About Andrew Burrows BSc ACA MIoD
Your Friend in Finance!
So, who is this “Friend in Finance”!?
I love running my own business. The challenge is great and the freedom and flexibility are fantastic. But I’ll admit that often I find it tough going. The truth is that, whilst I’ve had many years experience in business, I am a relative newcomer to the world of working for myself. It’s a risky lifestyle, especially with a wife, a mortgage and four pre-teen children to support! But steady jobs are not so steady any more, and I would rather be taking charge of my future, rather than leaving it to big employers.
If you’d asked me how I wanted my career to turn out 17 years ago, when I was just starting my training as a chartered accountant in Basingstoke, I would have probably said that I just wanted to get qualified and get a steady job as an accountant. And I had a very successful time in public practice, getting qualified without any exam hiccups, and working on some pretty good clients. But a steady job was not how things turned out!
I’ve always wanted to keep developing myself and facing new challenges. So after four years in public practice, and a year after qualifying as a chartered accountant, I wanted a new challenge. So I joined Barclays as a Finance Manager in their foreign currency division. It was such a great experience. Barclays is one of the best companies I’ve worked for, and I learnt such a lot. After 3 years there I was handed the biggest challenge of my career, when the division was sold to Travelex and I was appointed Finance Director. At the age of 29, and with only 3 years commercial experience, the learning curve was steep. The challenges were immense as we more than doubled the size of the business within 2 years following the acquisition.
I moved on from Travelex after a couple of years. Since then I’ve tried to keep variety and challenge as my core drivers. I’ve worked for energy giant, Centrica, and for global consultancy, Logica. Smaller businesses have also featured in the mix.
The variety of industry experience was not exactly planned. I have been made redundant three times, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time when tough times or acquisitions gave rise to cost cutting.
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is about determination. The option to give up and step out of the race is always there. But success never comes easily, and I’ve seen first hand that successful people take knocks and pick themselves up and find a way through. Travelex was an excellent example of that - at every critical stage of growth Lloyd Dorfman had to metaphorically batter down a closed door in order to be allowed to bid for contracts or acquisitions. The tenacity paid off and now Travelex is one of the largest foreign exchange businesses in the world, after starting from a single office in 1986.
So, sure, the redundancies were a blow. But I discovered things about myself that have set me off in a new direction.
People are paramount. Helping people, in whatever context, has been the thing I have most enjoyed so far.
Small businesses need help. Big businesses have loads of Finance people, and take their expertise for granted in my view - taking them on and laying them off without huge angst. On the other hand owners of smaller businesses seem to be almost afraid of Finance, and muddle on without help. And unfortunately for a large proportion of them, this leads to failure.
Small chunks of time is the answer. Small businesses may not be able to afford the huge salaries that Finance Directors command, and they don’t need someone full-time anyway. If an experienced Finance professional can work with you even as little as a day every month, this can give you the financial management discipline and the confidence you need to make the business successful... It’s a fraction of the cost too.
This is great for me. It means I can build on my varied experience, and carry on working with a variety of businesses and build some long term quality relationships at the same time. I can use my unplanned varied experience to help people - people running small businesses who “don’t know what they don’t know”, whom I would love to help to be successful, because I have learnt a thing or two over the past 20 years!
Starting Charis FD in 2009 was a brave move. But it meant I could do something I had wanted to do for a long time - run my own business.
I’ve led both large and small teams; I’ve been hands on and also strategic; I’ve been technical, but also commercial; I’ve worked with many different systems, led change projects, managed acquisition integration; I’ve worked with international tax and transfer pricing; I’ve improved control, cashflow, reporting and management information, managed transaction processes as well as commercial modelling. I think you could say I’m a genuine all-rounder!
And that all round experience, founded on the solid rock of a chartered accountant qualification, is what makes Charis FD well-placed to help your business to raise its game in financial management and control.
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