Harborough Hustle Podcast

Martin [00:00:00]:
Hello, I’m your podcast host, Martin Robson. Welcome to the Harborough Hustle, where today I will be chatting with Rob. After the show, you can check us out on market harboroughbiznetwork.co.uk podcast where you’ll find a transcript of today’s podcast, all the links that are mentioned, posts you can share on social media to spread the word and everything you need to know. If you’d like to find out more about our lovely sponsors and all the guests that have featured on Harborough Hustle before we dive in today, let’s hear from our lovely sponsor.

Rob Sloan [00:00:38]:
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Martin [00:01:03]:
Welcome to this episode of Harborough Hustle where I’m delighted to be chatting with Rob. Hi, Rob.

Rob Sloan [00:01:12]:
Hi there. How are you? Martin?

Martin [00:01:14]:
Thanks for inviting me. I’m delighted that you’ve come on and you know, we just met, I think it was at Market Harborough Business Network, I think it was, and I told a little bit about the podcast and you’re right. Yeah, I’d like to come and be on that. So very happy that you decided to do that.

Rob Sloan [00:01:32]:
Thank you.

Martin [00:01:35]:
So, just to kick off, Rob, for those people who don’t know you, and I count myself as one of those, to be perfectly honest, because like I say, we just met once at a networking meeting. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself? What is it that you do and what you like to do when you’re not doing what you do? Kind of nutshell because we’ll dive deeper as we go through the program.

Rob Sloan [00:01:55]:
Sure. I think my choice of degree was a good indication as to where my interests, hobbies, etc lie. I did a sports and math degree at Loughborough and so my real passion, to be fair, is sport. But I became an accountant with my, with my math skills, realizing that teaching and professional support was, I wasn’t quite up for. So that’s how I fell into accountancy. I had a chance meeting with somebody who offered me a job in Leicester and the rest is, I suppose, history. I trained with Deloitte’s, one of the well known firms and spent a number of years there. I am now self employed for the last 20 years and made some decisions throughout my life to do, to change from being in the corporate environment, which I’ll talk about a bit later.

Rob Sloan [00:02:54]:
Personally, I’m married to Pippa. I have three daughters, Emma, Imogen and Alexandra. They’re all married and we have one grandson, Henry, with another one probably about to pop out in about two weeks time. So we now we live in Market Harborough. We moved in February. It was a deliberate choice to downsize from our house in Thorpe Langton which we’ve been very lucky to live in. And we moved close to Emma who has their eldest daughter who has Henry r grandson. I also needed to take some time off work because I had some very aggressive cataracts and so obviously from a county boy who couldn’t really do much of that.

Rob Sloan [00:03:33]:
So really that, that’s a bit about me. What I do for a living now is self employed. I’d like to part time on an ad hoc basis financially upskill small and medium sized businesses. In other words, add some value and awareness of the financial position of the business, particularly the profit, the cash flow and really look at how the future might pan out for businesses. I like to wrap my skills around the individuals in the business to add significant value to them and that might be used on an ad hoc basis or part time basis. I suppose my key skill I would say is probably people working with people and also problem solving issues and problems in businesses.

Martin [00:04:25]:
Okay, let me just stop you. That’s a good intro. So nice to see some shout outs as well. I think it was pretty much all ladies in your life there so hopefully they’ll be listening in and recognizing their names and yeah, you mentioned. I just want to ask before we go into the business side of thing, how’s it on the cataract side now? Is everything okay?

Rob Sloan [00:04:49]:
Everything’s good. I am wearing glasses today and to be honest, before November I’d never worn glasses in my life. So I’ve been very lucky to get to a central age without having to wear glasses. But yeah, they’re all good. It’s, it’s. We took some time off to move house and also to get over these sensibly now really looking to push forward into, into some new projects and have a couple of potential ones at the moment. So.

Martin [00:05:14]:
Excellent, excellent. Yeah. Kind of ironic actually because I started wearing glasses when I was 13 and I’m not currently wearing them on this podcast because for me it’s stuff in the distance so computer screen I have to take them off but there we go. So you talked about becoming self employed 20 years ago. I mean, I know You’ve got some new projects coming up now. But what caused you to make the leap 20 years ago from employed to self employed?

