Motivation | Career changer
From teen trainee to practice owner
Catia Franco FMAAT was 18 when she decided to study for her accounting qualifications. She progressed to become head of finance at a property management company before leaving to start her own practice, CP Franco Accounts & Finance
Words Marianne Curphey
AT A GLANCE
1
Real world
AAT qualifications provide technical skills and practical knowledge that have practical applications.
2
Wide range
After gaining your AAT Level 4, there are numerous career options open to you.
3
Connect with people
Learning to network can help your career and create new business opportunities.
When Catia Franco was at school, she didn’t plan to go to college for further education. Having relocated to the UK from Portugal at the age of 13, she found it hard to take GCSEs in English and had struggled to keep up with the workload along with learning a new language.
“I couldn’t sit down much at school,” she explains. “I used to get into a bit of a trouble, so I didn’t really think about further education. English wasn’t my first language, so I didn’t have many GCSEs and I didn’t think of myself as intelligent.”
However, when she was 18, someone spotted her love of numbers and suggested she choose a career that would develop her interest in maths. She went to her local college, took an access exam, passed it and started on her AAT journey the following day.
“When I started AAT, I didn’t really understand what it was, or how much support and networking being part of the AAT community provides,” she says. “I had come to London from Portugal, so I didn’t really understand the college system. I thought I was doing a business course when I started on AAT Level 2. As I learned more, I began to really enjoy it and to understand that AAT is much more than a qualification; it is about being part of a wider community.”
Franco began studying for AAT Level 2 at college in Tottenham, London while she was pregnant with her first child.
“I did my first exam two weeks after giving birth, when I was 19,” she recalls. “I was working in the daytime, studying at night and then I had a child to care for. It was tough finding time for everything, and I think sometimes I only had four hours’ sleep a night, but I managed to study up to AAT Level 4.”
Once she finished her studies and her son was a little older, she found life easier and got her AAT licence. She worked her way up through promotions in property management and, in January 2025, started her own business. She already has two members of staff and a full roster of clients.
Gaining experience at every level
Most of Franco’s experience has been in industry and she has worked across different departments in a variety of companies. She started off in accounts payable, became a service charge analyst in real estate and later gained experience to become a head of finance.
“My first job was in accounts payable, where I started by processing invoices for Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL),” she explains. “I was meant to be on a week’s work experience but they offered me a job two days in. That was because on the first day I processed 100 invoices and their average was 50, so they offered me a permanent contract.”
When JLL had a redundancy programme, Franco moved to the service charge department, where she started as client accountant and assisted with the relocation programme while continuing to work towards her AAT qualifications. Although she passed AAT Level 4 nine years ago, she decided she wanted to get practical work experience at different companies before fulfilling her dream of setting up her own business.
“I did my first exam two weeks after giving birth.”
AAT qualification journey
Franco says she particularly values the practical experience that the AAT qualifications provide and decided after AAT Level 4 not to progress to being a chartered accountant because the AAT training had given her everything she needed.
“When I got to a position where I was hiring, I always preferred candidates with AAT qualifications because they have the practical understanding,” she says. “Some chartered accountants have technical knowledge but may lack the hands-on experience.”
Franco has worked across all levels and departments of property management, ranging from credit control, invoice processing, client accounting and client-facing roles.
“Working in different roles has enabled me to understand what I enjoy,” she says. “I came to realise that not every company is the same. Sometimes the work is the same, but the company culture is different. My favourite part of the job is problem solving and I enjoy looking at the way a company is run and identifying areas for improvement, or sorting out issues that are causing problems across a range of departments.”
Branching out
It was while she was working as head of finance for a property company, mentoring a whole team, that she decided to set up on her own.
“I like solving problems and I prefer to look at processes in a holistic way within organisations,” she says. “I could see processes and procedures in my job which were hindering progress, but sometimes they couldn’t be changed. I wanted to set up my own business to do things differently. However, it took a few years of planning because I had a family, a mortgage and responsibilities. It took time before I was ready to make that leap.”
She was open with her employer about her plans and gave them six months’ notice, which worked in her favour as she took on contracts for two partnering companies immediately after she left.
“That was great because I hit the ground running in January,” she says. “I had put some funds away to see me through the initial stages but I was busy from the start. It has been amazing to see the company expand so quickly within nine months to the point where I have now taken on two new staff.”
CP Franco Accounts & Finance provides accounting services, corporation tax and tax returns, and has branched out to offering consultancy services to property management companies, including sorting out backlogs and service charge reconciliations.
Franco enjoys the freedom of self-employment and the ability to make real change in organisations without being bound by processes and procedures that hinder progress. Another milestone has been polishing up her networking skills.
“I’ve always been quite shy, so the thought of walking into a room full of strangers can feel absolutely nerve-racking,” she says. “My sister taught me a valuable approach to overcome that anxiety and make genuine connections: focus on curiosity rather than self-promotion. She showed me that effective networking starts with asking thoughtful questions — learning about the challenges and goals people face within their organisations. By really listening and understanding their needs, you can then frame your services or solutions in a way that is truly relevant and meaningful to them.”
The Association of Accounting Technicians. 30 Churchill Place, London E14 5RE. Registered charity no.1050724. A company limited by guarantee (No. 1518983).
From teen trainee to practice owner
Catia Franco FMAAT was 18 when she decided to study for her accounting qualifications. She progressed to become head of finance at a property management company before leaving to start her own practice, CP Franco Accounts & Finance
Words Marianne Curphey