And in the blink of an eye, another year has gone and somehow, we’re in 2020! 20 years since we ushered in the start of a new Millennium and 16 years since Charnwood Accountants was launched.
2019 was a busy year for us all at Charnwood Accountants and so we thought we would take a moment to reflect on the past 12 months before moving onto the busy period and the tax returns of January.
Staff Changes
We’ve welcomed Richard and Ashley to the team, and they are already proving to be valuable members of the office as Client Managers. Ella has also completed her apprenticeship during the year, and we were delighted that she has stayed with us on a permanent basis!
We’ve also had some promotions within the company and made some changes to our structure as a result. Stu has taken a role as an Associate Director within the firm and Chris T and Paula have stepped up to the role of Associate Partner to assist the current management team.
Sadly, we’ve also had to say goodbye to Karen Leishman and Laura who have left us, and practice accounting in general, to go and work within Industry.
Launch of Key Specialist Areas
Client service has always been our main focus and we thought we would concentrate our efforts on developing our service within two key areas during 2019. We’ve successfully launched our Charnwood for Solicitors website, complete with a superb free tool that Solicitor Practices can use to benchmark their performance. This has led on to us enhancing our existing offering within this sector and also the successful launch of our first hosted seminar for solicitors. These will continue into 2020…so watch this space!
We have also recently launched Loughborough Finance for Sport, which allows us to offer specialist financial advice to athletes and other sports people. With our base in Loughborough, we are aware of the great hub of sport nearby and we are keen to assist and reduce some of the burden of financial matters from athletes, allowing them to focus on their training and competitions.
Weddings
We’ve celebrated two Charnwood weddings this year, as Theresa and Bec both tied the knot to their partners. We made sure that we gave them a great send off with a combined “Hag” do!
There are two more weddings set to come in 2020 and plans for the send-off are already well under way!
Other Highlights
- We now have LED energy efficient lighting throughout the office, creating a brighter atmosphere and reducing our carbon footprint.
- We’ve implemented a “dress for your day” policy within the office, providing a more relaxed workspace suited to each individual.
- As part of our well-being initiative we have introduced lunch time walks, chair yoga and all of our staff now have 1-2-1s with our external HR specialist. This allows staff to voice any concerns that they may have that they may not feel comfortable sharing with management. We also now have a quarterly away day, helping us to share knowledge and future plans as a team. We have installed standing desks to encourage movement and time away from sitting at a screen all day. We have created dream charts, that are shared amongst colleagues to document personal goals and achievements. This is all part of increasing positive mental health and giving us something to aim for outside of work.
- We’ve launched the book of the quarter, which is a free offering to visitors to our office. Each quarter we have a new book in reception that visitors can help themselves to.
Personal Achievements
It’s not all about the business side of things with the below highlighting some of the personal goals that our staff have achieved, all of which should be celebrated just as much as any of the business successes we’ve had.
- Emma J managed to complete the Yorkshire 3 Peaks, in horrendous weather, well within the 12-hour time limit.
- Vicky completed the Great North Run and has continued to meet her numerous running challenges. She has also climbed Snowdon.
- Bec has also climbed Snowdon and celebrated in the snow.
- Karen S and Lesley have become grandparents (Karen for the first time).
- Stu met his big target of running a 10k in under half an hour and also represented England for the first time.
- Dan completed his target of running 10 miles in under an hour.
- Chris T managed his goal of cycling 200 miles in a month during September.
- Anja played a superb role as Sandie in a local theatre production of Grease.
- Chris H completed the Robin Hood half marathon in under two hours.
As a whole, 2019 has been a very busy and exciting one for Charnwood Accountants. We have come a long way since we launched and following 2018’s change of ownership, the company has gone from strength to strength under the leadership of Anna, Chris and Steve. With exciting plans for 2020 already in the pipeline, we’re ambitious that we will continue to grow in the right way without compromising the client service ethos that the two Dave’s instilled in us from the start.
Thank you to all our clients and contacts for their support during the year and we wish you all a successful and prosperous 2020!