Tees Business Issue 34 | Page 117

Financial consultant to mark third year in business by adding to team
FINANCE
Hiring – Atom Financial director Matthew Fannan .
WORDS : DAVE ROBSON
Financial consultant to mark third year in business by adding to team

SCALING UP A

flourishing financial and HR firm is set to enter its third year in business with more new faces on the team .
Atom Financial was set up in 2021 by friends and business partners Matt Herrell and Matthew Fannan .
The Stockton-based business tapped into Matt and Matthew ’ s wealth of experience to offer outsourced finance functions – and , latterly , an HR and payroll service offering too .
As reported in the previous edition of Tees Business , as demand for their services grew , they took on management accountant Claire Dove , head of HR and payroll offshoot “ Atom People ” Nathan Raine and finance administrator Emily Anderson .
But they ’ re not stopping there , with plans now confirmed to recruit an experienced associate finance director and an additional management accountant .
And that , says Matthew , is not only good news for the firm , it ’ s good news for clients too .
He explained : “ We ’ re nearing the end of our second year of trading and by that time , we ’ ll have doubled our turnover and headcount from last year .
“ So , in terms of getting new clients and workload , it ’ s going really well – but we ’ re at that point where we need to scale up and bring some more senior people in .
‘’ It ’ s been fantastic that we ’ ve managed to maintain momentum in terms of new client generation while keeping our existing clients happy . But we want to ensure we maintain our high standards of quality which we pride ourselves on – recruiting well will mean we don ’ t stretch ourselves too thin .
“ You need to keep investing in a
business to ensure the quality of service is there . The last thing we would do is take on a lot of work at the expense of the quality of service .
“ It ’ s not about that – it ’ s about making clients happy and then , through contract renewals and client retention , your business has a great platform to grow .
“ We ’ re therefore making a conscious decision to recruit someone senior – effectively at finance director level – who will be client-facing and will deliver finance services directly , which will take a lot of the pressure off myself and Matt .”
Matthew admits the first two years for Atom Financial have gone even better than predicted .
He said : “ We ’ ve far exceeded our initial targets . We thought it would be just me and Matt operating at a higher level , but we ’ ve already found the opportunity to offer fully managed finance functions and HR and payroll , so everything has naturally come together .
“ We set some targets at the start of the year to where we ’ d get to midpoint and , in terms of revenue and new contracts , we ’ re exceeding them , so we ’ re in a great place .”
The new associate finance director will provide outsourced finance director services but also lead the firm ’ s managed finance functions offering .
Matthew said : “ It ’ s going to be someone who can take some of the FD-type work from Matt and I because we want to spend more time focusing strategically on the business .
“ Plenty of opportunities have fallen to us without really doing too much business development work . But if we can bring someone in who allows us to do more of that work , we can scale up further .
“ We think we ’ ve found a bit of a gap in
Join us – New recruits will be joining the Atom Financial team of , from left , co-owners and directors Matt Herrell and Matthew Fannan , finance administrator Emily Anderson , management accountant Claire Dove and head of Atom People , Nathan Raine .
the market with our service-led , hands-on approach . Once our clients understand what that approach is , they like it – it ’ s different to what accountancy practices are offering and in terms of direct competition , I do think we ’ ve found a bit of a gap . It ’ s all about quality of service – that ’ s our USP .”
Details of the vacancies will be posted on social media channels and job boards , and through Stockton ’ s Paul Card Recruitment .
“ It ’ s an opportunity to join an exciting , growing business that is doing things differently ,” said Matthew .
“ We ’ re going into our third year of trading and have an eye on scaling up , which is a great place to be . We want to keep the good news coming , onboarding new clients and bringing in talented , ambitious people who really want to succeed by joining our business .”
Visit atomfinancial . co . uk
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