My brother and I started Wilson Partners in 2008 – we’re very excited about our 16th anniversary this year. I’d always dreamt of having my own business, and we started from scratch with just a handful of clients. We now have over 150 staff and six offices.
We’d seen a gap in the market between high-street firms that were compliance-based and the big firms that seemed to going after ever bigger fish. In the middle were large numbers of typically owner-managed SME businesses that didn’t get the support from the high street but were unloved by the bigger firms.
The big firms no longer seem interested in servicing many SMEs
The gap today is probably as big as it has ever been – particularly on the audit side. We’re seeing a large number of businesses falling away from the big firms, which no longer seem interested in servicing them.
Over the years we’ve been approached by many firms wanting to buy us. In 2021 we did a deal with a family-office-backed investment firm looking for a buy-and-build investment. We could retain our culture, strategy and brand while being part of a network acquiring other like-minded businesses to create greater opportunities. Since then, we have been busy executing the plan to get into the top 25 of firms in the UK, which involves organic growth and acquisitions of other firms.
The importance of culture is really ingrained with us. Our first key strategic hire after we took the investment was a head of employee experience. This has allowed us to do things like the Best Companies process, which has given us some really valuable insights.
Our plan was always to have some offshore support. We’ve expanded our team to South Africa, as it was initially a struggle to find people with the right level of expertise and qualification to build our corporate finance team in the UK. But since then we have built up the team to 16 staff, who work across all service lines as well as offering some internal finance resource. It has opened up a talent pool to us that is very helpful given the challenges that everyone in the UK has in terms of resource and people.
Good-quality managers can drive engagement with clients
We’ve also launched a training programme to develop the skills of our managers and leaders of the future. The old adage of people not leaving companies but leaving managers is often true. Good-quality managers can drive engagement with clients, talking openly about their challenges and helping them to understand individual objectives and aims for the future.
One of our big areas of focus this year is sustainability. That covers both what we do internally for ourselves but also as a potential service line as reporting requirements come in and supply chain requirements impact smaller businesses.
In my spare time I enjoy running, cycling and golf. I ran the London Marathon last year for the first time after 50 years on this planet, and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done.
