A year like no other by Abi Newbury, MD

It was with great pride that I took on the role of Managing Director of Honey Barrett a year ago, relishing the opportunity to lead the firm I had joined as a junior manager in 2002. Whilst the pandemic was in its early stages at that point, I don't think any of us had any idea of what was to come professionally, or personally, over the course of the following 12 months. It was certainly not the start to my new role I was expecting – a real baptism of fire!

As an accountancy firm based across three sites, the logistics of effectively closing our offices and moving the majority of our team to homeworking within days, whilst continuing to provide our clients with the service they are used to, was challenging to say the least. We needed to follow the Government guidance, to protect our team, and our NHS, but we also needed to look after clients that were depending on us at a very difficult time. 

We'd already invested in systems to reduce paper records, and helped many clients make the most of our online document exchange, and this made a significant difference to the speed at which we were able to adapt. As with any crisis, the whole team pulled together magnificently – all playing their part in enabling us to continue to function, across a wide geographic area remotely. It's not until you have a situation similar to that we have experienced through Covid that you realise just what is affected, directly and indirectly, and I cannot thank my team enough for the efforts they made.

It seems a while ago now, but there was a time when the financial support coming through from the Government was unfolding on a daily basis, and my Co-Directors worked long and hard to keep pace with this, ensuring that clients, and the team, were kept up to date.

The initial hard work paid off, and we all settled into new routines and ways of working. I do miss the team work, the sharing of ideas and training with my colleagues, meeting with my clients face to face, but we've had to put that aside for the last year, a necessary sacrifice.

It was very heartening when a client told me recently how she couldn't tell any difference between the excellent service we are providing now compared to previous years, this is what we were all hoping for that long 12 months ago. 

I think we'd all agree that things will never be the same, although we would be remiss not to embrace the positive developments that Covid has brought, as there are certainly some that have come out of this enforced change to our lives. 

As I write this from my dining room table, with hope of further easing of lockdown in the coming weeks, I am optimistic. That isn't to say there won't be further casualties of the Pandemic, our clients included, and we will continue to do all we can to support and guide them as much as we're able, to try to minimise the impact of this unprecedented event in our history, an impact that will be felt for many years to come.

We've come out of this stronger, looking forward to helping more clients, hoping to shortly return to our offices and work together again. Whilst we have been apart the Honey Barrett team feels more united than ever – and it's a team I am even prouder to lead than I was 12 months ago.

Abi Newbury ACA
Managing Director
Honey Barrett Chartered Accountants