About Ballantyne Accountants

Outline of my business story

1984 – Decided accountancy was the career for me.
1989 – Completed a degree in accountancy at University of West London.
1990 – Gained my first accounting job and joined one of the major chartered accountancy bodies as a student member.
1997 – First investigated the possibility of starting a bookkeeping business.
2005 – Achieved a degree standard advanced diploma in management accounting awarded by one of the major chartered accountancy bodies.
2012 – Part-time attempt at a joint venture with another accountant.
2013 – Became a fully qualified member of the Association of Accounting Technicians.
2015 – First part-time attempt at launching Ballantyne Accountants.
2018 – Making full-time commitment to re-launching Ballantyne Accountants. 

How Ballantyne Accountants has evolved

Ballantyne Accountants evolved out of my desire to utilise the full range of skills and capabilities that I have to offer rather than being boxed into a narrow, strictly defined role as tends to happen in employment.

As you can see in the timeline above, I first considered starting a bookkeeping business in 1997. This attempt foundered because of a lack of information about how to go about it. In those early days of the internet there was no information to be found on how to set up a bookkeeping business, what the rules and regulations were, how to price and how to find clients. I put this idea to one side to be considered for the future while I concentrated on my employed career.

In 2010, after five years service, I found myself re-structured out of employment with my then employer, the NHS. The coalition government of the time abolished Primary Care Trusts. I accepted redundancy and took on temporary roles while I considered my future. At a networking event I met another accountant with whom I launched a part-time joint venture. This began reasonably successfully, but juggling full time work with the commitments of a young family and a child on the way ultimately proved too much and I had to give up on that attempt.

I tried again in 2015, launching my own self-named Ballantyne Accountants, but again, found trying to run a part-time business with a full time job and a young family too difficult so this aspiration had to be shelved once more.

Forward to 2018, and, after over five years service, I found myself yet again re-structured out of employment with my most recent employer, a major North East social housing provider. Once again I found myself considering my future and concluded that family circumstances were right to make a full-time commitment to re-launching Ballantyne Accountants.

Who does Ballantyne Accountants help?

Ballantyne Accountants provides accounting services to small and medium sized businesses. This goes from basic bookkeeping up to management accounting, annual accounts and tax returns. I will ensure that your business records are correct, that your business complies with its accountancy and tax obligations, and that you have the information you need to understand what is happening in your business from a financial perpective so that you can make decisions that help your business grow and thrive.

My Professional Values

I will work with you in an honest and ethical way. I will commit to providing a high quality, timely service. I will be pro-active in understanding your business so that I can help you to manage and grow your business.