‘Angel’ image pays off for accountants

Diane Pilling runs her own accountancy firm, Affordable Accounts, which employs six other accountants - all of them women.

Among some clients, the team has become known as Diane’s Angels - a nickname they all love and have played on in the firm’s promotional literature.

And the strategy is paying off. When Mrs Pilling started her own business at home, she only had a few clients. Now she and her team deal with 40 and have an office in King Street, Westhoughton.

She is a flexible boss and allows staff the time to tend to sick children and to work from home during school holidays.

Like most working mothers, Mrs Pilling juggles her own career with the demands of looking after her two teenage children.

During school holidays or when children are ill, the King Street office can be almost empty - but the work still gets done.

Mrs Pilling said: “Women seem to work in a very different way to men. We instinctively know when a member of staff is feeling down and can offer them support.

“I know that if a child is ill, the mother will want to look after them and we allow that. My staff work very hard and I know the work they have will be done later in the day when they have the time.

“Everyone has the facilities to work from home and can receive emails on their mobile phones, so clients know we are just a phone call away. There is always someone to answer the phones at the office.”

Mrs Pilling, aged 44, left school at 15 and worked for Bolton Council as a trainee accountant before spending 15 years teaching trainee accountants on day release at Wigan and Leigh College.

She later decided to set up her own firm and bought a franchise from Affordable Accounts only to see it go bust within six months.

Now, after a long battle, she has the full rights to the name.

The firm deals with a variety of financial matters including year end accounts, self-assessment tax returns, VAT, payroll, cash flow forecasts, business plans and company formations.

Mrs Pilling, of Lostock, has been named an Ambassador for Women in Business by the Government.

She is part of a network of 1,000 volunteers who have pledged to encourage others to follow in their footsteps by setting up their own businesses.

She said: “I do a lot of public speaking about how women can set up in business, and we hold workshops and talks.”

Affordable Accounts has been hailed by the Government as an Exemplar Employer for its efforts to reduce the pay gap between men and women and help improve the work-life balance.