Going on the Big OE to the UK is just as much a part of the Australian psyche as it is the New Zealand one. So although this week's column isn't strictly about New Zealand companies in Australia, it is about a great little Kiwi business that is based in London, owned by an Auckland-based Kiwi couple, and has clients who are Australians, Kiwis and South Africans.
Anyway, when abroad expats share a common bond. And in the UK, Aussies and Kiwis are great compatriots, having a beer after work down at the Walkabout. (Or not. I had to squeeze in that Walkabout bit as it was so quintessentially Aussie back then. Did it have a sawdust floor or did it just feel that way?)
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It's a different vibe in the UK these days. The economy hit the brakes and many Antipodeans left for home. However, one Kiwi couple found a way to return home and continue managing their successful English accounting business from Auckland.
I first met Helen McMurtrie and Greg Hanton in 2003 through London's Kea network. They were incredibly inspiring to me, living the dream by setting up a (then) home-based business called No Worries that allowed them to balance a new baby and working together as a couple.
McMurtrie and Hanton had lived in Canada for several years prior and had themselves been inspired by the frenetic start-up culture of North America.
Both were contracting through a limited company structure; faxing in time sheets, feeling overcharged by accountants. They thought there had to be a better way of managing their tax and bringing it online.
"Here we both were sitting in London paying a fortune for our accountant to not do anything and it seeded the idea," Hanton tells me. "The service we launched was the first online service at that point and went against what all our competitors, for example 1st Contact, were doing. Fees used to be charged on percentage of every invoice - something like 5 per cent of every invoice! We introduced a flat monthly fee."
Hanton, a chemical engineer, had always been interested in programming and followed dotcom developments with interest. McMurtrie, an arts graduate, worked on the technical side of the fishing industry, analysing stock and seabed mapping.
They decided to combine their talents and see if they could turn a tax frustration shared by many expat friends into a business.
"Within the circle we were working, the majority seemed to be Antipodeans," says McMurtrie. "Arriving in the UK, they had the same questions and challenges as us, things like getting National Insurance numbers, bank accounts. We were able to help that market because we understood what they needed and why. We knew for example, that they wanted to earn as much as they could in a few years so they could travel and take a bit of money home."
No Worries targeted contractors, with most working in IT, financial services, law and health. Around 80 per cent of clients are South Africans, Kiwis and Australians, the rest are Europeans. It's a niche market the business has resonated strongly with.
But it's a changing market and Hanton and McMurtrie have had to evolve the business every few years, creating the more buttoned-down Capital City Accountancy brand for English and European clients, then launching an umbrella brand late last year to address UK tax legislation change.
In 2011 the couple moved back to New Zealand with their three young children, a personal decision despite hesitations to leave their successful business on the other side of the world.
McMurtrie tells me being in New Zealand has actually helped them gain a strategic view and allow them to work "on" rather than "in" the business.
A London team of 12, including a managing director, maintain the daily running of the business.
"The lifestyle part of it has taken longer which is more our own fault than the businesses as it's hard letting go," says McMurtrie. "The good thing is Greg gets to walk the kids to school and join in on their activities. Because when he comes back, once they've gone to bed, our UK office hours are just starting and we can do a few more hours."
Merger and acquisition activity by private equity companies has seen changes in the competitive landscape, but Hanton and McMurtrie are not yet ready to exit the business. Instead, they're focusing on the next level of growth - targeting Kiwis preparing to go to the UK and building closer ties to recruitment firms with UK interests.
