The job gave me a thorough grounding in Business Finances and client care, amongst other things.

Toward the end of my time there, I began to think about the challenges of self-employment and this led to me leaving Banking for pastures new.

I became self employed as a Cost Management Consultant within a franchise network. Once again this was working with business owners, helping them with their strategic decision making. Improving their profitability, particularly by reducing key overheads was a key part of the process.

A serious illness of my wife meant a sustained period away from work. This resulted in me only working in this capacity for a couple of years.

Once my wife’s health improved, our priorities changed somewhat and we sought a new lifestyle.

We moved to the South West of France where we lived for 11 years, developing a property management business whilst we were there. Moving to a new country inevitably brought its own challenges; a foreign language and a different attitude to life in general but that’s why we went to begin with and we absolutely loved it!

We moved back to the South West of England for family reasons, and after a period of readjustment, I began to think about what I should do next.

Given my work history, I decided that Bookkeeping would be a good choice.

Having a wealth of business and financial experience meant that I could offer this to my clients, and have a positive impact on their business.

I wanted to remain self-employed and felt that achieving a qualification that would enable me to set up my own Practice would be the best way forward.

But this was during the time of the Pandemic, so how best to achieve this through remote learning?

I researched the market for providers of Bookkeeping training and quickly settled on Training Link as the best option.

Reputation, flexibility and cost were all factors, and Training Link delivered in every respect.

It proved to be a good decision.

• Training materials were excellent
• Communication was professional throughout
• Everything was delivered quickly
• The tutors were always on hand to provide advice, guidance and encouragement when I needed it
• I was able to do everything at my own pace.

Having started the course in November 2021, I achieved my ICB Level 2 Certificate within 4 months and my Level 3 Certificate 7 months later. The latter being a ‘Distinction with Honours’ which bears out the quality of the material and support provided by Training Link.

After a short delay due to other commitments, I’m now ready to apply for my ICB Practice Licence and start looking for clients.

Having the technical skills that the qualification has given me, backed up with my business and financial experience gives me tremendous confidence that I’ll be able to bring a fantastic service to my clients.

I’m now looking forward to putting everything into practice in the very near future, and I’m grateful to Training Link for the key role they have played in me being in this position.