For the love of small business with Hayley Ekgren

19 Apr

Description:

In this week’s episode, I have a great conversation with the fabulous Hayley Ekgren, co-founder of Your Support Team, all about the behind-the-scenes of running and growing a business.

Hayley is Business Operations Director at Your Support Team, a company that provides an outsourced finance department to SMEs, specialising in Xero accounting software and offering everything you'd expect from a full finance function.

We chat about:

Hayley’s journey over the last eight years since she began the business with her sister-in-law Claire.
The best way to future-proof your business.
The power of a story to engage with your audience.
The importance of attracting and choosing the right people to work with as clients and in your team.
You don’t know what you don’t know,
The value of continuous personal development and training.
Why values can be more important than strategy.
The importance of effective communication in a hybrid workplace.

And we talk about team dynamics and how things can change if you really trust and empower your people to do a good job.

Hayley Ekgren Resource Links:

Hello and welcome to the Future-Proof Your Business podcast with me Lucy Rennie.
I’m a massive champion for small business and I’m on a mission to help you to love what you do and to build and grow your business in a way that works for you and feels good.
I’m convinced that the best way to create a successful and sustainable business is to do it from the inside out, which means that it has to start with you, the business owner.
In fact, I believe that business really is all about people, and if you want to future-proof your business and make an impact then you need to get really clear on why you do what you do, create the best experience and then build relationships and trust.
In this podcast, I want to share with you as much of my knowledge, expertise and experience with you, as I can, as well as some behind the scenes stories and strategies from my business, and I’ll be having conversations with and learning from some amazing business owners and experts so I can give you everything you need to stay focused, on track and feel more in control on this rollercoaster ride that is building a sustainable business.
Lucy Rennie 01:18
Hi, and welcome to This week's episode of the Future Proof Your Business podcast. And this week is another one in the series of the love of small business where I have invited a wonderful guest on to talk to us about their journey and their business and behind the scenes. And that today is the wonderful Hayley Ekgren from ‘Your Support Team’. I'm going to let Haley properly introduce yourself in a second. But Haley is the Business Operations Director at ‘Your Support Team’ She's one of the owners of the business. And she's responsible really for managing the overall functioning of the business operations, implementing the policies, the processes, she's basically the thing that keeps the whole business going, and making sure that they've got a really happy team and, amazing clients. I'll let Hayley introduce exactly what ‘Your Support Team’ do. But I just want from my perspective, as well too let you know that they are amazing, because they also support me in my business, with all my bookkeeping and accounts and all those things. So that is a wonderful business. And Hayley is a brilliant business owner, an individual, party party goer, but I think we'll get onto that as we get into the podcast. But I'm just so excited to have you here today and to chat about all things roller coaster ride and within a business. Haley, can I ask you after all, that's, I'm sure you can do a better job. Do you want to introduce yourself and tell everybody what your support team does as well
Hayley Ekgren 02:50
Hi, Lucy. thanks for that. I think you've probably done a better job than I can. So ‘Your Support Team’, we're a fully outsourced finance department. So we offer finance and book keeping support on the Xero accounting software, we typically work with small to medium businesses, turnover, typically between 250,000 to about 5 million. As you say, I'm the Business Operations Director. So I do less and less of the client work these days. I'm the one that's constantly trying to think of the best ways of doing things, the new ways of doing things, making sure the clients are happy, and making sure the team are happy.
Lucy Rennie 03:32
I know you do a great job at this. I'm so excited for you to share a little bit about your journey. So I think we've known each other now. Gosh, I should have actually checked that before. But I think it's at least six or seven years, maybe. So do you want to share a little bit about your journey in getting to here. And I know that you've got business partner, haven't you? Which is a special relationship as well. So do you want to tell us how you started the story behind that? And maybe kind of a little bit of an outline of the last few years and how you've got to where you are today?
