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Discover why 175 businesses have voted our service as 5 star
Mitch Hahn
CEO - Nordens
Discover why 175 businesses have voted our service as 5 star
Mitch Hahn
CEO - Nordens
Discover why 175 businesses have voted our service as 5 star
Mitch Hahn
CEO - Nordens
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As is often the case, we found this week’s article by Luke Johnson in the Sunday Times to be so relevant and interesting that we want to share it with you…
It would be easy to pick winning entrepreneurs if CVs were all that mattered, but as every venture capitalist knows, it ain’t that simple. Qualifications do not necessarily highlight innate cunning. Of course persistence, optimism, confidence, ambition, industry and intelligence all count — but they are still not all. Experience can help identify the natural money makers. One of the other vital skills I look for in any founder is whether they can sense where power lies.
This is a very valuable talent. If you attend an interview and are confronted by a panel of interrogators, do you know who the real decision maker is? If you pitch a business idea to a group of investors, can you tell who the most influential person in the room is? If you try to sell a product to a buyer, can you sense if they really have the authority to place an order? Savvy entrepreneurs smell a room and work out where the power is centred. Be it in a meeting or a reception, they patrol the territory and understand the dynamics. Often the power rests not with the loudest individual, nor necessarily the oldest.
What are the giveaways that alert the wily business person? Speech, body language, confidence, detail — which all add up to an intuitive feel for the most important individual in the gathering.
Because a genuinely powerful person feels less need to show off, or make their presence felt, they are frequently low key and thoughtful, rather than noisy. Making a fuss in order to impress is typically the sign of someone who is insecure — weakness not strength.
So the rule is often to ignore the loud, bossy character across the table and direct your attention towards the thoughtful one with whom the final decision probably rests.
When analysing a business, it is important to understand who has the power in its main trading relationships. Is it their clients? For advertising agencies, that would normally be the case.
Is it their customers? With the grocers, typically they hold the whip hand over the food producers.
Is it their suppliers? Certain retailers are beholden to key brand owners.
Could it be unions who command the upper hand? That seems to be the case for the train operating companies — forever being blackmailed by their staff.
In other sectors, regulators play a dominant role: financial services, for example, suffers from more supervision than almost any industry I know, so keeping regulators happy is a huge preoccupation for every banker, investment manager, insurance underwriter and suchlike.
It is a principal reason why large firms dominate these sectors — the costs of compliance are so onerous, only big business can afford them. Anyone who wants to succeed in financial services needs to know how to deal with regulators, and be willing to spend plenty of their time doing it.
One of the great ironies of official behaviour towards banks is that the government wants to create more competition, to better serve the public and offer more choice. Yet their onerous and unproductive regulatory regime has enormously increased barriers to entry for new banks. It is a classic case of how state interventions in markets often have unintended and adverse consequences.
Unfortunately, we live in the age of virtue signalling, where politicians and bureaucrats frequently favour form over substance, preferring to look good in the media rather than actually providing people with genuine help.
The left promotes the theory that business is all powerful. This is mostly hogwash. Companies do not make or apply the law; most face fierce competition and struggle to deliver attractive returns. Usually, customers and staff have choices about where to shop and work. Innovation frequently produces poor profits for the pioneers. However, in some sectors, regulations actually help special interests and entrench power.
The Captured Economy, a new book by Brink Lindsey and Steven Teles, describes how the property sector, overprotection of copyrights and patents, favouritism towards incumbent businesses through occupational licensing and financial services have all benefited from the current legal system. The book is written from a US angle, but much of it applies equally well to Britain: big business is helped by the state, while start-ups and entrepreneurs are disadvantaged.
Sadly, politicians and regulators feel more comfortable dealing with big business, because they are all essentially bureaucrats. By contrast, entrepreneurs are likely to appear somewhat alien: not institutional creatures, but rather dependent for their livelihoods on their wits. Shame that the civil servants do not talk more to the self-made.
