Clifton and Portishead-based Ali reflects on her decade of business building. 

For Ali Redwood, it was her desire to leave corporate life that inspired her to join TaxAssist Accountants.

With a background in banking and finance and experience of running a family business, self-employment held no fear for Ali, who relished the opportunity to establish her own practice.

“The experience of running my family business equipped me with a sound knowledge of accounting and the finance skills required to run a small business,” explained Ali. “It also gave me a real passion and joy.

“As I grew tired of corporate life, I started to look at my options and owning a TaxAssist Accountants franchise appealed to me as I valued the on-going support and readymade systems which would fast track my business.

“I didn’t want to be ‘just an accountant’. I recognised that with TaxAssist, I would be building a team, allowing me to be the principal of the business, meeting new and existing clients, managing staff, supervising work, networking and managing the customer experience.

“The support from the franchisor and fellow franchisees over the last 10 years has been fantastic. My neighbouring franchisees are not in competition with each other, due to our exclusive territories, and it gives us a real opportunity to work together and support each other. You have your own business but you are not on your own. My staff get great training from the courses provided and I get the benefit of on-going great marketing and operational support.

“The business has grown well, and I now have an exceptionally good team in place. I opened a shop in Clifton in Bristol in 2011 and an office in Portishead in 2016 and I am hoping to open a third premises within the next three years.

“I feel that I am now building an asset for a comfortable retirement, which I would not be in a position to do, had I remained in employment. If you asked me if I would do it all again – the answer is definitely yes!”