Rob Sloan [00:05:43]:
Well, I’d been in two large accountancy firms, senior level in one and then a partner in another. And I’d had enough of the corporate politics, to be honest. Despite being a senior person, I felt that the amount of time has been wasted around the boardroom trying to bully each other, push each other to do things in processes that I didn’t really think were of any benefit to the business. Being a pretty straightforward sort of guy, I just had enough of it, to be honest. And the business I was in was actually being forced to merge with different offices around the country, which was very complicated from an ego perspective, not my ego particularly, but offices were independent financially in all aspects. And in the study that are being pushed together, and you could just imagine what that was like with some fairly strong personalities. So I managed to take a rain check and pull out of it. So I was lucky enough to start a project with a local business, King Trailers, now called King Vehicle Engineering, on the riverside, and worked for two years with the MD to restructure the business, refinance the business, point in different directions and buy a couple of businesses for IT to really put it into a much better financial place.

Martin [00:07:09]:
That’s going to lead me on to another question, but just before I do, it’s interesting, some of the similarities there. So I used to work for a major international bank and I was an IT project manager for new projects there. The bank was forever taking over competitors. It’s a very easy way to get rid of competitors. You just buy them out and then they don’t exist as a competitor anymore. But what it meant was, again, lots of other IT teams and sections being downsized, or putting it in plain English, people losing their jobs. And the better I got at mine, the quicker people lost theirs. And eventually you’re just like, this is not for me anymore.

Martin [00:07:51]:
It’s not doing my soul any good. So quite a similar sort of story, although I didn’t obviously go into finance after I left that, because it is my background. But yeah, it’s interesting when you make that move away from corporate into working for yourself. So, I mean, you went, as you said, to business on the riverside, you did some restructuring there. And you know, you’re talking now about adding financial skills and now to perhaps smaller businesses, certainly not corporates. What do you think that. Is there anything that people don’t take enough of into consideration when they’re going to take someone like yourselves on for a project.

Rob Sloan [00:08:34]:
I think generally the accountancy side of the business is undervalued obviously in certain ways. I get that because the old fashioned view of an accountant is drop the numbers out. Thank you very much, see you later. Whereas the numbers are for me, I suppose are the easy bit really. It’s actually what you do with the numbers. And so I’m best suited where somebody actually values or can see what they’re going to get from working with me or whatever, short term, long term, whatever that might be. And that’s really businesses where you’ve got an entrepreneur, you’ve got smaller local businesses and you know, King traders is only 13 or 14 million turnover at one point. It got quite large.

Rob Sloan [00:09:31]:
But I’ve worked in the smaller business sector all my life, so it’s not as I’ve not really been in big corporates in terms of advisory plc, I’ve always been in the small business side. So I work from small professional businesses into medium sized businesses and I think really people get to get that. I will actually add some financial awareness, visibility of the business upskill, hopefully the bookkeeper, whoever the person is that is actually doing some of their accounting and really work with the owner to just see where they like to take the business. And it might be in a tricky situation that needs someone to come in and just help turn it around carefully by improving the margins and the cash flows. Because cash flow is an area where probably the least skilled part of most smaller businesses because the more complicated it gets, very difficult to manage the debtors and creditors and the payments, et cetera. So really understanding how that works and I think that’s an area that I can add a lot of value to, but really treating the business as a long term investment for the owners so that at some point how can you maximize your personal value out of it a bit almost like a pension or other investments?

Martin [00:10:49]:
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And it was interesting to hear you mention about cash flow as well as being the thing that perhaps is the weakest area of the various different things that you need to consider. So also thinking about your 20 years, is there anything now if you could go back to a younger Rob before the glasses? Well, let’s about however many years we need to go back. So you got a younger Rob that you’re identifying with. Is there any, any advice that you would give him now that you know, at the time perhaps, you know, you weren’t aware of?

Rob Sloan [00:11:31]:
I think that personality fit is really important when you’re advising businesses. And I think that having had an early, quite successfully on blemish, you know, quite successful sort of clients, etc, working with people, finding that actually some people just don’t want to work with you and it’s not personal, it’s all a personality fit. So really, you know, the numbers are just the numbers. At the end of the day, there are means to an end, but if you don’t, if you, if the personalities don’t work, that it just. It never works. So finding out in the early stages that actually they preferred to work with one of my other staff members than me was a bit of a culture shock to me, really. Obviously, being a young guy who wasn’t particularly. You just got on with life, didn’t you? So I think it was.

