Left Contracting
Why I left contracting before it killed me.
The founder of one of the biggest and best known IT Accounting companies, Debbie Lane of ITAccounting, tells how she made her pile and left contracting into the Italian sun.
Contractor / Accountant
I became a Systems Analyst before moving across to programming in the SAP environment.
I spent 9 years as an IT Contractor before I left contracting.
Then I set up my own accountancy solutions company called ITAccounting Online when I left contracting It became pretty well known in the industry.
My business got bought out before I got made redundant from the firm who took it over I did a stint of SAP programming again before I decided to take early retirement investing in property in Italy.
So, here’s my story!
Days in the Sun
How did a self-confessed workaholic, over-achiever arrive at relaxed days in the sun with no demands!!
We first thought of investing in property in Puglia, Italy back in 1999 just before I started ITAccounting and before I left contracting.
A new business start-up, while still contracting full time and at one point on two contracts at the same time, meant long working days, seven days a week.
There was definitely no time for idle travel or property thoughts. The idea was lost in the pressures of working and the business start-up.
As ITAccounting grew, I gradually phased out the SAP contracting and dedicated all my time to the business.
Apart from the day to day running of the business I was developing business process automation software that reduced staffing requirements and kept overheads low.
Bigger Offices
Still the time came when more staff and bigger offices were needed if the business was to continue to grow and the high level of customer service, to which I was committed, was to be maintained.
Anyone who has started and run their own business will know that the demands are high, with continual long working hours and the buck stops with you!
No one to turn to if things went wrong!
Ironically one of the reasons I had started ITAccounting was to enable me to give up the travelling / away from home scenarios associated with IT contracting and spend more time at home with my husband.
Another reason was the advent of IR35.
Long Hours
At this point, although ITAccounting offices were only 10 minutes walk from my home. I was there from six in the morning to late in the evening, six days a week.
I hadn’t quite achieved my goal, when I left contracting, of a more relaxed life style spending more time with husband, Bob.
Buyout
The long hours and stress were taking their toll. So an approach early in 2002 from another contractor specialist accountancy business for a potential buyout went under serious consideration.
With the right buyer, here was the opportunity to secure the future of the business and the staff. It would reduce my workload. It would reduce the stress of being the key person on whom the entire business depended.
An added bonus would hopefully be additional R&D funds to continue software development.
The initial approach did not result in the sale of ITAccounting but led me to engage a merger acquisitions specialist to find the right buyer for ITAccounting.
My requirements were simple. The buyer needed to be committed to customer service and continuing the business with the existing staff. They needed to be committed to the continuing development of software tools to provide the services. Of course they needed to be prepared to pay the right price!
Eventually a suitable buyer, or so it seemed at the time, was found.
Good Fit
By this time I was approaching burn-out and the relationship seemed like a good fit at the time.
The buyer was in a similar line of business but offering composite company solutions rather than the LTD accountancy service / umbrella company options we offered.
They seemed keen to continue the development of web based accounting / customer management solutions. This was exciting for me and Brett, my son, who was by this time working with me.
The deal was concluded in December 2002, and initially all went well.
Space Expanded
Our space was expanded and renovated. New equipmentwas installed and awe took over the bookkeeping work for the composite companies new staff recruited.
The plan was to find someone to take overall control of the day to day running of the accountancy services, freeing me up to concentrate on software development – my main love.
Unfortunately finding someone to replace me took a long time and caused a lot of upheaval.
Instead of reducing my work load and stress levels the opposite had happened. I was working longer and longer hours trying to run both the business and the expanded IT department since I left contracting.
False Starts
Eventually a replacement was found. However, there were a number of false starts resulting in the handover periods dragging on until August / September 2003. Customer service was slipping.
It was hard to see standards slip and not to be able to do anything about it.
By this time my health was suffering and, for the first time ever in my entire working life, ended up on extended sick leave.
Despite this I continued to work from home (sometimes I can’t believe how stupid I was!).
Health Suffered
As I became more and more disillusioned with the whole setup, my health suffered more and more. Eventually I was put on sick leave again in December with strict instructions not to go back to work until my doctor considered it appropriate.
During this time I started to look for alternatives as it was becoming clear to me that I could not continue working for ITA.
In January 2004 I was offered an IT job and on the same day received an email from the ITA MD requesting my attendance at a meeting the following morning.
Made Redundant
And so the axe fell, the entire IT department were made redundant – including my son, and my husband.
Despite the fact that I had a job to go to it was still a hard blow.
Some of the IT staff had only been recently recruited and we were a good working team.
And we had been told that the project that we had been working on and of which the first phase was completed was to be cancelled.
All our hard work and effort had gone up in smoke, although I’ve subsequently heard that in fact the system is being used.
At least our development efforts saw the light of day.
So my relationship with ITAccounting came to an end.
I took the IT job (not SAP) I had been offered, Bob and Brett both set up their own businesses. The others moved on to new contracts / jobs.
Opportunity
Here at least I thought was my opportunity to work 9 to 5 and have a balanced work-home life. Of course, I hadn’t taken into consideration my own work-nature.
My new job was not particularly challenging or fulfilling. It did not seem to offer any future opportunities. I soon became bored.
When the opportunity arose to get back into the SAP world as a development consultant I jumped at it. And promptly found myself on the Monday morning / Friday evening commute.
A full circle!
The post Why I left Contracting before it killed me appeared first on IT Contractor.
