Mentoring support adds up for accountancy firm

Woodville Accountancy is generating strong and sustainable growth after taking part in Boost Business Lancashire’s Growth Mentoring programme.

The Chorley accountancy firm recently moved into its own premises after doubling in size in three years.

Owner and managing director Michael Godsmark was alerted to Boost’s mentoring initiative by his bank manager and was later introduced to Sarah Hanson, growth mentoring coordinator at business mentoring consultancy Orvia, which delivers the programme.

Although the last three years had seen rapid client gains and expansion of the workforce from two to five employees, Michael’s rapidly increasing workload had become a potential obstacle to further growth.

He was matched with mentor Peter MacGregor to develop and implement plans for balanced and focused growth.

“During the mentoring process we identified the need for an office manager, who we have now recruited, and we are also taking on an extra accountant to give me more time to concentrate on expanding the business,” said Michael.

“One of the main things I learned is that I don’t need to be working more than 12 hours a day to make the business grow. The mentoring sessions helped me to concentrate my time on specific activities to develop my business in a controlled, measurable and profitable way.”

Peter MacGregor said: “Michael needed to take stock and put some structure and processes in place to prepare for the next phase of growth, with more focus on gaining larger clients.

“We also put him on the Business Growth and Action Planning Skills Assist Workshop as he wanted to do all the homework he could before he started his one-to-one mentoring sessions.”

Peter added: “Michael used me as a sounding board and to establish his direction for 2015. Often all a business needs is a little strategic direction to be able to build a strategy and feel confident in what they are doing.”

Ann Holcroft, operations manager at Orvia, commented: “We are delighted to see that Michael has benefited from the Growth Mentoring programme. His business had already doubled in size, and now through the support he has robust plans and systems in place to further move the business forward in a manageable way.”