Hayley Ekgren 04:12
So about 14 years ago, I went self employed. It was when my youngest was about three. And I was working in a big company in the defence environment, and decided that I didn't want to have to ask permission to go to school assemblies. I wanted to just be able to go to a school assembly. And if I needed to work late to catch up on my work and my time I do that and I wanted to sort of be more in control around what I did when I did it. So it fit in with me and my family. So I did that about 14 years ago, and I set myself up as a virtual assistant. During that time, I was very financially astute. Anyway, with some of my background. I had a lot to do with all the costs in the defence industry. So during that time of being a virtual assistant, it was the finance side that grew. It was the bookkeeping side that grew for people. And I got introduced to Xero accounting software during that time. And then fast forward a few years, I've been doing that for probably four years or five years. And then my father's business, he had his own company at the time had a huge fire where everything was completely destroyed. And all of his accounts was on paper. It's all paper based, he had a spreadsheet. But other than that, it was all paper copies of everything. At the same time, my sister in law was on maternity, and she was working in the city centre for the coop, and also at the same time was kind of thinking, do I want to go back into this environment when I've had this baby that it's taken me a long time to sort of get to. So the two of us kind of jumped in, helped my dad out, helped him recoup everything had a VAT return that was due, we had his year end return that was due. We started contacting suppliers, we were logging into portals and we managed to pull it all together for him so that he could get his VAT returns submitted in time, and his year end over to the accountants. And it was from then on really that me and Claire started having conversations. She was like, I've really enjoyed doing that. What can we do together? So Claire's, the qualified accountant, and I'm not I'd fallen into it sort of like quite naturally. So we put our heads together, started coming up with the name and what we could do. And that was it. It's eight years in September this year, we sort of introduced the business, had some clients that I already had that naturally transitioned into ‘Your Support Team’, and then we've just kind of kept going ever since really.
Lucy Rennie 07:01
It's amazing. I didn't know about the first bit of your story where you were a VA, or that you worked in defence actually sounds really interesting. And knew about your Dad’s story. And that's it's really powerful, though, isn't it? Almost because it's kind of that's the thing that's almost Yes. sparked your collaboration and the business, isn't it and actually having to help you no doubt.
Hayley Ekgren 07:25
Yeah, I don't know whether it would have happened. The fire was about eight and a half years ago, I think. So it took us about a year. But Claire did a few bits while she was sort of on maternity, but it took us between nine months and a year to kind of set the business up. So made sure that Claire had sort of like maternity break with Reece, and yeah, not looked back.
Lucy Rennie 07:55
It's the power of a story as well, isn't it? But I suppose I imagine for you when you're sharing that story. It's a great way to kind of demonstrate how you started and why you did it. And that was before making tax digital, I imagine. So those VAT returns weren't going through the, system, so it was even more.
Hayley Ekgren 08:15
Yeah,they were all just submitted up to the HMRC portal. I mean, he was quite organised that everything was on a spreadsheet. But he was also a stickler for doing things 100% accurate. So, you know, we managed to get 90%, I think of all the documentation together so that he could reclaim the VAT on it. Because, the way he was, there was no way he was going to claim something if he didn't have the actual paperwork to back it up.
Lucy Rennie 08:45
Yeah that's amazing. And like you say, I think it's great that sparked your collaboration with Claire. And it's funny listening to you about saying about the kids and not being about you, but I'm completely unemployable. Now, there's no way I could go and work for anybody. Because you get used to that, you need that flexibility, don't you in that way of working and doing. Was it scary? Or was it just a natural thing, or was it quite a bit a jump going into business together?
Hayley Ekgren 09:17
I don't think it was quite as scary for me because I was already self employed. I think it was probably more scary for Claire. She was on a higher salary than I was. So she had a sort of drop in income for quite some time. For me, it was probably a lot easier. I think it was also easier because I already had some clients. So we already had some guaranteed income. We sort of then went about kind of tailoring what we did, decide we were going to specialise in just Xero. So over the space of probably 12 months to two years it was kind of fine tuning, making sure we kept the right clients but actually let go some of the clients that didn't fit the new business right.
Lucy Rennie 10:07
There's so many things that because even just the fact that you were confident enough, I suppose to pick that specialism and to really leash down and become that specialist in Xero is quite scary anyway, isn't it and making that decision, especially when you're starting out?
Hayley Ekgren 10:21
Yeah, I think I was quite lucky that I'd already been introduced to it. So Claire was coming in quite cold, but I'd already been introduced to it. And I knew there was a bit of a buzz about the software. I'd use Sage before. And I had never used QuickBooks. So it kind of just seemed natural. We still had a few that were on spreadsheets for quite some time. But we've managed to sort of slowly transition those over on to Xero.
Lucy Rennie 10:50
So it's funny how you say you still had a few that run on spreadsheets? Does that mean today? You don't have any new clients or people that come with spreadsheets? Or is it still a thing?
Hayley Ekgren 11:00
No, I mean, when making tax digital happened, we did have people coming to us with the books, you know, like the old journal books that you would see, like Scrooge sat there over his candle like writing and we have had several companies come to us like that in the past. But we see less and less of that now. Because it makes us digital.
Lucy Rennie 11:23
Yeah, it's really has made a big impact, hasn't it? And getting everybody kind of online and doing it, which is a lot easier, isn't it? But it's interesting when you say about the right fit as well. When you said it was important to make sure that you had the right fit of clients, but you were making sure you're keeping the ones who were the right fit and not keeping the ones who were the wrong fit. Do you want to expand a little bit more on what you mean by that? And how do you differentiate between what's the right fit? And what isn't? And has that changed?
