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.
Adam Bannister: 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.
Neither of us went to uni so I think we have more work experience than most
Sophie Hughes, co-founder Mazuma
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.
AB: It must be unusual to set up your own practice straight after qualification…
SH: 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.
AB: How did you finance the business?
SH: 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.
AB: 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.
