Ellis Bennett ACCA

Have you given up on managing accountancy & taxes for your business?

Setting up a business is no walk in the park, let alone managing the financial aspect of it.

It requires intense efforts to make sure you’re on the right track.

Miss one tax deadline, and you might end up paying double in penalty.

I know it’s overwhelming as a founder.

Now imagine you have an expert who takes care of all your accountancy and tax situation.

You don’t have to worry about taxes.
You don’t have to panic while planning your budget.
You know where you stand in terms of profits and losses.
You have someone you can rely on to manage the financials.

Amazing, isn’t it?

That’s what getting an expert feels like.

I’m Ellis, an ACCA Chartered Accountant, Director at EA Accountancy, and Author of The Solopreneur Start-Up Bible.

I help, advise, and guide start-ups, businesses, and young entrepreneurs through the whirlwind of accountancy and taxes.

I’ve served over 300+ satisfied clients, and I’m all in to help you!

Now, I’m not the accountant who speaks to you once a year in a robotic tone.

I’m more like your business partner.

I help you every step of the way (even acting like a therapist if you need one).

My services include:

• VAT
• Accounts
• Payroll
• Pensions
• Tax Advice
• Tax Planning
• Personal Tax
• Bookkeeping
• Accounting Software
• Company Incorporations
• Registered Office Address
• Capital Gains Tax Disclosures
• Business Planning And Advice

I also offer consultation for new business owners or people looking to hire an accountant so you have clarity for your next steps.

If you think I can help you with any of the above or would like to connect over a Discovery Call, feel free to drop me a DM.

Chartered Accountant

Went skiing recently.

Good news: I survived.
Bad news: I’m awful.

No natural ability.

No transferable skills.

Just me falling over while kids flew past me like it was nothing.

Very humbling.

Also weirdly enjoyable.

Being bad at something you don’t tie your identity to is underrated.

10/10 would embarrass myself again.

Ellis Bennett FCCA

Simplifying Accountancy and maximising Tax Efficiency for Business Owners | Director - EA Accountancy 👨🏼‍💻 💸

We said no to a client this month.

On paper, they were perfect:
– Good revenue
– Decent margins
– “Urgent” need for an accountant

But the red flags were obvious in the first conversation.

They wanted speed over clarity.

They wanted reassurance, not honesty.

They wanted someone to *clean things up*, not change how decisions were made.

That’s not a bad client.

It’s just not *our* client.

We’ve capped new work because I’d rather:
– Reply properly
– Think clearly
– Give advice that actually improves the business

Than grow for the sake of it.

Being selective isn’t arrogance.

It’s the only way professional services stay good.

Last year I made a conscious decision to simplify my life.

Not because I burned out.
Not because I had to.

Because I wanted to perform better.

Less noise.
Less forced social plans.
Less doing things out of obligation.

More:

– Work I actually care about
– Training properly
– Time with family
– Headspace

I’m taking the same approach into this year.

Probably even stricter.

It won’t look exciting to everyone.
It doesn’t need to.

If I want to humble myself emotionally, I’ll just watch Man Utd.

Job done.

We closed the books to new clients recently.

Not as a growth play.
Not as a marketing tactic.

Because unlimited growth is how service firms lose quality.

I like being able to:
– Reply without rushing
– Think before answering
– Give advice I’d actually stand by

That only works when capacity is respected.

Most firms chase “more”.

We protect standards.

And yes, that means saying no more often than saying yes.

Most accountants are paid to keep you calm.

Not to tell you the truth.

“You’re fine.”

“Nothing to worry about.”

“We’ll look at it at year-end.”

That isn’t advice.

It’s sedation.

If your margins are drifting, cash is tight, and decisions feel reactive, silence isn’t helping you, it’s delaying the problem.

Good advice is sometimes uncomfortable.

It forces trade-offs.

It challenges behaviour.

If your accountant has never made you pause and think,

they’re probably not advising, they’re just filing.

Just back from a stag do.

Here’s what it taught me about B2B sales:
1️⃣ Drink water
2️⃣ Pace yourself
3️⃣ Know when to leave the bar
4️⃣ Don’t trust the quiet bloke
5️⃣ Always have a plan

Only joking.

Not every life event is a “B2B sales lesson”.

Sometimes you just went on a stag do, got battered, and spent £11 on a vodka Red Bull.

LinkedIn… relax.

I keep seeing the same thing.

Agencies doing £400k–£600k turnover…
…but the founder still feels underpaid for the responsibility they carry.

The numbers usually look like this:
– Decent gross margin
– Team costs creeping up
– No forecasting
– Founder pay decided last, not planned

Revenue hides the problem.
Cash exposes it.

Turnover doesn’t fix poor structure.
And scaling a messy setup just makes the gaps bigger.

I don’t care if a business hits £1m.
I care how it got there.

If margins are thin,
decision-making is reactive,
and the founder can’t take money out consistently,
the number means nothing.