Hayley Ekgren 11:55
Yeah, it's really changed. And it's really hard to get it right. And we tend to go off gut feel a lot more than we do. Now. I think we're braver than we were at the time. We've done things like we've introduced minimum fees. So we'll only take people on if they are prepared to pay certain amounts. So it means that you get in the people who are actually interested in the finance function. We only want to work with people who are nice, really, we have kind of had instances in the past where clients are no longer clients, because they haven't been nice to us or to the team. So there's a whole load of things where they've got a fit, and we've got it massively wrong. You know, lots of times, and we still get it wrong now, but I think we're a lot clearer, for us it's more the type of person, we're a small business, we don't need to work with absolutely everybody, we can kind of pick and choose a bit who we work with. And we've we've got to get on with them. One of our key values is human first. So it's getting to know the business owners, but getting to like the business owners, but actually the two way, respect and appreciation from them as well.
Lucy Rennie 13:13
Yeah, it's so important, isn't it? So I think when we start a business or when we're running a business, sometimes we forget that we can choose as well, who we work with, we get to choose the type of clients, we sort of get caught up, especially the beginning, when you need those sales, and you need to get going, you sort of say yes to everybody. And it's only later that you sort of have these bad experiences or you start to kind of think, ah like you say it's a gut feeling sometimes, isn't it when you know, you just don't want to be having that meeting with that person or whatever. So, yeah, I think it's such a valuable advice to help share that you can reverse that and what you've done in terms of putting in place certain criteria that allows you to filter that and sort of almost repel instead of attracting in terms of being a magnet, it's almost kind of getting rid of or not allowing the ones that won't be a good fit to get through the system, which is brilliant, because it makes your life a lot easier as well, doesn't it?
Hayley Ekgren 14:09
So it does. Yeah, I mean, the key thing is they've got to either use Xero or want to use Xero. So that's the first criteria. If they don't, then we won't take them on as a client, we'll happily refer them to people. So we've got a good sort of network of people that we can refer on to now and, we don't need every single person out there who's looking for bookkeeping work.
Lucy Rennie 14:33
It's so true. But it's really important. So I'm interested when you were saying about you want people who value what you do, and that kind of financial support and the things that you provide in that account management and things. Do you want to explain a little bit more than about what you do because you're not necessarily the most typical of bookkeepers? Are you There's a whole world of what you do behind that in terms of value add and partnership.
Hayley Ekgren 15:06
So we're really well qualified team. So Claire, my business partner, she's a SEMA qualified accountant. And then we've got 80 accountants, we've got a whole range of qualifications within the team. So a lot of what we do is the bookkeeping side of things, because that has to be right. So what we find is we get people coming to us where the bookkeeping isn't, right. So that's the key thing, you've got to get the bookkeeping side of it, right. But then once you've got it right, you can then move on to a whole load of other things, you can start then looking at the information that Xeros giving you because Xero, you can pull off some amazing reports on Xero. So once you've got it right, you can start looking at KPIs, you can start looking at management reporting, you can start looking at trends, you can start tracking different sales categories, and what's bringing you in the most money, and it might be bringing you in the most money, but it might not be particularly profitable to you. So it's doing all of those kind of other bits, we worked with really high level. So we make sure that if it's Xero rated VAT, it's Xero rated VAT, it's no VAT, that it's not exempted Xero rated. But we know these things, because we've spent years learning what all the individual components make up the bookkeeping. So yeah, we get bookkeeping, right in the first instance. But then when that's right, we can then go on and provide a lot more information, we get referrals from a lot of accountants, because when the year end gets handed over to them, it's done to a really high level, because we have our own sort of internal process. So yeah, we work really closely with quite a few accountants.
Lucy Rennie 16:58
Which is amazing in itself, isn't it and says it all really, in terms of, if it's the accountant actually referring them to you, then they're obviously, regard you really highly. But I think there's something as well, which I love about that collaboration with accountants that you have, because I'm always working and sort of encouraging my clients to be looking forward and think using the knowledge of the numbers and what they know about the business to project or to think about how they can improve and how they can grow their business or future proof it. Whereas traditionally, I suppose a lot of accountants or the way we used to look at accounts was looking backwards, which is kind of already, it's too late to make those changes. I think that's something you guys do, isn't it, where you can really help people to understand?
