People, Passion and Perspective   

We recently celebrated six years of Paul Beare Ltd: six years of hard work supporting clients. Over the last 18 months, Covid has taken its toll on a lot of us. And although it’s sad that it took a global pandemic to re-evaluate life decisions, it has also put things into perspective. 

Over six years, we have helped more than 300 clients with a whole range of different endeavors: from navigating UK compliance to investing for growth. I haven’t done it alone: and I’ve met some wonderful friends throughout the journey. And it’s the people that underpin my values that cascade throughout the team. There is no hierarchy within our company culture.  

I recall vividly at the beginning of the pandemic, when a client asked me what protocols we had in place to continue supporting them as the outbreak began to spread. People weren’t working from home at this point, but were still unsure of the massive impact Covid would eventually create. We were providing this client with payroll support, and unsurprisingly, they were concerned whether we could continue to support them if we became a victim to the virus.   

My response was simple: we were already working from home, as we have always done so.   

Six years ago, I took a decision to “go it alone”, and not work for someone else. I wanted to work with a team, rather than for a team. One of the key aspects of that ethos– although recent events have changed that – is that I would be travelling for a considerable amount of the year, so I wanted everything to be cloud– based. This is pre-O365 and the huge range of tools that cloud-based platforms now offer.   

Using the cloud, it didn’t matter where I was in the world, or in fact where my team was. Indeed, just a few months ago, we engaged a new colleague in Wanaka New Zealand, to support those clients who are based in Asia/Pacific.   

I recently saw a post on LinkedIn asking employees where they wanted to work.   

• 7% wanted to go back to the office full time  
• 62% wanted to work from home  
• 31% wanted a hybrid option   

It’s a classic conclusion:

Productivity doesn’t come from pizza parties. It comes from happy employees.  

I’m proud to have such a passionate team supporting me as we grow, and supporting our clients as they grow too. It’s truly inspiring to see a new UK setup with turnover of zero, grow to be an £8m+ turnover within six months. It’s also fulfilling to work with owner-managed businesses closely and share their vision and passion for the future. Here’s to many more years of the same.