Siddharth Agarwal, accountant at DNS Accountants LLP, explains why Sumit Agarwal should win the Leader of the Year category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition:
We operate in the accountancy industry which is highly competitive and mostly driven by price. In such a market, Sumit has developed a niche by offering a dedicated account manager to each client (who operates as a one-stop for all queries), developed a cloud-based accounting software for internal use and devised a KPI system which has greatly increased customer retention.
Whereas other business owners focus on hiring the right staff, he has demonstrated that training and guidance can help nurture anyone. Our trainees who had no experience have turned out to be real assets after just six to 12 months. The staff receives 10% of the net profit the company generates, irrespective of the hierarchy giving equal opportunities for everyone to contribute.
At DNS, Sumit encourages us to be the firm of now, rather than needlessly worrying about the future. This mentality has enabled us to increase customer satisfaction by providing them with solutions to proactively tackle their current problems. Sumit also believes technology is the backbone of any business and our practice has been fully transformed by our cloud software, where staff have flexibility to work from home if they prefer. Our performance is based on results rather than number of hours spent working.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the top three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
