A Mature success story
Ageism is alive and well in the UK in 2008, despite the Age Discrimination Act coming into effect in 2006. Recruitment agencies are some of the biggest culprits says Martin Lloyd-Penny, founder and Managing Director of Mature Accountants Ltd. Martin is a Chartered Accountant with many years of business experience at Board level but he discovered in 2005 that being over 50 (well slightly!) and out of work was not a good combination despite what is said on his CV. What really hit home was the dismissive attitude of 20-something recruitment “consultants” who were clearly not on the same page; after the initial interview to assess his capabilities the phone never rang! After 9 months of unemployment Martin decided to fight back and www.matureaccountants.com was conceived over a cup of coffee with his wife Manon on 8th August 2005. With the help of hockey colleague and internet wizard Geoff Bail the website was built that same day because Geoff was off to France for 3 weeks holiday. Martin had come up with the idea of matureaccountants having read an article in an accounting magazine which highlighted the problems that many hundreds of older accountants experienced in the UK, despite the alleged shortage of qualified accountants in this country. So having built a basic web site Martin wondered what to do next. How do you publicise a web site? How do you do it without spending a fortune? Then Martin had a spark of inspiration and he wrote a letter to the Editor of the magazine to thank him for raising the issue and giving him the inspiration to do something different. That could have been the end of the story except that 2 weeks later the letter was published and on day 1 some 60 e-mails were received which all basically said the same thing – great idea, long overdue and you are not alone.
Fast forward to May 2008 and things are very different in the world of mature accountants. Although it took 9 months to place their first candidate in June 2006, every subsequent month has broken new records. In fact Martin and Geoff have lost count of how many candidates they have placed, with membership numbers edging up to the 2,100 mark and Job No 275 recently advertised. January 2008 included an exotic stress-free posting to the beautiful island of Nevis in the Caribbean. Not surprisingly Martin was swept off his feet by this one with over 60 people applying within 5 days of it being advertised and on 1st June 2008 John, a 55 year old accountant and his wife (soon to be a former teacher!) start their new life on the island. In the last 6 months as well as jobs across the UK matureaccountants have been placed in Malaysia, Kurdistan, Algeria and Sark in the Channel Islands. And we are not talking about low-level appointments just because the candidates are mature (aka “past-it”) many of the jobs advertised are now offering excellent salaries (up to £100,000 pa) with full time, part time and contract options available. In fact two candidates have recently completed 12 month interim contracts at over £500 a day. The other myth to dispel is that we are talking about “old” accountants; no we are not into “stale, pale and male”, we are offering EXPERIENCE. We have candidates in their 20’s who are experienced Sageline 50 operators and we never discriminate on age. However the reality is that however good your experience if you fall off the corporate ladder in your 40’s let alone your 50’s it is almost impossible to get back on at the same level, and for some to get back on at all.
Despite ageism being alive and well, many employers in the SME sector (companies up to £20m turnover) recognise and value the benefits of employing experienced candidates – they can hit the ground running, they need very little training or supervision, they aren’t fazed by difficult situations, they can take some of the load, they aren’t on a career path and so will stay the course, and most important they don’t go clubbing on Thursdays!
Matureaccountants now has a growing and loyal customer base and has carved out a niche in an overcrowded recruitment market. But Martin believes that every small point of difference can make a big impact, and so communication and customer service is at the forefront of the business model. Even when a candidate is told that haven’t got the job, the usual reaction is initial disappointment but then they say” I really appreciate the fact that you took the trouble to tell me – agencies don’t do that!” Martin has now stopped advertising as word of mouth and recommendations are generating more than enough new business and the word is spreading. To ensure that service levels were not compromised as the business grew, Martin and Geoff invested time developing a powerful back office and database management system, and earlier this year “mature” 24 year old Tanya Brown joined the team to manage the business process.
This is a story of how to use adversity to work in your favour and build a successful business from an idea hatched over a cup of coffee. But this is only the beginning – the consequences of falling off the corporate ladder in your 40s are not specific to accountants and in the last 4 months three new “mature” brands have been launched under licence:
• Maturelawyers.com
• Maturemd.com
• Maturesalesandmarketing.com
