Zhi's LinkedIn profile

I’m from Northern China and came to the UK to study when I was 16. I did my A-levels and had already started university when the family business back home began to struggle, and my parents could no longer fund me. I had to drop out of university and get a job to support myself whilst studying for the ACCA qualification. I couldn’t afford the tuition, so I did it all via self-study. I was so happy to be able to attend an ACCA new member ceremony as I had missed out on a graduation ceremony when I had to leave university. And I do now have a university degree through the ACCA and Oxford Brookes partnership.

After I qualified, I joined a small practice where I got my experience both to become a member, and also to get an ACCA practising certificate. Many people want to work for bigger practices, but I think in a larger firm your work may be limited because each person has their own specific role, whereas I was able to work on everything that you could that a practice can offer, which was far more interesting.

I wanted a new challenge, so I joined a health insurance company and over five years had several key roles. Initially I was a regulatory accountant doing regulatory returns for Solvency II which is insurance-company specific, then I moved to a corporate finance role doing mergers & acquisitions work, before finishing as a financial risk manager where I implemented a risk assessment model to assess the solvency level of the organisation. Once implemented, we were able to take on the assessment internally saving the organisation hundreds of thousands of pounds each year. It was a very demanding role, so I took some time off to figure out my next career move once the model had been successfully implemented.  All three roles were somewhat removed from standard accountancy work and gave me new skill sets, and invaluable corporate experience.

I decided that my next challenge would be to set up my own practice, something that I had always thought about. I now have more confidence and experience, combined with big improvements in technology, which made it far easier. With everything being cloud-based and so many providers out there to choose from, it means there are more options than ever before for a start-up. Most importantly, the subscription fees are much more cost-friendly compared to years ago where the market was dominated by just a few large providers.

Once I’d made the decision, within a week I’d applied for my practising certificate and after that I incorporated my practice. I got most of the compliance boxes ticked very quickly with both ACCA and HMRC. There were so many things to do – things that I would never have thought that I could do on my own – but I figured it out as I went along. That approach worked for me, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for others as there is a lot of work required to set up a practice. I belatedly found out about ACCA’s resources for its members setting up a practice including a checklist which would have been helpful!

You have to wear a lot of hats when you are a sole practitioner – I’m the Webmaster for the website I designed, I’m the IT department and Marketing manager. I find marketing particularly challenging. Because accountants tend to be the opposite of salespeople, building a social media presence, recording and posting videos, and trying cold selling by delivering leaflets are all new to me. Frankly, I think selling is harder than completing my ACCA exams. It’s important to have a positive attitude, determination, and strong problem-solving skills if you’re going to run your own practice.

I’ve already taken on some clients that have come to me via friends and have some great success stories such as helping a property investment client that had been badly let down by her previous accountant.

The practitioner community is great – I’m listening to podcasts and going to accountancy exhibitions to meet other practitioners and I’m learning so much from them all. I haven’t decided whether to niche yet, and I’m very interested in offering advisory services down the line when I’ve built my client base further as that tends to be more interesting as well as higher margins.

I have a variety of hobbies that I enjoy - tennis, golf, yoga, and acrylic painting. I recently picked up playing the zither, a traditional Chinese musical instrument, and ballet dancing. Our group recently performed zither in a summer festival in Southampton. While I expect the practice to keep me very busy, I believe it's important to maintain these hobbies to balance life and remind myself what I'm working for.

Reflecting on my journey so far, I am incredibly grateful that I decided to set up my own practice. There are many things I never expected I would have done if I didn’t take this step. I’ve learned the importance of resilience, adaptability, and continuous learning. Building a client base is hard work, but I am thrilled about what is to come in the future. This is an exciting journey, and I can't wait to see where it leads.