Hayley Ekgren 17:46
Yeah, and it's things we do. And it's things that we're looking at doing more of so at the moment for ourselves, we're doing a lot around KPIs. So we're looking at right, how many people have we got on the team? How much is the bookable people who are on client work? How much are they bringing in? How profitable are they, how many more clients can we take on before we've got to recruit somebody else. So we're doing all of this kind of work for ourselves at the moment, and we're like, actually, we should be doing this for a lot of our clients, and Claire's just putting a programme together, where she'll work with clients, and build a three year sort of budget and programme. We're looking three years ahead for those. So she's kind of working with a client at the moment putting that together. And that's something that she's looking at doing more of. So yeah, we're all about looking forwards. Because unfortunately, in the times that we are at the moment, I mean, seven years, not a single client gone into administration, or liquidation. And in the space of five months, we've seen four go under. But it's the ones that have, sadly buried their head in the sand a little bit. And they haven't been listening to the advice and, looking at what they need to do to change things, they've kind of just been stuck in the same rut. And, you need to change things fairly quickly, sometimes. So yeah, it's getting the clients that actually have a real interest in that side of things.
Lucy Rennie 19:24
You start your business, don't you because you're passionate about something. But you don't really know how to run a business, you don't really know about the other aspects, whether that's finance or marketing, or HR, whatever it might be, and so suddenly, you get kind of thrown in, and you've got to think about these things or kind of, take on these extra tasks. And I think that's what I love about what you guys are doing is because you're almost taking, I suppose the roles that I am used to seeing in a corporate organisation, you'd have the financial controller, you'd have this financial director and have that advice. I remember we used to have to budget five years ahead, we had to kind of, defend every figure and where we would go in and trends and all those things, where as a small business, you don't necessarily have that knowledge or access to that. Or maybe you don't even want to commit to employing somebody? Because, it's a huge cost to the business, I suppose. So, in a way you're making that accessible, and you have that knowledge and that experience and that, know how.
Hayley Ekgren 20:20
Also we understand because we're running a small business ourselves, we understand what the pressures are, a lot of it is relatable for them and us and, we know how stressful the finances can be, we get that, seeing the stress, my dad was under with the fire, we get it we get that, as small business owners, it can actually make the difference of being able to pay your mortgage or not, it can cause a huge amount of stress, but the worst thing people can do is ignore it.
Lucy Rennie 20:58
It's really important and I love that you're doing that. It's almost that what they don't know, it's kind of you're helping them know what they don't know, in a way, isn't it? Yeah. When we don't know, we don't know, you right. In the sense of because you run your own business as well, you kind of come at it in that way you understand all those things. So I suppose for me being a client of yours as well, it's almost for me that I suppose the most valuable thing is that peace of mind that I know that's taken care of and know that, you've got my back or your team's got the back. And it's all kind of it's there. And I don't need to worry about it in that sense. Or if even it might be that if something did happen, the ship hit the fan for whatever reason. Actually, I've got you guys there to help me with that. So it's that as well, isn't it? Because it's lonely running a business? So knowing you have those kind of experts.
Hayley Ekgren 21:51
I've just had a call with a potential new lead. And she's worked as a corporate lawyer for her entire career. And she's now sort of branching out on her own. So incredibly bright lady, but she's so stressed about the finances and the VAT returns and all this information. I'm like, Well, if you come to us, we take the stress of knowing when the VAT returns are due off you, that doesn't need to be on your radar will tell you when they're due, we'll get everything ready for you, we'll take that stress away from you. And she was like, Oh, yes great, it's like therapy.
Lucy Rennie 22:32
Absolutely. And I think it's that if there's ever anything to delegate first or as a priority is its finance, isn't it? Or it's those things that you really don't like? Yeah, that's scary. Give them to you guys. But I want to ask about more about the business behind the scenes then. So I've got a lot of clients who are family business. So very often it's either husband and wife, or it's, father and daughter or, I've got one manufacturing business. It's mom, dad and three sons that are all working in different areas of the business. What's it like to work with your sister in law? How's that gone and what's the highs and the lows?
Hayley Ekgren 23:17
There's been no real massive lows, I have to say we are quite similar, but different at the same time. So Claire's, more sensible, does things kind of in an accountancy, sort of like brain way. And I'm probably a little bit more flighty. And I sort of come up with far too many ideas, and I need a little bit of reining in so we kind of complement each other that way, but then we're also both fairly similar in our day to day personalities. So yeah, we haven't had any, people say that I can't believe it’s still going it's nearly eight years and you've not had like, a major fallout, but no, we genuinely get on well, and I mean, even though she's my sister in law, and I see her outside work, we don't spend all our time socialising together, we see them we go have family meals, we do things, but we're not in each other's pockets. So yeah, it's a nice balance.
Lucy Rennie 24:24
I think you're right in terms of having that complementarity in terms of personality and skill set and things because I know before you were talking about all the qualified people in your business and that makes you stand out but you weren't talking about you and the value that you bring and all that you do for the business, which is huge, isn't it? And, it's massive, it's a great partnership.