Rob Sloan [00:12:22]:
That was a big learner for me to understand that personality and that sort of fit goes a long way to a strong relationship, working together, you know.

Martin [00:12:34]:
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense when you’re talking about, you know, perhaps accountants are undervalued and perhaps people don’t realize the things they could bring to a business. But quite clearly, you know, you’ve got to have that kind of rapport to be able to help someone to make that happen. And like you say, you know, yes, the numbers are the numbers, though. You’ve got to have your competency there. But having that rapport is so essential. That makes a lot of sense. Is there any particular mentor or anyone you’ve had, you know, that’s helped you through your journey?

Rob Sloan [00:13:10]:
Yeah, my first job at a firm which was then bought by Deloitte’s. There was a partner there who unfortunately passed away in his late 40s, but. And he was a real people person, very bright guy and his life was all about managing people. And so I took an awful lot of reference from him in terms of understanding how to get on with anybody as far as I possibly could. Personality accepted, as we just said, and to really put the time in to understand what the other person’s view of it is, as opposed to just saying it’s me. So really putting myself in their shoes and really understanding what they would like, what they’re looking for in a relationship or advisory role. Yep.

Martin [00:14:03]:
No, that’s great. And obviously, sadly, as you said, I mean, that person’s passed away. Is there anyone like current nowadays that you would say you would admire, either locally or famous, that we all know?

Rob Sloan [00:14:17]:
Yeah, I mean, not accountants, really, or businessmen. I mean, to be honest. I mean, generally speaking, they had a lot of money. These sort of things don’t really bother me, to be honest. But I mean, sport is my real love. And Kevin Sinfield and Rob Burrow have always been both of them because I support Leeds Rhinos, I support rugby unit as well. And I’ve always support, I’ve always loved them because they, they weren’t the best skillful players in the world. They made absolutely 100 of their talent.

Rob Sloan [00:14:55]:
And since obviously Rob Burrows sad, sad illness and my mother in law died of motor neuron disease 20 years ago, so we understood what was happening and that his bravery and fortitude and their friendship and the money they raised and the awareness that everything you just, you know, how could you, how could you, I mean, how could you not look up to that? And they’re just straightforward Yorkshire people. I mean it’s not really they just did what they did, but it was in a more open fashion because the world saw how much money was raised and what their relationship was like. And when he, when Kevin Silfield carried Rob Burrow over the line at the Leeds marathon, if you saw that, I mean, it just blew me away. So, so really they would be sporting heroes. Not necessarily my favorite sporting heroes, but just, just the way they conducted themselves all the time.

Martin [00:15:52]:
Yeah, no, that’s, that’s a great show. And obviously, I mean, I’m not a rugby league fan, I’m a big football fan, but obviously I’m aware of, of both Rob and Kevin for all of the publicity they got and, and like you say, they may not have been out to seek the publicity. And it’s always a difficult thing, isn’t it? Sometimes people are like, oh, you’re only doing that because. But you know, you could clearly see that wasn’t the case. But what it did do, of course is raise public awareness of motor neurone disease and what could be done about it in a way that I don’t think any other sporting person has done before. Not for that particular course.

Rob Sloan [00:16:34]:
No. I mean, the thing about Rob Burrow was, I mean, the little lamb was only 5 foot 5 and in a league of months in a sport full of monsters, to survive in that. And just because he was so quick and elusive. Have you ever seen any clips of him? I mean, some of this stuff is just ridiculous.

Martin [00:16:54]:
Yeah, no fair, fair play to him. I’m not the biggest guy in the world either, but yeah, I had to play rugby at school and then as soon as I had the chance not to, I didn’t. But yeah, same for football. Run fast and keep hoping before somebody huge takes you out. Anyway, happy days. As they say, is there. I mean things keep changing all the time in my particular industry they change very quickly. I’m sure they’re changing in accountancy as well.

Martin [00:17:25]:
But either in accountancy or indeed within your sporting passion, is there anything that you’d still want to learn?

