Douglas Aitken

Background

About Douglas Aitken

I help ambitious accountants build better firms. Partners/directors/owners of accountancy firms come to us asking similar questions- Why is it so difficult to recruit and keep great team members- How is it that our workflow seems to drive our firm, rather than us drive our workflow- Why can’t I get clients to be as responsive as we’d like- Why don’t my team seem to care as much as I do- How do I plan for the future when I’m so busy doing the work? I’ve helped them-+ Create a people-first culture they’re proud of, and that attracts great new team members + Create a slick workflow system that motivates team members, delights clients and increases profitability for the firm + Create a client selection process that means clients respect and value what we do; share our values and have mutually clear expectations + Create high employee engagement by caring for them deeply; harnessing their strengths and giving them a sense of achievement and autonomy in their work + Free themselves up to work ON their business instead of in it; hold them accountable for actions to which they commit and create exit options Oh, and we have a LOT of fun on the journey! We work with smaller accountancy firms (from £500k turnover) to UK top 20 firms – the key criteria is that they MUST be ambitious and enjoy being challenged. We commit 100% to this process, so we expect you to do the same! With my business partner Paul Shrimpling, we’ve been doing this for around 20 years. Clients tend to work with us for around 6/7 years, enjoying the accountability model as we work more closely. We'd expect you to do some due diligence on us, so we have testimonials from many current and ex-clients. Hopefully they will give you the peace of mind that we deliver what we say we do. Amongst those achievements are- Helping firms achieve ambitious 5-year growth plans ahead of schedule - Help firms complete all tax returns by mid-December - Improving employee engagement and reducing employee turnover to negligible levels, saving on recruitment fees - Build appropriate organisation structures that make it easy for firms to achieve growth plans by focusing on everyone’s strengths and playing as a team - Achieve life-changing exits for partners previously at loggerheads I’ll say again, we’re choosy about who we work with – it’s because we offer a no-quibble guarantee. If you’re not happy, you don’t pay. So we want to make sure you’re the right fit for us before we take you on. If you’d like a no-obligation discovery call, please message me directly.