Hayley Ekgren 24:47
Yeah, I'm the one that kind of goes right guys. I've got this great new idea. Everybody just looks at me. Here we go again.
Lucy Rennie 24:58
Yeah, but I think that's ace.Is there any other unspoken rules? I know some of the family businesses, they sort of say or they don't talk about business at social occasions, is there anything there that you'd that have sort of happened naturally or that you've
Hayley Ekgren 25:14
No, no, no unspoken rules, I guess, because Claire's kids, younger than mine. So actually, if we do get together as a family, it's usually the kids jumping all over and allow not much opportunity to talk.
Lucy Rennie 25:31
No, it's cool. It's so good. But I think so, what in terms of like the roller coaster ride then? Has the last eight years then? Because, yeah, I think I'm gonna think I pretty much know you. This will be eight years for me in June this year, as well. So I think you've grown, this amazing to see just where you are today, and how much you've grown and just even confidence in what you're doing and the offering and the reputation you've got and the network and everything. Is it always rosy? Or share some of maybe the highs or the lows behind the scenes of your business.
Hayley Ekgren 26:12
It's really hard, it's constant. I was having a chat with Claire this morning, saying it is just constant, especially when you've got a team because there's always something going on. We've always tried to be human, that's our first kind of value. Flexible. And then just sometimes you constantly question yourself, whether you're doing everything right. And I know that sort of about 18 months ago, we had sort of a little bit of a moment with some of the staffing. And it was really tough, we sort of made a couple of wrong decisions. And it was really hard to deal with those. We've come through that now. And we've got a great team now. But there's still always something, people have got lives. So there's always something going on. We've had two members of the team, that between two people, we've had three bereavements within the team over the past, sort of like few months, and so you've kind of got to support them. But at the same time, you still need the client work doing and it's getting that balance, right of supporting your team while they're going through a really tough time. But making sure that everything's getting done, and no balls are being dropped, and that we're still on it, and that the clients aren't really too aware that we might be having a few issues behind the scenes. So yeah, I would say the team ace, but I would say that, for me, that has been one of the biggest challenges because I do constantly question myself and make sure that we're doing the right thing.
Lucy Rennie 27:54
Yeah, and who knows what the right thing is actually, there's no rules with it are they. And you've got to kind of go, No, but it's interesting, you're talking about, it's almost the next level up of challenges, isn't it as you start to grow and scale and you take on people and it's a whole different kind of way of looking at things. And challenges that come as you sort of move to that next level, isn't it? It's managing people ultimately.
Hayley Ekgren 28:20
Yea it's knowing when to take the next person on? And when's the right person, who's the right person? And when's the right time? And do we wait until the team are completely bombed out with work before taking somebody on? Or do we do it sooner, but we can't really afford to do it sooner. And it's like this whole cycle of knowing when to take the next person on. And then the next person we take on is going to be an apprentice. And when she starts, she's going to be 17. And as you know, Lucy, we'd like to go out and party and have a few drinks. And then it changes the dynamics again, because it's like, we're gonna have a 17 year old working for us. So we're gonna have to change some of their social side of what we do slightly, at least until she hits 18.
Lucy Rennie 29:06
But that's exciting in itself, isn't it? It's almost like a never another step forward in terms of growing the team, isn't it?
Hayley Ekgren 29:15
Yeah, I mean, I started out life as an apprentice. And I've always been quite keen to kind of be able to offer it, but I wanted to make sure we could offer it at a time when we had the resources and the time and effort to give that person, because pretty much everybody that started with us up to now has had to hit the ground running, they've needed to know pretty much what needs to be done, whereas when the apprentice starts in May, hopefully now I'm not doing so much of the client work especially we've got a little bit more flexibility in the team to train them up properly.
Lucy Rennie 29:52
As you know, I work with a lot of apprentices and do a lot of mentoring with clients and it is so important to be able to give them that time. But then it pays back in the sense that you're kind of future proofing your business in terms of building your own in house skills and developing your team in house, which is another way of looking at things, isn't it?
Hayley Ekgren 30:11
so yeah, definitely. Yeah.
Lucy Rennie 30:14
No, it's good. And when you were saying about, I think it was 18 months ago, where you had a few people issues where maybe you hadn't picked the right people, the right fit for the team?
It’s kind of whant to say, I think that's part of running a business, isn't it? It's kind of you've got to try it first. And actually, if you hadn't picked the wrong people, you wouldn't know that they were wrong, and how to find the right people, I don't know what you think about that?