Rob Sloan [00:17:33]:
Yeah, I think, I think, I think I’m really just making the most of the, of the world Wide web really. I suppose bumping into the term artificial intelligence. Making a little bit more of social media really to show to push people’s awareness of my skill set and that’s something that I need to really embrace a bit more. I mean I use computers a lot for spreadsheets. It’s not very exciting but. And they’re not really changing, there’s just another few more funky formally but they don’t really mean much to anybody. But the reality is that you know, just, just pushing myself out because one of the. Because as well as my, my role for quite a few years because I’ve been contracting, I’ve.

Rob Sloan [00:18:25]:
I’ve been doing one to one maths coaching at GCSE net level and become pretty popular around the Leicestershire area and I’ve been fortunate to really enjoy some really good results and improvements. But two or three people I’ve met said, you know, you really ought to be looking at working financially during the day on people. So you know, students obviously go to school so your time to work with them is a little bit antisocial. So really looking at ways of actually possibly doing some days where I could work during the day either through TikTok or Instagram or looking at groups of people where there’s quite a lot of home taught children now, you know that sort of thing to admire in it, to really add value to those kids.

Martin [00:19:16]:
That’s really interesting. So I mean you’re doing face to face maths tuition at the moment. You’re thinking of using like you say either Insta or TikTok to do some online math teaching.

Rob Sloan [00:19:28]:
Possibly. Yeah, I think it’s, I mean it’s, it’s. I mean I just get on with it but I’m not a trained math teacher. I did a master of a master degree and I’ve got various teaching people in my family but I just seem to have an ability. It’s more about the personality and the confidence of the relationship. Math isn’t that complicated. A level is a bit more complicated. But yeah.

Rob Sloan [00:19:48]:
And I think that when I have done quite a lot of online stuff during COVID and the kids I taught, I mean it was, it was really traumatic for them not being able to go to school etc, so that was probably the worst of it. Whereas just to. Just to see whether there’s a market for me to actually extend it a little bit. What’s working in a part time as an accountant.

Martin [00:20:10]:
Yeah. Interesting. And coincidentally, you may not realize, but in this series of Harbor Hustle podcasts, you’re actually the second person who tutors in maths alongside.

Rob Sloan [00:20:25]:
Yeah, it’s good because there’s, there’s a lot of demand for it.

Martin [00:20:30]:
There is, there is. And is it very interesting? You said the maths is not complicated because, you know, I might think about it and websites and, you know, social media skills, but there’s a lot of people who are like, I can’t do it and I can’t do maths. And you know, it’s kind of getting the mindset first before you get onto the actual competencies, isn’t it? If you’re going to help.

Rob Sloan [00:20:56]:
It is, it is. And maths is unfortunately one of those subjects which is a pretty cut and dried subject. And I think if you don’t get for the youngsters today, which is very different to me with all the social media and all that stuff around PE groups, et cetera, I think there’s a. It’s. They’re even, even less likely to. They’re probably more likely to struggle at school if they’re not comfortable about it. And they’re gradually, over a period of time, they just almost like sidestep the subject, which is a real shame. So my thing, my skill, say really is to.

Rob Sloan [00:21:31]:
Is to build a confidence back up.

Martin [00:21:34]:
Yeah.

Rob Sloan [00:21:35]:
Make them feel that you’ve got what make them understand that I’m there on their fallback position so they can ask me any question. And gradually they build their confidence and start being able to attempt questions that they often, sometimes would have been scared to even write anything down because they thought they get it wrong. I mean, that is not a great place to be. So teaching maths really is more of an emotional issue for me. It’s more emotionally stressful than actually the technical side is of.

Martin [00:22:06]:
Yeah, yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. It really does. So let’s move. Kind of segued. It’s not quite as smooth as I would normally do, but we’re talking about confidence and things like that and ask you about what do you think is one of the biggest mistakes you made in business and what, if anything, did you learn from that?