I run the firm the same way I train:
– Sustainable pace
– Clear limits
– Long-term thinking

Impressive screenshots don’t build good businesses.
Disciplined systems do.

Last week felt like everything that could’ve happened, happened.

Nothing went wrong.

Which somehow made it worse.

Just one thing after another:
“Oh and this as well.”

Inbox full.
Calendar stacked.
Brain running on low power mode.

Running a business is basically solving problems until you go to bed.

Then thinking about them anyway.

Still wouldn’t swap it.

Every Founder wants a team that grows as fast as the business does.

I help them build that.

I’ve spent the last 10 years inside scaling organisations, fixing performance issues, seeing early signs when people aren’t on the same page, and turning HR from ‘another thing on your desk’ to something that accelerates growth.


Not corporate HR.
Not policy-first HR.

Experience-led, performance-driven HR.

The kind that keeps great people working for you.
The kind that accelerates growth, not slows it.

Most founders come to me because:

- The business is scaling faster than the people systems
- Progression, performance and expectations aren’t clear or consistent
- Culture is slipping quietly as headcount rises
- Managers avoid hard conversations or don’t know how to lead
- HR is sat on their plate, taking time from strategy, sales + growth

So I built a framework that stops that happening.

My People Experience Model strengthens a company from the inside out:

Diagnose the employee journey end-to-end
Build onboarding & progression that speed up high performance
Turn managers into leaders (confident, clear, consistent)
Create accountability without killing culture
Give founders back time, clarity + control

Just structure → performance → retention → growth.

It’s the approach that has:

📌 Doubled headcount without culture slipping
📌 Freed founders from HR so they could land Dyson, Armani, Primark, Coconut Lane + more
📌 Scaled a business to £1.5M in 9 months by giving leadership time back
📌 Built onboarding that reduced ramp time from 65 → 40 days
📌 Created ownership-led teams, not founder-dependent ones

Because when your people feel connected, they don’t just work harder, they work smarter, stay longer, and deliver more.

If you want HR off your plate, but still driving performance + profit, you’ll want to explore what we do next.

DM me "HR" for more info on how I can help :)

---

📩 Georgia@accesshrltd.com
🌐 www.accesshrltd.com
🎤 Speaker: HR Is Dead, Stop Managing Generations Start Managing People & Modern HR

Georgia Dixon 🍬 MCIPD

2022: "You're just here to manage risk." I didn't listen.
2024: "You're just an external smoke screen." I told them no.
2026: "HR slows business down." I showed up as an efficiency partner.

Every time someone tried to put HR in a box, I built my way out of it.

When I left corporate in 2023, I was done with HR that felt 'off'.

The slow responses.
The policies no one reads.
The "let me check and get back to you" energy.

I didn't leave to recreate that.

I left to build something founders actually want in the room.

Clarity over dragging out.
Partnership over roadblocks.
Efficiency over theatre.

And it's worked! The proof is in the work I've been doing for scaling businesses:

→ Onboarding Programs that get people productive faster
→ Performance Management Frameworks that actually drive results
→ Progression Frameworks so your team sees a future with you
→ Manager Series (6 months) to build leaders, not just supervisors
→ Restructures for Strategic Growth when you've outgrown your setup

People kept telling me what HR couldn't be.

So I built what it should be.

What's something you've been told you can't be, but you've done it anyway? Drop it below. I read every comment. 

♻️ Repost to spread the message: HR needs a rethink.

#hr #leadership #founders #growth

Georgia  Dixon

HR For Growing Founders ✨ | People • Progression • Performance | Award-Winning HR Consultant |

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Blue Monday is one week away; aka when your best people quietly decide they're done.

Not dramatically.
Not loudly.
Just... done.

And you won't see it coming.

Because the signs don't look like signs.

They look like:
– A joke about being "so busy" (they're not joking)
– Quieter in meetings than they used to be
– Stopped coming to the office as much
– A little less present, a little more distant
– "Yeah, I'm fine" on repeat

We talk about retention.
Engagement scores.
Performance reviews.

But behind every resignation letter is a moment someone decided to stop trying.

And that moment?
It rarely happens in January.
It happens in the weeks/months before, when no one notices.

You still have a week.

One conversation could change everything.

Not a formal meeting.
Not a performance chat.
Just a real one.

"How are you actually doing?"
"If you were to leave tomorrow, why would that be?"
And then... listen like the answer matters.

Because it does.

Repost for someone who needs this reminder

#Leadership #People #HR #EmployeeExperience

THINGS THAT MAKE MY EYE TWITCH:

1. Beers in the fridge used as a “culture” strategy
2. Emoji-only replies to feedback that needed… actual words
3. Memes that really push the line, depending on who’s laughing
4. We’re like a "family” used to justify blurred boundaries
5. Annual performance reviews with zero follow-up
6. "Flexible working” that only applies when it’s convenient for managers
7. Leaders asking for input, then disappearing when it's given
8. Career development plans that no one remembers
9. A work night out or drinks after redundancies... “to rebuild the team”
10. Treating perks as a substitute for genuine employee experience

11…. 

