A chartered accountant who set up on her own just over a year ago has announced that her husband has joined the business.
Laura Whittle from County Durham has worked in the accountancy sector for over 25 years.
But after welcoming two daughters, Grace and Sophia in 2019 and 2022 respectively, she decided to launch her own accountancy practice.
Now, just over 12 months into her self employment journey, Laura has confirmed that her husband, Rob, has joined the business.
Laura, who is ACA qualified and a fellow member, as she has held this qualification for over 10 years , said: “My first year as Laura Whittle Chartered Accountant has gone very well and I am now looking at growing my client portfolio.
“To do that I knew I needed additional support and rather fortuitously, my husband had left his engineering role and was keen to try something different.
“We had talked about him coming to join me, so we decided to give it a go.
“I know some people might say mixing homelife and work life can be detrimental, but we’ve found it really works. At the moment I am focussing on client management, while Rob is looking after the growth of the brand through networking, social media management and developing our website. It’s really helping and gives us more of the work/life balance that we wanted, especially when having such a young family.”
Laura works with businesses in a range of sectors across the North East, with her priority during the first year to attract new start-ups and established sole traders. Now, she is hoping to work with larger small businesses , who need help in multiple and more complex areas of accounts management.
Rob said: “It’s been a refreshing change for me working with Laura, particularly after 15 years in the engineering industry which had become much less satisfying for me.
“At the same time, I’m no stranger to accountancy, having studied maths at university. So, me joining the business did make a lot of sense.
“There is so much potential for us to continue to expand, so for the time being I am looking after the marketing side of things which will help us grow the brand and reach more people, but I am also keen to undertake the Association of Tax Technicians training which will further strengthen our services.”
Laura and Rob split their time between Portland House at Belmont Business Park and a home office.
Laura offers one-hour free initial consultation and added: “Our core value is to offer individual tailored accountancy services to each client with a personalised, friendly approach. We look after our clients as if they were part of our own team and deal with their challenges as if they were our own. I would urge anyone who would like a free accounting health check to get in touch as we offer one-hour free initial consultation”.