Financial Well Being For Creative Businesses, An Interview With Dean Shepherd From Tax By Design

2012-09-14 Tax by Design-1012If you're business is in the creative field, managing finances is probably just above visiting the dentist when it comes to your list of “things I really want to do”.  When you first started out you probably had no worries about finances, as you probably had very little of them.  But as your business grows larger and you begin to generate a steady stream of revenue, managing your finances becomes an essential part of running a quality business.

Whether you're just starting out in the creative field or are getting ready to get serious about your finances, proper planning is essential to your businesses financial health.  The following is an interview with Dean Shepherd of Tax by Design.

Dean Shepherd is an accountant and the owner of Tax by Design, a UK based accountancy firm specializing in servicing creative businesses.  He offers a different approach to accounting than your traditional accounting firms and offers several services that cater to the financial well being of creative businesses.

How long has Tax by Design been in existence?  It doesn’t seem like the typical accounting business, tell us how you got started.

I started my professional accountancy career in 1997, the year the UK’s Self Assessment system was first introduced but my interest in design came much later when, on a sabbatical, I studied Multimedia Design at the University of Kent. I wasn’t necessarily looking for a career change and, despite achieving 1st Class Honors, was extremely aware of my limited ability as a designer. However, I did want to find a way of linking my two interests so I started working for an accountancy firm that had a specialist creative industries department.

This gave me an amazing insight into the industry and exposed me to a huge range of creative businesses from the eager start-up to the established world-wide brand. Although my department worked only with creative businesses the firm as a whole did not; and I felt this sometimes held us back from what we could achieve for our clients. In 2004 I took the decision to set up my own accountancy firm out of which Tax By Design was born.

What made you focus on the creative sector?  Are there unique challenges that you see in this sector that may not apply to other sectors?

I will let you into a secret, accountancy is not the most exciting subject and accountancy firms are not the most exhilarating places to work. Who you work with has a huge influence on your job satisfaction and I was extremely motivated to work on cutting-edge projects, with interesting people and for businesses where my input could really make a difference.

It is a cliché to say that creative people are not great at business or finance or numbers. I think most people are not great at business or finance or numbers, at least initially. Good business is something that has to be learned from experience. Doing a Harvard MBA is not going to guarantee you success in business. Determination and being able to think differently will. Creative people think differently.

Many people just starting out on their own, especially freelancers don’t really think about financials when they are starting out. What are some common mistakes you see people make and how can they avoid them?

In the midst of the Tax Return season I decided to use this busy period as an opportunity to help raise funds for my charity and offered free Tax Return reviews in exchange for a small donation. This offer was directed at people completing their own returns who just wanted a profession eye cast over their figures. To date I have not seen one completely correct Tax return. Errors range from items in the wrong boxes, to tax allowances incorrectly claimed to people being unaware of the full range and extent of expenditure that they can off-set against their income.

What I would recommend to anybody starting out is to make an appointment to go and see three different accountants. Everyone offers free no-obligation consultations and you can use that as an opportunity to learn. Ask them some searching questions such as: What do you think my financial priorities should be? Tell me about what expenses I can and cannot claim? What business structure would you recommend for me and why? Most accountants give up information freely (sometimes too freely). Take advantage of that and if, at the same time, you find someone you would like to work with then great, it’s a win-win.

I see that you offer a subscription plan for your clients; do you find that this makes for a better relationship with your clients?

The reason I introduced a subscription model, rather than billing by the hour, is that I did not want clients to avoid calling me up with their business problems for fear of racking up a big bill. Every client gets unlimited access to me. I want to know what is going on in their business. It is important that I know if I am going to offer the best advice I can.

Not only has this resulted in better relationships with my existing clients but also means I attract better clients to work with; those that want and appreciate my input.

Some of your service offerings, like your online boot camp, don’t seem to be directly related to accounting.  Why do you offer these services and how to they relate to your core business of accounting?

The thing I enjoy most about my job is seeing a great creative idea grow into a business and reward those involved. Too many perfectly credible creative endeavors fall by the wayside because the business of doing business gets in the way. The online boot camp is a great entry into business coaching – something that is completely underutilized in the UK.

The accountancy profession is slowly evolving. People want more and demand more from their accountants. Bookkeeping, payroll and tax returns are the bare minimum anybody should expect. What people want now is help driving their business forward and we see business coaching, either face to face or via our online boot camp, as a hugely beneficial part of that process.

You’re pretty active on Social Media, as a small business yourself, do you find that it helps to promote your brand and attract new business?

I am still very much at the exploratory stage of social media but, for me, Twitter right now is the most effective online social medium for getting a brand out there. I use it predominantly for disseminating useful information to my clients and other interested followers and rarely mix business with pleasure but this will probably change over time as I become more interactive.

Since using Twitter I have generated significantly more traffic to my website which has in turn forced me to redevelop my website and make it a more complete sales process. I think it is only a matter of time before Social Media outstrips Pay Per Click as the most effective online marketing solution. Unless of course Google or Facebook figure out a way to seamlessly integrate the two.

How can people reach you if they want to find out more about Tax by Design?

The best way to find me is via my website www.taxbydesign.com or to follow me on Twitter @TaxByDesign.

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Gary

CEO at 3Bug Media
Gary Shouldis is the founder of 3Bug Media, a web marketing company that helps businesses create 360 Marketing Strategies to dominate their market. His blog is read by over 20 thousand small business owners a month and has been featured in the N.Y. Times Small Business, Business Insider and Yahoo Small Business.