Ambitious – the Atom Financial team ( left to right ) Matt Herrell , Nathan Raine and Matthew Fannan .
MIGHTY
With a friendship going back more than 20 years and a wealth of experience between them , Matt Herrell and Matthew Fannan were confident their fledgling financial consultancy firm , Atom Financial , had what it took to succeed .
And after a hugely encouraging first year , that confidence has been justified – to the extent they are now working on exciting expansion plans and bringing a payroll and HR service into the mix .
Best men at each other ’ s weddings , the duo trust each other implicitly and know how each other works – key foundations for any business .
Matt said : “ It ’ s been a really good 12 months . We ’ ve got ourselves out there across the North-East , made new relationships , built on existing ones and secured a good , solid , varied base of customers across a number of industries and sectors .
“ We deal with heavy industry , servicebased industries , IT firms – even a holiday park . A bit of everything but all good quality , predominantly SME , high-growth businesses . Now the next 12 months are key for expanding our client base and working with the ones we have to be part of their growth journey .
“ We are not an outsourced accountancy practice . We ’ re neither that , nor are we an employed inhouse team – we fit in the middle . We ’ re not remote , we ’ re not just transactional , we get involved in a business – we ’ re very hands-on and work closely with clients .
“ We offer parts of , or whole , finance functions that are a fully managed finance department . We ’ ve taken the last 20 years
ATOM
Pals ’ finance firm set to grow after successful first year
each worth of experience and put them together , financially and operationally , into the right package for our clients .”
Matthew added : “ As you start out on a business , you cast your net quite wide with the services you can offer . But as time has gone by , we ’ ve really focused on what our proposition is going forward , and where we can stand out from the crowd .”
Although Teesside-based , it ’ s very much a North-East operation , with clients from Sunderland , Newcastle and South Shields all on the books .
And expansion , both in terms of size and the services Atom offers , has always been part of the plan .
Matt explained : “ We had a vision to build something that included a wider team and additional services . We feel we ’ ve nailed our original finance model – we do financial forecasting , budgeting and finance due diligence – but alongside that , we have a new payroll and HR services model .”
That model , Atom People , offers a wide range of cost-effective , bespoke HR solutions and payroll services to North-East SME businesses .
Fronted by “ young , bright and hungry ” payroll and HR services manager Nathan
Visit atomfinancial . co . uk
WORDS : DAVE ROBSON PICTURE : TOM BANKS
Raine , Atom People , says Matt , is all about filling a gap they noticed existed .
He says : “ Payroll tends not to get involved in HR , and HR consultants tend not to want to get involved in payroll . There ’ s a gap in the middle , but we ’ re bringing that together .”
But was Atom People always part of the plan ? Matthew said : “ Not particularly – it ’ s come out of us being on site with clients and understanding their needs . A lot of times , we were coming in with finance support and finding out there were gaps in HR services , or the payroll was struggling .”
And the growth won ’ t stop with Atom People , with a management accountant and a finance apprentice currently being recruited and a 10-strong workforce likely by the end of year two .
But is this where they envisaged they ’ d be after their first year ? Matthew said : “ We had high hopes but we ’ re really happy with the progress we ’ ve made . We have a clear view of what we want to do .”
Matt added : “ We ’ ve got a concrete base of recurring clients , which is a real positive . Nine months ago , we were busy telling people what we could do - now I think we ’ ve demonstrated what we can do , and there ’ s much more to come .”
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