Alex Smith joined TaxAssist Accountants at the age of 30 in 2006 and now operates two shops from Peverell in Devon, alongside his wife Sarah and seven members of staff.
Prior to joining TaxAssist Accountants, Alex who is an FCA Chartered Accountant, operated as an accountant in industry and also an auditor in practice. He made the decision to move from Guildford in Surrey to Devon, seeking a more rewarding career which, at the same time, would provide greater flexibility in looking after the planned family. Fourteen years and two children later he hasn’t looked back!
Alex said: “It was a big decision to leave a job with a good regular income to join a franchise and start from scratch in a totally new area, but I can honestly say TaxAssist has provided me with everything I need.
“There are challenges along the way of course – for me a significant reason behind joining a franchise rather than going it alone was that my experience before joining was largely technical, and not in sales or marketing. From speaking with other franchisees, it was clear the TaxAssist model would fill these gaps in my skillset, and this has absolutely been the case. Initial business development training was excellent, and the ongoing refinement of our offering to clients continues non-stop.
“Thirteen years later, my role is more about looking after the great team of people we have in the business, and talking to clients and prospective clients. But I also think it important to keep fully up to speed on everything we do – for this reason I’ll always be at technical updates and keep a hand in the day-to-day technical work the team are looking after.
"A major change I have witnessed has been the growth in technology available to us, and specifically cloud accounting software and apps. I’ve always enjoyed checking out the latest tech and we started using cloud software ourselves relatively early on, some seven or eight years ago now.
"Since then the rate of development has been incredible but still continues apace – with 