Our insights and reflections on business and Scotland’s tech sector
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Square Accountant, Cool Clients
Who’s that Square? It is me, 23 years ago. This photo is the first professional photo taken for my new business in the boardroom at the serviced office in the centre of Edinburgh that I rented at that time. Setting up your own business was a bit more unusual in those days and I wanted to make sure that I gave it a proper shot so I committed to keep going for at least a year. To ensure that I...
Chasing Unicorns – What Makes a Difference for Successful Tech Companies
Definition of a Unicorn: Unicorn is the term used in the venture capital industry to describe a startup company with a value of over $1 billion. In between saying that I would write this blog in my 21st anniversary LinkedIn post at the start of September and actually writing it two months later, I was beaten to it. That in itself is perhaps a good illustration of one of the rules for running a...
Scotland’s Tech Sector Then and Now – Part 2
Now – What has Changed since 2002 In Part 1, I listed what had endured and worked since 2002 when I started my accounting business for tech companies. In Part 2, I cover what has changed, which is a much broader subject. 3 Major Changes Technological change The internet, mobile phones, and more recently robotics and AI have changed and are changing our world in ways that would have seemed...
Scotland’s Tech Sector Then and Now – Part 1
Part 1 – Then – What has endured Introduction When I started my accounting practice and freelance Finance Director service for technology companies in September 2002, it was a turbulent time. Scotland was still reeling from the dot com boom and bust and Motorola had recently announced the closure of their Bathgate plant, which was the latest setback to a policy of encouraging inward investment...
100% Pure and Fresh Part 2
100% Pure and Fresh Part 2 – Time for a Fresh Approach In Part 1, I described changes that have happened in the past 21 years that Accountech has been serving tech companies. In this second part, I describe a fresh approach which better fits their needs. A Fresh Approach Tech start-ups need more and different help from other clients. Systems They need to get their systems right from the start in...
100% Pure and Fresh Part 1
100% Pure and Fresh Part 1 – Why the Traditional Accounting Model does not fit early stage tech companies well My accounting practice started in 2002 and right from the start I decided that it would focus on early stage technology companies. The boom in tech companies that has happened in the intervening twenty one years has attracted some traditional generalist firms to the sector, some dating...
3 Favourite Books
“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read” - Mark Twain I am a very keen reader as anyone who follows my #bookofthemonth LinkedIn posts will know. So far this year, I have read 50 books and it is only mid-August 📚 I keep copies of all of my favourite books in my office and they can usually be seem behind me in any Zoom/Teams calls 🙂 There aren't many books that I...
Story of a website
Two years ago, after I joined the One Per Cent Club, I started doing 90-day plans, where we identified three goals per quarter. If you haven’t tried it, I would definitely recommend it, as otherwise, it is easy to spend your time on day-to-day tasks and answering emails and attending meetings and you haven’t actually achieved any underlying improvements to your business – you haven’t worked ON...
Find your niche
Reflecting on 20 years in business, I thought I’d post about what I’ve learnt in that time and this would be my number one. In my favourite business book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, it Is called the Hedgehog Concept. That comes from a Greek parable:“The fox knows many things but the hedgehog knows one big thing”. The fox tries everything to get the hedgehog, sneaking up on him, moving fast,...