Rob Sloan [00:22:30]:
I think, well, it’s pretty clear and it happened in a couple of businesses thinking that senior people will actually change significantly. What, you know, if you’re a straightforward person, you can see where the business is, you can see where the business needs to go, you can see the steps to do, you can see the task to do it. And yet it means a bit of a cultural change, possibly, or a change in their own approach to maybe staff management, the way they do certain things. Nothing terrible but, you know, but it’s their best opportunity and yet it just, it’s just the same old, same old. And I think I learned that pretty early on and I think that’s really trying. Yeah. And often people are going back to my point earlier about financial acumen, that they’re that literally just don’t look at the finances. I’ve had various instances where people say, you know, you can’t, you can’t, or we don’t, we don’t care about the numbers.

Rob Sloan [00:23:37]:
You’re the, you’re the fd, you flipping sorted out, you know, and I’m thinking, well, hang on, this is your business, this is your future. You know, we need to, you can, they can only ignore so many things. Excuse me, I’ll just turn my phone off. So, yeah, I think that’s the biggest learning for me really. The ones that are comfortable adapting, working closely with you to do that, they can see the results fairly soon. And in certain circumstances I’ve, I’ve helped turn a business around because people have actually bought into the, bought into the change. It’s not major, but yeah, yeah, no.

Martin [00:24:16]:
That, yeah, a lot of change as well that has becomes major starts with small steps, doesn’t it? So let’s, let’s flip on. I mean, we took it turning businesses around. What about your proudest business moment?

Rob Sloan [00:24:30]:
I worked for two years in a business in South London. I went three days a week to South London, stayed away and this business was in a very bad insolvent state, was actually in an insolvency process under the court jurisdiction and I worked closely with the team to, to try and get the business turned around. It was not going to actually survive as it was. And so we talked to effectively, I suppose, the stakeholders, suppliers, the customers, and at the end of the day we had to drop the business. But we made, we’ve actually made payments to as many people as we possibly could. We were absolutely straightforward and honest and we then, we bought the assets back and I effectively ran the business for a year and turned it into a decent profit and broad staff. It was a 10 million pound nursing agency and yeah, really Move people around into management roles and got everybody interested in the business again. And, and that was part, that was the main.

Rob Sloan [00:25:45]:
Once I got everybody moving and motivated, it could see what was going to be. Then they, they just, they just bought into the process. So that was probably my proudest motion because everybody was, Was following me.

Martin [00:25:56]:
Yeah, yeah.

Rob Sloan [00:25:58]:
I don’t mean follow me like that. I mean working together, I understood what I was trying to do.

Martin [00:26:04]:
I think you described it very well, though. You know, people perhaps get to a state, you know, where they’re. And maybe in despair, if that’s not even too strong a word. And you know, you can then get to a point where people are. Can see the wood for the trees, see the future, start working together. And it’s not just a business you save, of course, because the business employs a bunch of people and all of those people, you know, their jobs are saved as well. So it’s a great thing to be able to rescue something like that.

Rob Sloan [00:26:32]:
I mean, you know, it’s, it’s. I just did my job, not make a fuss about it. But the reality is, you know, these people, the, the staff were 15 staff or so were, you know, for five or six months, were never paid on time. At the end of the month, the owners of the business were spending money like no tomorrow. And really, I suppose that they couldn’t and they just didn’t. They just didn’t know whether we were going to be able to pay the salary, their own mortgage the next month and everything. And what. I tried to just get them all into a position.

Rob Sloan [00:27:09]:
It took a while to do that, but. And so, you know, gave them some Runway on their. On their future, I suppose.

Martin [00:27:16]:
Yeah, yeah. No, fantastic stuff. We’ve kind of touched on this, so I think I might know the answer, but let’s go for it anyway. If you weren’t working as an accountant, what else would you like to be doing?

Rob Sloan [00:27:30]:
Coordina. You probably know them, do you? I would. I mean, bearing in mind when I qualified my degree at university, there wasn’t anything like social media or professional sport. If I. If there had been, I’d probably have been a professional sports agent advising and managing people, because I’m. That’s. Yeah, I just love to do that. I would have loved it.

Rob Sloan [00:28:00]:
I mean, it’s too late now, but just. It wasn’t about them and it’s because I’m just fascinated by an account. This is not very exciting, to be honest. Most people don’t even think I’m an accountant because the numbers are quite Straightforward, but it’s actually what you do with the numbers and as I said, it’s all about the people.

Martin [00:28:19]:
Yeah, no, brilliant. And I mean this might kind of overlap on that but do you have any of those so called bucket list items left?