Hayley Ekgren 30:39
It was a massive eye opener for us. And it's made us put a lot of things in place. So it's made us really clear on our values. It's made us put proper performance plans into place with the team. So what we sort of went through over those few months has made us really change how we manage taking people on how we recruit people, what we look for, and then what we do, once they've joined the team. I know that one of them, we have to have quite a hard conversation with. But we completely went back to our values of human first, we need to approach this in a real human way with it, we have to be open, but we've got to be kind while we do it. So yeah, it's the values that we've put in place. We're constantly thinking about now, it's like, actually, if we make this decision, are we being true to what we say that we're, we want to be?
Lucy Rennie 31:49
Yeah, it's so important. It's so good, because it’s literally, if anything, I think I believe that values are almost more important than having a strategy. Because actually, like you say, you can make decisions and everything based on as long as you're in line with your values, then actually, you're going to go in the right direction, aren't you say?
Hayley Ekgren 32:07
Oh, yeah, completely. I remember one of the team, we were having a few issues with a client, and they said, they don't really fit with our values. Do they? Were like, no they are gone! We served them notice! And and so it was like, Yeah, we you know what, we've been thinking the same. We need to not let them treat us like this anymore. So, they were no longer a client. And we don't do that, lightheartedly, sometimes we will make those decisions if the clients don't fit with our values.?
Lucy Rennie 32:45
It's so good. And it's such a relief, isn't it when they go, I remember the first time I sacked a client because of that, because of the wrong fit. It's huge. It's really powerful to be able to do that. But I think the other dynamic for you with that, why it's really important as well as because actually, it's the knock on effect on your team. If you're working with the wrong people, or the wrong clients actually can have a really negative impact, can't it on the business?
Hayley Ekgren 33:11
Well yeah, I think when it was, just me and Claire, we probably would have put up with it a bit more. But actually, when we've got a team to think about now, we don't want them going home. Not wanting to come into work the next day, because there's something a client's done. I've had that feeling before. And so I don't want that feeling. And I don't want the team to have that feeling.
Lucy Rennie 33:34
And it's got to start with you hasnt it, I suppose, if you've got to lead by example, and actually live the values because if you don't do it, then they're not going to do either, are they? So it's kind of that? Yeah, that trust it's really important. But that leads me on, you mentioned it slightly just before about you liking to enjoy going out and enjoying life. And for me, it's really important to help my clients kind of build a business that really works for them that they can enjoy that feels good. Yeah, it's a place that feels that you can enjoy, how does that fit them with you and how important it is that for what you do and how your life balance and the team and I suppose the values as well really? Yeah, what does that mean?
Hayley Ekgren 34:28
So I guess for me personally, I do not live to work and never have done I've always enjoyed my downtime I enjoy. You know, me Lucy, I enjoy socialising, enjoy a glass of wine or gin. And so to me, that's really important. I've always tried or for the last sort of, like few years, I've always tried to have Friday's off. Doesn't always happen. But I try to as much as possible so that I can either go to Yoga, or I can go out on Thursday night and not have to worry about, having a bit of a fuzzy head the next day. And I guess it's, how I want to live. So if me as one of the directors wants to live my life like that, then surely the rest of the team do, surely, it's fine for them to finish at half past three, if they've come in at half, seven, so that they can go to the gym and avoid the traffic, or finish at three o'clock. So they can go and pick their child up from school, whatever is important to them. That's fine, because different things are important to each of us. And, we all go through phases in our lives. We set the business up to be more flexible around the children. Now mine are older now mine are 20 and 17. But they still need me, my daughter still needs me to go and pick her up from uni, or to be at the end of a phone call if she's having a rough week, or, when she comes home to spend a bit of time with her. And my son needs me because, he's been through a lot. He's just been diagnosed with autism. So at the moment, even though he's 17, he probably needs me, bit more than he has done for quite a few years. So if that's what's important to me, why shouldn't it be important to everybody else?
Lucy Rennie 36:22
Oh, absolutely. And that's what's so exciting, though. I believe in terms of, small business today and being flexible, and especially after COVID. I think the last few years, it's kind of in lockdown. After that we've sort of thrown the whatever rulebook the what is out the window, haven't we? And kind of I think you've got to embrace now being having this hybrid approach to things and fitting in with people's priorities and allowing that flexibility, and I imagine it's tricky, a little bit because you have got a big office, haven't you? And you've got clients and things. But how do you go making sure you can manage both?
