Matt Allen

To plan your business journey, you’ve got to know where you are, where you want to get to and how you get there – mapping your journey along the way, taking some detours if needed and if things go wrong, the sat nav guides you back on track. It’s the exact approach we want to take with our business clients. Of course, we’ll still do their end of year accounts if that’s just what they want, but we want to be on that journey with them throughout the year, helping them keep on track.

The ‘Where You Are’ is the management information; that could be monthly or quarterly reports where your management accounts tell you how you are doing, what’s driving your profit, and whatever else is key to your business performance. Your management information is there so you can make better business decisions, pick up things that are working and correct things that are not.

There’s a variety of ways of looking at ‘Where You Want to Be’ normally we help businesses build models on what they want their businesses to look like with forecasts. We build in monthly targets and play ‘What If’ scenarios etc. What if I take on that new service line? Do I need to take on new employees or new premises to make something work? We build all these things in and create a set of targets, so when they look at their management accounts, they can see what’s working and what isn’t. It’s the Sat Nav guiding the client to where they want their business to be.

Then the important bit is to review; sit back, work out what’s worked and what hasn’t, was the plan too ambitious or was it spot on.

If you just got in a car and started driving, you are going to end up somewhere, but it’s probably not going to be where you wanted to be – it’s the same for a business, if you are head down every day you may be missing opportunities that could be navigating you and your business in the right direction.”

Matt Allen and Darren Austin January 2022

_________________________________________________________________________________

“I originally wanted to be a sports teacher as I was really interested in sport and enjoyed keeping fit, but I slipped a disc in my back at 16, which put a bit of a spanner in the works. I remember going to visit the careers officer who asked me what I liked other than sport. As no friends were around I plucked up the courage to say that I enjoyed maths and was quite good at it. She suggested accountancy – I didn’t even know what that was!

So when I was studying for my A levels, I took a GCSE in accountancy in the evenings at college. Before I took my final exams I wrote to a number of local accountancy firms for work experience or maybe a job for when I was finished. I received a phone call from a firm called Honey Barrett, based down in Eastbourne – I put on one of my Dad’s suits and went down to see them. We had a good chat, they mentioned they had an opportunity in Bexhill, but it actually ended up being in Uckfield which was a better location for me. It wasn’t an interview as such and felt like a general chat to help my search but within a week I received a letter in the post offering me my first job as a trainee accountant for when I finished my exams, which was brilliant!

So, I finished my A levels, got the results I needed, started working there, carried out my training while being hands on in the office and never looked back. That’s where I met Darren, my now business partner, I became his manager back then and we looked after a portfolio of clients together, but we both felt we wanted to take things in a different direction, so we approached them about acquiring some of our clients and setting up our own practice. In a whirlwind we left four weeks later, which was back in 2007 and Synergee was formed in Tunbridge Wells. At the time I had a one year old, no grey hair and with my wife expecting our second child there was no stress clearly! But we were just riding the wave and it’s been flat out ever since. 12 years have flown by, and we’re really pleased with what we’ve achieved. The team is now 12 strong and we’ve quadrupled the size of the business– it has been tough though. We’ve had to learn so much about running our own business as well as doing the job, that was the easy bit. When previously employed someone dealt with the wages, paying the bills, recruitment etc now it’s down to us. Even with the challenges over the years I love it and have a real passion for what we do.”