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.

Niall Cleaver

Documenting the journey of crafting a timeless coffee cup brand | CEO & Founder of Cupsly

My story isn’t about a polished entrepreneur. My journey hasn’t been traditional. I left school without an English qualification, uncertain of what the future held. 

That failure shaped me, it forced me to think differently, fall into business, and ultimately embrace creativity, resilience, and the belief that change is possible, even when doubted. Fast forward to today, I’m growing and scaling businesses while sharing the real lessons that come from it.

Founder

Are you struggling to grow an engaging community for your business or personal brand.

Stop right there, I think I have you covered ⬇️

This is me (Niall), I'm a 22-year-old who is fascinated by growing communities in the online space. Actual communities that have meaning and purpose. 

The services we provide at Social Library 

➡️ Personal Branding (LinkedIn)

➡️ Guidance & support consulting


Drop me a message to discuss your social media strategy, review how well your current socials/posts are doing, and research how we can build your community and gain you more followers and leads.

or you can email us @

hello@sociallibrary.co.uk

For years... I thought starting small wasn’t even an option.

This year, I want to start small. You need to read this.

Everyone is so scared to start small and I was one of those people. I used to overthink about creating something big instead of worrying about starting small.

Turns out, starting small is how you build big.

It’s how you take the first step forward.
It’s how you stop overanalysing.
It’s how you actually start.

It almost feels wrong when you say it out loud.

But every successful founder and business you see today didn’t get where they are by massive moves. They got there by starting small and then scaling.

So if you’re starting a business, building a hobby, or whatever it may be… stop worrying about “scaling big” and focus on the small step that gets you going.

Growing @thistlescientific and sharing the lessons while I do

Building vs scaling a business. What's the difference?

A few years ago, I learned one of the most valuable lesson in business. I left school with qualifications that made it hard for me to get any sort of job.

Luckily, my family ran a business. I jumped in and started learning. And here’s what I learned: There’s a huge difference between building and scaling.

Building a business:

Proving the idea
Short-term survival
Doing everything yourself
Energy, speed & scrappiness

Scaling a business:

Letting go of control
Long-term decisions
Patience, systems & people
Making sure it works without you.
Alignment throughout the whole company.

Building feels exciting. Scaling feels uncomfortable. Both are essential. I didn’t realise how different they both were until I lived them.

But the one thing that never changes between both? 
The hard work that comes with it.

I just spent 2 hours yesterday in one of the best meetings of my life!!!

What about? How do we build further on our foundation?

Yesterday was a special day, do you know where you get the team together and you leave feeling excited for what's to come? That's what happened.

It's been a pretty wild couple of months for Thistle, but it always comes back to the same thing. How can we deepen the connection we can have with researchers?

The personal touch.
The real support they deserve.
The professionalism and trust they have in us.

This year, we’re looking at how we double down on that.

We’ve set some big objectives, and the whole team is ready for them. If yesterday was anything to go by, this next phase is going to be an exciting one.

We can't wait to share more on this very soon.

We’re excited to announce our new collaboration.

I'm genuinely proud of the impact we're creating in research at Thistle Scientific. It started with one clear objective to make research the best it can be, not only to impact our lives, but also to impact the lives of generations to come.

Last week was a big reminder of this as we announced our collaboration with arcorisbio AG, which will help accelerate the industrialisation and commercialisation of their breakthrough MUSE® platform.

A collaboration that will help keep the world safe.

One of the best mistakes I learned pretty quickly in business.

Thinking strategy comes first in business. But it doesn’t… 

Understanding who you’re building for is.

I’m nowhere near successful yet. But I’ve been lucky to spend time around people who definitely are. And one topic comes up over and over again: 

Strategy.

How did you come up with your strategy?
Why has your strategy been effective?
When do you adapt your strategy?

The answer usually sounds complicated.
But, it keeps coming back to one word: audience.

Before you can plan anything, you have to understand them. What do they care about? When do they need to hear from you? How do they feel when they see you show up?

This is where a lot of founders go wrong. No strategy is 100% correct. It’s custom‑made based on how well you understand the information your audience is giving you.

So copying what works in another company or industry rarely works. You’re playing a different game, with different people, at a different stage.

Strategy is an understanding game.

I used to panic hearing the word strategy in business.

It sounded complicated... but it wasn’t.

I would hear the word and be like that sounds proper technical. I'd just nod like I understood exactly what it meant, when I didn't but now I get it and it's simple.

It's just a plan.

What are the objectives?
What action will you take to hit them?
Which data tells you it's working or it isn't?

We love to make words sound more complicated than they are. 

It's easy to overcomplicate things when you hear all of the advice online but it's simpler than you think. If something isn't working don't wait, go and find the reason why.

Try something. Learn. Adapt. Evolve. Repeat.
Just enjoy the process of figuring out.

That's what business is!

When I was younger, I hesitated on the idea of working for my family business.

Today, I’m 3 years in, working alongside nearly 50 incredible people.

It’s crazy how life works. Some days you’re completely against something before you’ve even tried it…then you try it and realise it was exactly what you were meant to do.

I always had this doubt in the back of my head:
That I had to prove myself somewhere else first.

That’s why:

- I started posting on LinkedIn.
- I kept looking for “my own thing”.
- I started learning more about business.

Now it feels like all of that happened so I could come back better and help continue to grow a business I genuinely care about. But this growth has hardly been me. It’s been the team I get to work with every single day.

A few things this has taught me:

- Don’t write something off until you’ve actually tried it.
- You can prove yourself elsewhere, but always bring the knowledge back

So don't resist an opportunity just because it didn't fit your picture in that specific moment of your life. It might be worth taking a closer look.

Stop listening to too much advice.

Read that again... throughout my journey, I've fallen for many distractions. Stuff that didn't feel right personally, and so many of us are going through this.

There's advice here, there and everywhere.

And it's very hard to know which is the right or wrong advice, and you know what you'll never really know. The only way to find out is to...

Listen to your gut and try.

In a world full of advice after advice, trust yourself first. 
There's no right or wrong way to do anything.

If it works, it works!

P.S. Have a little day in the life vid

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Ellis Bennett ACCA

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The Battle

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