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Paying it forward
Ellis Harris-Kijak MAAT is founder of FieCo Accountancy & Marketing and was named AAT Professional Member of the Year for demonstrating outstanding achievement and success in his role. Here, he describes his journey from AAT trainee to business owner and tutor
Words Marianne Curphey
Ellis Harris-Kijak MAAT is founder of FieCo Accountancy & Marketing and was named AAT Professional Member of the Year for demonstrating outstanding achievement and success in his role. Here, he describes his journey from AAT trainee to business owner and tutor
Words Marianne Curphey
AT A GLANCE
1
Variety
Accountants are needed in every single sector, and there are loads of opportunities to find an industry that you are interested in
2
Know your customers
The key to success is understanding clients and their business inside out
3
Tech as tools
Technology can help you do your job as an accountant but human connections are still vital
Ellis Harris-Kijak began working in the accounts department of a telecommunications company at the age of 16, where he was involved with purchase ledger and credit control. He had, however, originally thought of becoming a barista.
“I wasn’t ever planning to go into accountancy,” he explains. “I didn’t finish my A-Levels, so I applied for a job at a high street coffee shop and got rejected. Then I saw on a noticeboard at school an advertisement for an AAT apprentice. I didn’t really even know what AAT was at the time. I just went for it and got it. I was studying history, business and economics, and although I enjoyed maths at GCSE, I didn’t study it at A-Level. I left after taking my AS-Levels and started the AAT apprenticeship straight away.”
Within a year, his line manager left and he took on her role. He then managed an apprentice and was promoted to more senior jobs within the department.
“I went to college one morning a week but I didn’t get any time off to study outside of that,” he recalls. “With the exams, I fast-tracked a bit because I wanted to speed things up and get my qualifications. I tended to self-study a unit at home while doing one in college as well. It took me four years to get to AAT Level 4 – and that included a career change in the middle of studying.”
After three years at the telecoms company, Harris-Kijak was headhunted to become assistant finance manager at an adhesives factory, Caswell & Company, where he continued his apprenticeship. One of the most interesting parts of his new role was being asked to look into long-term strategic projects that the department had no time to do on a day-to-day basis.
He says: “They were looking at whether to put solar panels on the roof of the factory and they asked me to do a capital expenditure analysis to see whether it would be worth it, given the huge electricity bills they were paying. At 19, that felt interesting but also quite scary.”
Setting up business in the pandemic
After finishing AAT Level 4, Harris-Kijak decided he wanted to work for himself. He left the assistant finance manager role and set up his own business, FieCo Accountancy & Marketing. But Caswell & Company asked if Harris-Kijak could help the firm migrate from its old accounting system to a new one. He came back as an external contractor and helped the migration process, which took two years. After that, he won a five-year support contract with the same company.
“That was a major reason my business was a success because I started my business two months before the Covid lockdown, which was a terrible time to start,” Harris-Kijak says. “I had left my job, I wasn’t furloughed, and because I had just started a business I didn’t get any self-employment support, either. I had no income and no way of bringing on clients through networking. The fact that they took me on as a contractor during Covid to help with the project pretty much started and saved the business.”
His dream of launching his own business, which he achieved at the age of 22, was in part motivated by achieving a good work-life balance and freeing up time to volunteer. Seven years later, he has a thriving company with a wide range of clients.
“As it happens, running a business has definitely not given me more time,” he says. “At the same time, I also became an AAT tutor. I went back to my college and started tutoring AAT, and I’ve continued to do that until this day. I currently tutor with two colleges, even as the business has grown, because I love it so much.”
Initially, the tutoring job was a good opportunity to bring in revenue when he was just starting out in business, but he has continued to teach because he enjoys it.
“The most rewarding part is when a student is really struggling but you actually help them get over the line of the exam,” he says.
“When I started my business as a young person, one of the big challenges I had was imposter syndrome. Joining the AAT community and getting involved really helped with that.”
“When I started my business as a young person, one of the big challenges I had was imposter syndrome. Joining the AAT community and getting involved really helped with that.”
Keeping it in the family
Harris-Kijak’s first hire was his mum, who decided she wanted a career change after 20 years in the NHS. He was able to offer her an AAT apprenticeship and, for a while, he was her tutor, boss and son. A couple of years later, his sister, who had been working for the business part-time, came on as an apprentice in digital marketing.
“The majority of our clients are SMEs with between £500,000 to £5m revenue,” Harris-Kijak says. “We’re in Northamptonshire but we work with clients all over the UK. We have grown the business through networking and word of mouth.”
Harris-Kijak is also co-chair of the AAT Northampton branch, helping to organise events and networking gatherings. It has meant he has improved his public speaking and expanded his contacts book. He is also on the AAT Members’ Advisory Council.
“When I started my business as a young person, one of the big challenges I had was imposter syndrome,” he says. “Joining the AAT community and getting involved really helped with that. Winning the AAT Award has given me confidence that I’m heading in the right direction and has opened up opportunities, whether being able to represent AAT in new ways and business opportunities.
“My AAT qualification has given me everything I have in my career – it was the best start to a journey in accountancy that I could hope for. It gave me the theoretical groundwork that we all need but, beyond that, it’s given me a community of members who I can network with, share concerns and each grow our professional lives together.”
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