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This article makes reference to pitching ideas to a panel for investment – so it’s a good chance to remind you that, if you are a Nordens client, you have the opportunity to pitch your own business to a panel of entrepreneurs to gain investment for further growth. Click here to find out more and apply.
Luke Johnson is chairman of Risk Capital Partners and the Institute of Cancer Research. You can read his original article in The Sunday Times, here.
At Nordens, we're more than just accountants - we're business experts who can help you achieve your biggest goals.
Our specialist strategic division at Nordens boasts some of the leading entrepreneurial business minds in the country. We cater towards delivering consistent success stories, whilst helping businesses achieve above and beyond their initial goals.
Through highly-tailored guidance, coaching and advice, Nordens Strategic are able to define exactly how your business can reach new levels of success.
Regardless of how you define ‘success’ for your business, our strategic service is guaranteed to bring about real and lasting change. By partnering with some of the UK’s top business coaches, we’ll steer you along the path to a greater future.
Every business, no matter how big or small, needs to make the right decisions, and how to best manage your accounts can put huge question marks over your business. Accounting2You is here to take that pressure off and provide you with all the answers you need.
Our bookkeeping branch offers a fully inclusive, comprehensive service that you can trust. Since 2005, our specialist bookkeepers have been successfully managing the accounting of both individuals and small businesses.
With experts in payroll analysis, credit control and financial recording, Accounting2You will lead your business efficiently, and with real purpose, towards a prosperous future.
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Director - Metro Bank
Nordens are always very easy to deal with and extremely professional and efficient. I would have no hesitation in recommending them to my clients for their accountancy needs, no matter how complex they may be.
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Very good to work with - the team go above and beyond to make the accounts easy and efficient. They're all super friendly and a joy to work with.
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I have been using Nordens Chartered Accountants for 5 years and very happy with the service provided. All members of the team are very knowledgeable and have a wealth of experience which has proved very beneficial to my organisation
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Having worked with Nordens over the last 5 years, not only to look after my annual accounts but they have also provided outstanding professional advice. They have guided me through a Company share buyback with clear and objective advice. We have also been using Nordens strategic services for a couple of years, which has helped bring about significant improvements that exceeded my expectations. With experience of working with several local accountants over my 29 years in business, I’m very pleased with the service I have received from Nordens.
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Trusted our business with Nordens for over 10 years now and watched the company grow into the successful innovative business it has become today. Deservedly so. Every aspect of financial advice we need is always given promptly and with a smile. We have total confidence in all aspects of advice Nordens give. If you are looking for accountants, its a no brainer!
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A fantastic, modern, vibrant firm that care about the clients and their staff in abundance. It is rare to find an Accountancy firm with such vibrance and focus and relationships. It is no wonder they win award after award in their field.
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Great Service at Nordens from a friendly very approachable team Particularly Kirsty Willis and Joe Sword who have been helping us since we started the business in 2016.
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In November 2002, having sold our other business interests off earlier in the year, I decided to set up Nordens Chartered Accountants. The easy part was knowing how to do it, as I had established and built a smaller practice a few years earlier. The difficult part, for me, was not following the traditional accountancy path. Having run businesses, both successfully and unsuccessfully, I wanted to help business owners resolve their short term problems and work with them to achieve their longer term goals. Business has always been my interest and I love that I can help business owners achieve what seems like the impossible every single working day.
Mark Norden
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Our limited company accountants have a range of qualifications from The Institute Of Chartered Accountants (ICAEW) to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). We worry about the bye-laws, regulations and ethical guidelines of the ACCA so you don’t have to! That makes us an ACCA-accredited employer as well as a Professional Passport-accredited one!
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Nordens is a trading name of Nordens Limited, a limited company registered in England under company number 04709951. Our registered office is: The Retreat, 406 Roding Lane South, Woodford Green, Essex, IG8 8EY.
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