Speaker: Tim Johnson, Regional Partner, YRH
Tim Johnson: Hi, I'm Tim Johnson. I'm the Regional Partner for YRH Finance Team, looking after clients in the West End and South and West London.
How do you help SME businesses?
Tim Johnson: So my role as a Regional Partner is to identify solutions for the challenges that my SME clients are facing. And this will typically involve bringing in a member or members of my team who will then develop with the client and then deliver a plan of action to professionalise the finance function within the client to support the business as it goes forward. Most of our clients are long term, and my role, then, is to keep in touch with the client and make sure that over time, as their business grows and needs change, so does our service to support the business.
Who are your clients?
Tim Johnson: In revenue terms 80% of our clients are in the three quarters of a million to five million range. The other 20% are larger than this. Most of our clients are growing and at the smaller end of the revenue range, typically, when they approach us, are finding their current finance function is starting to struggle to support the growth. Industry wise, our clients tend to match the local economy. So in London, most of my clients are in professional services, media or technology. Although we do have a fair number also of charity clients.
Why are you passionate about your work?
Tim Johnson: I started a long time ago in finance and then moved into consulting before launching and growing my own businesses where I learned first hand how a weak finance function could harm your business. I love now, using the experiences that I've gained and the lessons that I've learned to help new businesses that I meet achieve their ambitions. And with a team that I'm able to call upon, I know that we can provide the support that is needed.
What makes YRH different?
Tim Johnson: YRH Finance Team has been delivering in-house accounting services since 2007 and in that time has developed methodologies to bring the best of big company learning into the SME market. We only accept around one in 75 of the accountants who apply to join us, and all of our team has worked in business rather than in practice, which means that they can deliver on those methodologies. In the seven years since I've been with YRH, around 80% of our clients come from client referral, which I take as a reflection of the service that we deliver.