Hayley Ekgren 36:58
It’s is really tricky. I mean, we've always, been flexible. So in the early days, we used to attract people that have maybe not worked for some years and wanted a job that would fit around the kids. We tend to not have so many part time people now most people come into us full time or nearly full time. But we've always offered the flexibility, we've always let people work from home. So we'll have some people at the moment that work from home three days a week, and they're in the office two days a week. So it has taken a bit of adapting for us. And it's still taken a bit of adapting. But it seems to be working, constantly sort of talking to the team, we have regular meetings with them, we have sort of like daily huddles on a Tuesday and Thursday, we have a meeting on a Wednesday. And then we have like a bigger monthly meeting where we share the profits and the turnover and loads of like financial information with them. So we try and just keep the communication going with everybody. But the way we work around the client work, I mean, everything's planned in, there's very little that comes into us as urgent. And if it does fine we have to jump in and stay later than we do, but most of what we do, we're quite good at planning our work ahead. So we have really good systems in place. We've invested in systems so that we've got project management for all of our clients go in, we know absolutely everybody that's got a VAT return due this week. And we review that every Wednesday in our Wednesday meetings, we know all the year ends that we've got coming up because we talk about it on a really regular basis. So there aren't that many surprises that are thrown our way.
Lucy Rennie 38:48
Alright, it sounds amazing. I believe a lot of it's all about communication, which is what you just talked about, isn't it in terms of making sure that even if someone is working from home, you still having that daily or monthly or weekly, book dates and communicating. I think a lot of the time some of the things that have been lost is when you it's that almost informal communication where you might be stood at the coffee machine together, or I don't know what the olden days it was having a fag outside wasn't it and sort of those kind of moments that makes it in a hybrid world it's a little bit different. So you've got to kind of over compensate or put other ways or other things in place. How do you manage that side of things?
Hayley Ekgren 39:34
We try and have Wednesdays, wherever possible, where everybody's in the office so that we've got at least a day a week where everybody's in. So we try and have that it's usually Tuesday, Wednesdays Thursdays tend to be the busiest days in the office. So there's always like that communication. We try and sort of like arrange regular nights, regular events to do monthly team meetings, we'll buy the lunch for everybody. And then sometimes they'll be a bit more structured and a bit more formal, or we might get somebody in. And then other times, we just open the floor up and just go. How's everybody feeling? So, yeah, I think we've had a couple where we've sort of spotted that people might be a bit down. So it's like come on, how is everybody? Let's have a nice lunch and just sit and talk. So every Wednesday, and then, once a month, we try and have like a bit more of a full on longer, sit down with everybody.
Lucy Rennie 40:36
It's interesting, because I'm actually working on a project at the moment to kind of create some guidelines or to give some help for businesses with the hybrid approach to communicating and things. And there's so many businesses still, we're going to say, like middle aged, you know, men at the top predominantly, who are still going, No, you need to be in every day and did it, and kind of trying to get back to this old, what was normal, which I don't think we'll ever get back to. So it's kind of, I suppose, really, if there was one thing, that would be your takeaway from the last few years, and how you are now and what's in place, what would what advice would you give? Because it sounds like as well as value lead again, isn't it? It's people first, it's watching and thinking and adapting?
Hayley Ekgren 41:19
I guess it's community, it is keeping that communication open. Sometimes if we feel like we've not seen somebody too much, we'll sort of just take them for a quick coffee. Or if we think they've got something on their mind, and they might want to talk about outside the office, just take them for a coffee, or walk down to Waitrose at lunchtime and grab a coffee. And the other thing we've done. So we used to track time against all our client work, and I hated it absolutely hated the concept of time tracking. So we've moved that. And I guess it that made me feel a bit nervous. By removing the time tracking, as much as I hated it, it made me feel nervous, because it was like, oh, but how do I know so and so's working on this? And how do I know that they've done their full hours? And then you take a step back in you go, you've just got to trust people. And actually, by putting the trust in them, you'll get more out of them. So we have got systems in place where we know what work needs doing. But we're not there with a microscope, completely analysing what everybody's doing. The work is getting done. And if the clients are happy, then surely that is what's important.
Lucy Rennie 42:32
You know, it's honestly, I love that you just shared that it's life changing, isn't it when you can really trust your team to get on with it and do it. And actually, it's only through trusting them. But you'll see that they're empowered, and then they change, which I know so many managers or leaders or business owners are scared to do exactly for what you just described. So I love that you've done that. And you've seen the benefits of it on all on all sides. It's brilliant.
Hayley Ekgren 43:00
Yeah, I mean, I'm not an early morning person, I'm a, roll into the office at nine quarter past nine, but some of them want to be in for half, seven. So I can't be saying, well, you need to be sat at your desk until five o'clock until working, because that's just not fair.
Lucy Rennie 43:19
Yea we can laugh about it. There's so many people still doing that, and making people do that, I think, Well, I hope it's going to be a force for change. And we are going to see it's those businesses like yours that are going to actually, be the ones that are still here in years to come because you've adapted and been having that flexible approach. I always say there's no magic pill at all, there's no kind of secret recipe to creating and building and growing a successful business. But if there was one thing out of everything that you've learned over the last kind of 8 to14 years, I suppose. And one piece of advice, if you wanted to share, what do you think that would be? What would you say to people who were sort of embarking on a new journey.
