Stuart Hulland joined Bates Weston as an 18-year-old A Level student and made Partner just 16 years later. We talk to him about his journey, its highlights and challenges and his advice for those just starting out in their career.
Initial Steps
Stuart has always been a man with a plan. He chose accounting as a career, guided by his parents and inspired by a friend’s father who was a successful practicing accountant. With maths and business A levels he sought and secured a training contract with Bates Weston.
Stuart is refreshingly direct about the difficulties he faced as an 18-year-old, learning alongside the older graduates as part of the ACA training programme.
“I found the ACA qualification tough going alongside the graduates, and with Bates Weston’s support, I stepped off the ACA course”.
A year later Stuart began the ACCA course. When asked what the difference was between the two courses Stuart answers candidly.
“There is not a great deal of difference between them. I found the studying made more sense. It wasn’t the course that changed a great deal, it was me. I had changed. I was older, with a much greater practical understanding of the job”.
Stuart successfully qualified in 2010.
Highlights and Challenges
Having qualified, Stuart set his sights on promotion to Relationship Manager and then to Partner. He feels it is important to set yourself goals and commit to achieving them. In his first years as a Relationship Manager, he admits there was a lot to get to grips with.
“You become the face of the team with clients and take on managing staff, people, expectations and workload.”
Stuart rose to the challenge and made it clear through the appraisal process that he saw Partnership as the next stage of his career. An opportunity arose in 2017, dovetailing Stuart’s plans with succession planning, and he became a Partner in the firm in April 2018, age just 34.
Asked about his highlights post Partnership, Stuart is rightly proud of the way the firm faced the challenges of the Covid pandemic.
“A successful business adapts to change, and the firm not only survived the pandemic, but in supporting our clients throughout, we increased our client base.
Our doors never closed and we did everything we could to help our clients access Government support and manage their businesses throughout the pandemic.”
Day to Day
As a Partner, I enjoy helping clients develop their strategic plans and I like the variety I encounter every day. No day is the same. I meet different people and solve different problems.”
And its not just clients that provide variety. As a business owner, with my fellow partners, we run our business, tackling all the same issues any other business faces. Staff development, strategic planning, operational issues, client service, finance, engagement with the community and net zero to name a few.
And finally…..
Asked what qualities are needed to be a successful accountant, Stuart puts empathy and the ability to listen and adapt at the top of his list. It helps if you are driven and committed too. Perhaps the one other quality you need is the resilience to bounce back when things don’t quite go your way.
Stuart reflects:
“Set backs are part of life. It’s how you respond to them, what you do next, that counts.”
His key tips for those just starting their career include being patient and taking the time to get a thorough grounding in the foundations.
“You can build on these as you progress through your career, developing your client relationship skills over time.
Invest the time to get to know your clients. It’s what moves you from looking at numbers in an historical way, to interpreting them and providing timely advice that can make a real difference to your clients.”
