Member Testimonial – Brown & Co

Why joining the Fylde Coast Responsible Business Network is good for:

• Your Business
• Your People
• Our Community

I’ve always lived and worked on the Fylde Coast. I’m proud to say I was born here – it’s a great place to live with fantastic people and a diverse range of businesses.

I was fortunate to get an apprenticeship after finishing school and qualified as a chartered accountant without going down the university route.

I spent eight years working for KPMG before leaving in 2012. I knew I wanted to work for myself but not within a traditional accountancy firm. Instead, I wanted to be able to bring the ‘Big 4’ mentality to businesses here on the Fylde Coast with a modern, solutions-focused service so I could use my skills to add additional value to my clients.

It was a case of starting from scratch, meeting new people and delivering an excellent service. We don’t just prepare accounts and tax returns, we work with businesses to solve problems and help them to grow.

Brown & Co itself grew organically from there. We quickly became a team of nine people working from our offices in Thornton. We acquired two firms during that period and have recently acquired a larger, third accountancy practice, to become a team of 20 with over 1,000 clients.

Throughout this period I started to attend some networking groups. I wanted to meet people, to engage with businesses here on the Fylde Coast and see how I could add value.

When I joined the Fylde Coast Responsible Business Network it was immediately different to anything else I’d been to. The people were extremely supportive and passionate, the quality and range of businesses involved was high and everyone was there with a common purpose – to join together and do something positive for the area. This was absolutely key for me. It has meant the conversations with those people are great, often because the focus isn’t on ‘doing business’ but about a wider issue, one we all believe in and are working together to do something about.

I think everyone recognises that this area is a great place to be and to operate in but that we compete with cities like Liverpool, Manchester or Preston. Businesses here are innovative and operate at the highest levels but tend to get quietly on with their work. We need to shout more about what we do and the opportunities we have within the business community right here on the Fylde Coast.

For us at Brown & Co, this meant creating our first accountancy apprenticeship role last year and we’re delighted to have been able to offer a young person in the area an opportunity like this. They are well on their way to becoming a chartered accountant. It’s full circle for me, because this is how I completed my training and started my career. I’d love to be able to provide more opportunities like this in the future for younger people and build a pipeline of new apprentices.

I would always recommend the Fylde Coast Responsible Business Network. You meet people with a similar mindset and ethos who are ultimately working to achieve the same goals – putting something back into the area to help it to succeed for the future.