Accountancy firm triples turnover after business course

The main outcomes Amir hoped to achieve from attending the course were formalising processes and strategy, and creating a stronger company culture.

“You'd think a lot of these things are obvious and I should probably already know them, given my experience, but taking the time out from the business and listening to the latest best practice is critical.

 “The irony is, even though I advise clients on scaling, it's easy to neglect your own business. You can become so focused on clients that you sometimes forget you have a business to run as well.”

Upstreamly, which Amir describes as “a modern, tech-enabled accountancy and tax firm”, helps SMEs across the UK scale with confidence, offering everything from compliance to strategic advice, to more standard accountancy and tax services such as VAT and payroll.

Growth came mostly though referrals at first, meaning there hadn’t really been a need to think about the strategy and operations side of the business initially – a gap which the Help to Grow: Management Course was able to help Amir fill.

“I would say the strategy and innovation, and digital adoption modules were especially valuable for me.

“When you first start a business, you don't really think about these things from the outset. Once you've been in business for a few years, you start thinking ‘well, what do we stand for? What are our values? What’s our mission? So, I found this module extremely useful because it helps you crystallise that thinking.

“Standing back and looking at how we delivered our service helped us identify bottlenecks and gave me tools to reimagine our service tiers and our client journey.”

Developing different tiers of clients has helped transform the way the business is run, ensuring a better service for all customers.

“Prior to the course, we didn't really segment clients into industry, or into size of their business. Having those separate segments and differentiating between the various clients has been so important.”

Some of the most practical takeaways have come from the digital adoption module.

“As you would expect, we already used technology to deliver many of our services, so looking at onboarding and workflow automation to enhance this and make us more efficient was so helpful.

“Onboarding was a real bottleneck, so the process mapping exercise taught in the Efficient Operations module really helped to make things more efficient - and more scalable. It involved breaking down our onboarding journey and stress-testing each stage to see where delays or duplication occurred. Mapping things out visually made it much easier to spot issues.

“Previously, our onboarding was very manual with lots of back and forth emails, paper forms and spreadsheets. We’ve now moved to an online system where clients and staff can submit details directly, and automated reminders keep everything on track. It’s reduced duplication, sped up turnaround times and given us a clearer overview of progress at any given moment.”

Newly-introduced client satisfaction surveys show an upward trajectory, something Amir is keen to build on now that he has the statistics to benchmark against. 

“One of the other things I did almost straightaway was introduce a cybersecurity policy. The course introduced me to the concept of Cyber Essentials, which is a government-backed certification, which we now have. We’re obviously dealing with a lot of sensitive financial information and it’s important for our clients to have that extra layer of reassurance that we’re taking their security seriously.”

Probably the biggest change Amir has made since taking part in the course is to introduce what he calls a “back-office” function, including a new Head of Operations and Sales role.

“It gave me a lot more clarity on how to run a business successfully. It helped me focus on being less reactive and firefighting and be more proactive in shaping the direction of our business and building the right team.

“At the time of starting the course, the business consisted of just me and four other accountants but since completing it I’ve introduced operations staff, admin staff, and sales staff. We now have a team of 15. Putting that structure into the business has helped me personally focus on what I need to do and made the whole journey a lot clearer.”

This extra resource has allowed a greater focus on improving the internal culture of the business too, with more structured planning and review sessions, the introduction of team-level KPIs and a performance review cycle.

“This engagement with the team never really existed before the course. Being transparent, letting people know how the company's doing, what our vision is, gives everyone a purpose and they can see there’s a defined career path.

“The team now feel they're part of a company with a purpose.”

The investments in strategy and company culture have paid off, with the business tripling the number of staff since 2021 - and tripling its revenue too. It’s also opened two new offices in addition to its London base; one in Aberdeen and another in Porto in Portugal.

When asked whether he puts this success down to the course, Amir is unequivocal.

“100%. I needed to step away and talk to other business leaders and see how they do things, and learn about how to take my business to the next level. It’s had a huge impact.

“The structure the course gave us has been critical to maintaining top talent and continuing our upward trajectory.”

The Upstreamly team recently celebrated the business’s 10th anniversary with a trip to Porto, and Amir is clear what he wants the future to look like.

“We're a people-focused business. For me, prioritising employees is more important than prioritising the shareholder. So, what do I plan to get out of this? A lot of happy faces, a lot of happy lives, a lot of people with good careers.

“A key goal is to keep scaling our advisory services, but to do that without losing the quality and personal service we want to be known for. That is why I started the business in the first place. I want to keep that consistency as we grow.”

Four years on from his own experience of the course, Amir has booked Natalia Khromova, the business’s Head of Operations and Sales, to start it in September.

“I think that’s testament to the fact that it’s an extremely valuable experience. Having that structured space, to meet others, to network, to think about things without being in our own work environment, is so valuable. I’m looking forward to her bringing some more fresh thinking into the organisation and some brilliant new perspectives.”

Find out how the Help to Grow: Management Course can further your business here.