Rob Sloan [00:28:29]:
Well, as I said to Pippa, my wife has said, you know, my, I don’t think she realized I had a bucket, to be honest. I’m just not really bothered about it. But I mean I, I have a, a passion to reinvigorating myself because when I was, when I was a young lad and something you. It goes on to the next question. What hidden talent? I don’t know if we’ve got any talents at all but I was a scratch golf when I was 17 and, and I played a lot of, a lot of serious golf and then when the family grew up I didn’t really play a lot of golf. I still play golf, I still think I’m as good as I was, but I’m not and I get very fed up with life and so I’ve made myself a promise to over the next two or three years to play five of the top golf courses in Ireland with some friends I’ve got and make the most of that while I’m still walking. So yeah, I suppose that’s really. Golf has always been one of my passions and as other sports are, I played a lot of sport.

Rob Sloan [00:29:38]:
But yeah, that’s what I’d really, that’s what I really like to do and I can still play competently. So that’s a good thing. Yeah, it’s just something I love and I just have not focused on it for so long because of work, family, etc. I mean what I’ve done is greatest because all my three girls are good golfers and it’s been one of the best things I’ve ever did was to teach them to play golf because we could go and just play golf for three or four hours, have a lot of banter and competitively against each other and you know, you just spend, you spend the time, you just can’t, you just can’t buy that with no mobile phones, et cetera. So yeah, so that’s, that’s my, that’s on my bucket list. I think Pippa’s got a different bucket list but.

Martin [00:30:28]:
Well, maybe we’ll have to have Pippa on at some point. We ask her what’s really going to happen in your life?

Rob Sloan [00:30:33]:
Well, yeah, of course, well of course, it’s complete fallacy. All I said to you all days.

Martin [00:30:39]:
No, it’s great to have, like, you say a name like that and that one sounds fairly achievable, so it’ll be interesting, get you back in a year or whenever it is and you can tell us which was the best of the five courses and stuff like that. So, you know, good to know. Okay, Rob, so just to finish off then. I mean, if people want to find out more about you, they want to know more about what you can offer them, et cetera, how do they find you.

Rob Sloan [00:31:10]:
On LinkedIn? As I said to you at the start, I probably need to review my LinkedIn profile, but that’s, that’s a work and I’m sure I’m going to get in data by people wanting to advise me on that, which would be great. I just, I’ve started looking at it and really, to just make that a little bit more user friendly and clear as to what I’m really trying to do now, as opposed to what I have been doing in the past.

Martin [00:31:38]:
All right. I mean, obviously we’ll have the links on the website to your LinkedIn profile, etc, but people are listening at the moment. At the moment we know it’s Rob, but what else do they look for on LinkedIn? There’s probably more than one Rob there.

Rob Sloan [00:31:55]:
Oh, yeah, there’s at least a couple. So it’s Robert Sloan. Yeah, Robert Sloan. And you should see me in all my limited LinkedIn, LinkedIn profile glory.

Martin [00:32:08]:
Yeah, all right. Well, it depends when, when they go look, because I got a fairly strong feeling that now, you know, you know, that’s something you need to work on, that you’ll be working on it and, you know, in that straightforward way, as you say, it’ll end up telling people exactly what they need to know. I always end up, Rob, with one question for my guests, which is just this, is there anything I’ve forgotten to ask you?

Rob Sloan [00:32:37]:
Oh, probably not. There’s lots of things we talked about. I mean, my outside interests are mass coaching. I still play golf, go to the gym, do a lot of walking, cycling. My family is most of my life, really. That’s the priority of my life. We’re a very close family. We love cooking good food, trying different recipes.

Rob Sloan [00:33:06]:
I mean, quite a lot of different recipes. And my kids are all good cooks, so they keep me on my toes. So I’ve got to try something new every time they come. And I quite like a nice pint of craft beer, to be honest, there.

Martin [00:33:18]:
Doesn’T seem to be a finer note on which to end I think, than. So, Rob, again, thank you very much and yeah. We’ll catch up at the next networking meeting.

Rob Sloan [00:33:30]:
Yes. Be my pleasure. Thank you, Martin, for letting me come on.

Martin [00:33:33]:
You’re welcome.