Fintech Insider Podcast by 11:FS
00:29:58 · Sarah Kocianski, Jonathan Bareham
[00:29:58] S0: It's really interesting because I I I looked at your website before before I met you today, and you're a very technology focused firm. But you still... It's interesting because when you look at some of the consumer fintech out there or consumer tech, it tends to be taking... Trying to get rid of that human interaction. But actually, it seems to me that small businesses need more, if anything, human interaction. Would you agree with that? [00:30:18] S8: Yeah. Absolutely. I don't think, you know, humans, business owners, they they don't want accounts. They don't want tax returns. They don't want lists of data. They have, as I say, kind of human aspirations. They start a business because they wanna do something they love or they want more spare time or they want a work life balance, or whatever you wanna call it. And so, I I think our job isn't to provide the the accounts the tax. That's kind of a byproduct. Really, it's about helping people realize what it is they really want. And that's a human thing. It's not a technology thing. But you need the technology, I think, to buy yourself the time to get those discussions in. [00:30:56] S0: So you use the technology to do all the the admin and the automation, and then you can sit down and actually, I suppose, advise your clients more or give them... Guide them more?
00:30:56 · Sarah Kocianski, Jonathan Bareham, Sian Kelly, Gary Turner
[00:30:56] S0: So you use the technology to do all the the admin and the automation, and then you can sit down and actually, I suppose, advise your clients more or give them... Guide them more? [00:31:04] S8: Yeah. Exactly. Advice. You know, most of the questions we get from clients are things like, have I got enough money? Will I have enough money to pay my tax bill? The client... The question I kind of love getting from clients is really kind of down to earth on. People come in, we'll have a whole meeting. At the end of it, they'll go, you think I'm doing a good job? And that's what, you know, business owners really care about, and and that's what we're trying to help them achieve. [00:31:24] S0: And I suppose it can be... I actually was speaking to somebody the day. It can be quite lonely being a business owner, and actually having somebody you can go to who knows a bit about your business and actually can be at, yeah, mate, you're doing fine, is a really nice thing to have. And you as an accountant don't [00:31:36] S9: have the time [00:31:36] S0: to to deliver that. So one of the things that that I suppose helps you do that is that I noticed you have partnerships with quite a few a few other fintechs. So you you work with Fluidly, you work with Receipt Bank. How did that sort of come about? Did you go out and and find them? Or did they come to you? You know, how do you build that kind of ecosystem of partners? [00:31:52] S8: Yeah. I think, you know, we we get [00:31:54] S1: a lot of people who
00:31:54 · Gary Turner, Jonathan Bareham, Sarah Kocianski
[00:31:54] S1: a lot of people who [00:31:55] S8: come to us. And I think with with anything, know, sometimes when you get people coming to you, it's hard to actually engage because you're not in the right frame of mind. I'd say with pretty much all of those guys you've mentioned, we met them at a ZeroCon. I think Receipt Bank, we we met four or five years ago at ZeroCon. I mentioned to you just before we started this that we worked with a profitable firm as our marketing agency. We met them at Zerocon about three years ago, fluidly launched at Zerocon last year, and and we... I think we were possibly the first partner to sign up with them at Zerocon. And it's... Because you get, again, that human time of being here in a room with them, able to actually have a chat, get to know who they are and what they want to do, not just look at screenshots of Yeah. The technology. That's, I think, where you build the relationship, and we get to work out who we want to partner with. [00:32:40] S0: And the other thing that we talked to people about today is open banking and open APIs. So, I mean, as I said a couple of times, consumers seem to get the best deal so far. A lot of the attention and innovation has been focused on products for for for retail customers, for consumers. Do you think that there's an opportunity there for small business customers as well? Do you think that that could really change the way that the ecosystem works?
00:32:40 · Sarah Kocianski, Jonathan Bareham
[00:32:40] S0: And the other thing that we talked to people about today is open banking and open APIs. So, I mean, as I said a couple of times, consumers seem to get the best deal so far. A lot of the attention and innovation has been focused on products for for for retail customers, for consumers. Do you think that there's an opportunity there for small business customers as well? Do you think that that could really change the way that the ecosystem works? [00:33:01] S8: Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, small business is such a huge part of our economy. I guess the consumer side is possibly easier to market to, but I think maybe it's just understanding thing. I think you have to think about the fact that actually small businesses are consumers as well. It's probably not as big a difference as some of the kind of the companies, the banks, the fintechs think. And actually, they can use the same strategies for both because what you tend to find is people will adopt a bit of consumer technology and wish they had it in their business. And so I I think actually, there's probably less of a difference than than some people have And realized. [00:33:37] S0: So, you know, what's what's next for you guys? What are you what are you looking, you know, looking to the future? What's what's next on on for the for rate?
00:33:37 · Sarah Kocianski, Jonathan Bareham, Gary Turner
[00:33:37] S0: So, you know, what's what's next for you guys? What are you what are you looking, you know, looking to the future? What's what's next on on for the for rate? [00:33:46] S8: I I think for us, it is continuing to drive kind of client first. So we've done a really big project this year on kind of rebuilding how we onboard clients, making sure they're they're much more informed in the process of what happens. And I think that's that's key to us for everything we're doing now. It's just kind of reimagining all the different processes we have at the moment and how can we keep the client better and informed so they've got a a better experience there and more engaged in what we're doing. And and in that, we want to start delivering kind of more events, live videos, stuff like that, that just drives an experience and an engagement with them because the technology now is automating so much of the day to day stuff. It's it's gotta... We've gotta change that experience for [00:34:26] S1: our clients. [00:34:27] S0: Do you think the technology, as you said earlier, you know, do you think it's opening up a a gap, as you said, for human engagement? You know, you you now have more time to spend with your clients. Clients. Do you think there's other opportunities you can take advantage of now you have that time? Is there some... Is there anything you can build on there now now you've got some time back yourselves?
00:34:27 · Sarah Kocianski, Jonathan Bareham, Sian Kelly
[00:34:27] S0: Do you think the technology, as you said earlier, you know, do you think it's opening up a a gap, as you said, for human engagement? You know, you you now have more time to spend with your clients. Clients. Do you think there's other opportunities you can take advantage of now you have that time? Is there some... Is there anything you can build on there now now you've got some time back yourselves? [00:34:43] S8: Yeah. Absolutely. I think it is that. It's about reimagining the process. How can we get clients more engaged and involved? Kind of talk a lot about wanting to be educators, not just advisors. So, we want to advise people, want to answer their questions, we want to help them realize their goals, but we also want to impart a bit of knowledge actually so they can do some of that themselves. Obviously, not wanting to cut into our margins too much, but obviously, the more successful our clients are, the more successful we are. And so I think giving away bits of knowledge, bits of insight, and helping them to grow and do things better, it actually helps us. The more efficient they are, the more efficient we can be, and it's kind of a circle then. [00:35:22] S0: Brilliant. Well, thank you so much for giving us your time. Thank you so much for joining us, and I hope you have a great rest of the day. [00:35:27] S8: Thank you. Thank you. [00:35:32] S0: I'm Sarah Krashansky, and I'm here with Sean Kelly. We are here at ZeroCon eighteen. How are you today, Sean? [00:35:37] S9: I'm good. Thank you. Enjoying it so far.