Our advice for early-stage founders is to build a relationship with a specialist accountant sooner than you think you need to.
Having someone to turn to for clarification and guidance is genuinely valuable when you’re making those early decisions — about structure, about tax, about how to pay yourself. But when you’re bootstrapping, you want to know when the right moment actually is. Here’s how to think about it.
If you’re dealing with VAT, the moment is probably now
VAT is the clearest trigger point. It’s the worst of all the taxes because it’s easy to get wrong, there’s real money involved, and HMRC will inspect your business at some point. When you’ve got everything else to think about, you don’t want to be handling VAT yourself.
Some founders go VAT-registered very early. When that happens, the conversation with an accountant usually stops being optional.
But VAT isn’t the only reason.
Good advice early costs less than bad decisions later
When you’re building something, it matters who you surround yourself with. That applies to finance as much as anything else.
You’re not looking for cheap. You’re building for something, and the right accountant early on can meaningfully change the trajectory of your business. Not because they file things correctly — though they do — but because they’ve seen the same situations, answered the same questions, and can give you in three minutes what you’d struggle to find after three hours online.
In the early days there’s a lot of stuff you don’t know. And a lot of stuff you don’t know you don’t know. A specialist accountant is one of the most efficient ways to close that gap.
With the right support in place, you could be:
- Tax efficient from day one
- Making the right calls on R&D versus grants
- Making use of reliefs, incentives, and credits
- Clear about when and how to pay yourself
- Free from financial admin that’s eating your time
- Working toward your longer-term goals with a clear picture of the numbers
It doesn’t have to mean a full-service engagement from month one. We work with founders at the very earliest stages — sometimes just having someone on hand who understands your type of business, and can answer questions as they come up, is enough to start.
A note on networks as well as expertise
The right accountant brings more than technical knowledge. We partner with specialists in areas like grant and equity finance, because no one firm should claim to know everything — and because the right introduction at the right moment can matter as much as any piece of advice.
The best thing you can do right now is have the conversation
You probably already know you need help with the financial side. The question is usually timing and cost, not whether.
Our best advice is to talk to us. We work with early-stage founders from incorporation through to Series A, and we can help you figure out exactly what you need for the stage you’re in — including whether now is actually the right time, or whether you can wait.
The best way to get our advice is to fill out the form on our get started page. We’re all ears.