Sophie, top, and Lucy
As young, female accountants, Sophie Hughes and Lucy Cohen were met with a lot of scepticism when they decided to set up Mazuma soon after leaving college.
But two years on, the Cardiff-based 25-year-olds have an office with four additional staff and revenues are rising impressively.
Question: When did you decide to set the business up?
Sophie Hughes: About Christmas 2005. We bumped into each other on a college course. We had been friends in school but had lost touch.
As an accountant, Lucy had one big client, so I started helping out.
Then we thought: “Why not make a day of it, try to find some clients and make it a full-time job?” We started going to networking events and picked up a few clients in the first couple of months, so we thought we’d quit our jobs and go for it.
It must be unusual to set up your own practice straight after qualification…
Sophie: I think so. Neither of us went to uni so I think we have more work experience than people who did; we’re about three or four years up on people our age.
How did you finance the business?
Sophie: Just by working and building it up that way.
To be honest we didn’t really need much finance. We had to buy licences for software, but it wasn’t too expensive, and we worked at home at first, which kept costs down.
The Sun did an article about your start-up and reported that you’re already getting revenues of £120k…
Lucy Cohen: I think that’s good going for such a new company, although we are wary of ‘over-trading’ – taking on so much work that we can’t deliver.
That said, we’re ambitious and hope to double that figure next year. Profits might look good but cash is always tight.
Have things gone better than you thought?
Sophie: Yes, much better. I’d say we’ve been lucky but Lucy always tells me off, saying it’s not luck — we’ve done it ourselves.
Have you been working long hours?
Sophie: Yes, but it’s not too bad.
Before our first member of staff started we were working Saturdays regularly. Now we have two accountants working for us, a trainee and a receptionist, so we can have weekends off – not all of them though!
It’s quite unusual to have a female-owned and run accountancy…
Sophie: Definitely, and that’s probably why we’ve had a fairly good reception. A lot of younger businesses like us, although we don’t just want to appeal to women.
But we do think women are attracted to us because we are female. And younger people seem to like us because we’re on the same wavelength.
Has perceived inexperience ever cost you a client?
Sophie: I think some clients thought we were a bit young.
But the one client that really expressed that became a client anyway — a really big one. Equally, people love the fact that we’re younger, have a modern approach and speak plain English.
Lucy: At the end of the day age really is only a number and no indication of expertise or experience.
If you’re looking for old men in grey suits then there are plenty of excellent practices out there that can provide that, but I’m afraid we can’t! I believe that your credibility is built by doing a good job, regardless of what age you are.
What have you enjoyed most about running your own business?
Sophie: It’s really good when we take on new clients and we’re doing it for ourselves, not someone else. We don’t have employers telling us what to do.
It’s definitely rewarding when you help someone out. When we help someone out of a tax difficulty it’s really nice and we’re like: “Well done, us!”
Lucy: The element of freedom; we have complete autonomy. You’re in charge of the decision-making process.
I think sometimes the higher up the corporate ladder you go, the longer the decision-making process is and the less control you really have.
And I think your work ethic changes. You’re not watching the clock any more or waiting for payday. You know that every bit of effort you put in directly affects your profit.