A good employee experience isn’t performative. It’s intentional, inclusive, and tied to how people really feel and function at work.

What’s on your list?

#EmployeeExperience #Culture #Leadership

HR don't want to be an afterthought. But you're making it impossible.

When that happens?

1. Employees experience HR as a firefighter, not a strategic partner.
And the perception sticks.

2. At 15-40 employees, things start breaking quietly:
→ Your best performer hands in their notice
→ Questions on "what does progression look like here?"
→ Onboarding becomes "shadow whoever's free"
→ Culture starts feeling different and you can't explain why

3. And then you're scrambling, trying to fix what's already fractured.

That's not HR.
That's damage control.

The businesses that scale well don't wait for the fire.
They bring in someone who spots the smoke.

A Growth Partner who:
✨ Sees the retention risk before the resignation
✨ Builds the systems before the chaos
✨ Flags the people trends before they become people problems

Traditional HR waits for problems.
Modern HR builds the foundations before they happen.

You didn't start a business to spend your time firefighting.
You started it to grow.

Growth without people infrastructure is a gamble you don't need to take.

Are you building the foundations or just putting out fires?

♻️ Repost if this resonates
📌 Follow me for real talk on HR in a Modern World
💌 Get weekly insights in my email newsletter: https://lnkd.in/ePbZdS5v

“HR said…”

HR gets blamed for decisions we didn’t make,  because it’s convenient.

“You can’t have a pay rise.” ↴

No, we didn’t say that.

We analysed the numbers.
We benchmarked the role.
We flagged retention risks.
We highlighted market movement.

We presented the commercial consequences of underpaying.
We enabled the business to make an informed choice.

Leadership still said no.

And somehow?
HR is the villain again.

Here’s the reality:
→ HR doesn’t set revenue targets
→ HR doesn’t approve salary bands
→ HR doesn’t sign off budgets
→ HR doesn’t control headcount costs
→ HR doesn’t decide where the money goes

What we do is show leaders the impact: on cost, capability, performance, and retention.

We don’t block career progression.
We don’t shut down pay rises.
We don’t hold people back.

We enable the business to grow sustainably.
But when the answer is “no,” we’re the ones delivering it.

And absorbing the frustration that should never sit with us.

Pay isn’t an HR decision.
It’s a business decision.

If you want accountability and transparency?

Stop asking, “What did HR say?”
Start asking, “Who made the final call?”

Because HR didn’t say no.
We just had the courage to tell you the truth.

With love,

Georgia, HR Consultant prioritising Employee Expereince

12 days cut from onboarding. Here's how:

New hires used to take 48 days to hit contributing productivity.
Now it's 36.

Not "full capacity".. nobody operates there.
But contributing. Adding value. Moving the business forward.

That's a 25% reduction in time-to-performance.
And it's not just a "nice onboarding experience"

It's money back in the business.

→ Less manager time spent firefighting & hand-holding
→ Less early churn from "what have I walked into?"

Their onboarding success rate is now 92%.
Total investment? £7,000.
Time? Across 2 months.

Here's what we actually built 👇

✨ A business deep dive to define what "good" looks like (no guessing)
✨ A tailored onboarding framework that fits how they actually work
✨ Manager guides so every hire gets the same standard
✨ Custom ChatGPTs for self-serve support
✨ Maximising their current tools
✨ Manager training (because "shadow Ben" isn't onboarding)
✨ An onboarding feedback survey so it keeps improving

We didn't guess what mattered.
We asked the people living it.
We co-created.

Then built something that made onboarding faster, cleaner, and measurable.

That's modern HR.
Business-first. People-centric. Built together.

What would 12 days back per new hire be worth in your business?

Every new hire is a gamble on which version of your company they'll meet.

One manager gives a structured first week.
Another throws them in the deep end.
One team has clear expectations.
Another makes it up as they go.

And you wonder why some people hit the ground running while others quietly disengage by month two.

This is what happens when nothing is documented:

→ Knowledge lives in people's heads
→ Onboarding depends on who's available
→ Standards shift depending on the team
→ Every new hire gets a different experience

It's not sustainable. And it's not scalable.

But here's the fear I hear from founders:
"If I bring in HR support, it'll feel corporate. Generic. Bureaucratic."

And honestly? That fear is valid, if you choose the wrong partner.

But the right HR support doesn't flatten your culture.
It translates it into something repeatable.

✨ Predictable onboarding.
✨ Consistent standards.
✨ Infrastructure that protects your identity, not replaces it.

You don't need more templates.
You need systems that feel like you.. and actually scale.

What's the most inconsistent part of your employee experience right now?

DM "HR" for my 5 onboarding tips.

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