Hayley Ekgren 44:14
If you're just embarking, I would say there's two bits of advice that you don't have to work with everybody. And that you don't need to know everything. I think a lot of people have this real impostor syndrome, and they feel like they need to know absolutely everything and get everything done a 100%. And I think we felt like that a little bit in the beginning, and then you suddenly realise that nobody knows everything. Everyone's winging it. So just keep winging it. We've done alright for the last eight years winging it. So yeah, you build up that network around you that will help you and support you. We won't ever do tax planning or we don't do payroll, we outsource that, it's like we've made decisions, we're not good at that, we're not interested in it. So yeah, you don't have to know everything. Yeah, it's
Lucy Rennie 45:15
Yeah, it's such good advice. So you've got your apprentice starting in May. Yes. But what kind of next for your support team? Am sure you've got lots of projects, knowing you've got all sorts of things in what's kind of the next thing? Or where do we want to go?
Hayley Ekgren 45:35
The next thing for us is putting this programme together, where we can start working with businesses who want to sort of come up with a plan for the next three years. So I think there's a lot of people burying their head in the sand. And it's trying to get people to be looking forwards more, at the moment, we're doing a lot of reporting, but it's based on there now, rather than the, let's look ahead, that is Claire's, massive area of expertise. And so we need to get her away from doing some of the stuff that people in the team can be doing. And really focusing on the people that want to be really looking ahead, and really getting under the skin of what their numbers are.
Lucy Rennie 46:26
Brilliant. And I think the ripple effect that that will have by helping other businesses to thinking ahead. And, thinking about what they need to be putting in place is going to be huge, isn't it?
Hayley Ekgren 46:36
Yeah, we want to be given stuff out as out there as well. I mean, we've put in a minimum fee. So we're kind of now we'll be sort of putting some people off coming to us, which is fine. But actually, for those that do want to do it themselves, we want to start getting information out there for them of how they can do it themselves. So that then when they're at the point that they want to come to us, then you know, they're not in a complete mess. Hopefully.
Lucy Rennie 47:04
There's no spreadsheet. Well, that's the perfect way of marketing, isn't it and growing your pipeline is by adding that value and building that trust as they go. And then because you know, you can help them. They'll get there quicker as well. Won't they end up being in the right place? Yeah, be able to help them. So yeah, brilliant. Thank you so much for taking the time out to come and talk to me. If people want to learn more, or find out more, or come and work with you how what where should they go? What do they need to do? What's the best way of getting in touch and finding you?
Hayley Ekgren 47:37
Am quite active on LinkedIn, so they can find me on LinkedIn. So you just need to know how to spell my surname, which I have to do all the time, which is EKGREN. So it's Haley Ekgren. Or our website, there's all sorts of ways to get in touch with us on our website. So the website is yoursupportteamltd.co.uk. And that's probably the two best ways, or just pick up the phone.
Lucy Rennie 48:03
And I'll pop all the links in the show notes anyway, so you can find them. If you've got any questions for Haley, or any feedback, or you want to share your experiences with us, then please, get in touch. And I'll make sure that you can share that with Haley. And we can maybe come back on and talk a bit more because I'm sure we could have spoken for hours and hours about the joys of running a business and the ups and the downs.
Hayley Ekgren 48:29
We should of had a glass of wine each Lucy!
Lucy Rennie 48:34
Well it did cross my mind. So I do think we need to maybe reschedule and do something.
But yeah, just for the anecdote, actually, I think today it's three years, isn't it? Since we started the communicate with purpose Facebook group. Yeah. Haley was part of over COVID and things where we really kind of supported lots of small business areas over the last few years and built really great relationships. Didn't we connections with loads of amazing business owners,
Hayley Ekgren 49:08
Yea it's been 3 years, and you know, people that you now consider friends from that. So it's been brilliant
Lucy Rennie 49:12
The ups and the downs of lockdown and all of this the wine that went with it. Thank you so much. And thank you for listening. And I will see you next week for another episode of The Future Proof Your Business podcast. Thanks again.
Thanks for listening to The Future-Proof your Business podcast. I have been your host Lucy Rennie.
I want to help as many business owners build a business that works and feels good, and the best way for me to do that is to get this podcast out to as many people as possible. You can help me do this by sharing it, clicking subscribe and especially leaving a review.
If you want to get more of my insights and resources then head over to my website IamLucyRennie.com, and come and join me and lots of other small business owners like you in my FREE Facebook group, Communicate with Purpose. All the links are in the show notes.
Thanks again and I’ll see you next week for another episode of The Future-Proof Your Business podcast.