled us to delight customers by completing self-assessment tax returns in just 13 days, through the combination of tech, processes and people
• Using a business model canvas to diversify into an exciting new market, allowing us to test, validate and de-risk this new opportunity
• Signing-off of our new iPhone app, including biometric identification and receipt snapping on-the-go
• Agreeing our artificial intelligence roadmap for the remainder of 2018
• Evaluating the pros and cons of crowd equity as a marketing tool
• Exploring the future of the profession, and ensuring we’re a good match for the career aspirations of the next generation of leaders

Our management team have broad experiences, and we’re capable of solving problems together and providing a positive challenge to one another. These are conversations that you’ll become part of.

Join a business that delivers results

We don’t do things differently for ideological reasons or to antagonise the profession! Instead, we believe that if you put the customer first, and do everything right by them, you will succeed. And we are succeeding. That’s why:

• We’ve been awarded the Queen’s Award for Innovation – the UK’s most prestigious innovation award (that’s it in the photo above)
• Our client satisfaction is eight times higher than the UK average
• We’ve been named AccountingWeb’s Practice Excellence Pioneers for our forward-looking view
• Our revenues have grown from 0 to £1.2m in just 5 years, putting us in the top 4% of UK practices
• We’re profitable, which means we can afford to invest in growth and our people, rather than serving debt

And we’re not resting on our laurels. We know different skills are needed for the next £5m compared to the first. That’s why we’re looking for the right person to join our management team. Someone who’s excited by the challenge of working in a successful scaleup, working alongside our external advisors, who bring experience, insight and friendly rigour to our strategic planning.

What’s the catch?

We’re successful and we’re ambitious – and there is no catch. We’ve built a team of like-minded people, who work hard to do the best by our clients, and the best for the company. Our office is relaxed and hard working, our team is talented.

But don’t just take it from me. Here’s two recent posts from two members of our team:

• Laura Goodband explains why she decided to make the move from a traditional practice to inniAccounts, and walks you through her typical working day
• Laura Byrne explains how we’re harnessing the power of data to drive our business decisions

In this role, you’ll report to me, James. As a manager, I believe in the power of the carrot over the stick, positive reinforcement over ear bashings, learning from failure rather than resisting change. It’s my job to make sure you’re the right person, and that you’re set up to succeed. I’ll do everything I can to make sure you can develop into this role, and deliver the results you need. Training, coaching, mentoring – or just solid support – you tell me what you need and I’ll make it so.

Interested? Let me buy you a coffee

This job isn’t for everyone. If you’re looking for a job-for-life partnership, find change chilling and managing people even more so, then it’s probably best to look elsewhere.

If, on the other hand, you’re drawn to doing things differently, enjoy the business of business, and want to be part of an exciting scale up, then get in touch. Drop me an email at [email protected], I’ll buy you a coffee and tell you more.

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