I’m delighted to meet you. I’m Dora Ngoma — founder, proprietor and Head Accountant of Grace Certified Accountants.
But you’re not really interested in me telling you about how good I am with figures — any decent Accountant should offer that. Perhaps you’d be more intrigued to know that my model for this business was a bakery in Zambia.
The bakery was run by my Grandmother, when I lived with her as a child. It wasn’t just any bakery, though. It was famous for many miles around, and people trekked long distances to buy her produce.
This sometimes meant they’d have had to walk back through the night — but my Grandmother wouldn’t hear of that. She’d insist that they stayed with us overnight, even when it wasn’t easy to fit everyone in.
The result was that I grew up knowing that’s how you’re supposed to run a business. Although I originally wanted to be an Engineer, I found I loved figures even more. After more than two decades in the accounting profession in the UK, I finally opened my own accountancy firm.
And yes, I’m good at the technical side of accounting, with plenty of qualifications to demonstrate it. I’m a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA), Fellow of the Institute of Financial Accountants (FFA) and Fellow of the Institute of Public Accountants (FIPA).
But those are just the nuts and bolts. I run Grace Certified Accountants as much as possible just as my Grandmother would. And, although that doesn’t normally involve offering clients a bed for the night, I treat them as people first, as part of the family.
Today, of course, being cloud-based (using QuickBooks) means I can work with you wherever you are. That speeds up the process, cutting out the need to physically pass documents back and forth, but it doesn’t stop us having a personal connection — I’m just a meeting or a phone call away.
I’d love to think my Grandmother would be proud.