360 Accountants will celebrate its 15th anniversary on 1 February 2025 by thanking those clients that have been with them since day 1 with a bottle of specially labelled and sourced wine.
“It’s just a small token of our appreciation to those business owners that took a leap of faith and partnered with us back in 2010” explained founder Andy Steele.
“Although we had all the accreditations, licenses and an experienced team in place, you do worry that entrepreneurs will be concerned about moving their accounts, tax and payroll affairs to a new entrant albeit I had worked with many of them for a number of years.” Andy continued. “Thankfully, more than enough moved over and we soon started growing our client base further on the back of our innovative products and services, utilising marketing and networking channels our competitors had not yet embraced and, of course, providing a top-class service to all our clients whatever their size”.
In the 15 years it has been established, 360 has grown from a team of 4 based in serviced offices in Melton to a 20 plus team based in their beautiful Grade 2 listed offices in Hull City Centre.
When asked about the highs and lows of the journey, Andy reflected “There are so many highs: winning clients we’d been eager to work with, helping business owners achieve their dream exit, seeing members of the team become qualified accountants, Sophie (our first apprentice) becoming a director and then a shareholder, introducing real time, cloud accounting to East Yorkshire and buying our own offices are some of the events that spring to mind. Setting up our own registered charity The 360 Grass Roots Foundation is also up there and when we get cards from parents thanking the foundation for helping their child get into or stay in the sport they love then that really makes all the hard work worthwhile”.
“In terms of lows, I don’t think there has been anything every other business doesn’t experience from time to time although I pray we will never be told we need to work from home and close large chunks of the economy down again. That was tough but I’m proud of the service we provided during very challenging times and that we were able to grow our business on the back of this”.
Many of 360’s original clients have now sold up, retired or no longer need an accountant but amongst the 30+ clients that have been with 360 since day 1 is 2024 Super League Grand Finalist Hull Kingston Rovers FC Limited. Neil Hudgell, majority shareholder of Hull KR, said “When Andy approached us back in February 2010 to switch the club’s accountancy and business tax provision to 360 we were confident we’d be in safe hands as Andy had many years of experience looking after the company’s interests. The board has been delighted with the service we’ve received over the years and it’s been both pleasing and reassuring to see 360 grow alongside ourselves. We congratulate them on the 15th anniversary and hope to work with them for many years to come”.
Looking forward to the next 15 years, Andy added:
“We need to find our forever home (something more modern and eco-friendly than our current HQ), expand the team, board and service offering and give back even more to the local communities we serve. I can’t wait to get stuck in!”.
For a more in-depth discussion on how 360 has evolved over the years, check out the latest edition of The Purple Sofa Podcast on our YouTube channel 360TV.