Rothwell McHugh was established in 1992 as a startup partnership. We began in Dublin 2, and I have many happy memories of our early days in business there, with client meetings often proceeding late into the night at the various sociable venues around this part of the city.
After 10 years, we realised we wanted to go in different directions. The partnership dissolution was very amicable, and the firm retained the name, relocating to Phibsborough, from where it has operated since 2002. Looking back, the fact we were in constant daily contact, had no practice bank debt and were honest with each other about our own goals meant the dissolution was a simple process.
Today, Rothwell McHugh is a team of seven. We are a fully paperless compliance practice assisting SMEs to comply with their obligations to Revenue, CRO and other government authorities. We help develop management information systems for our clients, assist with analysing this information, and guide clients to take correct decisions. We also assist innovation-focused SMEs in areas such as grant aid and R&D tax credits.
It’s important to remember for the recovery of our economy that over 60% of employment in Ireland is provided by SMEs
My focus is not so much in my business (ie compliance) but on it. Many day-to-day issues that hit my desk have to be resolved to ensure things move smoothly and our team remains happy and motivated. I enjoy collaborating with tax professionals who share our vision of client excellence and finding new ways to assist clients in achieving their own goals.
A key goal for the coming year is to assist clients with compliance checks on Covid-19 assistance packages. We are also focused on maintaining existing service levels, providing SME owners with tools to focus on their business and, where needed, create robust exit or retirement plans and the tools to monitor these.
As with many practices, a key challenge over the past year have been ensuring our IT resource is robust and protected. We’ve also been focused on collaborating more with other connected parties (it’s often not the ‘how’ of a particular issue so much as ‘who’ can help with it), resourcing our practice and remunerating our staff. We’ve had to look more to outsourcing so that we can respond to extra demand for our services while maintaining the same quality. As managing director, I also want to ensure the right level of growth of recurring fee income for our compliance business.
Looking to the year ahead, my hope for Irish business is that unvaccinated adults will get their jabs. I also hope the government fully implements the new national development plan without interruption. This is crucial for Ireland to remain competitive within the EU. I would also like to see banks becoming more open to lending to SMEs and less bureaucratic.
Budget 2022’s announcement that corporation tax will remain at 12.5% for SMEs is highly significant. It provides a much better motivation for profit among owner-managed SMEs. It’s important to remember for the recovery of our economy that 68% of private business employment in Ireland is provided by SMEs.
The most important business lesson I have learned in my career is to make your own mistakes but learn from them. It’s also important to continue to innovate in all areas of the business and have an exit plan.
