SJD Contact number

[Maslins]

Nope the story is

- small lean company (a handful of accountants) launches with cheap prices
- company gets loads of new business
- company has to hire more staff - assistants, etc
- company gets large and someone makes an offer the original owner would be mad to turn down
- new owner tries to cover purchase price but reducing costs.
- customers leave, accountants leave to set up a new small lean company...

I personally think the above applies to accountancy firms set up by people who aren't accountants, but are savvy business people. A bullet point missing from near the top that I think is key is their marketing is amazing (at least relative to the competition), blows the normal accountancy firms out of the water. Potential clients are impressed with the glossy website, strong use of social media, and other bells/whistles.

For the firms set up by accountants, the marketing is worse, and growth slower accordingly. It may therefore take them 10 years of steady growth rather than 3 years of rapid growth to get to a point where acquirers might be interested. The original accountant owner may well have delegated lots of the work to their team, that's normal, and compulsory (one person can't service 1,000 clients, no matter how good they are!). However they'll still have a deep fondness for both their staff and many of their longstanding clients too. The prospect of selling to PE who will do as you suggest doesn't appeal.

I'd suggest as a client you're far more likely to be "sold", fairly soon, if the "accountancy firm" is owned by bankers/marketers/lawyers/entrepreneurs rather than accountants who earned their stripes at the coal face. We've seen this before, but after it happens regulars here will be lured by and point people to move to the young firm with the shiniest website, and the cycle repeats.

[d000hg]

I suppose the flip side is an accountant might set up what's initially a brilliant service for their small client base, but not have the business nous to avoid it falling apart when it does get popular. We see that in many sectors all the time, I think - with two people you can give every customer direct expert contact, keep costs really low, etc, until you start to grow and find you don't know how to.

I will supplement my previous comment, when I said every lean company around when I started is now badly regarded I should give an exception to Maslins. I've never been their client and have no horse in the race but they've been consistently helpful on CUK as long as I can recall.
How have you guys resisted the urge to up prices to £250 with upsold extras nobody wants? How have you avoided growing to the point you struggle?

[Paralytic]

Joe Public doesn't care as long as he has an "engineer" call round to fix his cooker when it breaks. Same with accountants.

I wouldn't let an accountant fix my cooker.

I might let him cook my books

[Maslins]

How have you guys resisted the urge to up prices to £250 with upsold extras nobody wants? How have you avoided growing to the point you struggle?

Ha, thanks!

1) hmmm...we are currently in talks about having a "premium" option, sorry! It may well not be something you would like, and me personally as a customer I doubt it would appeal either. However, believe it or not quite a few clients do ask us about extra things we could provide. Early days for this, but I would stress we're considering optional extras, only for those who want them, not hiking prices across the board.

2) in line with my previous post the reality is our growth has been slow and steady. It took over a decade to go from me starting out on my own to a team of 12 permanent staff who now control the company indirectly via the employee ownership trust. That latter thing is important, as it means the staff are now directly connected financially to do success of the business. No more owner vs staff. Maslins pretty much cannot be sold to PE/VC/bigger competitor now.

I'm aware we have many cheaper competitors, but a key reason we don't struggle is relative to our client numbers we have a high number of experienced and highly qualified staff. Yes there's certainly some unqualified juniors in there earning their stripes, but 6 of the 12 are fully qualified chartered/certified accountants. They're expensive(!) but they're worth it for us. The two most senior in the team heading up the firm trained with us, and have been with us for 8 & 7 years respectively (let's gloss over our first trainee disappeared off to Australia after qualifying!). The staff generally sticking around after we train them is also great for stability...both for us internally, and for clients who get relatively good continuity of contact.

Some of our snazzier newer competitors are way bigger than us, despite being around for half the time. I'm not dissing them, they deserve big credit for that. In business terms they've done way better than us, plain and simple. I have no background in marketing/business, just in accountancy. This is probably why our growth has been slow, and based on word of mouth/doing a decent job, rather than outward marketing.

Sorry mods if any/all of the above is deemed spammy/salesy. Was answering direct question asked, and hope at least some of it is useful to readers. By all means trim out any bits you're unhappy with.

[ProjectPimp]

OP... did you manage to get hold of anyone?

I haven't had a response since last Tuesday and they haven't submitted by Self Assessment! I contacted someone via Facebook last night as a last resort and got an almost instant reply saying someone would call me, but they haven't.

Definitely time to switch, however for now I just need this sorting out and there seems to be no way to speak to any of them at the moment.

Hello,
I know SJD are having some problems at the moment but it looks like my accountant left the company and they have not given me a new one.
Does anyone have an alternative number I could use for them. Tried the ones on the website but they point to an email address and I am not getting any replies.

Thanks

[Lance]

OP... did you manage to get hold of anyone?

I haven't had a response since last Tuesday and they haven't submitted by Self Assessment! I contacted someone via Facebook last night as a last resort and got an almost instant reply saying someone would call me, but they haven't.

Definitely time to switch, however for now I just need this sorting out and there seems to be no way to speak to any of them at the moment.

you need to pay some tax. And let HMRC know what is going on.
If you pay up more than you owe, before the return is submitted you'll get an easier ride when they inevitably come knocking.
And it's a SELF assessment. No excuse here. It's your responsibility. You have been let down, but surely last week you should have realised they have f***ed you?

[ProjectPimp]

you need to pay some tax. And let HMRC know what is going on.
If you pay up more than you owe, before the return is submitted you'll get an easier ride when they inevitably come knocking.
And it's a SELF assessment. No excuse here. It's your responsibility. You have been let down, but surely last week you should have realised they have f***ed you?

a) I have paid some tax. Not convinced it's the right amount - yes it's my responsibility, that's why I PAY an accountant
b) I have spoken to HMRC and they've extended the deadline for me and other SJD victims
c) Other than my decision to use SJD, I am not an idiot, so please don't speak to me like one

SJD finally responded to me. They said they don't know the figures but 'their tax team is working hard to get as many done as possible' - needless to say my confidence is low... and it appears quite a few people are in this position.

Gorilla is calling.

[Cr1spy]

I've been chasing SJD for months in an attempt to get them to finish my EOY books. It's now 8 months since I submitted my completed accounts.

Served them official end of service notice last month to come into force on the 1st of February but only had a cursory "My manager will contact you" email. Still waiting on that call several weeks later.

Have approached a new accountant and have them all ready to go, but SJD won't answer the phone and just give empty promises in emails.

Any suggestions on how to escalate the issue and get them to talk to me? Is it time to contact a solicitor?

[Fred Bloggs]

I've been chasing SJD for months in an attempt to get them to finish my EOY books. It's now 8 months since I submitted my completed accounts.

Served them official end of service notice last month to come into force on the 1st of February but only had a cursory "My manager will contact you" email. Still waiting on that call several weeks later.

Have approached a new accountant and have them all ready to go, but SJD won't answer the phone and just give empty promises in emails.

Any suggestions on how to escalate the issue and get them to talk to me? Is it time to contact a solicitor?

Time to stop paying these charlatans and engage with your new accountant to finish off the year's work before you run into penalties. I would be assuming you get no further support from SJD and look for a way forward that doesn't involve them.

[malvolio]

Time to stop paying these charlatans and engage with your new accountant to finish off the year's work before you run into penalties. I would be assuming you get no further support from SJD and look for a way forward that doesn't involve them.

Agreed. Give the new guys all the data you have (including the SJD spreadsheet) and let them work from there; it's all SJD would have given them anyway. They will no doubt complain about SJD themselves, since passing on data at changeover is not optional.