Rob began his career with the Liverpool Office of Gruber Levinson Franks which became part of BDO Stoy Hayward. Whilst there, he worked with a wide array of SMEs with a particular emphasis on the retail and the legal sectors. Rob joined SB&P in 2003 as an Audit Manager before moving to special projects and corporate finance in 2006. He became a Partner in 2008. In 2020 Rob was elected President of the Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants.
Click here for Rob's profile on the SB&P website.
- Can you tell us a bit about your background, and your role at SB&P?
After leaving university I qualified as a Chartered Accountant and moved to SB&P in 2003, becoming a partner in 2008. My role is to assist and advise a portfolio of clients on how to run their businesses and make more profit in a tax efficient manner. I hate surprises so I try to help them plan to avoid them.
- How’s business at the moment?
It has been a really busy few weeks leading up to and after lockdown. The current crisis has thrown up a tremendous number of diverse financial challenges, that has meant lots of clients have needed an increased degree of support on a number of levels both financial and emotional.
- What’s the best part of your job?
When a plan comes together and I can see I have helped a client realise their ambitions.
- If you hadn’t been an accountant, what would you have done?
My original choice of career, having been influenced by CCF at school, was to be an army PT instructor.
- As we come out of lockdown and into the ‘new normal’, what’s main challenge for you at SB&P?
When helping a business to budget and plan you need to make certain assumptions about the future, the considerable amount of uncertainty about what happens next in terms of a second wave or ongoing measures makes this extremely difficult to formulate those assumptions.
- What opportunities can you see?
I think embracing none office working gives businesses access to a wider pool of talent which will be of real assistance to those businesses that are struggling to recruit. It is also inevitable that some will struggle as government support for business begins to be withdrawn. As a result I can see acquisition opportunities for strong cash rich companies.
- How are your clients feeling about the future?
It is a real mixture. A number are optimistic and looking to capitalise on opportunities but in other sectors there is a good degree of trepidation. So much depends on the sector and the perception of how their customers will be hit. One of the unintended consequences of the furlough scheme is that many employers have reflected on not having some of their teams available for an extended period, in some cases I do see this leading to job losses.
- How have you found the past few weeks?
It’s been busy, sometimes stressful but also slightly surreal at times. Certainly the first few weeks only leaving the house to exercise once a day did mean it started to be difficult to remember what day it was!
- What are you now doing that you couldn’t when we were in full lockdown?
Getting to actually see people again even if it is largely outdoors.
- During the pandemic, have you managed to find some positives?
My main positive has been finding more time to exercise, I’ve run over 500km and cycled over 2000km and feel more healthy as a result. As a secondary, realising how efficient video meetings can be, I think some of this will remain.
- What have you missed about being in an office environment?
Just having a chat with people, whilst I’ve still regularly spoken to my colleagues they tend to be functional conversations, sometimes its good to just have a conversation about nothing inparticular.
- Looking longer term, what do you think the biggest change will be working life?
I think an element of home working is here to stay. The crisis has forced people to adapt and in the majority of cases, certainly in professional services, it has worked and in some cases people have been more productive. Once this crisis ebbs away I think many will reflect on this and reconsider how much office space they occupy. In turn this will bring its challenges for commercial landlords.
- When you are comfortable to, what is the first restaurant you’ll visit?
Marcello, a small family run local steak restaurant. They are famous for their steaks but I can tell you last time I went there I had the BEST cheesecake I have ever tasted.
