I did not have a grand plan to become a Chartered Accountant. What attracted me to accountancy was that it gave me a really strong foundation in business. I wanted to understand how businesses worked – not just the numbers, but what sat behind them.
My career didn’t follow a particularly conventional route. I qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2005, having initially studied Hospitality Management at Ulster University. I started out in a very customer-focused role, then accepted a role titled ‘Director of First Impressions’ (an assistant) in an accountancy firm in Derry.
After a year in that role, I asked the partner if he would allow me to enter a training contract – he kindly said yes, which led me to qualifying and eventually founding my own business in 2011.
What I have come to appreciate most about being a Chartered Accountant is the breadth of opportunities it gives you. It isn’t simply about accounts and compliance. It gives you the commercial understanding and credibility to advise business owners, build businesses yourself, sit around board tables and make decisions.
About this series
A collaboration between Accountancy Ireland and the Gender Working Group of Chartered Accountants Ireland’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee, ‘My Story So Far: Women’s Career Series’ was launched in 2023 to focus on the women in Chartered Accountants Ireland’s membership. By spotlighting the experiences of one member in each issue, we aim to provide a forum through which they can share their insights on how they have managed their careers in tandem with their lives and overcome challenges and obstacles encountered along the way.
For me, becoming a Chartered Accountant ultimately gave me the toolkit and confidence to become an entrepreneur.
Learning to be comfortable with uncertainty
My career hasn’t really been about following the traditional promotional ladder. I founded Kinore, my own business, in 2011, so much of my progression has come from creating opportunities rather than waiting for them.
One thing I have always done is say yes to opportunities that stretch me, even when I wasn’t completely sure I was ready.
I also think you have to be willing to put yourself into uncomfortable situations. Building a business, taking investment, making acquisitions, sitting on boards and making decisions that affect people’s livelihoods all require you to be comfortable with uncertainty.
The other thing I would say is don’t wait until you feel 100 percent ready. If you wait until you have complete confidence, you will probably miss a lot of opportunities. I’ve learned to back myself.
Opportunity, confidence and visibility
When I started my career, fewer women held senior leadership and decision-making positions in the working world.
Today, I see many more women progressing through the accounting profession and into leadership roles. But I think there is still a difference between women entering a profession and women genuinely being represented at the most senior levels.
For me, the biggest change needs to be around opportunity, confidence and visibility. Women need the opportunity to lead, sit at the table, take on commercially significant roles and build businesses of their own.
I also think we need to move away from the idea that there is one particular model of what a successful career looks like. Women shouldn’t have to choose between having a successful career and having a family. The profession needs to be flexible enough to accommodate different stages of people’s lives.
I’ve built my career while raising three sons and I know from experience that it can be challenging. But I also know that having a family doesn’t diminish your ambition.
I also think women can sometimes underestimate the importance of being visible. You need to put yourself into rooms where conversations are happening. You need to build relationships outside your immediate organisation and profession.
There is enormous value in having people around you who have done things before you and can offer perspective. Sometimes you don’t need someone to tell you what to do; you just need someone who has been in the same situation to say, “I’ve been there. This is what I learned”.
And mentoring shouldn’t only be something you receive. As you progress, you have a responsibility to create opportunities for the people coming behind you.
Networking has been important to me throughout my career. Some of the opportunities I’ve had have come through relationships that were built over many years rather than through a formal process.
The right balance over time
I’m not sure I believe in the perfect work-life balance.
There have been periods in my career when work has been all-consuming, particularly when I was building my business. There have also been periods when family needed more of my attention.
For me, it’s more about balance over time rather than balance every day.
You can’t necessarily give equal time to everything all of the time. Sometimes your business needs you, sometimes your children need you and sometimes you need to prioritise yourself.
The important thing is recognising when the balance has become unhealthy and doing something about it – that rest isn’t something you earn once everything else is done.
When you are entrepreneurial and ambitious, there is always something else you could do. Another email. Another decision. Another problem to solve. If you wait until the work is finished before you switch off, you’ll never switch off.
I’ve also learned that you can’t build a successful business by doing everything yourself. As the business has grown, I’ve had to learn to delegate, trust people and build a team around me. That has been important not just for the business but for my own life.
I have had to become much more conscious of protecting my time away from the business.
I’ve also had to accept that I don’t need to be involved in everything.
That’s been one of the hardest lessons for me, as the founder of a growing business. When you build something from scratch, you become used to knowing everything that’s happening. As the organisation grows, you have to let go of some of it.
Learning in the real world
My training as a Chartered Accountant gave me the technical foundation to build a successful career but a huge amount of my professional development has come from doing things outside my comfort zone.
Running a business has been a continuous education. I’ve learned through people – my team, clients, advisers, board members, investors and other business owners. I’ve learned through mistakes and, more importantly, by reflecting on those mistakes.
I am a big believer in being curious. Read widely. Listen to people who know more than you. Ask questions. Get into rooms where you aren’t the expert.
And as I’ve moved further into leadership, I’ve found that having good advisers and a strong board around you is incredibly valuable.
You don’t need to have all the answers yourself. You need to know how to get to the right answer.