A North Staffordshire tax and accountancy firm has used lockdown as an opportunity to recruit new staff and launch new services.
Sempar has taken on two employees since March and is welcoming another member to its team next month 鈥 taking its total workforce to 15.
The company, based at Lymedale Business Centre in Newcastle-under-Lyme, has also launched a host of new services to support its clients throughout the pandemic.
Steve Timmis, who set up the company in 2016, said: 鈥淲e鈥檝e used lockdown as an opportunity to recruit because we knew that a few of our local competitors put staff on furlough and created some uncertainty, so there would be some good people available.
鈥淲e鈥檝e already taken two on since the end of March and we鈥檝e got another one starting once he finishes his notice in September.
鈥淲e鈥檝e also launched some new services.鈥
Sempar鈥檚 newest service is an automated credit control service which will support clients through issues such as debt collection.
This comes on the back of a dedicated business hub which the company launched during the pandemic to provide clients with the latest Government updates as well as a daily information service.
At the same time, all of Sempar鈥檚 Covid-related services 鈥 such as furlough calculations and loan applications 鈥 were conducted on a not-for-profit basis.
Steve said: 鈥淔or us, our attitude has been if we get through this together then we鈥檙e all going to be in a stronger position in the future. We saw it as an opportunity to build good will and not think about our profit and loss.
鈥淲e have continued to work throughout. There could have been arguments to furlough members of our team, but what we wanted to do was have everybody available to pick the phone up and speak to clients. We didn鈥檛 want clients ringing up and not being able to speak to someone or be supported.
鈥淲e have also used this time to do things such as generating content for our website and social media. We took the time to set up our own podcast to try and be inspiring and keep our client鈥檚 spirits high and keep them aiming for a brighter future.鈥
Sempar has been forced to put its plans to relocate into bigger premises on hold as a result of Covid, but Steve believes the introduction of new working practices and new client wins means the firm is now ahead of its target of becoming a 拢1 million practice by 2022.
Steve said: 鈥淲e were about three weeks off completion of our new office but we went into lockdown and we effectively put it on hold.
鈥淥ur team have made lockdown really work; productivity has gone through the roof and it鈥檚 been a really positive experience.
鈥淪o from September it鈥檚 likely that the team will continue to work from home and come in and hot-desk once a week.鈥
He added: 鈥淎round 90 per cent of our growth over the last four years has come from our client base but our growth through lockdown has 100 per cent come from our client base.
鈥淲e have taken on some really sizeable clients in this time.
鈥淢y gut feeling was that we wouldn鈥檛 grow too much but that we would need to be ready for growth at the end of it, but actually I was proven wrong because businesses of 拢5m turnover plus have made the decision to come to us without physical meets, which just really surprised me.
鈥淲e started in 2016 from a standing start with no income and we have grown through that period 鈥 we鈥檙e hoping to hit 拢1.5 million in 2021.鈥
